Song of the Water Boatman, FIAR style

(4/30 – 5/4)  We focused our studies this past week on Song of the Water Boatman by Joyce Sidman.  This is a book full of well written pond life poems.  The poems paint vivid images of pond critters from big to very small.  The illustrations are well done and add much to the book.  Each poem is accompanied by a non-fiction description of the poem specific pond life.  I liked this feature a lot.  Joe loves poetry, so I chose this book with him in mind.  I thought spring would be a perfect time to do a pond unit and thought studying it through poetry would be something new and fun.  We ‘rowed’ this book and treated it just like a Five in a Row selection even though it wasn’t.

We learned about:

• alliteration, repetition, haikus, stanzas
• many new vocabulary words in this book!
• sharing—we read the Value Tale of The Mayo Brothers
• life cycle of the frog
• spring peepers, diving beetles, nymphs, wood ducks
• pond life in general
• letter ‘F’ for frog was our preschool focus

We studied the life cycle of the frog all week. 

I printed these pictures of a frog from each stage of it’s life cycle from Kids’ Soup…

…and each morning we would sing the following song to the tune of ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ as we transformed our tadpole into a frog.  The two little boys loved this!

Frog just laid a little egg,
A little egg, a little egg.
Frog just laid a little egg,
And now a tadpole is hatched.

Tadpole looks just like a fish,
Like a fish, like a fish.
Tadpole looks just like a fish,
It swims and starts to grow.

Tadpole now is growing legs,
Growing legs, growing legs.
Tadpole now is growing legs,
Its body’s getting big.

Tadpole’s grown into a frog,
Into a frog, into a frog.
Tadpole’s grown into a frog,
Now watch it leap and hop!

We made a frog life cycle book—also from Kids’ Soup. (Pictured below is Joe’s.) We did a cool experiment from our Life Cycles Wood Frog book about frog’s eggs.  I put couscous in warm water for a few minutes, then drained it.  Next, I gently mixed the couscous with an egg white.  This simulated frog eggs in the protective jelly.  The boys each felt and described it.  Joe and Jesse were all for this.  Jack wasn’t up for it and thought it looked too yucky to touch.  Joe drew a picture and made a word bank about the eggs and then used it to write a descriptive paragraph.  *He actually finished this on another piece of paper and I realized I didn’t photograph that one.* I printed frog masks and the boys pretended to be frogs catching flies with their sticky tongues.  The sticky tongue was a party blower stuck through a hole I cut in the frog mouth.  They loved this!  It was so fun to watch them pretend and play with these. We went to a pond on two different occasions during this row.  I wanted the boys to be able to really experience the pond life we were reading about.  Of course, Hanna had to catch some pond life up close and personal.  She caught some minnows in a mason jar to watch for a while and then threw them back.  She caught tadpoles and we brought them home and are hoping we can help them thrive through their complete metamorphosis. We had fun looking at all the pond life and listening to the peaceful sounds of nature.  I’m so glad we were able to get out and have this hands-on experience.  The boys talked about things from our pond visits as we read books throughout the week.

We have been observing two different sets of tadpoles.  Water frogs from Insect Lore… …and the tadpoles that Hanna caught at the pond.  These will become toads. The boys had fun watching them for quite some time during school one morning.  This is one of my two most favorite moments from our homeschool this past week.  When I pulled pictures off my camera and saw this one of the three of them gathered around the table it was just the sweetest thing.  I love the look of wonder on Jesse’s face and the look of pure joy on Jack’s as Joe tells them about the tadpoles.  One of the poems from the book is called Travel Time and it pictures microscopic pond life.  I thought it would be neat to let Joe study pond water under the microscope.  This was by far his most favorite activity of the week!  I think I see a week of microscope studies in our near future :-). On one of our pond visits an area of the pond was covered in lily pads. I’ve been eyeing the pastel tutorials at Hodgepodge.com and decided it was time to try one.  Joe and I both drew lily pads in a pond with pastel chalks.  It was fun and I can’t wait to try another chalk drawing.  Joe enjoyed it too and I could tell he loved the fact that I did it alongside him.  He grinned from ear to ear when he realized I would be joining him and not just instructing him.

Joe’s:

Mine: Jack focused on the letter ‘F’ in his preschool.  He worked on a pond preschool pack, pond life pattern block templates and various other learning activities we have on our shelf that he chose. My second favorite moment from homeschool this past week was Jack tracing his name all by himself for the first time!!  I cannot tell you how proud and excited I was to see this: And, after he traced his name he asked for all of the names in our family one after the other. He asked to trace names and letters all week long after this.  This made my whole week.  I love more than words can express watching my children learn and progress.  Jack is by far my busy one and for him to want to sit still to start doing things like pattern blocks and writing is a blessing and answered prayer.  I am so thankful.

Jesse played with activities from our learning shelves.  I love that he is still so tiny and baby like to me even if he is growing bigger.  He still has such chubby fingers, legs.    As I’ve typed up this post I feel overcome with gratitude and pure happiness.  I feel so thankful for all of the memories we are making in our homeschool.  I feel so thankful to share this fleeting time with my children each day.  I love my family so much.  I am so blessed.

Currently rowing:  Truman’s Aunt Farm

Coming soon:  The Bee Tree, Miss Rumphius and The Carrot Seed

Ideas, inspiration and printables can be found at:

• Homeschool Share’s Song of the Water Boatman lesson
• Homeschool Creations’ Pond Preschool Pack
• Hodgepodge Lily Pad pastel chalk tutorial 
• Play and Learn With Dana’s Letter ‘F’ frog
• Prekinders pond life pattern block templates
• Kids’ Soup frog life cycle activities
• Creative Teaching Press Life Cycles Wood Frog, and Look Once, Look Again Habitats Pond student books and resource guides
• The Mayo Brothers Value Tale
• Preschool Corner and 5K Too!
• Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers’ Weekly Wrap-Up