FIAR-The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge

This week's row was The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge, by
Hildegarde H. Swift and  Lynd Ward. Last week, we went on a trip to Nag's Head, NC, to see the Wright Brother's museum, and on the way home, we stopped by Bodie Island lighthouse to get a head start on this book.

 We placed the story disk on the map, right by New York City.

 

We talked about lighthouses. We discussed what they are used for, and why they are important. Lily made a lighthouse, and drew a boat.

 We talked a little about New York. We talked about the Statue of Liberty. We looked it up online, and Lily got to see pictures of the real thing. Afterward, we made a crown and torch, and Lily pretended to be the Statue of Liberty.

 We made a lighthouse. We found a small flashlight, and put it in the bottom of the lighthouse. Then, Lily took it into a dark room and let it shine.

 We discussed that lighthouses are very important. We talked about the rocks on the shore, and how dangerous it could be for the captains of ships if they didn't have lighthouses to help them see how close they were to shore. We talked a little about sight, and what it would be like to be blind. I tied a scarf around Lily's eyes, and she had to maneuver through the room blindfolded.

 We talked about New York, and how culturally diverse it is. I told Lily that New York is known for it's Italian food. We made the Focaccia bread and baked lasagna from the FIAR cookbook.

 

 Trying them out! Lily liked the bread, but thought the lasagna was just "ok."  I really enjoyed both!

I ordered some art DVDs from the Homeschool Buyers Coop a couple of weeks ago. They are great! The Home Art Studio DVDs come in different grade levels. I got K-2. I popped in the DVD, and Lily watched the lesson. Since we are talking about bridges, we chose the Monet-style bridge from the 2nd grade DVD. It turned out great! Lily really enjoyed this art lesson. You can grab the DVDs here: (affiliate link)   https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/home-art-studio/?source=105915

 Finished! Monet-style bridge. :)

 

I found a compound word game and printed it out. Lily caught on to this concept really quickly. She even came up with a few compound words of her own! Grab the cards here: http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/2011/03/potpourri.html 

 

We talked about bridges, and how they help us out. We discussed that some bridges are for walking over, and that we can drive over others. She built some bridges with her magnetic blocks. 

We discussed personification. We talked about the different examples of personification in the story. We talked about the different feelings the lighthouse felt throughout the story. Lily made some examples of personification. 

 

It was a great week. Lily really enjoyed this story. Next up is Night of the Moonjellies, by Mark Shasha. Lots of fun stuff! :)

FIAR-The Glorious Flight

This Week's Row was The Glorious Flight by Alice and Martin Provensen. It was about Louis Bleriot, the first man to fly over the English Channel. There was a lot to learn about in this book, and we had a fun week!

 We started off by placing our Story Disk on France, where Louis Bleriot and his family lived.

Lily tried some French bread and butter. She decided that she liked it. (She wasn't sure about it until I buttered it up for her.)

  

I printed out some worksheets from Homeschoolshare.com and I printed out the FIAR Fold N Learn for the book. We picked a few of the worksheets to work on this week. I don't really do them as lapbooks. I just choose the worksheets that she will find the most interesting and we do those.

We talked about different means of transportation. First, we talked about other ways to fly. Lily thought of a few: hot air balloon, helicopter, rocket.  Then, we talked about other forms of transportation. Walking, cars, trains, skateboards, bicycles, etc.  

We talked about Onomatopoeia. Lily had fun with this concept. She ended up getting in her silly mood, and making all kinds of silly sounds. 

We talked about England. In the book, Papa Bleriot saw the White Cliffs of Dover. We looked them up online, and found out that they are made out of chalk. We also talked about Big Ben. We looked both places up on Google Earth. Lily said she would like to visit the White Cliffs of Dover and Big Ben. Maybe one day, Lily-that would be an amazing field trip!

We made LOTS of paper airplanes and Lily spent most of the week throwing them around the house. She even made paper kitties and taped them to the wings. She said they were passengers.

In the book, Louis Bleriot  names his planes using Roman numerals. We discussed them a little, and learned 1-10. We used craft sticks, and made a clock using Roman numerals.

  We talked about the past. We could tell in the book that the story took place a long time ago by looking at different things. The clothing, the cars, etc. We read this book to talk a little bit more about how things have changed over the last 100 years or so. 

 

Since the story talked about both France and England, Lily colored the flag for each country.

We talked about France. The language, the food. We watched Muzzy in French. 

 We tried another French snack: fruit and crackers with Brie. Lily approved!

We worked on our GeoPuzzle of Europe. We found France, England and the English Channel.

 We watched a few YouTube videos about the Wright Brothers and Louis Bleriot. We also watched "This is America, Charlie Brown!" There is an episode about the Wright Bros and the first flight in Kitty Hawk, NC.  You can find this episode for rent on YouTube, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvWzN-K31qg&index=3&list=EL9VUUDOBFveEhMnpi_wni4w

We finished off our unit with a trip to Kitty Hawk, NC at the Wright Brothers Memorial!

There was a picture of Louis Bleriot on the wall. Lily was able to recognize him after our research this week. 

There was a kite making workshop at the museum. Lily got to create and fly her own kite.

From this rock, you could see the landing spots for the first four flights in history!

We took a long walk up to the top of the hill to see the memorial.

We went out on the sand dunes at Jockey's Ridge State Park to try to fly our kite. There wasn't enough wind, so Lily just got silly on the dunes. She enjoyed the visitor's center. There were a few exhibits about the animals that live in the park.

 This is our wall of art/work that Lily completed this week. She got quite a few things done, and really learned a lot about flight/planes.

Our next book will be The Little Red Lighthouse, and the Great Gray Bridge. In preparation for that row, we visited a lighthouse on the way home from our trip. 

 We had a great week! We are looking forward to learning about lighthouses next week!