I couldn’t believe summer vacation was over and it was time to start school again.  Truth be told, I was SUPER excited to start FIAR.

I chose Lentil (Picture Puffin Books)Lentil by Robert Mccloskey, because  I knew it would appeal to Jordan.  I needed a great book to get him excited about school after a fun summer.  Lentil has many of the elements Jordan loves…patriotism, harmonicas, lemons, and whittling!

We kicked off this book with an American themed breakfast and the kids LOVED it!

Bible

Memory Verse

We chose to memorize Proverbs 18:16 for this unit.  I created a Bible verse printable pack for the boys to work on.

You can download the Bible verse printable pack for $1.00 at my TPT store.

Parker worked on the puzzle and tracer while Bub did the copywork page.  By the end of the week they both were able to recite it!
Gods Gives Us Gifts

Gifts & Talents:

During circle time, we talked about how God gives everyone different gifts. We read God%20Made You Special (Happy Day)God Made You Special by Jennifer Holder. We talked about how we are unique and special.

If we all had the same gift, it wouldn’t be special.  It reminded me of I Corinthians 12 and how we each play a part of the body of Christ.

We watched The Gaither Vocal Band sing, Songs That Answer Questions on our Lentil playlist.  I love the line, “One may be the knee, and one the toes, I’m the chin and I’m the nose But listen, brother, we have need of these.”

Since we were talking about gifts… I surprised the kids with their own harmonicas!  They were REALLY excited and used them during the entire row!

Sour People:

We started our morning reading Lentil and focusing on Old Sneep.  We talked about his sour disposition and what made him so disagreeable.

The kids quickly caught on to his jealousy of Colonel Carter.  We talked about how Sneep’s jealousy made him so sour.  Here’s their Sneep impersonations…

During circle time we read, Miggy and Tiggy A Story about Overcoming Jealousy.

This story was a great example of how unchecked jealousy can hurt our friendships.

We talked about focusing on what we have, being content, and being happy when our friends have things we would want.

History, Geography, & Social Studies:

Ohio:

We watched a Lentil movie over breakfast and the boys located Ohio on our US map placemats.

I set out our map and Celebrating Ohio: 50 States to Celebrate (Green Light Readers Level 3)Celebrating Ohio book and they remained in our Learning Lane throughout this unit.

Jordan colored and placed our story disk on Ohio since our story takes place in Alto, Ohio, a fictional but all too familiar small town.

The boys added some Ohio inserts into their lapbooks.We read Travelin’%20the Northeast (Travels With Charlie)Travelin’ the Northeast which was just enough information for Parker.Later Jordan and I read Celebrating Ohio by Jane Kurtz.  This was a fabulous book with many fun and interesting facts!

Small Town Life:

We talked about small towns and read Living in Rural Communities (First Step Nonfiction (Paperback))Living in Rural Communities by Kristen Sterling.

This was a great book for both boys since it wasn’t text heavy.  It really explained rural life and had wonderful pictures throughout.

Next, the boys completed their “My Community” lapbook insert from homeschoolshare’s Lentil lapbook.

Later, Jordan and I read <a href="http://Town Mouse and the Country Mouse (Picture Book Classics)” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse by Susanna Davidson.We compared and contrasted life in the country and life in the city, and Jordan completed a Venn diagram.

Patriotism:

We started our morning on a patriotic theme.  We talked about patriotism and respecting our flag.  I always cry when talking about America….we can’t forget those who fought and gave their lives for our freedom.

We read many great books about our flag and the pledge of allegiance.

I set out a build the flag Lego activity.It was a little difficult for Parker, but Bub really enjoyed it.
He worked on it and used Parker’s pieces for a bigger flag.

He did a great job!

Flag Snack

One morning I surprised the kids with a patriotic sweet snack!  I gave each kid a graham cracker with cream cheese, and a cup of blueberries and strawberries.

They created beautiful and delicious edible American flags!  So much yummy fun!

Veterans:

We talked about Veterans, those who served in one of our country’s 5 branches of armed services.  We read several books about Veterans Day on our Epic online reading app.

 Thank You Veterans Wind Socks

I found an adorable Veterans wind sock craft on Pinterest.

 

First, the boys sponged green tempura paint on white construction paper.

Next, they sponged brown tempura paint.

Lastly, they mixed the brown and green paint to make olive green and sponged it wherever they saw white spots.

While the paper dried, we went to the schoolroom and worked on the heart and faces of our craft.

Once dry, we added streamers and curling ribbon as tails.  They turned out really cute!

Language Arts:

Jordan is using Sonlight for spelling, phonics, reading, and math.  I try to connect some activities with our FIAR books to keep him engaged.

Suffix Train:

Jordan’s spelling words all had suffixes, so we created a suffix train that Colonel Carter needed help “loading” so he could get to the celebration in Alto.  First, we reviewed his spelling words and separated the root word from the suffix. Afterward, Jordan copied the root words on the train and the suffixes on the caboose.

