This is a patchwork post of both of my boys’ experience rowing Minette’s Feast. Jordan rowed it in 7th grade during the springtime; however, I never posted it. Two years later, also in 7th grade, Parker rowed it in November as a Thanksgiving row. This is a gathering of both rows in one post. We hope you enjoy our family’s eclectic mix of this wonderful FIAR book!

READY TO ROW:

Kick-off Breakfast:

In the spring, I made cat-shaped pancakes in honor of Minette.

In the fall, we had breakfast crepes. They were manifique!

Story Disk:

Jordan really took his time coloring the story disk. It turned out beautifully.

Parker used Jordan’s disk and placed it on France.

Cover Art:

Jordan is more of a “logo” guy, so he opted for a simple cat as his cover art. Parker, on the other hand, really took his time to sketch a scene, from the book, as his cover art.

BIBLE:

Memory Verse:

I created a Bible verse printable for Minette’s Feast.

You can purchase your copy here at our TPT Store.

I created the Bible verse printable after Jordan rowed Minette’s Feast. This time around, Parker wrote his verse using the copywork page.

Bible & Character Lessons:

In addition to the FIAR Bible supplement, Jordan continued his Bible lessons while Parker explored lessons on gratitude for the Thanksgiving season.

Gratefulness:

I absolutely love Karma Wilson’s Give Thanks to the Lord. It weaves Psalm 92 into the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s a beautiful representation of appreciating all the Lord has given and done for us.

We also read The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks and Mary’s First Thanksgiving. Both books added to our lesson on gratefulness.

Breaking Bread:

After reading about breaking bread in our FIAR Bible supplement guide, we also read another Thanksgiving book, Sharing the Bread.

If we‘re sharing bread, we must read one of our favorite Bible stories about a boy who shared his lunch. (“Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand” in John 6:1-14)

Hospitality:

Parker read a few verses about hospitality, Romans 12:13 and I Peter 4:9. This topic covered both Bible and social studies.

Then we read Mary and Martha’s Dinner Guest together. While teaching Martha the value of sitting at His feet, He also acknowledged her great spirit of hospitality.

We also read, Who Goes There? with a sweet twist at the end of the story. This story continued our discussion on being hospitable.

We also read A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving in the Woods, and The Thanksgiving Door. All three featured a spirit of hospitality.

This hospitality unit quickly led to a lesson on setting the table. We read “Daniel Place’s Gift” in Everyday Graces.

We read about the history of forks, knives and spoons in An Uncommon History of Common Things. We perused the carious utensils illustrated in Julia Rothman’s Food Anatomy.

Just for fun, we read Spoon, a old favorite.

Afterwards, Parker created his own table setting.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Paris, France:

Both boys read This is Paris. Parker and I also read about France in our Book of Nations.

Afterwards, he put together our Montessori map of Europe.

Lastly, he completed an All About France worksheet from our Story Review.

Art & Culture:

Parker read Katie’s Sunday Afternoon and completed a pointillism worksheet afterwards.

Parker read about George Seurat from the Usborne Children’s Book of Art.

Though not at a cafe in Paris, both boys still enjoyed coffee and croissants while rowing in the spring and fall!

World War II:

Since Julia and Paul met while serving our country during WWII.

Jordan has always been fascinated by World War II. I had him read See Inside The Second World War.

Julia Child’s Kitchen:

Jordan and Parker both watched clips about Julia’s kitchen on our Minette’s Feast playlist.

First, Middle, Last & Family Names:

Parker his first, middle and last name in his FIAR notebook. Afterwards, he looked up the origin and meaning of each.

European vs. American Grocery Shopping:

We read Our Corner Grocery Store together. It was a really sweet story about a young girl helping at her grandparents small grocery store.

We talked the American style grocery store as compared to the European markets.

There was even a cut-away view of their little grocery store.

We visited the grocery store while rowing this book and talked about the differences between American and European markets.

How to Improve at Something:

Parker added a “Things to Improve” section in his FIAR notebook. He also had a writing prompt in his bb&c language arts program.

Le Cordon Bleu:

In addition to reading about Le Cordon Bleu, Jordan watched videos about the Paris campus.

Thanksgiving in the United States:

We read about the history and traditions of Thanksgiving in the United States.

Afterwards, Parker cut, pasted and painted the Thanksgiving in the United States (Little Red).

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Story Review:

I created a Minette’s Feast Story Review.

You can purchase your copy HERE at our TPT Store.

Foreshadowing:

In addition to reading the FIAR Manual on foreshowing, the boys watched this clip from our Minette’s Feast Playlist.

Rhyming Words & Repetition:

Jordan read In Enzo’s Splendid Gardens as an example of rhyme and repetition.

Parker read Nanette’s Baguette, which was a simple yet effective example of rhyme and repetition.

Alliteration:

Jordan read about Alliteration in the Know Nonsense Guide to Grammar book.

Parker recently read If You Were Alliteration while rowing Sarah, Plain and Tall, so we brought out our new It Figures! book.

Parker read the Alliteration chapter.

He also completed an alliteration activity in his BB&C One True Sentence book.

Lastly, Parker completed the Falling for Abundant Alliteration activity from our Minette’s Feast Story Review.

