Five In a Row's All Those Secrets of the World Literature Unit

8.16.2012

For week 2, we rowed "All Those Secrets of the World" by Jane Yolen.  While I didn't love this book initially, I couldn't help but enjoy it more and more as I read it throughout the week.  I don't think T was a big fan of the book either, but he did sit and listen to me read it. We also continued with All About Spelling, while adding in McRuffy Science and Math U See Alpha.

 
 The book begins with four year old Janie watching her father sail off to war.  While away for two years, her  "five-year-old [cousin] Michael teaches her a "secret of the world''--as he moves further away from her, he gets smaller. When father returns and tells his daughter that she is ``lots bigger than I remembered,'' Janie explains, ``Now you are here, so I am big."  


Social Studies:
Geography- Chesapeake Bay/ Massachusetts
The FIAR manual actually suggests the setting is in Virginia, but I neglected to look at my manual before heading to the library. *Oops!*  While looking up books for Chesapeake Bay at the library, Massachusetts popped up so I grabbed a book on there instead.  I traced the Eastern Coast surrounding the Chesapeake Bay in T's Notebook and we worked together to label different states, Atlantic Ocean, and the bay.

I briefly touched on what a "bay" is-- part of an ocean or lake that forms an "indent" in the shoreline & pointed out the Ungava Bay in Northern Canada that we had mapped while rowing Very Last First Time last winter.

Family Relationships
What is a Family?
Obedience
Saying "goodbye"

Time of War
I had several books in mind to expand on the topic of "war" should it come up, but it didn't.  I focused War on being something that men and women "do" to protect our Country and/ or our friends.  We looked through "H is for Honor," but didn't make it to the end.
Language Arts: 
Poetic Form/ Opposites
The book ends with a series of contrasts, so we thought of our own and then played "Go Fish" with some opposite puzzle cards we have.  This was a great game to play to reinforce opposites!

Vocabulary
T learned the meaning of: jimmies, perch, horizon, sycamore, and dock; I introduced these vocabulary words the same way I did for when we rowed Make Way for Ducklings, except this time I placed the definition on the page of the vocab word.
Math: 
Counting by 2's & Subtraction 
Verbally counted by 2's

The manual suggested subtracting four-digit numbers, but we stuck to one or two digit numbers.  T dug for shells and completed the subtraction problem that was written on the shell.

Science: 
Horizon 
I grabbed a ball and smaller object to make a connection with the observation Columbus made  many years ago: the earth is round!  I slowly moved an object over the top of the ball to depict the horizon, and just like you look out on the water... you may only see a tip of a sail at first, but then slowly you see more and more of it.

Oil on Water
I added some oil to a container of water to show T that once oil spills into the water, it floats on it's surface.  If you look closely, we had a MAJOR oil spill!    We also read Oil Spill!: A Let's Read & Find Out Science book.


Art: 
Watercolor
Because the illustrations were done in watercolor, we had our own watercolor fun by painting the American flag.

Distance Perspective
Does this remind you of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids?!" Ha!  To illustrate the secret Michael told Janie, we did an activity called, "How Tall is it Really?" that my blogger friend, Amy, came up with; it was the perfect activity to illustrate that big things look smaller when they are farther away.

Musical Instruments- Tuba
We watched a video of someone playing the Tuba on YouTube and also listened to the lyrics of "Over There, Over There"-- it is a catchy tune and I found myself humming it throughout the day! Beware  ; )

This row was much more conversational so I apologize for the lack of pictures.  Pick up the book if you have a chance!  Hope you enjoy it!

Next up is "Gramma's Walk".
I'd love for you to follow along so you never miss out on one of our fun activities we share at School Time Snippets!
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