We started this row with excitement and MANY sun-themed breakfasts, but our sunny day pancakes were the family favorite…sweet and happy!

Both boys decided to draw their cover pages and they turned out beautiful!

Jordan has really taken off artistically.  I love how he’s branching out with paint, crayon pastels, and chalk.  He keeps surprising me!

BIBLE:

I chose to focus on our spiritual freedom in Christ since this book covers the issue of slavery.  Jesus died to set ALL men, women, and children free from the burden of sin.

I created a Bible verse printable for this book.  You can purchase a copy here from our TPT store.

There’s also a FREEbie tracer in the Preview.

The boys worked on their Bible verse tracer pages.

I cut apart the tracer page and the boys glued it into their lapbook like a puzzle.

I printed and laminated the puzzle and put it in our Learning Lane.  Jordan worked on the Bible verse puzzle during this row.

S.S. & HISTORY:

Mississippi:

We read several books about Mississippi.

Jordan added the story disk to our world map.

The boys added a few Mississippi inserts into their lapbooks.

We read Mississippi by Diane Siebert (2001-05-06)Mississippi, a great picture book about the Mississippi river from the perspective of the river.  Jordan drew the Mississippi River line on his US map.

Civil War:

We read I%20am Abraham Lincoln (Ordinary People Change the World)I am Abraham Lincoln and watched a few clips from our Who Owns the Sun? Playlist about the Civil War.

We borrowed big sister’s 4th grade history book and used it to mark the Union states and Confederate states with red and blue gems.

Relationships – Father:

Since this book features the relationship between Big Jim and his son, we chose to read several “Daddy and me” themed-books.

 

The boys LOVED each one we read!

LANGUAGE ARTS:

We continued to work on our Sonlight Language Arts program and added a few things here and there.

Vocabulary Words:

Jordan and I reviewed our list of vocabulary words using our FIAR Fold & Learn pack.

I glued the definitions in his lapbook and Jordan matched the picture to each one.

Story Sequencing:

I created a set of Things Too Wonderful To Own cards for Jordan.

Next time we read the book aloud, I told him to pay attention to the “things too wonderful to own” which he REALLY did :).  I gave him the cards and asked him to place them in order and he did it perfectly!

Creative Writing:

Jordan’s creative writing assignment (Sonlight Core C) compared the sun and moon. He really put his heart into it.

He wrote the story and asked to use chalk pastels for the illustration.  I was excited to see his enthusiasm.  He did such a beautiful job illustrating this story!

His artwork was phenomenal!  LOVE when he puts his heart into his work!

Spelling:

Since we were studying the sun, I made sun-shaped spelling words and had Jordan sort them by word family.

After he sorted his words, I asked him to practice writing his words using Roman numerals (a little math matching activity).

The second week, we made new sun spelling words. I made a “Complete the Sentence” worksheet for Jordan to practice writing his spelling words.

Grammar – Root Words:

I made a “Color the Root Word” worksheet for Jordan to work on.

He identified the root word for each of his spelling words and noted if the spelling word has a prefix or suffix (color coding for each).  He liked the challenge of this activity!

Making a list:

We talked about lists and Jordan made a list of “things too wonderful to own” early in our row.

I found Mr. Ball Makes a To-Do List (Jump-Into-Chapters)Mr. Ball Makes a To-Do List on our Epic app and both boys LOVED the story!

Antonym & Synonym Sorting:

I created a Sunny Days Antonym and Synonym pack for the boys to work on.

The boys took turns sorting the antonym and synonym cards on the sorting mat.  They both worked through the stack of cards without any help!

CVC Spelling:

I created a Sunny Day CVC pack for Parker.

Parker worked on his Sunny Day CVC activity, sounding out and spelling the CVC word in the clouds.

Rainbow Rhymes:

I created a CVC Rainbow Rhymes worksheet for Parker to work on during this row.

