Here are my cuties eating cinnamon rolls right before we started our first day of school!!
And here is a silly one, just for kicks! ; )
The first storybook that we studied in a our Five in a Row curriculum was " The Story about Ping" by Marjorie Flack.
It was such a great little story! The kids and I both loved it!
We would start each day off by reading through the story, and then we would try to tie in some Bible that related to things that were going on in the story.
"The Story About Ping" is obviously the story about a little duck named Ping. : ) He lives on a boat on the Yangtze River in China with his very large family. Each day he and his family would swim around looking for things to eat, and in the evening the boat master would call them back to the boat with a special duck call. They would all hurry to the boat trying their best not to be last, because the last duck to arrive to the boat receives a spanking. One day Ping isn't paying attention and misses the master's call. He realizes he is going to be last to board the boat. Instead of taking his spanking, he decides he will just hide in the bushes to avoid the punishment. The boat leaves Ping, and he is left all alone on the Yangtze River. He comes upon some rice cake crumbs floating in the water as he is wandering around looking for his family and their boat. The crumbs end up being a trap set by a little boy. The little boy catches him, and when the boy shows his family what he has caught, his family wants to eat Ping for dinner. Luckily the little boy loves Ping too much to let him get eaten, and secretly lets him go just in time for Ping to hear the boat master calling out his special call. He hurries to get back to the boat and his family, hoping he won't be last to get onto the boat. Ping ends up being last to arrive to the boat, but decides he would much rather take the spanking if it meant he would get to be with his family again!
Bible-
Discernment- knowing the difference between good and evil
We discussed discernment for a couple of days for Bible. We read I Kings 3:9 and talked about how just because something looks good does not necessarily mean that it is. Ping learns this the hard way by following the "yummy" rice cake crumbs, and then getting caught and almost eaten.
Honoring Authority and Responsibility
We also talked briefly about obeying the rules and honoring those in authority over us! We also touched on responsibility too!
Social Studies-
China- Geography and Culture
We found China and the Yangtze River on the map, and talked about a few more details of each of them, like how long the Yangtze River is, and how many people live on or near the Yangtze.
Also for each story that we study for Five in a Row we have what they call a "story disk". It is basically a small round piece of paper with a picture on it that reminds the child of each story we have studied. Jackson colors it and then I laminate it and put velcro on the back of it. Then Jackson puts it on the map in the country/ state where the story takes place. He really loves learning about the maps and flags!
Jackson working on a picture of the Chinese flag!
We got the printables for all of our lessons from
This is such a great resource for Five in a Row matierials, and the best part is that all the printable are FREE!
We are trying to finish a lapbook every week to go along with our story, so we can look back and review what we have learned later in the year or in years to come. Most all of these printable worksheets will be made into little books that will fit into his big lapbook.
Language Arts-
What is a Classic Story?
A "classic" is a book that generations of children have enjoyed.
Here is Jackson working on
a mini book about "classic" stories.
And here is a video of Jack telling us a little bit about a "classic" story!
Fiction and Repetition-
We touched on these two things as well, but unfortunately I don't have any pics of it. : (
Art-
Medium-
We noticed that Kurt Wiese used either colored pencil or crayon to illustrate "The Story About Ping".
Jackson did some drawing of his own with colored pencils, and also tried his hand at lightly combining several colors, to make new tones, like Wiese did in the story.
Drawing, drawing!
Experimenting with combining colors to make new tones!
And the masterpiece is almost complete!
I think he did a really great job!
We also made some cute little ducks out of paper plates! Alexis decided to join in for this activity and really loved it too!
Painting the paper plates!
Alexis with her adorable finished duck!
And Jackson and Mario with his duck!
Jackson also has been working out of a series of books called " Draw, Write, Now". It is a drawing and handwriting course rolled into one! As I searched around on Homeschool Share I found a list of Draw, Write, Now lessons to go along with each Five in a Row storybook! For "The story about Ping" Jack learned how to draw the cutest little duck and did some duck themed sentences for handwriting.
Jackson getting ready to do some beautiful handwriting! ; )
A pic of the inside of these awesome books! Love them!!
Field Trip Day-
A trip to the duck pond.... and Mcdonald's ; )
I am hoping to be able to tie in some type of field trip once a week to go along with our story. So since we live so close to a duck pond and our story was about Ping.... a duck, we headed out to the Fountain City duck pond, making sure to bring Grammy and some bread with us! ; )
Here are pics of our big duck pond adventure with Grammy!
What a GREAT day!!
Science-
Buoyancy- What Floats?
Jackson did an experiment to see whether or not some random items from around the house float or not. He recorded his answers on a printable that I got from HSS.
Here are his results!
And here is a pic of Lex just standing around looking pretty! : )
Preening- Ducks Don't Get Wet
We also did one more experiment to demonstrate how ducks preen themselves.
We read a book entitled "Ducks Don't Get Wet" and learned that ducks cover themselves with a special oil through a process called preening. Having this oil all over their feathers and bodies keeps them from getting wet. In the back of the book it gave a suggestion on how to demonstrate this with your student, so we did!
I used a template that I found online, and cut 2 duck shapes out of a brown paper bag. I then let jackson cover one of the ducks in oil. The other we left without oil. Then I gave jackson a medicine dropper and he dropped water onto both of the ducks. By doing this he was able to see that the water just rolled off of the duck with the oil on it. The duck that we left without oil became quickly soaked with water.
Covering the duck with oil
Dropping the water on the oil covered ducks
Dropping the water on the ducks w/o oil
And that is it! Our first week with Five in a Row!!
We also did lots of reading, math, and grammar this week, but I have no interesting pics of us doing those things! It was harder than I thought to get into the habit of taking pictures of everything we do. I'm hoping I will get better with time at picture taking and remembering to take pics! : )
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