Week 10 - France

France is a country that we often assume that we know so much about because we've adopted so many things from their culture.  After all, the word "French" has become a commonly used word for us. We know all about French fries, toast, kisses, and braids, but it was fun to learn about some of the special things that France has given the world that we never knew.

We read Look What Came From France and learned that a stethoscope was first invented and used in France. Ambulances, motion pictures, Braille writing and photography are also special gifts they gave the rest of the world.


Morning Warm Ups
We started something new this week with morning warm ups and activity/coloring pages. I'm finding that B likes to do these throughout the day so I created a box to put in all of the worksheets for the week. In the morning on whenever she feels like coloring or doing a worksheet, she can go to the box and pick it out herself. The only exceptions are handwriting worksheets and specific math or reading comprehension assignments.

Here are some of the worksheets included:

• Cursive letter C worksheet
• France flag and map
• Eiffel Tower coloring sheet

Bible Story
Our Bible verse was from 2 Timothy 1:7 - For God did not give us a spirit of fear. David & Goliath was our story to discuss from the Bible. We talked about the courage that God gave David to fight Goliath and how God wants us to be courageous in our lives too as we look for the calling God has for each of us.

Vocabulary

• illusion - a false impression of something
• mission - a purpose or goal
• bonjour - "hello" in French
• collage - artwork made by several things pieced together
• bum - someone who depends on others for their needs
• tramp - homeless wanderer or beggar
• organ - part of the body that has a specific job
• skeleton - the bones of our body

Proper Nous:

• France
• Paris 
• Eiffel Tower (whoops! I misspelled it on our chart!)

Picture Books
There were a couple of great picture books that we read this week and really enjoyed. Everybody Bonjours! was one of them. There isn't a whole lot of reading in it so I let B helped me as much as possible. A little girl goes throughout France while on vacation with family and hears "Bonjour" at all of the major site-seeing spots before returning home from her trip to a "hello" from her grandma.

We also read City Cat, a story about a cat who tags along on a family vacation to some of Europe's hot spots. We are keeping the book for another week to read again as we study the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe.

Madeline
We read Madeline everyday (we were inspired by the FIAR bloggers) and the kids loved it each time. Its the cutest little story and it seemed like the kids noticed a new part of it each time we read it. In the story there are topics that can be pulled out for discussion. We discussed telling time when it was referenced in the story (half past nine, Visitors 2 to 4, etc.) and learned about our body's organs after Madeline has her appendix removed.

We also borrowed Madeline's Tea Party and I helped B read it. She was able to do most of the reading and we read it a couple of times throughout the week and talked about manners and caring for others even when they aren't nice to us.

We borrowed The Madeline Movie: Lost in Paris from the library and watched it together later in the week. Several of the reviewers for this dvd were very negative about how dark and scary some of the movie's scenes were but we had no issues with it. Madeline goes to live with who she thinks is her uncle and attend a "fashion school" but when she gets there she learns that he is a fraud and is taking her to work in a secret factory making lace. The lady running the operation yells at the girls and cuts off their hair when they won't behave. I watched it with the kids and explained what was going on when necessary but the kids understood that the man and women just wanted money and free labor, not to actually harm the girls. If you're worried about it, you might watch it for yourself before letting your child watch it.

We also watched the Madeline movie together on Netflix and enjoyed it. I love how the movie starts off retelling the original story with the language almost identical to the text. 

I would have loved to purchase a little Madeline doll to sit in our living room throughout the week as we read and learned but I couldn't see paying the current asking price. The little dolls are the cutest and even come with an embroidered scar from having her appendix removed. Maybe in the future the cost will go down or I can find one used. 

Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse began his love for painting after finishing law school and falling sick. During his recovery at home in Paris, his mother gave him a paint box and the rest is (art) history. Some of his most unique work was done in his self-created style of "painting with scissors" in which he used cut out shapes to make collage style art.

We read Henri's Scissors and Drawing with Scissors to learn about Henri's style and prep for this week's art project -  a collage!

Human body
The stories of Madeline and Henri having their appendixes removed inspired us to learn about the human body. We drew a life sized outline of ourselves and used body part templates from Confessions of a Homeschooler to cut out our organs put add them to the outline. I used PicMonkey.com to create a comic book outline of their faces to color and add to the body. They LOVED this project!  

