BIBLE:

Memory Verse:

We chose to memorize I Peter 4:10 for Miss RumphiusMiss Rumphius.  We created a Bible verse printable for the boys to work on.

You can purchase your FREE copy here at our TPT store.  There’s a bonus FREEbie in the Preview.

Jordan traced the Bible verse and added it to his FIAR notebook.

He used the Bible verse puzzle to practice his verse until he was able to recite it from memory.

Creation:

Grandfather told Alice to make the world more beautiful.  This seemed like a perfect time opportunity to read about the story of creation.

We read God%20the Creator: Thought of It First! (Happy Day Books)God the Creator Thought of It First! from our Happy%20Day Books Family Treasury: 50 Popular StoriesHappy Day Treasury book.

We also read The%20Story of Creation – Arch BooksThe Story of Creation and I printed a Days of Creation worksheet for the kids to work on from our The Days of Creation Bible Pack.

You can purchase the pack here at our TPT Store.  There’s a bonus FREEbie in the Preview!

The kids colored the picture cards and cut them out.

They each placed the Days of Creation in order as they remembered them.

Later, we reviewed our answers to see if everyone correctly placed them in order.  This was a great story retention activity to go along with our study of creation.

We also watched the Creation story on Jelly Telly during our family devotion.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Small Beginnings:

I packed a picnic lunch and we headed out to a shady location for some family fun.

We read The Big Picnic on our Bible app and talked about how God used the boy’s small lunch to feed thousands.  This was a great springboard to talk about not despising humble beginnings.

Our neighbor Shelly gave the kids The Legend of the Starfish last Christmas.  We read it then and again today since it was a GREAT illustration of how one small act can make a difference.

I read aloud while they munched on their picnic lunch.

The kids really enjoyed their surprise picnic.  The weather has been SO beautiful lately, so we’ve tried to take advantage of these precious moments.

When everyone was done, we packed up and headed back home.

Later in the afternoon, I set out some pre-cut poster board stars.

We used a pointillism style technique to decorate one side of our stars.  The other side had a list of little acts of kindness the kids would do to make a difference in our world.

They each chose different colors, but they were all so pretty and unique!

We hung them up in the classroom!

Make the World More Beautiful:

We read For%20the Beauty of the EarthFor the Beauty of the Earth and Haley played the sheet music at the end of the book.

Making our world more beautiful goes hand-in-hand with the subject of small beginnings.  We can do little things that make our world more beautiful.   I created seed houses for the kids to color and start sprouting Lupines.

You can download your FREE copy here at our TPT Store!

I cut out the seed houses the kids colored the day before and set them out with a packet of lupine seeds, dixie cups, water, tape, and ziplock bags.

First, I instructed the kids to fold their paper towel (1/2 sheet size) in half and open it back up.

I sprinkled 6-8 seeds in the open section and instructed the kids to lightly scrape each seed on the sandpaper block.  (Omit this step if you soak your seeds overnight)

Next, we dumped just enough water to moisten our paper towels (no dry spots) and folded them like a sandwich.  We placed our folded towel in the sandwich bag just pinching one small section and leaving the rest open for air circulation.

The kids taped their ziplock bags to the back of the seed houses, making sure not the seal the ziplock bag closed.

We hung them on the window in our classroom and watched as they sprouted nicely!

Once the had a nice root system and green leaves, it was time to transplant them into some soil containers.

We placed them in our greenhouse and will hopefully have nice lupine plants ready for the garden.  The most important part is not leaving them in the sprout houses too long.

After placing our seed houses on the window, we went for a nice walk outside to enjoy the sunshine.  Halfway through, we sat on a park bench to read Eric Carle’s The%20Tiny Seed (The World of Eric Carle)The Tiny Seed.

Jordan found a couple of wysteria seeds on our walk.  He took them home and we soaked one seed overnight and put it in a sprout bag on the window.

It sprouted nicely.  It developed a great root system and already had a woody stem.

We moved it into some potting soil and placed it in our greenhouse to grow a little bigger.

Gardening Day:

Every spring, we plant a vegetable garden and a few flowers for some color.  We took our annual trip to pick out the veggies for our garden.  We found one more way to make our world more beautiful!

We brought our plants home and immediately got to work planting tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, corn, and more!

