Five In A Row

This was our first  book.  fiveinarow.com/‎.  We love doing this curriculum as we get to read a classic story book over and over while learning fun, new stuff!    What could be better than that?

Ping is a little duck living with his 50+ relatives on a boat on the Yangtze River. Every day the ducks leave the boat to swim and hunt for food, and at night the master calls them all back. Ping is always careful not to be the last duck back up the little bridge into the boat, for the last duck always gets a spank upon the back. One day Ping gets careless, and too afraid to take his punishment, he decides to hide instead of joining his family on the boat.

The first day we read, The Story About Ping, Oklin and Onix really liked it.  As you know our family is very animated, so Oklin and Onix were running around pretending to be Ping getting spanked by his master.  But what could be more exciting for the Carson Clan, than to get ducks?  And ducks we did...
Meet Fluff:

Meet Squeaks:

And of course, Ping:

They are actually a lot of fun. The boys have been very diligent with keeping up on their food and water, while Oly keeps up with the squeezing! :)  So by the end of the day, our little ducks are ready for bed time to say the least.

Not only did we get real ducks, but we had to have some to hang on the fridge.

Throughout the week we studied facts about China and the Yangtze River.

To pretend we were a part of the Chinese culture, we decided to make homemade egg rolls and egg soup.  Onix is quite the cook and cop, so he helped maintain the kitchen for the night.

Our last and final day with The Story About Ping; we had a sink/float science experiment at the kitchen sink.

...and yes, Onix wore his police outfit the whole week! ;)

signed out:  Fluff, Squeaks, and Ping!!!

2nd Book:

  

Lentil just wanted to sing so badly - but whenever he tried, the most horrible croak-like sound came out. He had an idea one day to get a harmonica and teach himself how to play. Soon he could play well, and he played everywhere and all down the streets - past the finest house which belonged to the great Colonel Carter; by the library, which was a gift of the great Colonel Carter; through the Carter Memorial Park; and on and on. As you know by now, Colonel Carter is a very important, generous, respected town figure. When he comes back to town after two years, everybody is excited except the grouchy Sneep. When Sneep tries to sabotage the welcome-home festivities, can Lentil save the day?

The book, Lentil, displayed a lot of American Pride, so we read it just-in-time for the 4th of July.

 I had the "shoots"  color some American Flags, while listening to "God Bless America!" ;)

Lentil lived in Alto, Ohio.  Oklin is a very bright boy, so he showed Onix we travel east to get to Ohio from Idaho.  We broke up the spelling into O-Hi-O.

 Robert McCloskey was the author/illustrator, and I pointed out the unique form of drawing he used.  At first the "shoots" thought it was a pencil, but were really surprised to learn it was charcoal...as well as their mother. :)  One suggested activity was to have the students draw with charcoal.

I also challenged Oklin to write a story about his drawing.

and....writer's block....

but....it finally came...

So speaking of Old Sneep...he was a character whom didn't like life, and wanted everyone else to be just as upset as himself.  Old Sneep decided to "gross" everyone out and suck on a lemon in the middle of town!!!

Well the Carsons wanted to see what the fuss was about....

Then we thought it would be fun to taste some other things, and to study the buds of our tongue.

Oly enjoyed her sweet buds the best!

 Our last and final day of Lentil, we read our book and went over fractions.  Oklin was really excited to learn something new, as we have not studied this in math yet.

We also ended it with "She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain" song on YouTube...which is the same song that ended the book! :)