We watched The Magic School Bus Season 1 - episodes 2 & 3 to learn about our digestive system and circulatory system/germs. We also used select pages from the Usborne's Flip-Flap Body Book to learn about the body and used it as a guide for placing our organs on our giant bodies.

Math
We are continuing to practice telling time with the help of a Thomas the Train book we borrowed at the library. As I already mentioned, each time we read Madeline we pointed out the time references and reviewed "half past" each hour.

We also started the Singapore Math book this week and reviewed Chapter 1 on Monday. We worked on number bunches the rest of the week in Chapter 2. B used candy corn to practice this skill.

There were a lot of books, ideas and resources that I didn't get to use this week either because of time or not having the resources. Some of these ideas are on my BKS Prep - France Pinterest Board if you're interested in checking them out.

Learning Resources & Media
I've tried to give links to any ideas that didn't come directly from my head. Here are some additional resources where I gathered information or resources.

• Learn about France
• Magic School Bus Episode 2: For Lunch and Episode 3: Inside Ralphie
• Justin Time - Too Many Cupcakes
  Justin and Squidgy help a French baker with his cupcake order.
• Cat in the Hat - Inside Your Outside
  We didn't use this book but I typically like to use the Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That books in our lessons because they present so much information in a way that is educational and enjoyable. In the future, I'd love to use this book when learning about the human body.
• Henri Matisse interactive website for kids
  Has interactive features that teach kids about Matisse. The words are on the screen, however, so unless you have a child who is able to read very well, this might not be as much learning as it would be just general exposure to some of his art.

Week 9 - Italy

This ended up being a busy week for us so many of our typical morning routines were interrupted and we ended up doing most of our school through reading books and doing activities. It wasn't hard to justify fun activities by saying they were part of this week's lesson - like eating at a pizzeria for dinner one night! At the end of the week we made our own pizza at home, which was tons of fun!

We did have a couple of coloring/activity pages we used this week: 

•  Make Your Own Pizza
• Italian Paper Girl
• Color the World Venice
• Mona Lisa Coloring sheet

Reading
As with most countries, we found a lot of fun books about Italy. We started with Look What Came from Italy, a book about the many things that come from Italy. Like the ones about the other countries, this book gives a great deal of information to introduce and learn about Italy.

B's self portrait

Our artist of the week is Leonardo da Vinci so we had some great books on him and his work, both as an artist and also as a Renaissance man who was good at just about anything. In fact, we learned that he is considered to be possibly one of the smartest and most talented men of all time.  Who Was Leonardo da Vinci? is a level 4 Reading biography of Leonardo that tells of his lonely childhood and how he overcame it to become one of the most intelligent and talented person to live. Neo Leo compares many of the ideas of Leonardo di Vinci's work and drawings to inventions that exist today.  

I made a one sheet overview about Leonardo da Vinci with questions for B to read and answer. We made our own Self Portraits with oil pastels for this week's artwork.

Angelo was a book that I saw listed on many blogs and FIAR sites for studying Italy. I enjoyed it but my 5 and 3 year olds didn't get into it as much as I did. I feel like in a year or two they would enjoy it more. Its about a man tasked with renovations on an Italian cathedral discovers a wounded bird and begins a friendship that will carry him through the end of his journey. This is a sweet story that shows the beauty of friendship as well as displays some Italian elements.

One book they did enjoy was The Princess and the Pizza. This fictitious book about how pizza was invented provides some comical fun with a theme of girl power and ambition. Princess Paulina misses the perks of being a princess so she enters a contest with hopes of marrying the prince and moving back into the castle. To do so, she must compete against the other princesses to prove to the queen that she is worthy to marry the prince. Through the competition, Princess Paulina discovers that she has other ambitions.

We used this week to learn about fractions and parts of a whole. One of the kids' favorite books of the week was How Many Ways Can You Cut a Pie (Magic Castle Readers). Squirrel is entering her famous acorn pie into the pie eating contest but first she has to keep her friends from eating it all before the contest. A fun story with a lesson on wholes, halves and thirds to learn about fractions. And an added bonus is that B was able to read it over and over again because for the most part the words are on her reading level. We used this free Pizza Fractions set from TeachersPayTeachers.com to continue learning about fractions.

