Archives for 2013

  As you know we are using Paths of Exploration by Trail Guide to Learning for our summer all-inclusive curriculum. This article is focused on Paths of Exploration Columbus Unit Lesson 3. If you missed the other posts, click here to see all posts tagged with “Paths of Exploration”. This was a great lesson! There was quite a bit of new information and some fun hands on activities for this one!  So let’s get right to the way I implemented Lesson 3.

You’ve heard this a few times now, we don’t do the copywork or dictation, so Section A we totally skipped.  

Reading.  The boys read aloud pages 27 – 37 in Meet Christopher Columbus. This is really good experience for all children to practice reading aloud. The boys are getting more and more comfortable with this activity.  I read pages 45 – 69 in Christopher Columbus.  They are really getting to see how the detail of my read aloud is giving them a much better mental image than their reading in Meet Christopher Columbus and giving them ideas on how to use picturesque words in their own writing. We talked about how long Columbus waited for his opportunity to sail west. And how in today’s “NOW” generation how many people might not have the patience to persevere through this length of time!  

Word Study.  The word study is very much review for my boys.  So we breeze through these but if you have not covered this information, these are excellent!  Don’t skip them … we are breezing through them and treating them like review but they are robust enough that if we had not already covered them, we would be doing them!! In Part 1, we reviewed what an antonym is and quickly read through these, but did not complete the worksheet. Part 2, we reviewed odd past tense words.  In Part 3, we covered the “Who Am I”… these are always fun!  In Part 4 it is all about compound words.  If you are looking to beef up the word study lessons, there are so many wonderful sites for hands-on works!  Montessori For Everyone has free works, Beautiful Sun has a free set, and Free Montessori has some as well. I have an entire post on just free Montessori Materials I’ve found around the web. Be sure to check it out too!

Geography.  In Part 1, we studied a great deal about sailing ships.  Studying their sails and masts.  We talked about the fabric they are made of and the shape of the sails.  We studied vocabulary of ships.  In Part 2, we studied what Columbus thought the map looked like versus what it really looks like.  A great deal of part two is review also… discussing what a continent is and what land mass is which continent. But we did this for a good review (I love to circle back to information we have already covered and present it a different way, which is what POE is doing).  They had to research and find various island on the globe and mark in their notebook. Geography is not covered in Part 3.  Part 4 was fascinating!!  We discussed navigation and what dead reckoning is.  I had never heard of it but we all loved this study and found it fascinating! For enrichment for geography there is so much you could use for this section.  Be sure to study land and water forms if you haven’t already.  This is an especially fun study to do while it is still warm!  Deb over at Montessori has a fabulous round up of what you can do with Land and Water forms. Of course, I have a post about Sandpaper land and water forms too. I highly recommend you get some works that help the children actually study about the land and water forms… there are two very traditional works that are used in a Montessori classroom to each this concept.  One is Sandpaper forms (and the cards that match) and the other is trays. For younger students, a sandpaper land and water globe is common.  I found a great site that discussed the dead reckoning technique and asked some great questions for the boys to ponder!  

Art.  Part 1 art was drawing (or tracing) the sailing ship.  Labeling and adding as much detail as they could remember.  Since we did the nomenclature cards from Montessori Print Shop earlier in our study they remembered quite a bit of detail about what the names of the parts are.  No art was presented in part 2.  In part 3, the boys had to draw clouds and research the difference between wind, breeze and gale and discuss what a hurricane is. You know we spent a month at the beach during September in 2010 and we were run off twice due to hurricanes… we have absolutely studied them already … again review, but we are going track the storms through the hurricane season of 2013. That will be a great exercise and good review of latitude and longitude.  Here are some cards from Montessori for Everyone to help teach latitude and longitude.  Montessori Mom has a great activity using balloons to teach it as well as a coordinate game to download too!!  

Writing.  In Part 2, we had a fun project! The boys designed travel brochures to an island! They each took a different one and had to research it.  Poor Blake chose Cuba… not knowing about the political climate there! He learned all about it in his research though!  They researched the maps of their countries and drew them as well.  This could have been included in geography, because it is just taking the concept of what an island is and giving them some names to associate with the concept!  In Part 4, the writing assignment was studying a piece of art as a detective to learn about the time of day, the weather, how close they were to land, etc.  So they were honing their observation skills.  This was a fun exercise too!  

