Beyond Co-op - George Washington Carver #2

I'm behind in posting about our co-op, but we are soon taking a break (spring break between books) so perhaps that will help me to catch up.  This co-op covered the 2nd set of chapters, 5-8.  The lessons covered were on Kansas and Missouri.  It always encourages and inspires me to see how someone can take a lesson that does not appear to be a hands-on lesson to me and make it something really fun to experience in a group.  To me, being a co-op has had a number of blessings, but learning from the other moms is always a sweet one.  

The children were divided up into groups of 2 or 3.  This activity was set up like a game in which each team travelled to different stations to learn something, engage in an activity and fill out information on a card that they had been given.  

I enjoyed following behind each team and reading along with them.

And listening to what they were saying.

They all worked well together.

Here are some examples of some of the places that they visited - all within the states of Kansas and Missouri.  If you zoom in, you can see some of the activities too.

They took turns with the die and sometimes had to roll it over and over again to get what they needed to move to the next location.

Each team had a card with 4 sides that needed to be completed.

Since each group had a different route, they each learned about unique events in history.  At the end of the journey, each team took some time to share about the places that they had visited and what they had learned.

In honor of the World's Fair held in St Louis, the snack today was fair food.

The foods are always a hit.

Especially when it ended with Nutty Buddies.  (Do other people call them by this name or is there another name?)

As always, it was a fun morning learning with our friends!

Blessings

Leslie

The Rag Coat

I don't often post about our FIAR weeks as we plug along at home and just don't always take pictures.  I thought I'd try to do a little more with photos this time and share just a little bit of our time.

This is our time with the book The Rag Coat.  What a wonderful, tender story about friendship, love, forgiveness and the important things in life.  We read some additional books to go along with this story (and I didn't take a picture).  The two titles that I remember are The Coat of Many Colors by Dolly Parton which is a story similar to this one and Appalachian:  The Voices of Sleeping Birds by Cynthia Rylant which is a great look at this region of the country.  My Mom is from this area, so it is close to my heart.  We watched the movie Christy to learn a little more about this area about 100 years ago.  Here is a great map of the region.

One of my goals in this unit was to have more hands on projects.  I'm not always so good about this.  I remember doing so much more when it was just my oldest two doing FIAR.  So, my intent was to make this memorable.

We made coal cookies after discussing and learning about coal, how it was mined and how it was used.  We modified the recipe slightly to make it gluten free.

Here are some more resources we used to learn about coal.

Short movie on how coal mining is done.  Definitely worth watching as it really gives a great picture of what it is like to work in a mine.

Facts on coal.  The basics are from an old earth position.  We used this site for information on types of coal and types of mining.

For anyone that is local, this was a surprise.  We found that there was once a coal mine near where we live!  Here is the information.

This next activity was one that *I* was very excited about.  This sensory bin was a huge hit!   (I saw this also on Tamara's blog linked below.)  I filled a tub with black beans - lots of them.  I used the magnets that we had on hand - a wand magnet and some small discs with a metal rim.

 The discs were buried into the "dirt" and then Daniel went mining to see what he could find.  I loved that we had this hat too!  This got a lot of play and I hope to do a better job incorporating these more often into our days.  It helps a lot when they are simple like this one!

 We made an apple pie as is suggested in the cookbook.  Actually, Daniel and his Daddy made this one! Great job guys!

 It was delicious and enjoyed by all.  (Yes, we did adapt it to make it gluten free.)

More great posts on rowing this book are here and here.

We had a great time with this book and made some sweet memories.  I love that about Five in a Row!

Blessings
Leslie

North Carolina History!

When my oldest was 10, I wanted a group that would engage him with other boys his age - and that was fun.  He had a love of history and this seemed a great fit.  We started a North Carolina history group.  For four years, we explored the state in classes and field trips and had a great time doing it!  

The last 5 years have been filled with a lot of challenges and the timing for doing this again just wasn't right - until now.  I'm thrilled that we are once again going to be learning North  Carolina history and traveling our state.  Two things that are so much fun - field trip and living history!  I'm excited to share it here too.  I have often wished that I blogged then, but I'll have to try to do a better job of keeping up with things here.  This post is going to cover both our class and field trip for the month of January.  I'll probably split them up in future posts.  

Our co-op will be meeting twice a month.  In the first meeting we will have a class and the second meeting will be a field trip related to the class room topic.  We have four families in our co-op and a pair of moms will be teaching each class.  

Did I mention that I'm excited about this?!

For our first meeting, we started with an overview of North Carolina history.  We looked over the timeline of events that have occurred and found interesting facts and stories to share with the kids.  I have a lot of books from when we studied our state before which has been helpful in starting to pull things together.  We spent about 50 minutes to an hour covering our state history from Native Americans to explorers, settlers to pirates, wars, development and more!

One of the things that I love about teaching classes is that I always learn new things too!  History is fun because it is stories.  Lots of interesting stories.  One that I found particularly intriguing while doing research for this class is one that happened in our state's more recent past.  I'll share it with you.

1961 – Battleship USS North Carolina is berthed at Wilmington & opens as a museum.

            B-52 bomber crashes near Goldsboro while carrying two nuclear warheads.  DOD reports released in 1980 indicate that one of the weapons snagged in a tree and was only a final safety catch away from detonation.  The bomb was 1800 times as powerful as the one dropped on Hiroshima.  

We did some mapping of our state as well - learning about the major areas of our state, the major rivers, our capitol and more.

While the older students were learning, the little girls amused themselves!  Couple of cuties!

We also talked about state symbols.  Before the class met, we asked each student to pick a symbol that he/she would like to share with the group.  They each took turns talking about the various things that have been chosen to represent our state.  I apparently didn't take any pictures of them sharing though.  Oops!

For our field trip we visited the NC Museum of History in Raleigh.

They have a new exhibit on the history of our state that is FABULOUS!!!  I highly recommend a trip to see this!  Its interactive and hands-on.

You start at the beginning of the state's history and walk through the various time periods and events that have shaped our state.

 They have wonderful scavenger hunt type books with questions and things to look for that are a great way to engage your students (or yourself) in the exhibit.  This was one of the first areas - a Native American hut.  We sat in it and watched a movie.

 Looking in a treasure chest in the pirate exhibit.

 My little cutie exploring and learning.

 A map showing the key events in the Revolutionary War.

 An area displaying life on a farm that the children really enjoyed.  They were able to milk a cow.

 And see how many eggs the chicken had laid.  

 How heavy is a bucket of water?  You would know if you had to carry one (or more) each day.  It was pretty heavy!

 

 There were docents at various places in the exhibit to demonstrate or talk with the visitors about even more items.  This was in the farm area and were examples of other things grown in our state - and presented in fun ways too.  A magnification of a seed or things that could be touched as you talked about them.

 This map really captivated several of them.  It was a map describing things in around the state.  When you pushed a button near the description, the display began to move.  A train moving on tracks, people dancing and more.  It really was interesting.

 There were so many things that I couldn't get pictures of all of them.  A "mill" that when you walked in you could hear the noises and feel the vibrations of the floor.  Artifacts from various wars beginning with the Revolutionary and ending with more current wars.

 I liked this one with the sign from our hometown!

 A fun spot for a photo of some of our group.

 Eliana was quite intrigued with these guys and walked around looking at them for awhile.  I think she was waiting for them to move - or do something!

 We went through the entire exhibit, but we could go back and still learn so much more!  It was wonderful!  If you are at all interested in NC history, this is a great resource!

I love where I live and this is such a fun way for my children to learn more about where they were born and raised.  Its fun exploring it with friends!

Blessings
Leslie