Initially I chose to row Three Names as our first book of the "new" school year because it had a school-ish theme, but the timing worked well with the dog/pet theme too.
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Social Studies
Character - Teachable Attitude
Back to school is always a good time of year to have this discussion.
Relationships - Pets
We just got a new pup a couple weeks ago. She's 10 months old and a sweet bundle of love! She's adjusted fabulously to the family and she and the kids adore each other. She's so easy-going and will be anyone's cuddle buddy. Her name is Izzy. Is she not the cutest little thing ever!?
Go Along Book - Dogs by Seymour Simon
Geography - Prairies/Prairie Life and Prairie Animals
We talked about the location of prairies and read the definition of a grassland from Geography from A to Z. I printed small maps of the North American prairie region that they could clip to their prairie drawings, but they weren't interested in doing a prairie drawing. They liked going through our animal cards to determine which ones live in prairie regions and reading the interesting facts about them.
Emory drew a gray wolf (grasslands of Canada/Alaska) on his own. Howling, I believe.
So I got out Draw Write Now (Book 8) and they can glue their maps to these. One chose the prairie dog.
The other chose an armadillo.
One day on the week following the row, an episode of Wild Kratts featured the prairie and prairie animals, so that was a lot of fun for Emory, who loves that show!
We didn't get to this online Build a Prairie activity, but it looks great for older rowers.
Geography - Story Disk
After much deliberation, Elliott chose some state boarders, since the prairies encompass so much of this area.
History - One Room Schoolhouses & Culture value of Education
We compared one-room schoolhouses to the structure of traditional schools today, and compared them to homeschools. We also talked about how Great-Grandfather traveled to school, and how children around the world still do not have cars or school buses. Then we watched part of the documentary "On the Way to School" to show how people around the world value education and go to great lengths just to get to school.
Mathematics
The lesson in the manual referenced ordinal numbers, so I had both of the boys do a quick ordinal numbers worksheet. Emory followed coloring instructions. He's not much for coloring. Elliott matched ordinal numbers to their written word, but that was easy for him, so he also did the perspective in measurement activity.
Language Arts
Book Titles
One of the boys immediately asked "Why is it called Three Names?" so that was the perfect segue into the lesson on titles. Their alternative title suggestions:
Four Names
The Dog that had Four Names
The Dog that Liked to go to School
Hyperbole
They also caught onto the hyperbole examples as they were written. Emory asked "Did it really take a hundred years?" so that lesson was discussed naturally as well. Of course, my kids just called it lying, so we talked about exaggeration as a point of storytelling, verses actual lying.
Similes
I explained how a simile uses like/as to make two different things seem similar. Elliott understands similes, so while we did this Simile - Not Simile cut/paste activity, I had Elliott read them to Emory as I helped Emory fill his paper out. Emory finally made the connection that if "it's not true" it's a simile. If it's true statement, it's not a simile. It was an exposure lesson for him, and I know we'll come around to similes again.
Science
Twins
We briefly talked about fraternal twins, but that was easy as Daddy is a fraternal twin.
Wind and Tornadoes
We discussed the lesson on wind and made a tornado in a jar, but it was hard to get pictures of that in action.
Go-along book: Feel the Wind by Arthur Dorros
Art
I chose to focus on two lessons from the manual--vanishing point and lines. It happened to line up with the lesson in ARTistic Pursuits for the week, which discussed parallel and perpendicular lines, etc., so I tied them together. The boys drew roads with a vanishing point. It started as a sunny day, but can you see the swirling wind forming a tornado in the rain storm on the right? I think he added black flecks to his road to make it look like an old worn road, and fence posts along the sides. (Then they did the ARTistic Pursuit drawing assignment, their interpretation involving Minecraft.)
My kids aren't much for drawing when it isn't their idea, which is usually why we only do the FIAR art lessons conversationally.
Additional Books
Henry And Mudge Take The Big Test by Cynthia Rylant
These readers are about a boy and his dog, and Rylant is a FIAR author so you know her books are good. This particular title fits in with the "school" theme as well.
Tornado by Besty Byers
This is a great book about a boy and his dog, and it takes place during a Tornado, so that theme ties in well too.
Up Next: The Bee Tree!
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