READY TO ROW:

Kick-Off Breakfast:

Since we were studying sunflowers, I thought chocolate chip sunflower pancakes might be fitting for this farm-themed row!

Story Disk:

Parker colored the story disk and he 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:

We read A Meal For Many, the story of the boy who shared his lunch with Jesus. This is one of our family’s favorite stories.

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.

Story Review:

I created a Bravest of Us All Story Review for this row.

You can purchase it HERE at our TPT Store.

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 from our Story Review.

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.

Author’s Use of 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.

Parker copied “Ah! Sunflower” and memorized it the last couple of weeks of our row.

Vocabulary:

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

MATH:

Circles, Cylinders, Area & Volume:

Though we didn’t read Sir Cumference and the First Round Table, it 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.

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

Prairie Flowers:

We read The Prairie That Nature Built and used The Prairie Builder as a reference guide for our sorting by flora and fauna activity.

Afterwards, Parker painted the pictures of his prairie flora and fauna with watercolors.

We also went outside to look at our “wild flowers” and find plants with licorice flavor. We currently have two types of fennel that we plant for hosting swallowtail butterflies.

Animals on the Prairie:

Domestic or Wild?

Parker and I reviewed all the animals in the book and sorted into two categories, domestic and wild. Later, I created a Sorting worksheet that’s included in our Story Review.

You can purchase our Story Review HERE at our TPT Store.

Responding to Weather:

We read Prairie Storms on our Epic app. This was the perfect book for our row, it talked about how the prairie animals respond to a storm. Afterwards, we read The Buffalo Storm, which fit nicely with our prairie lessons.

Root Vegetables:

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

We went outside to pick carrots from our vegetable garden. We actually planted them last spring while rowing Grandpa Green. After picking a hefty bunch, we brought them inside and washed them.

Parker and I snipped, peeled and grated the carrots for our carrot cake.

While Parker measured and mixed, we tackled our “Math for Cooking” unit. I purposefully put 1/4, 1/2, and 1/3 cups in our flour and sugar bins. He used the mixed measuring cups to calculate fractions, on-the-fly. We also talked about other equivalent fractions, converting ounces to cups and cups to pounds. Calculating math while preparing dessert really takes the pressure off. Perhaps, it’s knowing something sweet is just around the corner!

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

Wind:

We read about the wind in Feel the Wind and talking about wind velocity, as mentioned in the FIAR manual.

Tornadoes:

We read Tornadoes by Gail Gibbons and I Am the Storm by Jane Yolen. It’s a wonderful book about storms and feeling fearful. We even found the anatomy of a tornado in our Nature Anatomy book.

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:

We studied catfish last year whole rowing Higgins Bend, we just reviewed the types of catfish in our Animal Encyclopedia and completed our classification worksheet.

FARM ANIMALS:

We used Julia Rothman’s Farm Anatomy book to review many of the farm animals we studied.

Mother and Young:

First, we read Eric Carle’s Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too? and did a mother-child animal match afterwards.

Cows:

We reviewed breeds of dairy cows and bulls from our Farm Anatomy book.

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

Parker filled out the classification information using a worksheet from the Story Review.

Horses:

Parker read Horses by Gail Gibbons and filled out the classification information using a worksheet from the Story Review.

Sheep:

We reviewed breeds of sheep from our Farm Anatomy book.

We also read Feeding the Sheep together.

Parker filled out the classification information using a worksheet from the Story Review.

Chickens:

Parker read Chicks & Chickens then we read Chicken Talk together, just for fun.

Parker filled out the classification information using a worksheet from the Story Review.

Pigs:

We reviewed breeds of pigs from our Farm Anatomy book.

Parker read Pigs by Gail Gibbons then filled out the classification information using a worksheet from the Story Review.

Cats:

Parker read Cats by Gail Gibbons then filled out the classification information using a worksheet from the Story Review.

The Amazing Yeast Cell:

We spent a whole day exploring yeast and bread. Who doesn’t love the smell of fresh bread baking in the kitchen?

We read about yeast in our Humongous Fungus book.

We read many books about bread. We read about how bread is made in From Wheat to Bread and learned about breads around the world in Bread Bread Bread.

We read a fun scientific, yet whimsically exaggerated tale of yeasted dough in The Too-Great Bread Bake book.

I brought out “Stan”, our sourdough starter. I whipped up a loaf and served it with pumpkin soup. It was delicious!

Parker and I also made a loaf of oat bread in our bread machine. It was super delicious.

Plum Jam:

We read several fun books about plum jam, some fictional stories while others were non-fiction book that complimented our science unit.

We bought several plums from the Farmer’s Market that weren’t great. I decided to turn them into our plum jam. Parker helped me chop them up, we added sugar and placed them in our Instant Pot. It was the first time I made jam this way. It was REALLY delicious! We served the jam with our freshly made oat bread.

Leaf Study:

Parker and I perused through the leaf identification pages of Julia Rothman’s Nature Anatomy book.

Since Parker was sick, I went leaf hunting alone and brought him a variety of leafs. He used some old crayons to make leaf rubbings and identified each leaf, using the worksheet in the FIAR manual.

Moss:

Parker looked through Julia Rothman’s Nature Anatomy book, learning about various species of moss.

Sunflowers:

We spent an entire day exploring sunflowers.

We started our day reading The Sunflower Parable as our Bible unit for the day.

Next, we read Camille and the Sunflowers and Katie and 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:

In addition to reading the FIAR manual and perusing through the book’s illustrations, Parker spent some time sketching in his FIAR Art book. He added a color wheel and practiced shading the secondary and tertiary colors. He also sketched an example of perspective as well as lighting and shadows.

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.