The kids had already put together a rough vegetable garden plan while rowing The Tale of Peter Rabbit.  Jordan kept his actual garden pretty close to his draft.

Since big sister was having BAD allergies, Parker helped plant her new flowers.  She opts for a flower garden, but we all agreed that this REALLY helps our garden grow by attracting all the pollinators (i.e. bees, butterflies, humming birds, etc.).

We planted fox gloves, a new delphinium, some cosmos, petunias, salvia, snapdragons, and more!

I think my gardening buddies are just too cute for words!

Nicknames:

The children called Miss Rumphius a “crazy old lady” until they knew her.  We talked about how our words can hurt others.

We read The%20Berenstain Bears: Kindness Counts (Berenstain Bears/Living Lights)The Berestain Bears Kindness Counts.  It’s so easy to criticize, judge, and bully, but it takes God’s help to be kind to others especially if they’re not kind to us.

I brought out our God,%20I Need to Talk to You: Stories about God s Love and ForgivenessGod I Need to Talk to You book and we read Hurting Others.  We can build up or tear down with words alone.  This was a wonderful subject to enrich our Bible time and character development.

Library:

Since Miss Rumphius worked at the library for a time, I thought it would be fun to learn a little about the Dewey Decimal System.

We read Do You Know Dewey? Exploring the Dewey Decimal System on our Epic app.  This was a great book to teach kids the history behind why it was created and how to use it.  I created a lapbook insert for the kids to work on after reading the book.

You can download your FREE copy here at our TPT Store!

The kids cut out the labels and we went through them together.

Using the book as a guide, they found and pasted the labels with their coordinating numbers.

I read the booklet cover and inside “Finding a Book” insert.  Then we looked at one of our library book labels and saw the actual numbering system used on a picture book!

We read a couple more books about libaries and famous librarians before moving on.

Geography:

Continents:

Miss Rumphius traveled all over the world, so I thought a quick review of the continents was in order.  I printed a World Map from Our Earth Science Lapbook (Mrs. Jones Creation Station).

We sang our Continent Song and the boys colored their worksheets.

Maine:

We started our globe trotting activities here in the United States.  We brought out our Travels%20with Charlie: Travelin’ the Northeast (A Search & Find Geography Book)Travels with Charlie Travelin’ the Northeast book and read the section about Maine.

We also read Maine on our Epic app.

The kids enjoyed a nice clam chowder lunch outside!  It wasn’t seaside, but it was beautiful weather none-the-less!

Tropical Islands:

Next, we traveled to the tropics!  I grabbed a bunch of beach themed books and set out a tropical inspired breakfast.

I created a Traveling with Miss Rumphius Faraway Places Geography Booklet for the kids to work on.

You can purchase a copy here at our TPT Store.

We had tropical fruit, fresh bananas, shredded coconut, and coconut yogurt and Belvita breakfast biscuits.  Only Jordan and I enjoyed the tropical fruit, but everyone enjoyed the coconut flavored items!

While they munched on their tropical breakfast, I read Sneakers,%20the Seaside CatSneakers, the Seaside Cat and The%20Little Island (Dell Picture Yearling)The Little Island by Margaret Wise Brown.

We also read Landforms Islands on our Epic app. and the boys colored their island page.

I brought out our Jim Arnosky’s Beachcombing:%20Exploring the SeashoreBeachcombing book which gave a nice overview of the lifecycle of the coconut and wonderful information about shells.

The boys colored, cut, and pasted the tropical island pages of our booklet.

The boys answered the questions and colored an island landform.

Since Jordan enjoyed sketching and coloring, I brought up a picture of the bird of paradise flower and he added it to his booklet.

Sprouting Pineapple:

We brought out our Plant & Grow Pineapple Card to try sprouting a pineapple plant.

Jordan followed the instructions on the card and I prepped the pineapple top (removing any access fruit and pulling off several bottom leaves).

He poured the water into the container and placed the top inside, just resting in the water.

We set it in front of the kitchen window, changed the water daily (as specified), and waited.  Unfortunately, not all experiments go as planned.  Our pineapple top never sprouted, but we may try again next time we buy a fresh pineapple from the store!

Mountains:

Next, we climbed a snow-capped mountain with Miss Rumphius!