Science.  In Part 3, we studied more about wind, specifically about the Trade Winds. This was a pretty fascinating study too. I did not know why they were called the “trade” winds and how they encouraged trade. In researching this concept more, I found a NASA site that really explained it well!  But this site, Weather Wiz Kids, also has all the experiments to help the boys really grasp this concept!  LOVE this one… I’m bookmarking it!  

Independent Reading.  We are still focusing on our Columbus book library for their independent reading.

Finally, the Enrichment activities in Lesson 3, Part 5 were excellent!

We did not read Carry On, Mr. Bowditch because this is the middle school supplement we will complete after finishing this section of POE.  

Number 2 was cook a recipe from Jamaica from our Eat Your Way Around the World. Blake and I cooked Jerk Chicken and it was EXCELLENT! I highly recommend this book! We have only had one recipe thus far that we were not fond of! We have tried other jerk chicken recipes where the spice was just too hot!  This one the boys ate and loved! 

Number 3 is learning about Hurricanes and tracking them.  Here are charts for the Atlantic and Pacific to track them.   

That’s it for this Lesson!  We are really enjoying doing Paths of Exploration!   

As you know we are using Paths of Exploration by Trail Guide to Learning for our summer all-inclusive curriculum. This article is focused on Paths of Exploration Columbus Unit Lesson 2. If you missed the other posts, click here to see all posts tagged with “Paths of Exploration”. This past week, we studied all of Lesson 2 of Columbus and I’m thrilled to say we were able to do this entire lesson in one day (about 4 hours or so).  They had the rest of the week to do their homework and independent tasks. I am very pleased with the transition of leaving the “busy work” behind and focusing on the curriculum areas that my boys are learning and not just doing review!!  

I’ll cover each Part of Lesson 2 below.  

Section A. Copywork/Dictation.  The copy / dictation for Part 1 was the last stanza of the original poem “A Journey of Adventure”.  For the rest of Lesson 2 they are all coming from the read-aloud sections. 

Sections B and C: Reader and Read-Aloud. Focuses on  “Language Skills and Thinking Skills”. We read a great deal in the read-alouds and are so excited to be making significant progress now.  As always, I had my boys take turns reading aloud from Meet Christopher Columbus and I read Christopher Columbus.   

Section D: Word Study. For Part 1, this section focused on how rhyming words have the same ending sounds. The study recommended reading the original poem “A Journey of Adventure” and finding rhymes, but Dr. Seuss books are more fun!  In Part 2, POE focuses on “ex” and how it is spelled. The spelling words all have “ex” as a prefix. In part 3, they use the same “ex” words and now we are looking at them from a vocabulary perspective. I love that they provide clues and the children have to figure out what word goes with what clue. There are even a couple left off for our children to create their own clues to match up. The meaning of “longed” is presented and POE then asks questions and suggests using this word as a creative writing prompt for the children to write a few sentences about something they have longed for. In Part 4, the students read about the word “finally” and are encouraged to use it with the earlier creative writing prompt from Part 3 to create a paragraph about something they have longed for.  

Geography. (Note:  Not every Part of each lesson has Geography as “Section E”. In Part 3 of this Lesson it is Section F, so I’m going to stop labeling the Section A, B, C, etc. Instead I’m going to start labeling the sections just by title.) Focusing on “History, Thinking Skills and Art”. POE loves their maps… in Part 1, they are drawing a neighborhood map. One thing I love about POE is that the student workbook that you print has all the notebooking pages already set up where the children go and record their work. Love that! Part 2 does not have Geography. Part 3 does “geography” … but it is not geography…. it is a discussion about worldview!  I love that this topic is in the book… but I would not have put it in geography. Oh well. The focus is on how Christopher Columbus’ worldview was developed. GREAT discussion topic with our children. Part 4 is all about oceans. There are a bunch of hands-on activities I would add to study oceans.  Here are just a few ideas!

http://www.etcmontessorionline.com/free-media They have a fabulous World Ocean matching cards.

http://www.montessoritraining.net/elementary_program/courses/physical_geography/sample_lessons.pdf Has a FABULOUS Ocean study for lower / upper elementary students.  I love the “Appreciating Oceans’ Importance to Life on Earth” section!  

If you have not already introduced the water cycle, this would be a great place to do so!  I did a post on creative ways to teach about weather and the water cycle here.  I love the idea of having our children create a felt water cycle. 

Speaking / Presentation Skills Section:   This is a new section in Part 1 and it is focusing on “Language Skills and Thinking Skills”. It is essentially training and practice for reciting or memorizing the original poem “A Journey of Adventure”.  Two of my boys will by using it for reciting.  Gage, my 12 year old wrote a poem that I will discuss in more detail in the Enrichment Activities Section below. But for now, I’ll just mention that Gage will be reciting his own poem.  This section went into detail about how to present the poem… good information!  

