What We Studied
Literature and Poetry
We finished reading Nim’s Island and then had a movie night on Friday. The book was pretty good; a slim adventure story. And the movie actually held up. Decent! For a related art project, Arthur had to make his own island map. It’s a little hard to read in places, but he made sure to label everything.
Nim’s Island by Wendy Orr
Rainbow Soup by Brian P. Cleary (poems)
Sea Sheep by Eric Seltzer (Arthur read)
Math
We are officially done with Singapore Math 2! We’re not going to move into 3 until August. Until then, we will be doing some review, catching up on Khan Academy, studying coding again, playing math games, and probably doing a unit on nature math (golden ratio; Fibonacci).
Social Studies
We are back into the American Revolution covering female patriots (Rebecca Stillwell Willets was Arthur’s favroite), spies (love the Culper Ring!), and life during the war.
Fight for Freedom: The American Revolutionary War by Benson Bobrick
Great Women of the American Revolution by Brianna Hall
Founding Mothers: Remembering the Ladies by Cokie Roberts
Patriots and Petticoats: Heroines of the American Revolution by Shirley Raye Redmond
If You were a Kid During the American Revoluion by Wil Mara
Life During the Revolutionary War by Bonnie Hinman
Revolutionary Rogues: John André and Benedict Arnold by Selene Castrovilla
A Spy Called James by Anne Rockwell
Anna Strong by Sarah Glenn Marsh
The Scarlet Stockings Spy by Trinka Hakes Noble
Science
See Unit Theme
Art
Nothing formal
Music
We started our big unit on American Folk Music! I’m super excited about this one. We started with a short random documentary I found from the 1970s. It’s dated, but does an amazing job of tracing a few folk songs from England to today. From there, we did a few days with Woody Guthrie (not Arthur’s favorite). On the way back from the Treetops, we listened to a Smithsonian compilation album of Children’s Folk Music. They actually really enjoyed it! There is hope!
Passing the Music Down by Sarah Sullivan
This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie
Unit Theme
Continuing with oceans! We will be in this unit for the entire month of May. This week we studied coral reefs, the open ocean, and the deep. We watched a great episode of Blue Planet about coral seas and an episode of NOVA about Reef Rescue.
One Night in the Coral Sea by Sneed B. Collard III
Nat Geo Kids: Coral Reefs
Coral Reefs by Precious McKenzie
Coral Reefs by Gail Gibbons
Nat Geo Kids: Ocean Animals
Ocean Anatomy by Julia Rothman (I really need to just buy this one!)
DK Ocean
Water Sings Blue: Ocean Poems by Karen Coombs
W is for Waves by Marie and Roland Smith
Seashells: More Than a Home by Melissa Stewart
Deep in the ocean by Lucie Brunelliere
The Deep, Deep Ocean by John Woodward
Into the Deep by Annika Siems
Deep Oceans by Ellen Labrecqu
Exploring the Deep Dark Sea by Gail Gibbons
Otis and Will Discover the Deep: The Record-setting Dive of the Bathysphere by Barb Rosenstock
Down Down Down by Steve Jenkins
Journey into the Deep by Rebecca L. Johnson
Misc. - Random picture books read Lots of ocean themed reading for nighttime.
The Mermaid by Jan Brett
Sandy Feet! Whose Feet? Footprints at the Shore by Susan Wood
A Fish Out of Water by Helen Palmer
Field Trip to the Ocean Deep by John Hare
Ocean Animals from Head to Tail by Stacey Roderick
Little Turtle and the Changing Sea by Becky Davies
The Specific Ocean by Kyo Maclear
Gone Fishing: Ocean Life by the Numbers by David McLimans
Dive In: Swim with Sea Creatures at Their Actual Size by Roxie Munro
The Nice Dream Truck by Beth Ferry
Love is by Diane Adams
Over int he Ocean in a Coral Reef by Marianne Berkes
Red by Michael Hall
Hello Ocean by Pam Muñoz Ryan
The Little Fish that Got Away by Bernadine Cook
Highs
Our trip to Arbor Day Farm and the Treetops Village on Friday was delightful! It wasn’t too busy even with a few school groups. The weather was cooler but sunny. And the forest was in bloom! We did all the things and wore ourselves out. I even jumped on the trampoline (and fell over a few times). Lots of fun was had!
Lows
No one showed up to our park playdate on Tuesday. The boys had fun playing at the playground by themselves, but it would have been nice to have some friends. We cut our park trip a little short and I took them to Build-a-Bear to make a new stuffie. (I was planning on going there something this month, but hadn’t told the boys beforehand.) Arthur built a Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon and Quentin made a Chase from Paw Patrol. The day was salvaged but still a bit sad.
Next Week
We are starting a new read aloud (The One and Only Bob!), playing some math games, and doing some review. We will be continuing with the Revolution, the ocean, and folk music. Plus we have a park playdate schedule and a field trip day to find all the Bees of the Heartland down in the Auburn area.
Next up on the TBR pile:
