*** POST IN PROGRESS ***

READY TO ROW:

Story Disk:

Parker colored the story disk and we placed it on Nebraska.

Cover Art:

Parker beautifully illustrated a windmill as his cover page.

Reading Shelf:

This was our reading shelf at the start of our row, but it quickly changed from, week to week. There were so many topics to explore, the books couldn’t fit on the shelves!

BIBLE:

Memory Verse:

I created a Bible verse printable for this row.

You can purchase your copy here at our TPT Store.

Parker added his Bible verse copywork page in his FIAR notebook.

Bible Lessons:

Laying Down One’s Life:

We read The Day Jesus Died, because His sacrifice was the ultimate example of laying down one’s life. We have hope and victory over fear, because He conquered death, Satan and Hell. The minute we accept His free gift of salvation, we have victory and hope in Him.

Queen Esther:

The best part about the story of Esther is that she put herself in danger to save her people. What an act of faith and selflessness. God placed Esther in the King’s palace for “such a time as this”.

We read Queen Esther Visits the King, but it didn’t cover the best parts about this story. I understand that certain subject matter may be heavy for some children, but our kids know this story backwards and forwards. Why was Esther’s story so courageous? First, a person risked death by approaching the king unless he/she was summoned first. Esther had a plan. to save her people, but she had to approach the king without being sumonded. God softened the king’s heart and he Evil Haman dying by the very contraption he built to kill Esther’s uncle Mordecai was the

Fear & Bravery:

Fear is something we all have in common. In our home, we try to talk through our fears, big and small, and remind our kids that feeling fearful is normal. We want our kids to remember that God is with us to help us through our fears and not be crippled by them. Some of our favorite Bible stories illustrate how God helps His people face their “giants”.

David:

Who doesn’t love the “underdog story”? A giant villain taunting God’s people on the battlefield. The soldiers are paralyzed with fear. Enter David, a young shepherd boy, with great faith in a greater God. Do you think David felt fear? I do, but I don’t think he let his fear take center stage. He chose to put his faith in God and not focus on himself or the giant.

Though we’ve read David’s story a MILLION times, we can’t resist reminding ourselves of this fantiastic story. We read One Boy, One Stone, One God.

Giving Credit:

God gives “credit where credit was due”. All throughout scripture, He acknowledges men, women and children who made a difference in His kingdom.

The Widow’s Mite:

We read The Widow’s Offering. Jesus wasn’t impressed with the rattling sound of coins poured into the offering. It was a spectacle meant to draw everyone’s attention to the wealthy person on display. Their donation stemmed from a proud heart seeking recognition.

Jesus turned his attention to a simple “plink, plunk!” Of two coins into the offering. The poor widow’s donation, out of love, was music to our Lord’s ears.

We talked about the “how” and “why” we give. Do we give out of love? Do we give in order to be praised? It’s important yo give for the right reasons.

The Boy Who Shared His Lunch:

Bond of Unity:

We read David and His Friend Jonathan. Nothing quite exemplifies brotherly love than the story of David and Jonathan.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Fear & Bravery:

When thinking about fear and bravery, Gideon is one of the first characters that comes to mind. I love his story, because he started out as a scaredy cat. God chose him, because he saw what Gideon could be. He made him a valiant warrior.

We read God Provides Victory through Gideon.

History & Geography:

Nebraska:

Since the manual talked about tornado alley, we settled on Nebraska.

We read an excerpt about Nebraska from Travels with Charlie Across the Midwest.

Parker used My United States Nebraska, and other books from our library, to help him complete his State Report form.

Pioneers:

Wanted to explore pioneer times, learn about the homestead act and the prairie habitat.

We read Prairie Days and Living on the Plains.

We read The Homestead Act and learned how Native Americans were forced out of their land to make room for the westward expansion.

Architecture of the Past:

As we learned about architecture of the past, we read The Hundred-Year Barn and Homeplace. They both show the life of a building over a hundred years.

Items From the Past:

I found a whole section on crockery in our American Kids in History Pioneer Days.x

Peddler:

We brought out an old favorite from our BFIAR days, Caps for Sale.

Life on a Farm:

We just read Farming and Look Inside a Farm while rowing Grandpa Green. I brought out an old favorite I read with Haley.

For this unit, I chose an old favorite, The Year at Maple Hill Farm.

History of Windmills:

I checked out The Wind at Work from our local library. It had a wonderful segment on farm windmills, which fit perfectly into our windmill unit.

I set out a “wind winch” activity to pair with our reading from Usborne Science Activities book, vol II.

Read-Alouds:

While rowing this book, we read-aloud Thimble Summer and Kindred Souls.

Building Characters:

Parker recorded information about Ruby Jane and Velma Jean on the Venn Diagram and Character Comparison Graphic Organizer.

Later, he typed his compare/contrast character essay. We revised it over the next week.

Personification:

Since we were learning about tornados, Parker read Otis and the Tornado which illustrated our lesson on personification.

Dialect:

We’re reading Thimble Summer and Man of the House, both are set in the country and illustrate a writer’s use of dialect. Another great read-aloud, covering dialect, is Strawberry Girl.

Poetry:

I created a Who Has Seen the Wind? poetry worksheet in our Story Review.

Parker copied “Who Has Seen the Wind?” and memorized it the second and third week of our row.

Vocabulary:

First, he matched the vocabulary word with its definition. After he finished, we reviewed his answers together.

Book Dedication:

MATH:

Circles, Cylinders, Area & Volume:

Though we didn’t read it this time, Sir Cumference and the First Round Table is a great book to pair with this lesson.

I created a make-shift math worksheet to review diameter, radius and circumference.

Parker traced circles, measured the radius and calculated the circumference. Afterwards, we calculated area and volume.

SCIENCE:

Prairie:

We spent several days learning about the prairie habitat. We learned about the grasses, wild flowers and animals that call this biome home.

Afterwards, Parker painted the pictures for his prairie flora and fauna sorting activity.

We also read Dandelions and Elsie’s Bird. Both books exposed you to the loneliness in the prairie.

Root Vegetables:

We read Taking Root together. Parker read See It Grow Carrot and Talia and the Rude Vegetables on our Epic app.

We went outside to pick carrots from our yard. We brought them inside and washed them.

We peeled and grated the carrots for carrot cake.

While Parker measured and mixed, we tackled math in the kitchen. He used mixed measuring cups to calculate fractions, on-the-fly. We also talked about equivalent fractions, converting ounces to cups and cups to pounds.

We baked our carrot cake and frosted it with cream cheese glaze.

Wind:

Nd we perused through our rWe read about the wind in Feel the Wind.ckled

Water Pump:

I brought out the necessary supplies and he put “the well” together.

Rivers:

Parker read Rivers and Streams and Trout are Made of Trees. Afterwards, we perused through River Life to see river wildlife.

Catfish:

Cows:

Parker and I read Milking Time together. He read Milk From Cow to Carton on his own.

Horses:

Sheep:

Chickens:

Cats:

Sunflowers:

We spent an entire day exploring sunflowers.

First, we read The Sunflower Parable during Bible.

Next, we read Camille and the Sunflowers and Katie snd the Sunflowers. Afterwards, we perused through our Van Gogh Art Activity pack.

Later, we read From Seed to Sunflower on our Epic app.

We went outside and cut fresh sunflowers from our garden and harvested

ART & FUN:

Sketching:

Drawing Tutorial:

Parker followed the FIAR drawing tutorial to sketch sunflowers in his FIAR sketch book:

HELPFUL LINKS:

Pinterest Board:

You can find most of the activities, ideas, and printables from this post on our The Bravest of Us All Pinterest Board.

Youtube Playlist:

As with our other rows, we created The Bravest of Us All playlist with read-alouds, music, science, and other clips.