Wee Gillis- What's in a name?

It is so great to be back in our class.  I missed my weekly story hour with your kiddos.

We kicked off the semester with a fantastic book about finding your own passion.

Wee Gillis by Munro Leaf is a book set in Scotland.  Wee Gillis is a young boy with family in the highlands and in the lowlands.  They want him to choose where he wants to live.  In the highlands, he must spend his time tracking stags.  In the lowlands, he must spend his time tending the long haired cattle.  Instead of choosing, he splits his time between both places, developing skills and a strong set of lungs.

When it comes time to choose where he wants to stay FOREVER, he finally discovers his talent for bagpiping.  Now he can live both in the highlands and the lowlands and play music.

We took a quick elements of literature quiz, which your kids were amazing with, by identifying the setting, theme, characters, problems, and solutions in the story.  Their answers were thoughtful and right on the money!!  They are very smart when it comes to discussing literature.

We then talked about our names.  Wee Gillis's real name was actually seven names!!  They then practiced writing their names and then making some name art.  They decorated their names with their hobbies, interests, and passions.  They then took turns presenting them to the class and telling each of us a little bit about themselves.  It was amazing!!  We found out some interesting things about everyone.  I hope they brought them home and showed them off.

We then ATE OUR NAMES!!  The table was scattered with alphabet cookies and they found every letter of their name.  JJ had the easiest time  : ). Then we ATE OUR NAMES!!  They were delicious and the perfect lead in to lunch.

Next week, we are going to learn about Scotland and even make some bagpipes.  Now might be a good time to invest in some earplugs!

The healing stories of food

We tried to overcome our sadness from the cancelled field trip with stories about food.  (Food seems to cheer me up, so this book choice makes sense to me.)

First, we watched a storytelling video of the classic book, Strega Nona.
We loved it.  We talked about the setting, characters, plot, and themes found in the story.  We learned that you need to LISTEN.  I knew I loved this book!

Next, we watched the telling of Stone Soup.  Again we learned such valuable lessons.

Finally, we finished our restaurant simulation.  This time we switched roles. Our restaurant was called School Kids' Party Place and Burgers.  We had lovely hostesses, servers, chefs, and cashiers.  But the place was a bit messy.  I think the health office might have closed us down if they would've seen the kitchen.

Next week, I believe we will be participating in the famed cardboard city.  So get out those big boxes and start designing. Maybe you could build a replica of School Kids' Party Place and Burgers or maybe Cinco de Mayo?!!!

Glowing Moonjellies

Class last week was so enlightening.  We re-read "Night of the Moonjellies."  It is a great book.

Then we made moonjellies using a plastic bag, twist tie, and glow in the dark snake!  Hopefully, they made it into your homes and created a lovely night vision for your family.

Next, we worked on ocean animal identification.  (We watched an ocean video while trying to find all the animals that were on our coloring page in the video.) We've got some great ocean explorers in class! 

Next week, we are headed to the zoo.  We can't wait to go to the aquarium and see all the animals we talked about in class.  Please remember to send Ida your permission slips.  It should be a grand adventure!

Night of the Moonjellies: The restaurant challenge

Today we read a fantastic story about mysterious moonjellies. The story is set in a New England beach town. The seven-year old boy in the story works at his grandma's hot dog stand. It is quite the busy place! One morning before the stand opens he finds a moonjelly lying on the beach. He picks it up and shows it to his grandma. Later that night, after closing time, she takes him out to the ocean on a boat where they see thousands of moonjellies glowing in the water. What a beautiful sight!

Today, we took on quite the challenge. Half the class set out to color and cut-out some play money, while the other half of the class transformed the classroom into a restaurant.
They set a table, came up with a menu, restaurant name, designated roles for everyone, etc. Both teams did a lot of hard work!
After the money was cut out, the customers were welcomed into Cinco de Mayo. (Don't let the name fool you, there was no Mexican food on the menu.)
Naomi showed the customers to their table and gave them all menus. Addie (a visitor) took everyone's orders. Vivian and Eden cooked up the food and plated the entrees. Parley delivered the plates to the hungry customers. And Daniel worked the register.
We learned so many lessons! Running a restaurant is HARD WORK!! The main lesson we learned was you can't please everyone, especially when you run out of hamburgers.
Next week, we will let the kids switch roles.