I borrowed How to Make an Apple Pie and see the world from the library thinking it was specific to this week's lesson and then realized that it really incorporates many places across the world. It would have worked great to read this before we started our journey across the world, but it definitely worked this week too as the first stop they make in the story is Italy. When you run out of ingredients to make an apple pie, what else can you do but travel the world to find the best ingredients possible? The book includes a recipe of apple pie at the end. 

Learning Topics

• Fun Facts from TheUnlikelyHomeschool.com: 
•  Italian Dining Customs & Trivia
• Italians take their meals in the following courses:
• Antipasto- appetizer
• Primo- the first course, usually soup
• Secondo- the second course, usually a meat with a side dish
• Dulce- dessert
• Caffe'- coffee which is served after every meal

• The average Italian will consume 55 pounds of pasta each year.  
• The female guest of honor is always served first followed by the male guest of honor.
• Pizza is thought to have come from Naples and was a dish served to the peasants as it used up all the "extras" of the kitchen.  
• Other Notable Italian Facts
• Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus, is credited for establishing the first LASTING European expedition of the Americas.
• Galileo Galilei, famed astronomer, was known for championing the idea of heliocentrism, the belief that the sun is the center of the universe.  (For a living-literature style introduction to the controversial, scientific views of Galileo, I'd recommend Starry Messenger by Peter Sis.)
• Italian, renaissance painter, Leonardo da Vinci's most famous works include the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

Related Media

• History of PIzza
  Learn about the history of pizza.

• Introducing Italy
  
  This YouTube video gives kids a quick tour of Italy, featuring Naples, Rome and Venice. 

• Venice with Kids
  A family tours Italy together and tells about their adventures together.

• Fraction lesson on dividing a whole pizza
  A quick lesson on dividing a pizza into multiple parts to form fractions. 

• Fractions - Halves and Quarters
  This is a very cheesy (no pun intended) video for kids but the weirdness grabs their attention. Kids learn about whole, half and quarter as "Papa" divides up the pizza for his daughter and her friends.

Italy was a fun week, especially since we were allowed to eat pizza and make it a center for much of our learning. I'd love to hear your ideas for learning about Italy with little ones!

See these ideas and more on my BKS Prep - Italy Pinterest Board!

Week 8 - Russia

 I have never really known much about Russia besides knowing that it was an extremely large country with historical ties to communism. I've heard stories about Stalin, read about how many people wanted so badly to escape from the government's oppression and experienced first hand how strict their ballet style is compared to other styles I've been taught. But honestly, I have been more familiar with gymnasts and ice skaters from Russia than any of the history or culture of the country. Growing up I paid attention to the distinct look and accent that a Russian athlete possessed. In preparing for this week's lesson, I was able to learn so much and gained a much greater understanding of the people, customs and art.

There were a couple of interesting things that I learned. One is that because many of the parents both work full time, grandparents are often responsible for raising children. This is evident in many of the stories and folktales that we read and hear about as most stories feature a child and grandparent as the main characters.

Also, because there are so many people in Russia, there are parts of it that has limited housing during the cold winters. Many extended families may live together during this time of the year making them closer knit than many American families.

And as one might guess by just looking at a map, Russia is so big that just within its country there are many nationalities, languages, religions and cultures. While the east side is more European by culture, the Western side tends to have many Asian characteristics.

Morning Warm Ups

St. Basil's Cathedral

I found a couple of great coloring pages for this week's warm up options. A St. Basil's Cathedral coloring page was one of my favorites and I let B see a picture of it to see the many colors that were used in its beautiful architecture. The Kandinsky coloring sheet was one that utilized interesting shapes and colors as well. B enjoyed these as she loves coloring with a lot of different color options.

• St. Basil's Cathedral
• Kandisky Coloring Sheet
• Cursive Handwriting Sheet - I

Morning Group Time
We continued with our BKS Prep morning group time playlist from our Spain week since we are continuing to learn Spanish. 

