Five in a Row - The Rag Coat

Our latest Five In A Row story is "The Rag Coat". I'd say this is my favorite story so far. I don't know if my son would agree - he liked it, but it will be hard to top "Lentil" for him! The Rag Coat is about a girl named Minna who tells the story of how she learned that people need each other. She comes from a poor family. Her father gets sick from working in the coal mines and dies. The mother makes quilts to support the family. Minna cannot go to school, because she does not have a coat to wear for the winter. Through the help of her mother and other mothers, they make a coat for Minna. This coat is made from all of the mothers' quilting scraps. At school, the children make fun of her coat. Minna shares with the class the story behind each patch. Each child has a tie to her coat, because their mothers helped make the coat with scraps from their history. Here's a rundown of what we did with the book each day last week:

Monday - plain read through of the story. I have found that just reading it the first day and then putting it away sparks my children's interest. They are even starting to think of things they might want to do on day two!

Tuesday - read the story again. This time I pointed out the quilts in the story and made a special notice of the Joseph's Coat of Many Colors pattern. My son then colored some quilt squares from the FIAR teacher's guide to put in his folder. I also talked to GMan about what goes on in coal mines. I wanted to go more in depth about mining, but we just ran out of time.

Wednesday - This day I got out a Grandmother's Quilt that was made by my husband's grandmother and let the children snuggle in it while we read.

I gave my son four vocabulary cards and he had to listen for those words while we read. (his favorite word was MURMUR... he takes great pride in murmuring now and seeing how many times that word is used in our other read alouds!
We talked about the quilt extensively, and looked at other handmade quilts we have in our house. We also looked at the illustrations in the book and discussed how the use of muted colors set the tone of the story.

Thursday - We read the story again, and focused today on the fact that it takes place in the Appalachian Mountains. We located them on a map and then I pointed out things in the story that would make it typically "Appalachian" - log cabins, folk instruments, poverty, etc... My children related to this since we live very close to the Appalachians. I chose to pick out the dulcimer (it hangs on the wall in one illustration) and we researched it, made it one of our spelling words, and listened to clips on YouTube.

We saw two different dulcimers... the hammered dulcimer and traditional mountain dulcimer. I think we spent almost an hour at the computer watching different videos - it was so interesting.
There is a nice resource online for a coloring sheet of a dulcimer (sorry it's from the Ozarks, but you don't have to tell your child that - just print the picture!)

Friday - More music with the story today! We read the book, and then I taught my children a folk song from Appalachia, "The Riddle Song" . I found sheet music here along with a nice lesson plan. If you don't play piano or guitar, we also found another video of a woman playing the song on the dulcimer - how cool is that? Even just printing the lyrics to the "The Riddle Song" and reading them is fun - it really is a riddle that kids enjoy.

As with all Five In A Row Stories, my older child tagged along in learning about it as well. The stories all have such an appeal to every age level, which is such a gift to us all.

This post in linked to the Hip Homeschool Hop. Stop by and see what other homeschoolers are doing this week!

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Five in a Row - The Story About Ping

We're rowing our third FIAR title this week. The Story About Ping has been such a wonderful story, and I think we're continuing next week, as well. Here's a synopsis of the book:

The Story About Ping

The tale of a little duck alone on the Yangtze River, The Story About Ping is a sweet and funny book with wonderfully rich and colorful illustrations. On a day like any other, Ping sets off from the boat he calls home with his comically large family in search of "pleasant things to eat." On this particular day, he is accidentally left behind when the boat leaves. Undaunted, the little duck heads out onto the Yangtze in search of his family, only to find new friends and adventures--and a bit of peril--around every bend.

The exceptional illustrations bring the lush Yangtze to life, from Ping's family to the trained fishing birds he finds himself among to the faithfully rendered boats and fishermen. Certainly intended to be read aloud, The Story About Ping deserves a place on every young reader's (or listener's) shelf. (amazon.com review)

Monday I just simply read the book to my children, and later that day we sat down with our puzzle atlas and found China and talked about the country while we did the puzzle together. We were gently easing into the week, and we visited the library to check out all kinds of books about China and ducks.

Tuesday was another reading of the book, and this time I started pointing out some of the elements of the book, such as the repetition of certain phrases, and tools the illustrator used in the story. My son also did the duck math sheet from Homeschool Share, which he really enjoyed. He loves numbers, and the sheer volume of Ping's family was impressive to him.

Wednesday was really our FUN day. We spent the morning at a local lake/park and sat on the dock and read books about ducks and also fed and observed the ducks. I really felt the amazing benefits of homeschooling on this day, because so many things just "clicked" for my children and we had such a good time together. Two of the books about ducks we used were, Ducks Don't Get Wet and Ducks. These were two good choices because they seemed to be right at a level where both my nine and five year old learned things from them. My five year old soaked up the facts, and my nine year old sketched the lake while she listened. It was such a peaceful morning.

My son thought maybe we even saw Ping!

Thursday we read the book again, and also began looking at our resources about China. We learned about The Forbidden City, which was interesting to all of us. We have dear friends going to China to adopt a little boy next week, so we will follow their journey and delve into China with more depth next week.

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Our Book Party - Lentil

This week we have been rowing Lentil. Something about this book really struck a chord in all of us, and it has been an enjoyable week reading the book each day and doing fun activities. Last night we invited my father-in-law and sister-in-law for dinner and the dessert was our made from scratch Lemonade Layer Cake, and it was GOOD! It didn't take too long to make, and the kids helped me every step of the way. We discovered the grated lemon rind in the cake and the frosting really made the taste.

As we were at the grocery store getting the final preparations yesterday (fresh flowers per my daughter's request, and napkins with lemons on them) I found the kids talking to the cashier and man bagging our groceries about our party and about lemons. The cashier remarked what wonderful children they were and where did they go to school. Homeschool - score 10!

Before we ate dinner the kids and dad acted out Lentil. My son played the part of Lentil (the boy, complete with harmonica playing) and my daughter read the book. My husband was the town curmudgeon, Old Sneep. I wish I had gotten a video of him wearing a silly hat and sucking on a lemon - it was priceless! It got a lot of laughs, and the kids had fun time performing for their family. Here's a brief synopsis of the story from good reads:

Lentil cannot sing or even whistle; longing to make music in some fashion, he provides himself with a harmonica and practices constantly wherever he i ...more Lentil cannot sing or even whistle; longing to make music in some fashion, he provides himself with a harmonica and practices constantly wherever he is, especially in the bathtub, because there his tone is improved 100 percent. A book that, along with its fun, truly illustrates the American scene.

I could kick myself for not taking more pictures last night, but I did get a few before our guests arrived. Once everyone was there I was busy getting dinner on the table, organizing the actors, etc.... You know how it goes.

My daughter loves setting a pretty table, and I think it's getting to be a lost art, so here's our table:

GMan sampling a lemon - he's been going around puckering his lips this week (just like it said in the book).

If you can't tell, I'm SOLD on Five in a Row. Not only have we learned a lot of things about geography, science, literature, and social studies, we have forever put the memory of this book in our minds. That is a gift.

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