He matched the cloud words to their rhyming rainbow.  Great job Parks!

MATH:

I tried to incorporate some sun and weather themed activities to tie into their Horizon Math lessons.

I created a skip counting weather worksheet for Parker to practice skip counting by twos, fives, and tens.  He did a great job!

Jordan has been working on his multiplication facts.  I had him cut out graph paper to match each sun equation (i.e. 7×2 or 7 rows of 2 columns).  He glued the graph paper in each sun and wrote the answer.  He did a great job!

Parker has been working on telling time, so he wrote the digital time here and in Mississippi and drew the hands on the clock.

Clothesline Pairs :

We read Smelling SunshineSmelling Sunshine and worked on matching and pinning mittens to our clothesline.

Parker did a great job matching each pair and pinning it to the string!

Sunny Money:

I made construction paper suns and wrote various amounts (in cents).

I instructed Jordan to use the least amount of coins possible by choosing the largest coins first.  He did a great job!

SCIENCE:

The Sun:

We read several science books about the sun!

We read several science books about the sun.  Most simply stated the same scientific facts.

We also read a few sun stories too!

From all the sun science books we read, I loved Sunny Day by Anna Milbourne the best!  She has a way of keeping the facts simple while using beautiful illustrations as if you were reading a picture book.

After reading about the sun, the boys colored a parts of the sun printable and added some sun facts we learned about.

The following day the boys added the rest of their sun facts to their lapbooks.

Sun Cookies:

I set out a “build your own sun cookie” dessert activity for the kids.

I read The Sun: Our Nearest Star (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out)The Sun Our Nearest Star and while everyone gobbled their sweet sun.

The kids LOVED ending our Sun science lessons with a sun cookie surprise!

Shadows:

We read The Black Rabbit (Junior Library Guild Selection)The Black Rabbit and Sun Up, Sun Down (Voyager/Hbj Book)Sun Up, Sun Down and talked about shadows.  Afterwards, the boys made their own Black Rabbit shadow puppets.

Parker showed Daddy his Black Rabbit puppet right away.

The following week the boys brought their puppets outside and made shadows during Parker’s Sonlight Core A light lesson.

We’ve been on the lookout for shadows ever since.

Food Groups:

I created a Help Make Big Jim’s Lunch worksheet for the boys to work on during our nutrition lesson.

We read What’s for Lunch? (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1)What’s For Lunch? and I gave each boy a worksheet.

First the boys colored their worksheets and cut out the food squares.

 

Jordan and I read about each food group while Parker napped.

Jordan sorted the food squares by food group.

Parker sorted his food squares too.

Next, the boys tried to remember which items were in Big Jim’s lunch.  They glued them on Big Jim’s lunch pail.

I asked the boys if they thought Big Jim’s lunch was healthy.  Everyone agreed it was missing fruits and vegetables.  So the boys added an apple and a carrot in their lapbooks! NOW Big Jim’s lunch is healthy!

ARTS, CRAFTS, & FUN:

Sun-Inspired Pumpkin Cake:

Parker had just cooked his sugar pumpkin the night before and I wanted Jordan to cook something during this row, so I decided to team them up.

I printed a Pumpkin Coffee Cake Recipe and we collected the ingredients.

The boys took turns mixing….

Measuring and pouring….

And mixing…

I added the crumble and baked it for the family to enjoy after dinner.  Everyone LOVED it, but it needed a little more salt and sugar :).

Sun-Inspired Breakfasts:

We did quite a few sun-themed breakfasts during this row.

One morning I whipped up a batch of “Sun Muffins” (Malto Meal Magic Muffins).  They were a tad overdone (adjusting to convection oven baking), but the flavor was delicious.

Our “Sun Bagels” smeared with yellow-tinted cream cheese were simple, but the kids loved them!

We had a wonderful time rowing this book.  You can find the printables, playlist, and ideas we used on our Who Owns the Sun Pinterest board.