Bible Story
Our Bible verse is John 15:4 - This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. We talked about how God wants us to love everyone and share his love with others. We reviewed lessons from the Bible on jealousy & anger vs. friendship - Cain and Abel; David & Jonathan

Vocabulary

• czar - historical Russian emperor or ruler
• cathedral - church
• emotion - feelings
• jealous - wanting what someone else has
• glum - sad
• magnificent - amazing; big
• comical - funny
• abstract - not easily understood
• matryoshka - nesting dolls
• babushka - cloth worn around Russian women's heads; also refers to grandparents in Russia

Reading
We found so many great books this week that included some of Russia's culture and language but were also very entertaining.

• Another Celebrated Dancing Bear
  Most of the blogs I found on teaching Russia used this book as the center of their studies. Our book didn't come available at our library until the end of the week so weren't able to use it too much. However, it was a great book and a fun story with a few Russian words used several times throughout the book and some cultural references. Mostly its a story about two bears and the things they do for friendship.
• The Magic Nesting Doll
  We were not able to read this book because it was checked out by someone else at our library but the reviews on it sounded lovely so I wanted to include it here for future reference.
• Babushka's Doll
  This story is about a little girl who demands that her Babushka (grandmother) be at her beckon call without delay - someone we as moms feel on a daily basis. The little girl plays with her grandmother's doll and gets a taste of her own medicine. The book has a great lesson and with a few Russian words and artwork goes perfectly with our Russia theme.
• The Littlest Matryoshka
  A tale of how the smallest doll in a set of nesting dolls gets lost and eventually finds her way back to her sisters. We read this book during our Russian tea party and then made our own set of paper nesting dolls.
• Rechenka's Eggs
  Sweet story about a woman who rescues a wounded goose and nurses it back to health. In return to goose gives her a special gift. The story shows some of the Russian culture and teaches about caring for others.
• Anastasia
  I would have loved to read the book first and then watch the movie but it didn't work out that way for us. In the future I'd like to do this again and spend more time learning about the history of the royal family and the disproven rumors about Anastasia's survival after her family's assassination.
• Count Your Way Through Russia
  Great book to introduce some Russian themes and counting in Russian.
• Look What Came From Russia
  I just discovered these books and wish I had gotten the one from Spain last week. It was great information, yet not too much to overload the kids. I picked out specific things to talk about and skipped over some parts that I thought they wouldn't care about or understand.
• Rus
  sia
  
  This book wasn't on a young child's level but it contained a lot of good information for me to be able to learn and use to teach some history and facts.
• The Mitten (not pictured)
  This is an old folktale and there is actually another book/version with the same storyline that I saw some bloggers use to compare/contrast. There were only a few references to the Russian culture in this book, but it did continue the Russian theme of a grandmother taking care of her grandson, the snowy weather of Russia and the animals that live there. Its a cute story and would make a great book to center studies around if you wanted to focus more on the animals than the cultural aspect of Russia.

Learning Topics

• Matryoshka dolls
  We learned about these Russian nesting dolls and talked about them throughout the week. During our tea party we read The Littlest Matryoshka and not long after that the mail man arrived with our very own set of dolls. I ordered them at the beginning of the week from Amazon Prime for a great price and quick, free shipping through Amazon Prime!

• St. Basil's Cathedral
  We watched a short video on YouTube and looked at pictures. We talked about how it was originally a cathedral and now is used as a museum. We found another documentary type video on YouTube in which two guys tour the cathedral so we could see what is inside.

• Faberge eggs
  After reading Renchenka's Eggs we printed some Easter egg templates I found by searching Google and colored them with crayons. Some of the websites I visited had their kids make collages with glitter and craft materials, but we weren't up for that today.
• Circus
  We talked about the history of the circus and its connection to Russia. 
• Russian Ballet
  Russia has some of the best ballet companies in the world. We talked about Russia's influence on the ballet world and let the Moscow Ballet's Nutcracker play in the background of our Russian Tea Party. 
• Wassily Kandinsky
   - Kandinsky Color Studies - Explore colors and the emotions associated with them. Then allow children to paint or color "Kandisnsky-style" with the colors they feel. Play classical music in the background for inspiration.
  - Biography of Kandinsky Video - This is a very short video biography of Kandinsky for kids.
  - Through the Ozone The Art of Kandinsky - video images of Kandinsky's work
  - The Noisy Paint Box - This book is about Kandinsky but we weren't able to get it from the library because it was "unable to be located"

