READY TO ROW:

Kick-off Breakfast:

I made chocolate chip “horseshoe” pancakes to kick off this row!

Story Disk:

Jordan colored our story disk and we added it to the Nantucket area of our world map.

Cover Art:

The boys sketched and colored a cover page in their FIAR Notebook.

BIBLE:

Memory Verse:

I created a Bible Verse Pack for this book.

You can purchase your copy here at our TPT Store.

Jordan traced his verse and we added it to his FIAR notebook.

Obedience:

Jordan and I sat together and read Katie’s Adventure at Blueberry Pond. I believe this was a suggested book accompaniment.

This was an excellent story, teaching kids the importance of following rules.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

New England States:

We read the Rookie Geography series for all of the New England states.

We also read about Nantucket in Comet’s Nine Lives by Jan Brett.

Jordan and I read Little Farm by the Sea, a sweet story about a family that lives on a working farm by the sea.

Landforms:

The boys were already reviewing landforms in history as we read about Lewis and Clark. I created a Discovering Landforms notebook pack.

You can purchase your copy here at our TPT Store.

They identified and colored their landform notebook inserts.

We read Island since our story takes place on one.

After learning about landforms, Jordan recreated them in our sensory sand bin. We used our parts of the Coastline poster (Twinkl.com). He also completed the Parts of the Coastline worksheet in our Story Review pack.

Of course, we read The Little Island by Margaret Wise Brown, a family favorite.

We read excerpts from Following the Coast by Jim Arnosky.

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Story Review:

I created The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar Story Review for this row.

You can purchase your copy here at our TPT Store.

Similes:

We reviewed analogies, specifically similes and metaphors in Jordan’s Grammar Ace notebook.

The boys also completed the Spring Similes worksheet in the Story Review.

MATH:

Capacity:

We reviewed capacity and measurements using Jordan’s math lapbook.

Multiplication by 10s:

Parker completed the math worksheets I added in our Story Review pack.

SCIENCE:

Microbes:

We started our lesson on microbes by reading Tiny Creatures The World of Microbes.

We also read excerpts from Why Do People Eat? about food preparation, food safety and keeping food fresh.

We even swabbed some “icky” specimens to see what would grow in our Petri dishes. Sadly, our petri dishes were dried out, but we still remember the results we got from our bread mold experiment while rowing Madeline.

Canning:

We read about canning fruit and vegetables in our Farm Anatomy book.

We read a few books about making jams and jellies. From Grapes to Jelly was a manufacturing perspective while From Seed to Jam was making jam at home.

Jamberry:

We couldn’t make “Jamberry” without reading Jamberry.

We bought fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries.

We washed them and set them aside to drain and dry.

We used the jam setting on our bread machine. It was delicious. We ate it on toast AND pancakes!

Blueberries:

We read Blueberries Grow on a Bush.

First, we cut open our blueberries and identified the various parts.

I brought out our parts of the blueberry cards and Jordan color-coded them on the blueberry lapbook insert.

We visited our blueberry bushes outside to investigate and identify.

I also reviewed the parts of the blueberry flower using our definition cards. Jordan color-coded his lapbook insert. He also completed his Flora and Fauna worksheet.

Weathering & Erosion:

First, we read about various types of weathering in Weathering and Erosion on our Epic app.

Another day, we read about the various types of erosion.

Candy Erosion:

On Earth Day, everyone gathered in the kitchen for a candy erosion experiment.

I set out supplies for everyone to use. I printed our Earth Science poster and recording sheets (twinkl.com). 

We started our experiment by reviewing Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition. Then we demonstrated various forms of erosion.

Wind Erosion:

We simulated wind erosion by blowing our peanut butter powder landform through a straw. 

Chemical Erosion:

We placed chocolate and skittles in vinegar and slowly dissolved the outer coating. You could see the ”s” floating.

Water Erosion – Waves:

We placed skittles in water and swirled it around to simulate waves. We saw how the “waves” wore down the layers on our candy.

Physical Weathering:

We placed sugar cubes in a container with rocks to simulate how physical weathering wears down rocks and land formations.

Soil:

First, we read Jump Into Science: Dirt then we reviewed our parts of the Soil flip-chart we used while rowing Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.

The boys completed their Parts of the Soil worksheet from our Story Review pack.

We also read The Diggers by Margaret Wise Brown. She’s always a favorite author in this house. We remember rowing Goodnight Moon in our BFIAR years.

Afterwards, we made edible layers of the soil parfait cups.

Plants:

We read several books about seeds and growing plants.

Everyone picked out the seeds they wanted to plant and made markers for them.

We planted the seeds in our new garden beds.

We also stopped by the nursery to get flowers and veggies. Spring fever was upon us and we needed to dig in the dirt! Or at least Mommy did!

We started planting flowers and veggies in our garden.

Daisies:

We read From Seed to Daisy and I handed the boys a lifecycle worksheet from our Story Review pack.

The boys colored, cut and pasted their Lifecycle of a Daisy worksheet.

Parker and I also read Splat the Cat Oopsie-Daisy. He loves the Splat the Cat series.

Sprouting Seeds:

I set out a tray with a clear cup, soil pellet, daisy seeds, and our Sprouting Seeds worksheet.

The boys rehydrated their soil, planted their seeds, and covered them.

I placed them in a sunny location so they would sprout. I switched out the tops with cling-wrap, but they still didn’t sprout. Sometimes our experiments work out, sometimes they don’t.

Honestly, they were old seeds, but our garden was blooming with daisies we grew from seeds several years ago.

Carrots:

Jordan read The Perfect Carrot and Growing Carrots on our Epic app.

He also planted several different carrot varieties in our new vegetable box.

Jordan chopped carrots for our chicken noodle soup.

We made another sourdough loaf using “Stan” our sourdough starter.

Carrot Seed House:

We LOVE to bring out our BFIAR books that pair with a current FIAR unit. Today we brought out The Carrot Seed.

We sat together on the couch and read The Carrot Seed.

I printed our Carrot Seed Sprout House for the boys to put together.

First, we dampened a paper towel with water and sprinkled our carrot seeds.

While I stuffed the seeded towels in the ziplock bags, the boys assembled their carrot sprout houses.

Then we taped our bag to the back of our carrot house, tucking in the corner edges. Sadly, our sprout houses still didn’t have sprouts.

The carrot seeds Jordan planted in our new garden boxes were already sprouting!

Horses:

Jordan and I read excerpts from several horse books on our Epic app.

We also read some beautiful stories about horses.

Jordan color-coded the parts of a horse while I read our horse definition cards (Montessori Print Shop). He also completed the “More you know”equestrian worksheet from our story review pack.

ARTS, CRAFTS, & MORE:

Ocean Paintings:

We brought out our pencils and watercolors for an ocean themed art project.

Everyone enjoyed this fun activity. Haley helped her brothers paint waves.

Haley demonstrated how to flick your brush to get the ocean spray effect. We used this effect in our art, rather than the white paint used in the book’s illustrations.

HELPFUL LINKS:

Pinterest Board:

You can find most of the activities, ideas, and printables from this post on our The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar School Theme Pinterest board.

Youtube Playlist:

As with our other rows, we created a The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar Playlist with read-alouds, music, science, and other clips.