Alphabetizing & Adding Suffixes:

First, Parker completed his alphabetizing worksheet.

Next, he completed both Whipping Up Root Words & Suffixes worksheets.

I used the Word Equations worksheet and had Jordan complete it with all the cooking words mentioned in the story text.

Cooking Vocabulary:

Both boys completed the cooking vocabulary worksheets.

Parker also completed the cooking vocabulary worksheets.

French and English Words:

I created a French to English translation worksheet using the Goodnight Moon and Bonsoir Lune.

Jordan had a fun time decoding the text from his favorite childhood book.

Parker also worked on the Goodnight Moon French to English translation worksheet set.

Idioms:

Jordan read about Idioms in our Know Nonsense Guide to Grammar book.

Jordan completed his Idiom worksheets.

Parker read In a Pickle and Other Funny Idioms.

Afterwards, he completed the idioms activity too.

Quotes & Quotation Marks:

Parker read If You Were Quotation Marks.

Parker also read about quotes and quotation marks in our Punctuation The Write Stuff book.

Bub completed a worksheet about direct and indirect quotations.

Parker completed the same Dynamic Dialogue worksheet.

MATH:

Months of the Year:

Since the story took place over several seasons, Jordan read about all four seasons in The Sesame Street Little Theater Proudly Presents The Four Seasons book. Afterwards, he worked on a calendar math worksheet.

Since Parker was rowing this during Thanksgiving, we focused on the fall season. He read about November in A Child’s Calendar as well as In November by Cynthia Rylant. He also did calendar work for November.

Fractions in Cooking & Baking:

Parker read Full House, a math book about fractions.

Parker also completed the French fractions worksheet.

Jordan completed the French Fractions worksheet. He picked a recipe, fill in the quantities and calculated the fractions.

Measuring Cups – Dry vs. Liquid:

Though geared at a much younger audience, I brought out the Usborne Lift-the-Flap Sizes and Measuring book with its adorable kitchen scene with mice measuring wet and dry ingredients.

The best way to learn about wet and dry measuring is to actually measure them in the kitchen.

Dinner Rolls:

Parker helped me measure both wet and dry ingredients to make dinner rolls.

Baguette:

Jordan has always applied equivalent fractions while cooking. The best way to practice fractions, is to use them in real life.

Jordan measured wet and dry fractions to create a delicious baguette dough.

He folded it into a ball, let it rise, shaped it into baguettes, let them rise again and baked them. They were simply delicious!

French Bread:

Parker measured and mixed the wet and dry ingredients.

Parker rolled and shaped the dough. After waiting for the dough to rise, Parker scored it on top and we placed it in the oven to bake.

Though they looked small and flat, they baked golden and smelled simply delicious !

SCIENCE:

Cats – Carnivores:

Jordan read Usborne Cats & Kittens and perused through the Usborne Cats Spotters Guide.

Parker read Usborne Cats and Cats by Gail Gibbons.

Both boys color-coded the parts of a cat and completed a page from our All About Cats science printable.

Keeping Food from Spoiling:

Both boys read about refrigeration in the Usbourne Book of Knowledge.

Parker and I read about early ice houses and ice boxes in Julia Rothman’s Food Anatomy.

Food Spoilage Experiment:

In addition to reading about food spoiling and preservation in What Do People Eat?, both boys set up the Food Spoilage experiment in their FIAR manual. We added an entry in their FIAR notebooks. To be completely honest, our bread – in both seasonal rows – dried out. I’m not really sure why it didn’t work out, but both of my boys conducted a great food spoilage bread experiment while rowing Madeline.

FOOD GROUPS:

I decided to create a nutritional unit while studying Minette’s Feast.

First, we read My Plate and You. This book kick-started our nutritional unit during this row. We’ve studied nutrition so many times, since our preschool days rowing Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?

Over the week, I had both boys read through Why Do People Eat?

We started tallying the foods we were studying. We used the Count and Tally worksheet from our Story Review.

Dairy:

Parker read Dairy on My Plate and tallied all the dairy products mentioned or seen in the book.

Protein:

He also read Protein on My Plate and tallied all the protein products mentioned or seen in the book.

Vegetables:

He also read Vegetables on My Plate and tallied all the vegetables mentioned or seen in the book.

Fruits:

He also read Fruits on My Plate and tallied all the fruits mentioned or seen in the book.

Grains:

He also read Grains on My Plate and tallied all the grains mentioned or seen in the book.

Sugars and Fats:

He also read Sugars and Fats on My Plate and tallied all the sugars and fats mentioned or seen in the book.

FINE ARTS:

Cutaway View:

We brought out our Usborne Time Traveler to see many different cut-away views. Jordan sketched his own cut-away view picture in his FIAR notebook.

Motion and Movement:

Jordan sketched his own “motion in art” drawing in his FIAR notebook.

Parker also sketched his own “motion in art” with a baseball pitch, his favorite sport!

HELPFUL LINKS:

Pinterest Board:

You can find most of the activities, ideas, and printables from this post on our Minette’s Feast Pinterest Board.

Youtube Playlist:

As with our other rows, we created Minette’s Feast playlist with read-alouds, music, science, and other clips.