Math

• Telling Time
  I downloaded this free What Time Is It Quack! game activity from TeachersPayTeachers.com
• Greater than vs. Less than printable from Teaching 1st

Art

• Kandisnksky's Circle Trees
  This was an easy, no-mess project for us to do together. I showed B how to cut out a small circle, paste it to paper and then cut a circle around it. Each circle had about 4-5 layers and the best part is that the circles don't have to be perfect. I cut out the tree shape and pasted it to poster paper for her and after the circles were all done I let her paste them on the tree.

• Nesting Dolls
  B colored the dolls and I cut them out for her and taped the bottoms. This was a cute craft that she has gone back and played with several times since we made it.

Related Media

• Anastasia on Netflix
  We watched the movie before reading the book or really learning the history because we decided to have an impromptu movie night together. This cartoon had St. Basil's cathedral, showed the czars and royal family (since Anastasia was the daughter of the czar) and had mentions of St. Petersberg and Moscow. We read the book and talked about the royal family, including the "gossip" about Anastasia being alive, and then re-watched the movie. I was then able to help point out some of the learning opportunities on the film.
• Mickey's Fun Songs Lets Go to the Circus
  I watched this on vhs as a child and just happened to find it while searching for circus themed kids shows. It highlights several parts of the circus, from the clowns, animals, trapeze, etc. and the kids love it - just like I did when I was a child. Since they've never been to a circus, this was a good way to it to them in a way that they pay attention.
• Peg + Cat has two circus themed episodes that we watched on Amazon Prime

Learning Resources & Ideas

• National Geographic Kids - Russia
  We used some of the information here but mostly used the main photos at the top to look at the different land types and a beautiful picture of St. Basil's cathedral
• Activity Village - Russia
  This site had some information about Russia but mostly had links to coloring pages (boy and girl Russian dancers, Faberge eggs, St. Basil's Cathedral, Matryoshka dolls, etc.) and crafts

See these ideas and more on my BKS Prep - Russia Pinterest Board!

Week 7 - Spain

I'm particularly excited about this week and only wish I'd started thinking ahead for it sooner. My family spent 3 years living in Spain when I was preschool age so this week's studies are close to my heart. I wish I'd taken time to go through my family's storage containers with some of the souvenirs we returned to the States with years ago, but the good news is we will be visiting them on Friday night and can look at the items after we've had a week to study them.

I've found some fun kid-friendly ideas to study about Spain this week thanks to other bloggers and Pinterest sites. My experiences in Spain were based on a 3-5 year old Navy brat's perspective so it doesn't include a lot of history or culture but it does include first hand experience about the sights, sounds, and smells - or at least what I can still recall of those.

Morning Warm-Ups

I decided we need to beef up in this area. B loves worksheets so I found a couple of free resources to grab some 1st grade level worksheets that go over an array of skills from vocabulary, phonics and math. Here is a link if you're interested: 

I combined a couple of worksheets to make this coloring sheet with Spanish colores for B. She did a great job, only asking for a little help when she got lazy. She was able to read the colors in English to figure out the color for each crayon, then use the crayons as a guide for the rest of the worksheet.

Morning Group Time 
We're changing up our morning group videos this week to incorporate Spanish. Instead of working on our days of the week, months of the year, counting, etc. we are learning all of those things in Spanish this week. Here is a link to the playlist or each individual videos are linked below: YouTube Playlist - BKS Prep Spain Week

• Pledge to the Flag

• Pledge to the Bible

• Say Hello with Basho & Friends
• Learn Colors with Basho & Friends
• Learn the Days of the Week with Basho & Friends
• Learn the Months of the Year with Basho & Friends
• Learn to Count with Basho & Friends
• What Time is It?
• Bible Books
• Cristo Me Ama

Vocabulary/Reading

Free Spanish Printables at MudPies & Make-Up

I found this FREE editable word scramble worksheet to use for vocabulary words this week at TeachersPayTeachers.com.

