I was really looking forward to rowing The Rag Coat.  There were many fun things I planned to do and we never did, but this row turned out FAR better than I imagined!

BIBLE:

Most of our Bible lessons were combined with Parker’s Sonlight Core A Egermeier’s%20Bible Story BookEgermeier’s Bible Story Book, but we added a few things here and there.

Memory Verse:

We chose to memorize Ephesians 4:32 for The Rag CoatThe Rag Coat.  I created a Bible Verse printable you can purchase at our TPT store.

There’s also a FREEBie tracer in the preview!

The boys worked on The Rag CoatThe Rag Coat memory verse puzzle throughout this unit and added the Bible verse in their lapbooks.

Lessons on Forgiveness:

One morning, we discussed Minna’s father’s words of wisdom, “people need people and nothing else”.  We read The Hollyhonk Gardens of Gneedle and Gnibb: A Book About Forgiving (Building Christian Character)The Hollyhonk Gardens of Gneedle and Gnibb – A Story About Forgiving and noticed the key verse was the same verse we were memorizing!

We talked about how Minna felt when the kids teased her and how she had to be the bigger person and forgive.

The kids drew facial expressions to show the many emotions seen throughout the story.

It’s not always easy to forgive, but God asks us to.  Forgiving others, even when they don’t apologize, makes our hearts happy.

Joseph’s Colorful Coat:

Parker has been reading through the life of Joseph in his Bible readings.  This fit perfectly with The Rag Coat, because Minna needed to forgive her schoolmates just like Josepth needed to forgive his brothers.

We enjoyed our Joseph’s Coat of many colors while eating his colorful coat (Earth’s Best French Toast Sticks with ribbons of colored icing) for breakfast!

Coat of Many Colors:

We watched Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors (2015)Coat of Many Colors and our entire family LOVED it!  My one warning is watch it first before showing it to the kids, because some scenes may not be appropriate for all ages.

Movie Snack:

We made Coal Cookies using the recipe from the Aussie Pumpkin Patch lapbook.  This was our special movie treat.

The kids came into the kitchen to prepare dessert.  They were SO excited as they tasted each ingredient.

It filled our home with a sweet aroma of yummy goodness!  We took an intermission during the movie and the kids devoured their treat!

The following week, we read Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many ColorsCoat of Many Colors over breakfast.

The kids loved this book, because they remembered the movie!

GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY, & SOCIAL STUDIES:

The Appalachian Mountains:

We put our story disk on the Appalachian Mountains.

We read Appalachian Mountains (Rookie Read-About Geography)Appalachian Mountains and the boys colored in the Appalachian states in their lapbooks (Aussie Pumpkin Patch).

I created a build the mountain box and placed it in our learning lane.  It stayed there throughout this unit.

The boys built the mountain felt scene and added the trees and rocks (glass flat bottom marbles).

Log Houses:

We read Building Log Houses on our Epic app and watched some videos on the homes, people, and culture of Appalatia from our playlist.  The kids built log houses with their LINCOLN LOGS – 100th Anniversary Tin – 111 All-Wood Pieces – Ages 3+ Construction Education ToyLincoln Logs.

Appalachian Culture: 

We read about the history, life, and culture of people who live in the Appalachian Mountians.

We also read some fun Appalachian folktales and My%20Great-Aunt ArizonaMy Great-Aunt Arizona, an inspiring story about an Appalachian girl who changed the lives of many children (my personal favorite).

Coal Mining Towns:

We dedicated an entire day to learning about coal mining towns.  We started our day with our version of an Appalachian breakfast – cornmeal and a coal-cake (pancake with black icing).

We ate breakfast while reading through In%20Coal CountryIn Coal Country.

After breakfast, we read through the list of Appalachian states and the boys colored them in on our Melissa & Doug The United States Write-A-Mat placematUnited States Placemats.

We read From%20Swamp to Coal (Start to Finish Book)From Swamp to Coal and thumbed through some other coal books.

Afterwards, The boys added coal inserts into their lapbooks.

Delightful Learning posted a great creation-based video about how coal is formed.  I had Jordan watch it while Parker napped.

Mining for Chips:

In the afternoon, the kids sat at the table for a sweet science activity….cookie mining!  I found a really cool activity on the American Coal Foundation website.  The kids chose two different chocolate chip cookies – one soft, one hard.

For each type of cookie, they mined the chocolate chips on the surface and dug deeper into the center of the cookie.  Then they compared the two cookies and determined which was easier to mine.

LANGUAGE ARTS:

We use Sonlight Language Arts (K and 2nd) for our primary phonics, spelling, and vocabulary.  We try to weave some fun language arts activities into each row.

Mining for Coal Words:

Since we were studying coal, I decided to write Jordan’s Sonlight spelling words on lumps of “coal”.

We talked about dividing by syllables, so he worked on cutting them apart by syllable.

After he divided the syllables, I took the coal upstairs and hid them in the mine (closet).  I told the kids we were going coal mining.

They got dressed in their spelunking gear and hiked up the stairs with lantern & flashlight in hand.  I shut off the lights and they mined for coal 🙂

We turned on the lights to see if our miners found all the coal in this mountain!

I made some other thematic worksheets for Jordan to work on adjectives and syllables.

MATH:

We dedicated a couple of days to discuss quilting, fabrics, and shapes.

Tangrams:

Since quilting includes various shapes, we read All About Geometry on our Epic app and brought out our tangrams to color from the Aussie Pumpkin Patch.

This was a great introduction to geometry for young learners.  It captivated both boys attention.

The boys colored their Tangrams and we set them aside so I could laminate them that evening.

Quilting:

It’s always fun when we have activities that benefit all three kids.  Haley was learning about freedom quilts and the boys were rowing The Rag Coat, so quilting was something everyone was learning about.

We read The%20Quilting BeeThe Quilting Bee by Gail Gibbons.  This was a wonderful book with vivid illustrations and quite a bit of quilting history.

Parker used his laminated tangrams to make his own quilt design.  Once he put them in order, I drew them onto the quilt template in our lapbook.

Jordan worked on his own quilt block pattern as well as a multiplication quilt activity I created in his lapbook.

I gave Haley some graph paper and instructed her to design her own freedom quilt.  Afterwards, she wrote a fabulous short story about it.  This was a great addition to Haley’s study of Freedom Train (click link for details).

I also added several quilt activities to our Learning Lane.  Haley was so excited to see activities just for her loved working on these!

Since Parker was learning about nutrition, I created a “My Produce Quilt” for him to work on that day!

Fabrics:

We read Plants We Wear in our Epic app. I brought out cotton balls and our “Where are they from” (source unknown) cotton farming cards that show the entire sequence, from seeds to t-shirt.

The boys enjoyed rolling the cotton balls in their hands.

We also talked about how linen is made from Flax (we just watched a video about this during Parker’s Sonlight Core A history of ancient Egypt).

We read Animals on the Farm Sheep on our Epic app.  While reading about the Vikings during Parker’s Core A history, we read From%20Sheep to Sweater (Start to Finish, Second Series: Everyday Products)From Sheep to Sweater.  I brought out our wool samples and Where Things Come From (Wool) cards from The Helpful Garden.

ARTS,  CRAFTS & COOKING:

Rag Coat Art:

I set out an invitation to create a paper rag coat.  I placed patterned paper squares, glue bottles, and brushes in a wooden box at the center of the table.

I laid out a copy of the rag coat template (Aussie Pumpkin Patch) for each child.

They painted the template with glue and placed colorful squares to make their own quilted rag coat!

The printer paper was a little thin, so I glued the template on to half of a piece of construction paper.  They turned out adorable!