Last week we studied Paul Revere. We used FIAR Volume 3 as a resource for our unit study.

We also used go along printables from Homeschoolshare.

Paul Revere report. 

Timeline 

Learning about fog. 

Pizza lapbook and other pieces are stored in the box.  

The kids both designed symmetrical and asymmetrical pizzas. (I just learned this concept myself.) 

This matrix was done by providing part of the answers of what each person did/did not like. So ds had to solve to find some of the missing answers. (Problem solving) 

Fraction hands on playing pieces.

Fractions Bingo 

Pizza Pattern Pieces 

This week we did a study on the Revolutionary War. We read the MTH book and got the companion guide. We also read a few things from History Stories for Children -about George Washington. Toward the end of the week we read a little bit about Betsy Ross and listed to a CD story about her. Here are pictures of our lapbook.

I got the lapbook from Currclick. I got 4 MTH lapbooks for $1.99.

Making this only 50 cents per unit.

I also love the way they broke the components down by chapter.

It made it very easy to read 2 chapters and know which components went with those chapters.

Each day, I would put components pertinent to our study in the kids work drawers.

Chapters 5-10

There are a few more pages I need to add later.

Last week we studied George Washington.

We used the D'Aulaire book and the Beautiful Feet guide for

lesson plans. We also used some free lapbook printables from Homeschoolshare.

This coloring page came from somewhere else-I don't remember. But it was free online.

The circle book came from HSS.

This is a picture out of the D'Aulaire book.

The lesson says to write on the page. (Sort of a memory jogger for the kids.)

They can color it if they like. DD decided she did not want to.

We read about George Washington and the Cherry Tree.

DD colored this page about it.

Below-This was a rabbit trail we took.

Since the Potomoc River is near the farm where

Washington grew up, we decided to study SnakeHead fish.

They have turned up in the Potomac River.

Here is a map showing all the locations in the US where they have now

been found.

Here is a mini book we made with info on the SnakeHead.

The teeth mini came from HSS.

Snakehead facts.

Another coloring page.

Copy work

Map of Virgina (Rod and Staff USA coloring Book.)

HSS and enchantedlearning mini books.

Coloring page left over from History for Little Pilgrims.

In our Co-Op Ds is taking a Camping and Hiking Class. The teacher goes over different things each week. A few things they have learned is how to make a tent, how to properly build a fire, etc.

I gave him this assignment as part of that class-for Credit toward earning his Contenders' of the Faith

Camping and Hiking badges. This Camping and Hiking Lapbook is available at Homeschoolshare.

(FREE)

He loved doing it and said that it was one of the funnest things he had done all year.

He did pretty much all of it himself. I aided in showing him how to

fold  the file folder and assemble some of the mini books, but he cut them out, put them together and pasted it on. Then he filled the info in. He did it over the course of a week or so, doing a little each day.

Then he took it to class to show his teacher. She was impressed, and also thought it was

 neat that all this was free online! 

Here is the cover.

Inside

This is campfire safety rules. It came from the Book

Camp Out. It was a campers and hikers field guide I got from the library.
(Gotta get that one.) 

Here are some different tracks, these were hand outs he got in class.

He added them to the book.

Which Way mini book.

He wrote about how you determine directions with each of these.

5 senses mini book.

Things you might observe with your senses while camping/hiking.

Other mini books.

Inside be prepared book. Cut and pasted things you need.

Inside leaves of three (let them be) book.

2nd photo of inside leaves of 3.

First Aid, Psalm copywork and Campfire mini books

Psalm copywork.

Inside first aid mini book.

How to build a fire, steps.

Don't forget to properly put out the fire.

More info on tracks.

In the book Pirate Diary Jake mentions he saw a mermaid. So a connection was made to manatees.

It was neat learning about them. We watched the video Sam the Sea Cow. Now dd wants us to adopt one to help save.

I wish we lived closer to Florida and could see one in real life.

Here are our notebook pages.

Mermaid, Manatee Venn Diagram 

Information page

Manatee shape mini book

Dd drew what they eat and what is dangerous to them.

The right is a boat with a propeller.

Where in the world are manatees, and manatee anatomy mini books.

inside anatamoy books

So now I have 3 weeks of notebooking/lapbooking pages put on the blog.

I think next time I should try to add a week at a time.

I have to admit I really learned alot these last three weeks. I never knew history could be so much fun!

The past three weeks we have been reading Pirate Diary. It is the story of a 10 year old boy in the 1700;s. He leaves home in order to go to sea with his uncle. His father thinks it will be good for Jake to see more of the world. While aboard the ship, pirates attack and take over the ship. Jake not wanting to forfeit his life, joins with the pirates. 

The Unit Study and Lapbook pieces are available at HSS. We also read a few other books on Pirates from the Pirate Unit and used some of those lapbook components as well.

Here are pictures of our lapbook. If you can tell here, I added it to

our American history binder by punching 3 holes in it.

Lapbook Cover

Inside left fold

Why Pirates have peg legs, hooks and eye patches and What is an Island mini book.
          

Inside mini book answers

Pirate words and meanings
  

Definitions under flaps

Math from Pirate Diary-How much pay was with held.

Back cover-ship picture and nautical vocabulary.

Here is DD's book report on Pirate Diary.

Both kids whined about the gross parts of the book.

They begged me to quit reading it the third day. I refused and told them

that is how things really were.  The book shows one man's leg being sawn off after

he was wounded. It talks about worms being in the biscuits, and hangings etc.

Luckily the picturs were cartoonish, but still a little graphic.

I think they are still a little too sensitve for this stuff. 

She gave the book good checks but added comments that the book was scary and gross.

We had alot more pages that I could fit in the lapbook file folder, so I just added many of these elements to paper or cardstock. Here is some of our other work with our Pirate study. 

