Weeks 27 and 28: Abraham Lincoln and Bird Studies

Week 27

Abraham Lincoln

We began our Abraham Lincoln studies with something crafty.

and this cute timeline (you may remember this from our George Washington studies)

We started reading about Abraham Lincoln in The Story of the US  and also in this book, which we adore:

Abraham Lincoln by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire

We made these fun paper plate masks, too.

serious faces

and sweet smiles


The girls also completed these notebook pages.

State Studies

(Minnesota and Oregon)

We read about Minnesota and added that page to our completed pages pile, which is really a nice stack of completed leaning now. We may have had some technical difficulties with the capital, but I did not have them change it. We just talked about. I like to keep these fun and less stressful, especially since they will complete 50 by the end of the school year.
That is a lot of learning, and coloring, and labeling.

and we studied a little about Oregon, as well, and spent a little extra time learning about their state bird, the meadowlark.

You can create simple silly meadowlark hand prints like these with just a little brown and yellow paint... and some willing hands, of course.

The Western Meadowlark is actually the state bird of six states: Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wyoming. Only the Northern Cardinal is a more popular civic symbol, edging out the meadowlark by one state.

Here are our postcards for Minnesota and Oregon. We have been so blessed by our family, friends, and even friends of friends, who have sent us so many postcards from almost all of the fifty states. My girls have really enjoyed each one. Many have pretty pictures, facts and even little messages for the girls. I have seen them reading these, spreading them all over the schoolroom floor, many times throughout the day.

Thank you, friends, for taking the time to help us learn and making these girls feel so loved.

Jesus is the Shepherd

“I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me."

John 10:14

On this post you can read about how we had learned that Jesus is the Lamb of God, but Jesus is not only the Lamb, He is a good Shepherd, too.  When we believe in Jesus, we become God's lambs, who are forgiven. We deserve to die because of the sins we do, but Jesus took our place on the cross. He died for us, taking our punishment, fully.
We have been gifted more than we could ever really understand.
 Now we are His.
His. Just like that.
We are His little lambs, and He is our great protector, provider, our Shepherd. And that gift is one that changed my life. Redeemed it.  I want my children to know that.

This week during our Bible lesson time, as we read the verses and studied, we created this shepherd with his sheep craft.

I provided the supplies, but I did not give any rules for how to complete this activity. I love how the paper towel rolls are just a little too big and the sheep have little polka dots.
The best projects are the ones I let go of and let them grab onto.

The girls completed their verse notebook pages, as well. I am so thankful for all the verses the girls are hiding in their hearts this year.

to give you a little more detail on where and what we are studying

you can check out our classroom reveal HERE

and our curriculum  for 2014-2015 HERE

 and Week One here

Week 15: Northern Cardinal, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York (The Statue of Liberty) and North Carolina

Week 15

This week we worked on a few more states and spent time studying the Cardinal. It was perfectly lined up since it was the state bird for both Virginia and North Carolina. This bird is one we do often see around our home. so it was especially fun to learn about them even more.

State Studies

(New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and North Carolina)

(Mt Chocorua, New Hampshire)

New Hampshire 

(our home, our favorite view, in all seasons)

This week we talked a lot about our state and what we loved about it. It was really special to just soak up the stories and memories together while talking about so many treasures we can explore in our very own state. 

Virginia 

We continued to work on the states pages throughout the week... some weeks it does seem like a lot...

even when we do enjoy them.

(this cardinal craft printable can be found here)

We learned more about the cardinal as we continued our bird studies. You can see more about how we are studying birds and what activities and references we are using HERE on this post.

We created these really messy (and fun!) chalk drawings of cardinals. They were all so different and lovely and I enjoyed hanging them in my kitchen to glance at all week... and when the week was done we trimmed them up and gifted them out to people we love. We often gift our art to others after we have photographed it. 

This step by step can be found here.

And we continued to play with our puppet theater... acting out what we read about in our book,
Birds, Nests, and Eggs by Mel Boring. 

New York 

The girls and I really enjoyed studying New York state together
and learning some fun facts about the Statue of Liberty.