We read Learning About the Earth Mountains on our Epic app.   I LOVE this series, because it provides the perfect amount of information for Jordan.   This is a GREAT series!

The boys cut and pasted the parts of the mountain.

We were ready to explore the jungle, specifically the rain forest.

Jungles:

We read Let’s Visit the Rain Forest on our Epic app .

We reviewed the layers of the rain forest from the canopy to the forest floor.

We also completed the Rain Forest Products page.  It’s pretty cool to know how resources come from the rainforest.  Now, we were ready to travel to the “land of the lotus eaters”.

Deserts:

We read Learning About the Earth Deserts on our Epic app.

The boys colored their desert page and decorated it with some of the cut and paste creatures.

We colored in the major deserts of the world and brought out our parts of the camel definition cards (Montessori Print Shop).

I took one of the camel images and used it as a black line to create a parts of the camel lapbook insert.  The boys color coded each part as we read the definition cards.

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Quotations, Commas, & Attribution:

This week Jordan was learning about quotation marks, commas, and attribution.  So I quickly put together a worksheet for us to go over together.

We chose three colors to use to add the quotation marks, add the commas, and underline the attribution.

It’s amazing to see the transformation in his grammar skills.  This year, he’s really awakened towards all those topics we’ve covered in the past.  It’s fun to see those “lightbulb moments” as a homeschool teacher.

SCIENCE:

Shells:

We brought out Jim Arnosky’s Beachcombing Exploring the Seashore book.  This is our favorite book to learn about shells.

We read specific pages from the book and used it to sketch some sea shells.

We read Seashells by the Seashore and Oceans Alive Sea Shells on our Epic app.

I brought out our Safari Toobs: SeashellsSafari Toobs: Seashells and nomenclature cards for Jordan to match.

Next I brought out our collection of sea shells and wrote “bivalve” and “univalve” on index cards and had him sort through the basket.

He did a a great job!

We also watched an ocean episode of Wild Kratts on our Miss Rumphius playlist.

Parker added some of the sea shells to his booklet.

Weather:

Since we were going to discuss both clouds and wind for art, I thought it would be fun to dive into a little weather lesson.

We read God’s World of Weather book.

Wind:

We read The Windy Day by Anna Milbourne.  We LOVE this series, because it’s a little science book dressed like a picture book.  The perfect pair to a fun activity.

We then read The Wind Blew and I created a story retention worksheet for the boys to do after our read-aloud.

First, they numbered the items as they remember them in the story.

Next, I challenged them to color them as they appeared in the book.  This was a GREAT memory building activity.

Clouds:

While on our subject of weather, I brought out our Clouds%20(Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1)Clouds book and a few art supplies.

While reading the book, we stopped at the perfect page to practice painting clouds of our own.

I wrote “clouds” in white crayon at the top of a piece of blue construction paper.  I gave him a plate of white tempura paint, water, and brushes.

We started at the top of the page and he worked his way down.

I gave him some handwritten cloud type labels to add to his paper.

We also watched some clips on our Miss Rumphius playlist.

ART:

Shadows:

We reviewed shadows several times this year, so this topic was a quick review.  We read Smoot:%20A Rebellious ShadowSmoot A Rebellious Shadow to cover shadows.

I printed the Sunrise, Sunset, and the Seasons worksheet from our It’s About Time science pack.

You can purchase this pack from our TPT Store.  There’s a bonus FREEbie in the Preview!

After completing the worksheet.  He added shadows to little stick figures based on the shadow lesson we reviewed (i.e. noon shadows are short, whereas setting sun shadows are long).

This was a quick and fun review of the sun and shadows.

Evidence of Wind:

We spent a little bit of time studying wind (as mentioned earlier) and talking about how we can’t see the wind, but we see the wind move things.  We brought out Feel%20the Wind (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)Feel the Wind to see “the evidence of wind”.

There were plenty of examples in the book of the wind moving objects.

We brought out our sketch book and drew pictures of the smoking chimneys, as well as other examples illustrated in the book.

HELPFUL LINKS:

Miss Rumphius Playlist:

As with our other rows, we created a Miss Rumphius Playlist with read-alouds, music, science, and other clips.

 

Pinterest Board:

You can find most of the activities, ideas, and printables from this post on our Miss Rumphius Pinterest board.