Labling the ship parts

Ds's treasure map and Direction mini book

Inside view of direction mini book

Pirate Gear Page

DD's copywork, writing assignment 

Ds copy work/writing assignment

Treasure information page

 Why pirates sing sea chanty's, and dd's story

 Pirate Tools of the trade

Piracy Pardon and Canons mini books

  I

Inside view of canon mini book We listed the order of things that had to be done, to fire the canon.

 We took copies of pictures from the book and cut them out and added them to cardstock

and placed them  inside the canon book.

.

Ds's writing assignments. Story Building exercises

Story building Marooned on an Island.

Who has the key? (To the treasure.)

Continuing our pirate unit. Here are pictures of our Jolly Roger information and Treasure maps. 

We glued in pictures of famous pirate flags.

Then dd and ds created their own jolly rogers.

I must admit dd's doesn't look to scary.

(She said she didn't want to be a mean pirate.)

I can't blame her.

Our treasure maps

Ds did one, but he only drew in pencil so it would not show up well in a photo. He drew a map of the inside of the house and then hid something for his sister to find.

I got the inside snowman story starter from Daily Journals. (It was on paperback swap.) I have been on the lookout for some creative ways to get the kids writing.

DD loved the idea. We added a topper to the snow man. She decorated it, we filled out the rest of the story. (I wrote most of it in, according to her words.) She loved it. 

Ds  wasn't as thrilled. He did manage to write the story.

But I haven't received the finished product yet.

Perhaps I should make one about video games.

(Or take them away!)

A week ago we began reading the Matchlock Gun. Here are some of our pages. I just learned how to digitally make lapbook templates. These are my first ones. They should be available on Homeschool Share's site soon.

This is the title page for our notebook. I just copied the first page in the book and let DD color it.

The bottom blue mini book is available on Homeschool Share.

It is part of the French and Indian War lapbook.

It is asking "During what years was the war fought." 

Coloring Pages on New York. Source is Rod and Staff.

More mini books from the French/Indian War lapbook.

An info page from enchanted learninig.

A notebooking/drawing page from ds.

(Assignment in BF guide).

A question pocket for comprehension questions I made.

Other match books I made with questions so students

could tell about heirlooms, discrimination, and a math activity.

Ds drew the bedwarmer inside and wrote how it was used.

He also answered the math question.

Oh did I mention that all these mini books are or soon will be available free at

www.homeschoolshare.com

This is the result of many moms sharing their work with other moms to benefit.

Many many months ago I posted some pictures of our mini offices. Ours were out of sight and out of mind. Then someone reminded me about them.

You can obtain the printables and directins for the mini offices here.

I found some other very helpful printables and added them into my sons writing mini office.

The Cheeseburger Story and Hamburger Paragraph and other useful printables can be found here.

We are studying American History through Literature this year.

We are using the Beautiful Feet books, the guide and also unit studies and lapbooks from Homeschoolshare.com.

For each book, we took major characters and made trading cards for them.

After each book we do a timeline review. Studying the books in order helps, but we also need to place the characters in order.  For example in Leif the Lucky we had 2 characters. Erik the Red and Leif.

So they have to remember that Erik came first. in Pochontos we have 3 mian characters.

Powhatan, John Smith and Pocohontas.

Here they are satisfied with their ordering of characters.

Another thing I love about the trading cards is that it really helps the children think about the person.

Their character traits, their good qualities and their not so good qualities.

Their feelings, thoughts, contributions to us today, etc.

I originally had a small binder. I replaced that one with this 3 inch binder. It is really nice. It is able to hold all our units beginning with Leif the Lucky, our Colonial Days history pockets. (that I resized to fit in this folder.).

I normally prefer spiral bound books. But for this larger project this has worked out great.

And If we decide to do a traditional folder lapbook for one of the units,

we can just punch holes in it and add it in.

Today was our final day on our Matchlock Gun unit study. I learned alot too. I was clueless about the French and Indian War. (For some reason I thought it was the French and the Indians fighting each other.) 

Anyway, today we did a book summary. Narration, final lapbook questions and an acrostic poem.

 These are our lapbook components for our Sarah Noble story. 

Ds' wrote a fact about about different animals and trees.

Alphabetizing the children of two families.

Measuring fear situations, cards are held inside the pocket.

Inside the Lifestyles of Indians mini book.

Comprehension questions for each chapter. They had to be answered

in complete sentences. Ds really stepped up to the occasion. Even though it was

his least favorite thing to do.

I made a few editing notes and let him revise later.

Vocabulary he added definitions to the terms.

He really hated all the writing. So around chapter 8 I taught him how to

cut and paste the definitions into a Word document and print them.

He would cut them out and add them.

Then we did the last chapter orally.

That is one thing great about homeschooling, you don't have

to assign busy work just because. You have the flexibility on another day to

focus in an area that your child needs it more.

We have been using History Pockets Colonial Days.

Here are a few crafts we have made during our studies.

 These first two actually came from ArtPac 1.

The windmill craft was from ArtPac 1 and the drawing and writing was

done using Draw Write Now.

The pilgrim paperdolls came from Makingfriends.com

http://www.makingfriends.com/friends/f+pilgrim.htm

The pilgrims circle book came from enchanted learning.

This was a neat diarama using a file folder.

These are pictures of our Magic Tree House Notebook. For every book we read we add activity pages to it.

 The Outside Cover we made..Just a regular folder with brads and pockets.

This is the passport you can get on the MTH site.

You get a passport sticker every time you answer questions

about the book.

On left, I have highlighted the books we have read.

On right an activity page from MTH site.

Some of our own work and an activity page.

Our own work and another related page from the internet.

MIdnight on the Moon Drawing by ds.