• Letter sounds - N
• Vocabulary Words:
  - bull
  - matador
  - flameco- portrait
  - Euro
• Spanish Colores
  - rojo
  - verde
  - amarillo
  - blanco
  - negro- anaranado- gris
  - cafe
  - azul
  - morado
• Spanish Days of the Week
  - Domingo
  - Lunes
  - Martes
  - Miercoles
  - Jueves
  - Viernes
  - Sabado

Bible Story

Our Bible verse was Matthew 5:14 - You are the light of the world. Last year we used Positive Action's Learning About God's Kindergarten curriculum for our Bible lessons and I went back to pull from that this week as we learned about Joshua and Jericho. The curriculum does a great job of summarizing the Bible story, giving a corresponding Bible verse and adding in a work sheet, life application lesson and other elements to make it complete. There isn't a whole lot of "outside" work or preparation required with it.

Reading

The Story of Ferdinand is about Ferdinand the bull who doesn't want to fight like the other bulls but finds himself in the midst of a bull fight by accident. Its a great book to introduce bull fighting, matadors, and other traditional Spanish culture. We watched Disney's Ferdinand the Bull on YouTube and used The Story of Ferdinand Lapbook - a full lesson based on the book that includes science, vocabulary, history, etc. I also found this  Ferdinand Lesson Complete which includes copywork, numbers, letters, etc. And in case you need it, here is a running of the bulls holiday description

  

Amelia's Show-and-Tell Fiesta is a book about a little girl named Amelia who shares her culture with the class during show and tell.

A kid-friendly story of the relationship between Pigasso and Mootisse (artists Picasso and Matisse),  When Pigasso met Mootise not only introduces children to art styles but the ideas of competition, friendship and commodore.
   Video: When Pigasso met Mootise

Eight Animals on the Town was a last minute addition to our library book stack. Its a great book to introduce some basic Spanish vocabulary without even realizing it. The author does a great job of using rhyming words by coming Spanish and English sounds to tell about 8 animals who go out on the town to get dinner and go dancing.

Learning Topics
We read and learned about Pablo Picasso this week and focused on his Cubanism style. Here are some activities and resources we used:

• Pablic Picasso: Cubanist Art Lesson - This video was awesome in teaching a little bit about Picasso and different art styles with an art activity at the end.
• Picasso Art Activity with Ms. Patti
  Ms. Patti does a great job of talking about Picasso and then introducing the art activity for us to do, but it ends in a irrelevant song that could be left off. I think its about donating clothes that you outgrow which is a good thing to learn, but not in the middle of art lessons or discussions.
• Picasso, That's Who song with Hope Harris
   Its the 2nd track on this album with the same name. You can listen to on the website for free or you can purchase the song from her site or Amazon.

- Biography for Kids
- Picasso Biography at Mr. Nussbaum
- Teaching Picasso ideas for K-3

Math
B worked on telling time by the hour. She got this surprisingly fast so we didn't spend much time on it and I didn't have the next section prepared to begin teaching minutes.  B and K have been watching What Time is It learning song during the morning routine this week so it must have been more effective than I realized.

B also worked on counting money with various worksheets and with coins that we found around the house. She really enjoys playing with money and pretending to buy things so we turn everyday conversations and play into learning about money.

Related Media

Justin Time - Ole, Ole
In this episode Justin, Olive and Squidy imagine that they perform the flamenco for the king. Children can learn about some of the Spanish traditions in this short animation and hear the traditional sounds of the guitar. 

Ideas and Resources

• DelightfulLearning.net
  This site has a lesson plan for The Story of Ferdinand that includes a lap book, learning about Spain and flowers,  and some fun ideas like making churros and watermelon flowers.
• HomeSchoolCreations.net 
  This blogger has 2 weeks of learning about Spain: Week 1 covers Magellan, Ponce de Leon, Picasso, and The Story of Ferdinand. During Week 2 they study currency, bull fighting and review lessons from week 1.
• MudPies & Make-Up
  This blogger has free Spanish printables that were exactly what we needed to make our Spanish board of colors, days of the week and months of the year. It also has a printable with the words to our Spanish greeting morning song.

See my BKS Prep - Spain for more ideas and resources for learning about Spain and the other topics we're using this month.