Into the Deep, Dark Coal Mines

Today we explored the setting of The Rag Coat. We looked at black and white pictures from the early 20th century that showed what it was like to work in the Appalachian coal mines. It was hard, dirty, and dangerous!
We talked about why Minna's dad (the character in our book) died of the miner's cough. We discussed what safety gear we needed in a deep and dark coal mine and why it was needed.
We then attempted a little "mining" ourselves. We donned our safety gear and headed into the dark FILA Coal Mine. We found several pieces of coal just lying about. It was a fairly easy mining project.
We also talked about why we have mines. Not only do we need it to heat homes and make electricity, we were reminded that Santa Claus needs it, too! We did a little "chocolate mining" by mining the chocolate chips out of some cookies with just two toothpicks!
We talked about some of the things that are mined and heard a lot of great info. We learned Naomi's birthstone is the valuable diamond-which people like to mine.
We ended class by investigating some rocks and minerals from a rock collection. We learned a rock is made up of two or more minerals. We tried to identify different rocks and minerals and discovered our class is full of rock hounds!

Next week we will head to the Atlantic!

Quilt Bingo and Adventure Bags

What a great class we had today! Everyone was so well behaved and attentive to our story and all our projects.
We read the beautiful, heart-wrenching book, The Rag Coat, by Lauren Mills. The book is set in an Appalachian coal town. The main character, Minna, is a young girl whose father dies from working in the coal mine. She is very poor and has no coat. Therefore, she cannot go to school in the cold weather. She yearns for a chance to go to school. Her mother, along with the other mothers in the town make quilts to earn money. They decide to quilt Minna a coat out of their old rags. Minna LOVES her coat, but the kids at school are quick to make fun of it.
Have your children tell you how it ends. It is really a sweet story with so many good lessons.
After we nailed down the setting, characters and themes we talked about making quilts. We talked about how difficult it is to make a quilt. We looked at various quilt patterns online. We loved the puppy and fish quilts.
I showed the kids a quilt my grandma made me out of old jeans. They enjoyed it and added their own quilt stories.
They then set out to design their own quilt patterns using pre-cut rags from my fabric bin. (Thank goodness I like to hoard things!)
We later used our quilt patterns to play a friendly game of bingo. We had a wonderful guest bingo caller, Teacher Shannon! We were so happy to have her. She knew just how to keep us all in line.
After bingo, I surprised the kids with their old t-shirts. While they were "quilting" I transformed them into adventure bags (just like the quilting mothers in our story turned the rags into a coat!). I hope they like them and use them to hold all their treasures. I've heard mixed reviews (from Vivian).

Next week, we are going to mine underground. (Actually it will be above ground;). I'll let you know if we find any diamonds.

Have a great week!

Sweet, sweet Sushi and Off-Broadway Water Cycle Performance

During our last class we revisited Japan with our book, A Pair of Red Clogs. It was just as delightful the second time.
We watched a short video on Japan. We learned that there are big cities and big volcanoes!
We also learned to make sushi-with candy!! First, we watched a video on how to make REAL sushi and applied the technique to our fruit roll-ups, Rice Krispy treats, and Swedish fish.
It was delicious and our technique was flawless, except for our plating skills. We need to work on those.

This week, we are going to read one of my favorite books! The Rag Coat is a beautiful, sweet story set in the Appalachian Mountains.
I need your child to bring in a t-shirt they love but have outgrown. We are going to recycle it into something fantastic that they can use!! PLEASE DO NOT FORGET!!!

Also, GREAT JOB on the Water Cycle performance at lunch! I am so proud of your talented and brave kiddos!!!

Candy sushi