Who Owns The Sun? {FI♥AR}

September 19th - 23rd
"Who," I asked my father, "owns the sun?" He pointed to toward the sky and told me to look up. I raised my head and squinted my eyes against the sun's powerful glare. "Only a fool believes he can own the sun," my father said. "Everybody sees the sun's light, and everybody feels the sun's warmth. But the sun is too large, too great, for one person to own. So it shines on all the earth and gives itself to very living thing."I thought of what my father had said, and I believed him.  
I did not understand all my father had said, but I accepted it. He had told me the world was full of beautiful things - things that could not be owned, but that could be loved and appreciated by everyone. 
I am not going to tell you the rest of the story. I will tell you that the first time I read this story and realized what was going on, I cried. And my little ones looked at me wondering why I was crying.

Social Studies: Southern States (Geography), Slavery (History)

Our first conversation was on the history of slavery. I reminded Malachi and Eliana that we talked about slavery during our row of Mrs. Katz and Tush and further explained the history of slavery in America. I touched on the Civil War between the North and the South and we focused on the Southern states for Geography. 

Story Disk

Language Arts: List Making {Things Too Wonderful}, Ask a Question, Question Mark

Malachi's list of "Things too wonderful to be owned:"
  • the earth
  • the sun
  • the rain
  • the flowers
  • the snow
  • the night
  • the starts
  • the moon
  • the planets
  • love ♥

Malachi's "I Wonder" question:


Malachi has been covering of the use questions marks in his Daily 6-Traits Writing, so this tied in nicely. 

Art: Bright Light and Shadows, Simplicity vs. Detail, Color

The first two topics were discussions from the manual on the illustrations in the book. Then we did another lesson from our Evan Moor art book on color. 



Mixing color. 

Science: Seasons, Seasonal Weather Study, The Sun, Five Senses, Simple Machines, Nutrition

Using the mini books from HSS (below), Malachi told me the best part of each season and glued the corresponding seasonal clip-art to each one. 

The best part about: 
  • Spring: playing in the rain
  • Summer: playing in the sandbox
  • Autumn: raking up leaves into a big pile and jumping in the leaves
  • Winter: snowball fights

Then we did the Seasonal Weather Study from The Handbook of Nature Study


September 22nd

{The two red colorings are the crab apple trees in the distance}

We also learned some facts about the sun to go along with our weather study (and the title of the book). 

To teach the five senses, I had Mali and Elli find a leaf outside and then had them describe the leaf using their five senses. I had them describe what it looked like, what it smelled like, what it sounded like, what it felt like, and what it tasted like.  

And since it is officially Fall, I had Malachi tell me what fall means to him using his five senses.  
To me, fall is. . . fun because a bunch of leaves fall off the trees and you can rake them up and throw leaves at each other and jump in the piles and say "cannonball!"
It feels warm - you could make mud walls with the leaves for a base.
It smells like the best piece of nature.
It tastes like pumpkin cake.
I hear squirrels scurrying and wind blowing.
I see pumpkins and yellow, orange, brown, light brown and red leaves. 
(This is from my notes written on the back of my Blank Lesson Planning Sheet from the manual). 

For nutrition, we covered food groups and the Food Pyramid. We did the mini-book from HSS and then Malachi compared it to a Food Pyramid poster. 



We wrote all the food we ate in a day on the MyPyramid Worksheet to see if we ate enough of each food group. 


We ate:  (just in case you are wondering what we eat around here)

Breakfast: 
  • orange juice (fresh juiced)
  • corn tortilla strips
  • scrambled eggs 
  • cheese
  • red bell pepper/tomatoes

Lunch:
  • red lentils
  • taco shell
  • cheese/sour cream
  • olives/tomatoes/corn

Snack:
  • peach
  • milk

Dinner: 
  • refried beans
  • flour tortilla
  • fried potatoes
  • peach

For our food goal, I suggested that we add a veggie and Malachi chose carrot. For an activity goal, Malachi said "riding his bike and practicing his karate skills." (Not sure where the last one came from!)

Evan Moor Daily Science question this week: "Why do we need the Sun?" 


Five in a Row Recipe: Peach Jam and "Big Jim Biscuits"

For our "biscuits," I used my favorite scone recipe. 

I bought 40 pounds of peaches to can, but we were eating them up faster than I could can them. On the third day the children stopped eating them and said that the rest were no good. There was enough {slightly bruised} peaches left to make 14 half-pints of jam. Thankfully, my kids are picky when it comes to fruit. *lol*

We also juiced 40 pounds of organic oranges in 3 days this week. Dylan, Mali, Elli, Bo and I were all sick with a cold and the juice was just what we needed.

Who Owns the Sun? is a selection from Five in a Row Volume 1.

Delightful Links: 


Who Owns the Sun? Resources at Homeschool Share
Weather Lapbook {Sun mini-book}


Note: I decided to row this late Sunday afternoon (of the week we rowed it). I did not have a lot of energy to do many extras, so I just pulled the file for the book, grabbed the manual and just started rowing. . . and this row was just as wonderful (fulfilling) as any other row we have done. I do make some rows extra special for a reason ~ because I am hoping to create wonderful childhood memories around the books we row! Five in a Row is flexible and allows for much creativity. . . but it is still just as great if you grab a book and the manual and  just "row" with the flow. ;-)