History Section:   This is another new section it is found in Part 2 and is focusing on “Thinking Skills”. In this section, we discussed what qualities it takes to be an explorer. The POE text asks questions that prompt discussion but there is also a place to record their answers in their student notebooks.  

Science Section:   In Part 3, the science section focused on “Thinking Skills and Art”. This section focused on our senses. It is exploring our senses through spices. We created a fabulous Name that Spice game in Lesson 1. If you haven’t already created this game, now would be a great time to do so!  The exploration of our senses is one of the most fun studies you can do with younger students.  If you haven’t already started exploring your senses and really focusing on what information each provides us daily, now is a great time to introduce those lessons. This is a great roundup to start with!

Drawing Section:  This is another new section that was introduced in Part 2 and is focusing on “Science and Art”. This section reminds me of a Charlotte Mason style approach to nature observation. This section focused heavily on methodical observation and quiet and drawing what you saw. Loved how this drawing section was wrapped in some great scientific method and structure. We really enjoyed this section. If your children love it too… you might consider getting them a nature journal or sketch book. My children took Art 1 (charcoal pencil drawing) last year in our homeschool co-op. But whatever you do, I highly encourage you to help them develop this skill! 

Independent Reading:  As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we modified this reading section a bit so the boys will focus their reading on anything about Christopher Columbus for 30 minutes a day. This is working out well. I wrote a post to share what our library resources we have, you can find it here.

Part 5 of Lesson 2 is again all about catch up for the previous four parts, but also it has the Enrichment activities here.  THIS is where we really try to bring the entire lesson to a meaningful wrap-up. POE has some suggestions here such as:

On the large outline map, label Portugal, Spain and the five oceans.  

Complete the Word Scramble located in your Student Notebook (which my boys loved). 

Read Marco Polo in Profiles from History.  There are many timeline activities that go with the study. If you have the time, I think it is so valuable for our children to be able to see characters and events on a timeline.  

These are the official Enrichment Activities:

1.  Look for poetry about maps, travel or specific countries or places. Present the poems to your family by memorizing them or just reading them aloud. You can also illustrate the poetry with drawings or photos. Instead of finding a poem someone else wrote, I assigned my 12 year old son, Gage, the project of writing a poem for this enrichment activity. He did a beautiful job!!   You can find his poem, The Ship’s Journey here.  

I know I have mentioned that we studied IEW this past school year and how much I love this curriculum!   And just as an FYI, I am not affiliated with IEW in anyway nor do I receive compensation from them or free curriculum (Although I would LOVE to change that)!  🙂 I just love their curriculum! You can see my review I wrote about our IEW experience here.

2.  Read about the country of Portugal. Tell others what you have learned. Take what you know about Spain and compare it to what you have learned about Portugal. I assigned my 13 year old son this activity.  He did a Venn Diagram of the similarities and differences of these two countries.  This is a great way to introduce the use of compare and contrast into your homeschool.  

3.  Have you ever been on a boat or a ship?  Draw a picture or write about the boat or ship that you were on.  You could also make up a story about a boat or ship you would like to go on.  Make sure you include what makes travel on the water different from other ways to travel.  I assigned this project to my 9 year old son. We actually did do some sailing a couple of years ago on an extended trip to the coast of NC.  Here is another opportunity to compare and contrast (modes of travel).  Blake wrote a 5 paragraph IEW essay about our sailing trip and it includes pictures from our trip. You can read it here!     

Finally we are wrapping up this lesson with our Eat Your Way Around the World Cooking exercise. We cooked all the recipes from Spain which included: Gazpacho, Torrijes (bread pudding) and Paella!  Gazpacho is Cold soup?  I was keeping an open mind, and since we encourage being food pioneers in our home, I had to model the food pioneer behavior… But I have to tell you that was not anything I’ll be eating again. None of the recipes from Spain wowed me.  This is the first set of recipes that I haven’t liked but Spain is not the country I’ll be heading to first if I ever am able to actually travel around the world!  

I hope these summaries and activities that I add to our curriculum are a blessing to you and your family.  All I ask is that you share my blog and the posts if you enjoy and appreciate them! And, as always, leave me a message letting me know how you are using POE and what you are doing to augment the curriculum to fit your own homeschool!  I look forward to reading your ideas and comments!  

Until next time…