Papa Piccolo Five in a Row Unit Study

During Week 4, we rowed a book by Carol Talley called, "Papa Piccolo." Papa Piccolo has been my son's favorite book thus far. I think it is because Piccolo was a cat and he loves cats! It is just too sweet whenever he talks about my mom's cat, India, as if she were a person... not a cat! India is always included in our prayers.

Papa Piccolo is about a adventurous cat whose life is changed one night when he finds two homeless kittens left alone in a cardboard box. Eventually Piccolo becomes a 'papa' by taking them as his own.

Papa Piccolo Five In a Row Activities

Social Studies: Piccolo lives in Venice, Italy, so we learned the location of Italy and made a flag. We talked about how there are no cars in Venice-- you either get around by some type of boat or walk (or ride a bike, maybe?). Needless to say, my son didn't like that idea very much.

I looked up "gondola rides" on YouTube and found a couple we could watch. Oh, how I would love to go to Venice one day!

I had checked out a DVD for us to learn how to speak Italian with Little Pim, the panda; however, he was not interested.

Finally, we talked about daddy and he filled out a worksheet All About My Dad.

My favorite: Q: "What does your dad wear?"
Answer: "underwear, pants, shirt."

Language Arts: Talked about some vocabulary words; there were a lot of words in this book that he did not know the meaning of.

Math: We did an activity from our Five In A Row manual. To add to the lesson, we practiced counting by 2's and talked about different words that mean 2, like "bi" in bicycle, "couple," and "pair."

Art: We learned how to draw a cat.

We re-visited the Color Wheel; I am not sure when I taught him this, but he still loves telling me and others what the primary and secondary colors are and what happens when you mix them together! So we made another color wheel and talked about warm vs. cool colors and learned complementary colors!

Leonardo Da Vinci was from Italy, so we read a book about him and I found a Mona Lisa that he colored.

Ts "Monster" cat and mine to the left!

Science: There is still an active volcano in Italy. I forget the name, my apologies! My son was soooo excited to create his own volcano and it was fun to watch it erupt! I should have bought a gallon of vinegar!

And since Piccolo was a cat, we talked about the different characteristics and breeds of cats. We looked through several books. We talked about how we take care of a cat and learned how they communicate. He loved having me use little sis as "our kitty" to show him how we hold cats-- she was not impressed!

To finish off our week, we ate homemade pizza, homemade tiramisu, and store bought gelato!

Next, we are off to France! Ciao!