Mirette on the High Wire

This week's Five in a Row book was Mirette on a High Wire. In history we were learning about France during the early Middle Ages so I wanted a FIAR book that was also about France.

Some books we read this week: Starring Mirette and Bellini, Mirette and Bellini Cross Niagara Falls, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, Madeline, A Spree in Paree, The Inside-Outside Book of Paris, and Harold's Circus. We also watched this video of the book, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers found here.

Colin and Caleigh built Eiffel Towers from Legos.

We found out about many things that were invented in France from the book, Look What Came From France, including parachutes

and French toast.

The kids made circus posters advertising their tightrope act that you can see below on their notebook pages. Here they are performing:

Then they tried it with binoculars so it looked like everything was far away.

After that, they started performing more daring feats. 



Caleigh making an omelet like Bellini did in the book



Molly making omelet

  

Molly on Colin's shoulders like Mirette



Except for one thing each, the kids did the same activities for their notebooks. They all found France on a map, colored the French flag, colored circus books (from Enchanted Learning) with words in French, figured out what color the French words stood for to color the picture the correct color, and made their circus poster. The othr mini books came from Homeschool Share.

Molly's-- she also identified the starting sounds of circus words

Caleigh's-- she did a compound word activity

Colin-- he found the places from Bellini's career that were mentioned in the book including Naples, Niagara Falls, the Alps, Moscow, Barcelona, and Paris.



Our Week: Franks, Charlemagne, & Mirette

So much for a normal, productive week. Colin started running a fever on Sunday night and spent most of Monday and Tuesday in bed. I hate that he was sick, but it was kind of nice spending most of the week at home and not having so much to do. We did end up getting through most of the school I had planned except for astronomy.

The Three Rs

Colin started Life of Fred: Fractions this week. He'll probably continue with it until after the first of the year at least. I thought it would be good for him to have a little break from our regular math. It also frees up a little of my time since he can do it independently and that's really helpful during these busy weeks. He must like it because he chose to do it even on one of the days he was sick when I told him he didn't have to. He finished 5 chapters this week and got all the questions correct on the first bridge.

Caleigh learned to play corners this week. I had to skip it in math last year because I lost the cards during our move, but I finally found them and she really liked playing.



She really did like it; she just doesn't like smiling for the camera.



History

We did three chapters in history this week. The first was about the kingdom of the Franks, Clovis, and how the four tribes became one empire. The next one was about the Islamic invasion of Spain. The last one was about Charles the Hammer, who stopped the Muslims from taking over the land of the Franks, and his grandson, Charlemagne, the greatest king of the Frankish Empire.

The kids made these crowns like Charlemagne's.

Caleigh has a lot more jewels on one side so it kept sliding

Five in a Row

This week's book was Mirette on a High Wire by Emily Arnold McCully. They learned about France, the Eiffel Tower, famous tightrope walkers, compound words, some French words, made a circus poster, and walked a tightrope. See my separate post about the fun we had with this book.

Everything Else

Because of sickness, there wasn't much else this week. We had to cancel First Lego League. We already didn't have a meeting scheduled for next week so I expect the first week of December to be a busy one since regionals are that weekend. Colin did go to hockey practice. I thought he should skip it, but he insisted he was well enough to go. He did okay, but we could tell he was 100%. He was supposed to have baseball today, but I didn't let him go because he still seems congested.

And now we are officially on break. We haven't taken a full week off since starting school in August so I think we're all happy that Thanksgiving break has arrived.

Go to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what everyone else did this week.

Science Experiments

We went to a birthday party where they had someone to do science experiments with the kids.

Oil and water with food coloring and Alka Seltzer

Putting packing peanuts in acetone

Watching the packing peanuts disappear

Shooting rockets

Molly's went a little off course.



This is what she looked like after getting splattered by it. (Mud was on her shirt, pants, face, and even in her hair)



Caleigh's turn

Candy Land Birthday Party

The theme for Molly's birthday party this year was Candy Land. What 6 year old wouldn't love a party with tons of candy?

I made the cake to look like the Candy Land board.

Cake with the cake board. It's wrapped in wrapping paper. My husband took pictures of Molly and made them look silly, which she thought was very funny.

I found these glass jars at the Dollar Tree and filled them with different kinds of candy. The kids got the stuffed toys last time we were in Hershey, PA.

The kids made the gingerbread house.

The inside of the cake. I colored the cake batter 6 different colors.

This is what the cake looked like before baking.

We cut posterboard into squares and taped them to the floor. I think I saw every kid follow the path at some point.

The invitation

I had gingerbread ornaments that the kids decorated with glitter glue.

My beautiful girl. Can't believe she's 6 already.

Molly's 6th Birthday

Gingerbread person Caleigh decorated for Molly

Australia Unit Study

I had planned to study The Pumpkin Runner since our history this week is about Australia but it still hasn't become available from the library. So I just went ahead and focused on the geography, history, and animals of Australia. We learned about the different parts of Australia, the Aboriginal people, landmarks, words that are said differently than we say them, and a little about the coral. We discussed how their seasons are the opposite of what we're having.

We read lots of books. The ones the kids chose as the best were The Singing Snake, The Biggest Frog in Australia, Edward the Emu, Diary of a Wombat, Destination Australia, Look What Came From Australia, and Swim, Little Wombat, Swim.  The kids loved learning all about the fascinating animals in Australia. The girls both said the kangaroo was their favorite and Colin liked the koala best. They used Draw Write Now to draw a kangaroo, koala, echidna, and a platypus.

I had hoped to get in some crafts, but the week was just too busy and it didn't happen. We did make lamingtons though.

We also made some koala cookies. They looked good before baking, but then they spread too much and turned into this.



Caleigh's looked pretty good.




Molly had already taken a bite before I got the pic.




Colin had taken a few bites. He thought it would break if he tried to hold it up.


Notebook pages