I always love how different the pages are that my girls complete. It gives me a glimpse into how they view things, as well as where they are in their learning.

 The Statue of Liberty (Wonders of America)  by Marion Dane Bauer was the perfect addition this week.
 It is a step one reader, ideal for a fun, easy read.

and after all of the reading and learning why not become the Statue of Liberty?

This is a simple look to recreate. You just need one paper plate, one toilet paper roll, one sheet of white cardstock, and some orange and light green paint. Just look at her smile. 

North Carolina

 (The Wright Brothers)

We worked on the North Carolina state pages, as well as reading all about the Wright Brothers.

Two books in our book basket that we found at our library this week were
First Flight: The Story of Tom Tate and The Wright Brothers by George Shea  

and Will and Orv by Walter A. Schulz
which were enjoyed by all of us.

We will be studying The Wright Brothers again later this year and will share more about that, including a lapbook and special snack, as well.

We even received this postcard about the Wright Brothers National Memorial Park.

We also added these postcards to our portfolio. 

This week just flew by.

Week 12 MFW Adventures:State Studies and Bird Unit

Week 12

We had a wonderfully full week.... we continued our state studies, received some more really special mail (postcards), baked something we never had before, and started a new science unit all about BIRDS!

State Studies

(Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Georgia)

Pennsylvania 

This week we studied a bit about Pennsylvania and especially the Liberty Bell.

We made two different "bells" this week. One was made from a paper cup, aluminum foil, a toilet paper roll, and a pipe cleaner. The other was from construction paper with an index card for sharing a special fact or two they learned about the Liberty Bell.

New Jersey 

We finished our New Jersey state sheets and enjoyed reading a little about the state bird,
the goldfinch.

After reading about them, really observing and exploring, the girls had to describe the bird to me, without looking, and they did really well. They even remembered many facts about them , too! 

Georgia

We finished our Georgia state sheet.

Since Georgia is the peach state, we decided to make some peach pie.
We went to the grocery store and chose the best peaches together.
The girls really like fruit, and peaches are a favorite here, but we have never made peach pie before, so they were really excited about it!

Here is the finished pie. It was not my favorite, but the girls did enjoy it.

We received postcards from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but not from Georgia, yet. I am still hoping we will have at least one from each state.

Bird Unit

For this unit we used this Usborne book Birds, Nests and Eggs as our base for reading and studying.We started off just introducing birds, learning more about what makes a bird a bird, and talking about what we want to learn about while studying and what we want to know when we are finished with this unit.

I love to do that. Question them. Challenge them. Put them in charge of their learning. 

We worked together to make some birdseed playdough and played with our Backyard Birds Toobs.
We have a basic play dough recipe that we used as a starter for this, adding in birdseed, which you can find HERE.

A simple paper plate was transformed into a puppet theater with a little paint and bits of yarn, paper and feathers. It is so great for our bird unit and I know we can use it with many bird finger puppets (custom made and simple homemade ones) throughout the rest of the school year.

I had the girls help choose their favorites from the Birds, Nests and Eggs book.
These bird finger puppets were custom made by this Etsy shop and I fell in love with them right away!
Each bird has been made with care, with attention to detail, and they have held up so well, even with hours of play.

We also found some really sweet felted birds to explore and play with. These are so well loved in our home. I find these here and there, peeking at me, around the house. You can find some little birds to love like these ones in this Etsy shop. We adore them.

We also created this bird mobile. It is so beautiful, yet so simple. We just printed the birds out, cut them, and hung each of the birds, with twine, from an embroidery hoop. I really liked how each bird was labeled. This was also completely free (minus the ink, of course).
 That is always a blessing for our family.

Our Yard is Full of Birds was our very favorite book basket book for our bird unit.
I know we will read this many more times.

These Usborne bird flashcards have gorgeous pictures and are full of facts. I was glad we found a set to use while we studied birds this year.

Pioneers

We also made up Johnny Cakes, as we learned about how people used open fires. Most of my children really loved them.... especially with warm maple syrup poured all over them.

to give you a little more detail on where and what we are studying

you can check out our classroom reveal HERE

and our curriculum  for 2014-2015 HERE

 and Week One here