Lentil Verb Hunt:

While learning about verbs, I created a verb hunt worksheet for Bub.  As I read, he colored each verb as it was read aloud.

Ice Cream Similes:

For our lesson on similes, we focused our attention on ice cream, the tasty treat the whole town enjoyed.

We talked about how similes are short phrases that compare two or more things using the words “like” or “as”.

We watched a few videos about similes from our Sonlight Core A playlist,  chose our ice cream flavors, built our paper cone, and filled in our definition.

Reading:

He loves The Beginner’s Bible: Timeless Children’s StoriesThe Beginner’s Bible, so I was super excited to see that it was the first 2nd grade reader.  We’re off to a great start!

Math:

In addition, to our Horizon 2 lessons and workbook, I tried to add a little math fun into the mix.

Lemon Fractions:

I found some lemon fraction cards from schoolingamonkey and everyone was able to do a few.

Lemonade Addition:

I created a fun Math by Dice – Lemonade Addition pack for Parker to work on.

You can purchase your copy for just $1.00 at our TPT store.

I created a Lemonade Addition pack.  Parker worked on the roll, write, and add worksheet.

He also worked on matching the lemonade answers to the lemon equation cards.

Measuring with Lentils:

I wanted to make lentil soup while rowing Lentil, but it didn’t happen until much later (a “round up” activity for another day).

I bought a huge bag of lentils from the store.  I reserved some and poured the rest into a bin and used it for sensory play.

I gave the boys a set of measuring cups and told them to see how many 1/2 cups are in 1 cup.  We had a few other fun math measuring problems, but most of the time they just enjoyed some sensory play.

I finally made the lentil soup and it turned out delicious!

PomPom Patterns

I created some pompom activities to add to our Learning Lane.  One was a patriotic theme with red, white, and blue pompoms.  Another had a citrus theme with green, pink, yellow, and orange pompoms.  I created a control card to go with each and set out the activity on Learning Lane.

Science:

From Lemon to Lemonade:

We read From Lemon to Lemonade by Ali Munsch.

We went into the kitchen and grabbed a bunch of lemons from the fridge.  I set out a set of lemonade instructions from A Perfect Blend.

The kids took turns cutting and squeezing the lemons with our Prepworks by Progressive Dome Lid Citrus Juicerhand juicer.

 

Then they each “sucked on a lemon” like Old Sneep.

We poured our juice, water, and Splenda No Calorie Sweetener Naturals Packets 2.8oz (2.8 oz)Splenda Naturals into our pitcher.

I set this aside for our special lemon dessert after dinner.

5 Senses – Taste:

We read Tasting (The Five Senses)The Five Senses Tasting and talked about the various taste buds in our mouths.

We brought out our compact mirror and looked at our tastebuds.

I brought out our parts of the tongue 3-part cards and we talked about which part of the tongue tasted salty, sweet, bitter, and sour.  The boys took turns adding the food to each part of the tongue.

After his nap, Parker and I went through this activity again.

The boys added a parts of the tongue and a taste bud insert to their lapbooks.

I set out a match the food to the correct taste bud using mamashappyhive’s 3-part cards.  

Jordan worked on this activity alone.

Sound:

Jordan and I read Sounds All Around (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1)Sounds All Around and talked about why Lentil said it improved 100% in the tub.  We discussed how the sound echoes in an empty room without carpet.

Later on, we decided to test Lentil’s theory by playing our harmonicas in various rooms.

We ended in the bathroom and they understood the concept.

Honestly, I think it would have had a greater impact if we sang something instead of played, but Lentil did NOT have a singing voice :).

I loved how the kids at Delightful Learning did a “guess the sound” experiment.  I didn’t do this at the time, but it came up naturally during our Sonlight science later in the week.

So cool that we fit it in!

Art, Crafts, & Cooking:

Charcoal Faces:

I found this really cool Lentil chalk art tutorial from HodgePodge.  We actually used our Charcoal pencil kit, but followed her directions.

This was a “round up” activity that we worked on while rowing The%20Rag CoatThe Rag Coat.  We talked about coal vs. charcoal, so it seemed fitting to complete this activity then.

Lemon Cake:

We brought out our recipe for Wacky Lemon Cake from sweetlittlebluebird.  Haley read the recipe and all the kids took turns measuring the ingredients.

They love mixing and licking this batter since it doesn’t have any eggs.

They served it with the lemonade we made after dinner that night.

A lemony and tasty treat!

Patriotic Bird Houses:

While talking about homes and architectural styles, we decided to make houses for our birdie friends.  I primed and painted the milk cartons ahead of time and set out a tray of beads, buttons, gems, and the like.

The kids LOVED this activity.  I heated up two glue guns and the boys started working on them first thing.

Later on, big sister joined in on the fun.

I’m glad we gave them an old Americana feel since Lentil had a patriotic theme.  They turned out really adorable!