I love Unit Studies-- probably why I was so drawn to Five In a Row in the first place. I just love that you can take a subject or a book and extend learning to Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Art, and Science! For our first row of the new school year, we read "Make Way for Ducklings" by Robert McCloskey from Volume 2. Sometimes it baffles me how much you can learn from a book!
Homeschooling with Five in a Row
Social Studies: Geography- Boston, Massachusetts, Family Relationships, Map-Making, & Relationships- Not Too Quick to Take Offense
Located Massachusetts on our map
Language Arts: Rhyme & Vocabulary
T can give me a rhyming pair, but when I ask "What makes a rhyme?" he couldn't explain it; it's when two words share similar ending sounds. We played Rhyme Concentration , which is trickier than trying to match the same picture!On a post-it, I wrote the vocabulary word and definition then cut it in half. The vocabulary word went on the page it was found and T held the definitions. Once we came to a vocabulary word, we read the definitions to see if he could determine a match. I'm not sure this was all that exciting, but it worked : )
Math: Multiplication or Grouping
Using 8 duck cut-outs and peanuts, T worked on grouping. I gave T various problems such as, "Mrs. Mallard wants to give each duckling 3 peanuts, how many does she need in all?"Science: Development of Duck Egg & Conservation
We read a book about the Life cycle of a Duck and T colored and put together a printable.
We took a trip to a nature center in the hopes of seeing some Mallard Ducks, and ended up walking endlessly! We did see this white bird and a field of beautiful purple 'flowers'. Along our walk we talked about needing to take care of our environment and all the beauty God created.
Art: Medium
We didn't do anything "crafty" for this book.
I just pointed out the illustrations and asked if he minded the book having no color, he just shrugged; he didn't care ; ) Nonetheless, we both enjoyed the book and it's detailed drawings.
Making Memories:
After our trip to the Nature Center and a book sale(!!), I told T I had a surprise for him and his interest was instantly piqued!! He wouldn't give the 'surprise' a rest! I made a map of the outside of our house and drew trail marks that T had to follow to get his surprise; I placed duck cut-outs as markers to let T know he was reading the map correctly.
Inspiration/ Ideas:
"Just Hatched" Duck Lesson (Duck Life cycle, etc.)
Our next row is "All Those Secrets of the World."




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!