The Learning Room – Part I: John James Audubon

March 19th – April 4th

Because my morning sickness strikes in the afternoon and gets worse as the evening progresses (ironic that I don’t have it in the morning!), my only time to type on the computer is moot as I want only to lie on a couch at that point, not typing anything! So I am taking one morning where I am feeling okay and catching up on what we’ve been learning. I will break it into two manageable parts – a part one over our John James Audubon study and a part two over our Henry David Thoreau study.

History

• Read aloud to Gabe and Lily: The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon by Jacqueline Davies
• Read aloud to Gabe and Lily: Into The Woods: John James Audubon Lives His Dream by Robert Burleigh
• Gabe read Audubon: Painter of the Birds on the Wild Frontier by Jennifer Armstrong independently and used it in his narration compilation.
• Gabe and Lily both put together a narration on who John James Audubon was based on all the books they read. Gabe used his as a Language Arts exercise as well and Lily added a picture narration to her oral narration.
• Read Beatrix Potter by Alexandra Wallner (a biography of her life).
• Read My Dear Noel: The Story of a Letter from Beatrix Potter by Jane Johnson (a great book about how she started the Peter Rabbit series).
• Started to read The Flower Hunter: William Bartram, America’s First Naturalist by Deborah Kogan Ray (Didn’t finish – kid’s weren’t interested at all. Was disappointed in that. I loved this book!).

Science

• Read Birds at Home by Marguerite Henry (our favorite living book on birds!)
• Read Birds at My Feeder by Glen & Loates (our other most read living bird book)
• Used Stokes Beginner’s Guide to Birds field guide to identify birds in our back yard and see where in the United States certain birds live.
• Read Birds: Nature’s Magnificent Flying Machines by Caroline Arnold and discussed how feathers and flight work.
• Read An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Aston & Sylvia Long. The kids had most fun finding camouflaged eggs and picking which egg they wanted to draw.
• Read Birds at Night by Roma Gans – a great overall book on how birds act, what they eat, how they survive. The kids favorite I think.
• Read A Nest Full of Eggs by Priscilla Belz Jenkins – a good book to herald in spring as it is mostly about the arrival of robins returning in the spring.

Gabe's cardinal.

Lily's cardinal.

Mommy's cardinal.

Lily's cardinal after seeing mommy's cardinal and then deciding she needed to redo hers!

Luc's cardinal.

Art

• Practiced studying a bird and trying to draw it realistically. The kids enjoyed this as the best part of the week both weeks and they loved using their new colored pencils!
• Looked through The Living World of Audubon by Roland C. Clement to see samples of Audubon’s work and read journal entries.
• Used Nature Book to Color to color different birds realistically.
• Read Henri, Egg Artiste by Marcus Pfister and had fun discussing the “real” art used on the eggs. Good picture study for the kids.
• Used Art For Kids: Drawing in Color by Kathryn Temple to practice drawing an egg and working on how to shade and how light hits an object.

Gabe's Woodpecker.

Lily's Woodpecker - probably my favorite of hers! Makes me giggle whenever I see it!

Lily's Bluebird.

Music

• Kids played with The Bird Songs Anthology by Les Beletsky almost daily.
• Listened to  music CD For the Birds full of bird folk songs, poetry, and bird calls!

Literature

• Read the Easter story out of the Bible.
• Read The Legend of the Easter Egg by Lori Walburg and James Bernardin.
• Read The Very First Easter by Paul L. Maier.
• Read The Story of Easter by Aileen Fisher (the kids favorite).
• Read the whole Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit series.
• Read chapters 1-4 of  Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White.
• Read The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett.
• Watched the Audio story of The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Anderson.
• Watched the Audio story of The Story ABout Ping by Marjorie Flack.
• Watched the Audio story of Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
• Read Petunia by Roger Duvoisin.

Language Arts

• Lily – in Language Arts Lessons book: review of sentences and punctuation; copywork (manuscript practice); phonics practice; poetry reading; reading practice
• Gabe – in Language Arts Lesosns book: pronouns, paragraphs,  initials and abbreviations (also used his history narration in practicing editing and when to use pronouns and paragraphs properly in real-life writing); review of plurals, adjectives, adverbs, and capitilization; copywork in cursive; poetry reading
• Luc – phonics practice with mom in the Blue Book; Kumon cards

Math

• Lily – Filling in 100’s chart (partially blank 3x, all blank 3x); Math U See chapter 21 – addition of missing number
• Gabe – Math U See chapters 19 and 20 – skip counting and multiplying by 8

Latin – Gabe

• New words: sed, via, porto, quid, tuba, ager, paro
• Review of flashcards.

Independent Reading

• Gabe & Lily – Magic School Bus chapter books (science); Ivy and Bean audio book (literature)
• Gabe – How Things Work by David Macaulay (science) and How Do You Lift a Lion (science – about force, friction, levers, pulleys); Woollybear Goodbye (literature w/touch of science)
• Lily – There’s a Wocket in My Pocket and Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess (phonics and reading practice)
• Lily, Luc and Lilah – A First Discovery Book: The Egg (science); Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit series (Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Two Bad Mice, and The Tale of The Pie and The Patty Pan)