We had a very enjoyable first week of school. Everyone was excited about all the new things we are learning. It was also our first week to dive into US Geography and according to our curriculum we started with the state of MAINE!!!
In addition to the worksheets and maps in the curriculum we did some extra projects and reading. The little boys made lobsters:
Rachel and Andrew did watercolors of the Maine coast:
And of course we had to cook!!! Maine is the top producer of blueberries in the US so we had blueberry sauce over our pancakes (3 cups frozen blueberries, 3/4 cup water, 3 Tbsp. agave nectar, and 1 heaping Tbsp. of cornstarch).
Everyone enjoyed it!!!
For dinner we tried Clam Chowder. I looked for recipes and finally decided Campbell's Clam Chowder from a can was the best option! :)Here are some of the books we read:
Burt Dow, Deep-Water Man -- the kids LOVED this book!!!
(all these by Robert McCloskey)
Stopping to Home by Lea Wait (this was our historical fiction chapter book of the week)
A nice little story of two children in Wiscasset in 1806 orphaned by the smallpox epidemic.
The Sign of the Beaver (we didn't get to this one)
Fact books from the library on Maine
A website for food ideas for states: http://www.foodtimeline.org/statefoods.html
Lighthouses are something that characterize the coast. We really enjoyed reading Abbie Against the Storm, a true story of a young girl who kept a Maine lighthouse going during a terrible storm.
7 comments:
yay for maine : ) another great maine author is Dahlov Ipcar - we just bought her most recent book 'hardscrable harvest'.
Great Job Heather... it will be a fun year... love the post of Maine.... looking forward to more!!! HS is so fun... :)...
Wonderful first week of school - so much fun! The watercolors are great and the lobsters are as cute as lobsters can be! We love blueberries on or in our pancakes too - yummy!
i love robert mccloskey books.:)
WOW! Your kids are fantastic artists. Did you teach them or do they take classes. Really, your family must have natural talent!
That is great!! When finish posting on your state series, you should link to all your posts so some day I can raid your ideas! ;). I will seriously bookmark it.
Anyway, here I am in CA while you're all at church! I won't go for a few more hours!!
It must be so hard to decide which pieces of 'art' you can keep and which ends up in the bin!
Great work.
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