Truman’s Aunt Farm, FIAR

(5/7 – 5/11)  We had fun rowing Truman’s Aunt Farm by Jama Kim Rattigan.  This is a fun book!  The boys enjoyed it, laughed and asked lots of questions as we read it throughout the week. 

During our row we focused on and learned about:

• homophones
• repetition in text
• how to write a friendly letter
• list making
• ants, their life cycle, types of ants and their jobs, the way a colony operates
• the letter ‘A’ and ants in our Preschool

Preschool was all about ‘A’ is for Ants.  Jack worked on a preschool pack and made a picnic style letter ‘A’ poster for his ABC Book. Jesse busied himself with Connect Four and miscellaneous learning toys.  All of the boys like playing with the cash register. Joe learned how to write a friendly letter to a relative just as Truman did in the book.  He chose to write and mail his letter to his Great Grandma.  I taught him the parts of a letter and format for writing a block style friendly letter.  He enjoyed learning how to do this and wrote several more letters as the week progressed ‘for fun’ :-).Truman’s Aunt farm is all about homophones.  We discussed what they are and I printed a few homophone worksheets for Joe for reinforcement and practice.

In the book Truman serves the Aunts tiny hot dogs, jelly rolls and rice pudding.  I made a lunch of this for the kids. The highlight of the week was our ant farm.  The kids have all had fun observing the ants.  I have too.  I never knew ants worked so hard and depended on one another so much.  Joe took notes, drew pictures and answered some questions I wrote up for him as he watched the ants each day.

Hanna was awesome getting them into the farm.  I was afraid it was going to be a disaster like our ladybug fiasco a few years back.  Even after putting the ladybugs into the fridge for a short bit they were still flying all over the place and we ended up with a house full of ladybugs and none in our habitat, lol.  The ants were a breeze! Joe made an ant colony of his own from paper, raisins, rice grains, noodles and mini chocolate chips.  He enjoyed doing this a whole lot and it turned out really neat.  This was a fun project. We enjoyed our time with Truman.  I think I learned more about ants than the boys did! 

Currently rowing The Bee Tree.  Up next, Climbing Kansas Mountains.

Inspiration, ideas and printables for Truman’s Aunt Farm can be found at:

• Five in a Row Manual, Volume 3
• Confessions of a Homeschooler, ‘A’ is for ant
• Super Teacher Worksheets, homophones
• Love to Learn’s K-5th Lang. Arts and Journal Program
• Spell Outloud’s ant observation printables
• Preschool Corner and 5K Too!
• Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap-Up