(2/6 – 2/10) This week we rowed Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say. I loved this book. It was very touching. It is a story spanning generations and told by a grandson as the title suggests. Joe picked up on so many things in this book that I never thought he would by looking at the illustrations as I read. I was surprised and pleased by his perceptions.
We studied Japan while we rowed this book. Joe located it on the map each day, we talked about it’s culture and some of the customs. From illustrations in the book you are able to see the dress and the way some Japanese homes are constructed. Joe completed a couple pages including fun facts from Japan, the Japanese flag and a notebooking page using the book Children Like Me. We both like reading from this book.
We enjoyed reading books about Japan. One in particular, Count Your Way Through Japan, was very informative. From this book Hanna helped Joe use a brush and ink to write numbers 1-10 in Japanese.
Hanna’s:
Joe’s:
We studied about Mt. Fuji. I thought this would be a fun time to finally make a volcano from salt dough. I’ve wanted to do this since we began homeschool, but we just never have. It was so much easier than I’d envisioned. We were not able to erupt it Saturday like planned because it rained. Planning to this coming Saturday. I will post a video when we do. Hanna helped Joe make it and then, Joe painted it himself later in the week. He was so excited while making and painting it. Both he and Hanna can hardly wait to erupt it.
I taped an empty Ragu jar to the middle of a cut down cardboard box.
I mixed up two batches of salt dough. Hanna and Joe shaped the volcano around the jar.
It took a few days to dry. When it was dry Joe painted it. It turned out great!
We learned what origami is and tried our hand at several simple ones. I could not find Joe’s origami creations by the time I got around to taking pictures. He couldn’t either. I think one of our little ‘helpers’ got a hold of them. Here are the three I made. It was fun! I could have made lots more. I am not usually patient enough to make things like this with my hands, but I enjoyed this.
We learned about the Itsukushima Shrine and Joe made it’s red entrance gate (the Torii gate) from Play Doh.
While Joe made his Torii gate, Jack and Jesse had some fun with Play Doh too. This was the week that I tried to get them to do some letter of the week fun and they both protested. Jack told me it was boring :-). Maybe I’ll try it later on down the road with them and maybe not. I have no idea. For now, I know without a doubt all three boys love Five in a Row and look forward to it far more than I’d realized, so I am thankful they enjoy it and enjoy time with me while we row our books.
Here are a few pictures of Jack making his Play Doh letter Aa’s on ‘Aa’ mat. He did SO good! He actually liked this part of our letter Aa fun.
He did a lot better with his grip too using some triangular crayons. But…he did not enjoy tracing letters. He’s not ready for this ‘heavy’ stuff yet. I will wait on him and I am happy to have peace of mind about this.
It was a very fun week. I enjoyed learning about Japan a whole lot. So much that I decided we’d stay in Japan for another week and finish off our studies while rowing A Pair of Red Clogs. Stay tuned for that very soon!
Inspiration, ideas and materials I used for Grandfather’s Journey:
The origami is so cute! I can't wait to see how your volcano explosion goes. The kids did a great job of making the volcano.
ReplyDeleteI also think it's great that all of the kids benefit from the FIAR studies!
Ha ha that is hilarious 2 boys are building the volcano in their underwear! So cute!!
ReplyDeleteTheir Japanese numbers look fantastic.
This is really useful-we are hoping to row Grandfather's journey next week.
ReplyDelete