Sunday, January 13, 2008 - Our Week With Shake Rag

This week, in honor of Elvis Presley’s birthday, we did a literature-based unit from Homeschool Share on Shake Rag by Amy Littlesugar. This is a story about Elvis Presley’s childhood. We read the story and discussed the setting, Mississippi in the 40’s. We discussed segregation in the south, and read bits and pieces of If You Lived at the Time of Martin Luther King by Ellen Levine.

Using Melissa and Doug magnetic map, 8yo located Mississippi and all its bordering states. 10yo looked Mississippi up in US Atlas and located bordering states and bodies of water.

For dictation, both girls wrote in cursive the lyrics to  “Love Me Tender”, as I read a book to them based on Elvis’ song. We listened to dh’s cd of Freddy King, so the girls could get more familiar with the sound of blues while we cleaned a bit. We also watched a couple of DVD’s about Elvis (with some censorship). They were Elvis, King of Entertainment, and Elvis, Rare Moments With the King.

   The girls thought these were really neat, because there was actual footage from Tupelo, Mississippi, where the story takes place.

8yo decided she wanted to make her own mini lapbook folder out of cardstock, 10yo used a standard file folder. Both girls completed Mississippi State Symbols and Map lapbook components. Also in the lapbooks they included a flap book of musical instruments mentioned throughout the story, a tri-fold book about segregation, a bi-fold mini book explaining the difference between biographies and autobiographies, and a time line of Elvis Presley’s life, with key dates such as birth, when he got his first guitar, when he cut his first record, etc. 10yo also added a pocket to hold her “Love Me Tender” dictation, and a mini-book with the lyrics to “The Green Grass Grows All Around”, which Elvis sang to his classmates as a boy. 

This is the inside, approx. 8”x8” opened up.

For PE this week, the girls jumped around on the trampoline doing their best finger snappin’, toe tappin’, hips swingin’ imitations of Elvis.

And no birthday celebration would be complete without a cake, with some southern pecan frosting! The girls made crowns honoring the “King of Rock n Roll” for everyone, although 8yo gave him a new title, the “King of Bling”.