Homeschool Highlights #3 & Five in a Row: Lentil

We've read this book by Robert McCloskey many times, and I knew it would be a fun book to row this week! There were so many different directions we went with this book and so many more we could have explored. Silas is 10 in the 5th grade and Titus is 8 in the 3rd grade.

Monday:

We chose to focus on the American flag today. The townspeople hang up flags in honor of Colonel Carter who is returning to their town on the train. We read this book about the flag and the boys completed a notebooking page with six facts that they learned about the flag. 

Next we read this book about Betsy Ross and did another notebooking page with facts about her life and a picture of the original flag which contained 13 stars and 13 stripes.

Then we followed the directions in the back of the book to make our own 5-pointed star just like Betsy did by folding a square sheet of paper and then making a *snip*! It took a few tries to get the snip just right, but the boys finally had stars they were proud of!

Tuesday:

Today we focused on sound. We read this book about sound, which seems like a book for really young kids by looking at the cover. However it presented information about sound, sound waves, and decibels in a really clear and interesting way. The boys enjoyed reading it!

We then did an experiment on seeing sounds. We wrapped plastic wrap around a bowl and added a bit of rice on top. Silas banged on a metal sheet pan with a wooden spoon right next to the bowl and we watched as the rice hopped up and down! 

They drew a picture of their experiment and I dictated a few sentences to them to write down.

Next we looked at a print-out of sound waves at different frequencies. They boys copied the diagram down and wrote examples of what each sound wave could be. This required some critical thinking!

I also printed out a reading comprehension worksheet (I rarely do this) on sound. They took turns reading paragraphs aloud and then answering true/false for the statements. I'm not a fan of these types of worksheets, but this one was well written.

Finally we made Stick Harmonicas! We got the idea from Frugal Fun For Boys. It was super easy to make and only required 2 jumbo craft sticks, a straw, and three rubber bands. The boys were super surprised that it sounded just like a kazoo. Who knew you could make a musical instrument from craft sticks? Mercie even made one when she heard the boys playing theirs! I'm glad she still wants to join in on the fun once in a while.

Wednesday:

Today we did our book worksheet and filled in the title, author, illustrator, summary, main character, and our favorite parts. Both boys gave the book five stars! They do enjoy listening to it every morning.

Next we did a quick worksheet on facts about Ohio that I got from 3 Boys and A Dog, since that's where our story takes place.

Then we used chalk pastels to draw pictures since the illustrations are done in charcoal. They found this a challenging medium to work with, but I really enjoyed it! Here are their drawings (neither were too happy with their finished products).

Thursday:

We talked about the sense of taste today. I gave them each a slice of lemon, a piece of unsweetened chocolate, a saltine cracker, and a piece of candy. They tasted each one and we discussed the different tastes - sour, bitter, salty, and sweet. We read from a few books that had information on taste buds. 

They each drew a tongue on pink paper and label where the taste buds are. They cut it out and glued it to a notebook page, then did some dictation from the book. Did you know we have over 10,000 taste buds?

Finally I had them cut pictures from magazine of food that have the four different tastes and glued them on cardstock.

When we read the book today, I asked them to notice something about the illustrations we hadn't noticed before. Silas noticed a lot more! There are so many surprising things in the pictures.

Friday:

Today we talked about national monuments. I gave the boys worksheets with four monuments from our country. We did a bit of research and they wrote down information about each monument. 

Then we painted our lemons! We used watercolors.

Finally we made homemade lemonade! We took turns squeezing the juice from five lemons, which gave us a bit more than 1 cup of lemon juice. I boiled 5 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar to make a syrup, then we mixed it together! It was delicious. The kids drank all of it with lunch! It was much better than the Country Time lemonade we usually make (a powdered mix). 

We had a blast this week with Lentil. Next week, we will be rowing "The Bee Tree!"

How was your week? Link up any homeschool related posts below!

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