Rowing :: The Story About Ping

We had such a fun week with Ping. I really loved this book from the first time I previewed it. And, I don't know...seems like the plans just came togehter for this one!

Before the year started I tried to tie our FIAR books with our family history study and this one worked PERFECTLY!!! We were studying China that week and so everything we did with Ping brought them back to the China lessons in history and our China history lessons tied in with what we did with Ping! Love that!

Seatwork ::

We colored a map of China, two actually, one to hang next to our world map, showing our FIAR travels this year, and one for our "scrapbook" of work.

We made a little mini book of types of ducks. #4 glued in each picture of the ducks then #3 copied the names. We also made a "king of -ing" crown at the beginning of the week. When it was dry each of the boys got a turn to wear it. They didn't really "get" the "king of -ing" but I'm hoping as #3 through kindergarten and starts taking on more of his own writing it will come in to play.

For math we counted Ping's family.

There was a lesson in the manual about showing water movement. We observed though the story the way the illustrator used colors and lines in the water to show movement. We drew our own picture and drew lines to show our water. #3 was surprisingly into this and got a lot out of this little drawing lesson.

Science ::

We did a science experiment about boyancy. The big kids got involved with this and each #3 and #4 got their own prediction and observation sheet. #1 helped #4 with reading and filling out his worksheet!

After our field trip we did an experiment about preening and what makes ducks waterproof. I cut out a duck shape from a brown paper sack. One of them I coated with oil and one was left plain. The boys used medicine droppers and dripped water onto both of them to see what would happen. They thought this was great fun!

Crafts ::

This was a fun book for crafts!

First we took most of the week to paint paper plates yellow and make handprints. When that was all dry we put together all the little parts to make our own ducks. So cute!

We also took the opportunity of being in China to make my favorite elementary craft, Chinese lanterns. The boys thought they were fun. #2 even joined us. They had a fun hanging element to our room, I think!

Field Trip ::

And of course we had to take advantage of the fact that we live in the "home of the Ducks" to go visit the park and watch the ducks. The city askes that noone feeds the ducks so we just watched and tried to "make friends" with them. I did bring a picnic but I'm glad it was a simple crackers and ham lunch meat since as soon as we spoke the words of food we were surrounded by ducks! Keeping #5 from just handing over his lunch was a bit tricky!

We also enjoyed a chinese dinner out complete with chopsticks and tea! What a fun week!

Links ::


Delightful Learning - always so happy when she rows a book before I do! I get so many ideas from her!
Homeschool Share - all the mini books and worksheets come from here unless otherwise noted.
Enchanted Learning - duck paper plate craft