Weeks 16 and 17: Maple Syrup and Weather

Weeks 16 and 17

Sometimes.
Sometimes I combine two weeks into one post.
 Sometimes we plan less and just go with the flow of life. Sometimes we spend less time reading and writing and more time coloring. Sometimes we are able to complete our studies with extra field trips and activities. Sometimes we have weeks where two weeks just blend together, but everything still gets done... mostly.

State Studies

Some weeks we do our state sheets and the girls do such a sweet job, carefully coloring, reading with me, learning, really taking it all in....

Rhode Island 

And sometimes we really focus on one state and go on a special field trip and create a whole project around that topic. Sometimes we really spend a lot of time completely diving in, studying, adventuring, sampling, documenting.

Vermont

Maple Field Trip 

Sometimes we visit a favorite local business, owned by good friends, that help us take what we are learning just one step further. 

Young Maple Ridge Sugarhouse  is one of those places.

Sometimes we learn that things have changed. This year it was the grading of the syrup.

Sometimes we get to watch a sweet treat being made

and sometimes we get to try it

Sometimes sugar on snow is the best treat

Sometimes we read great books after a field trip.
Sometimes we visit our library and they have just what we need.

Maple Syrup Lapbook 

Sometimes we make lapbooks
Sometimes they have a pretty cover, colored with care.

Sometimes they have extra flip ups and pockets and spinners, too.

Kentucky

Sometimes we finish student sheets and they look, well, not as nice.
Sometimes we just rush through things too quickly.
or sometimes we press down to hard.

Daniel Boone

Sometimes I just print out a coloring page and I read about a topic or person and they just color and listen. Sometimes we do a notebooking page and write out a sentence. Or a paragraph. Sometimes my girls color in the lines, sometimes they do not. But it really is okay, however it happens. Learning is okay, however it happens. And even better when it is fun.
Sometimes I forget that.

Sometimes when I am looking for coloring sheets I find other things that are old and may not print out right, but we try anyway. Sometimes it is paper dolls.

Weather

 Sometimes we do all of the experiments for the week. Sometimes we just do not. Sometimes all we make is one thing. Sometimes we just create a wriggly snake. Sometimes the experiments don't work, but sometimes they do... and when they do we all get really excited.

The Weather Museum

Sometimes we visit a local museum. Sometimes we just explore with no rules.

Sometimes we are all spread out. Sometimes we are a bit closer to each other.

Sometimes we pretend we are weathermen on tv.

Sometimes we even touch tornadoes.

or we are tornadoes.

and that is okay, too.

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