Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Harriet Tubman Resources

We read many books about Harriet Tubman, slavery & the Underground Railroad. Alex was fascinated by the whole things - she still is. We've been reading/studying these subjects for at least a month.

Here are favorites - each of these we've read more than 10 times & plan to buy them:
"Young Harriet Tubman: Freedom Fighter" by Anne Benjamin
"Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman" by Alan Schroeder
"The Drinking Gourd" by F. N. Monjo (with cassette)
"Escape North: The Story of Harriet Tubman" by Monica Kulling - we read this July 2006, and really enjoyed it. It's a Step Into Reading book
"Harriet Tubmand and the Underground Railroad" by Michael Martin - it's a cartoon-style book & we really enjoyed it - we read in July 2006

movies:
"Harriet Tubman" - an Animated Hero Classic
"Great Americans for children: Harriet Tubman"
(one of these movies we loved & watched probably 5 times, but I'm sorry I forgot which one!)
"Follow the drinking gourd" Reading Rainbow movie

Ireland Resources

Here are some of our resources from "visiting" Ireland:

"Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland" by Tomie de Paola - This was definitely our MOST read book.
"St. Patrick's Day" by Gail Gibbons - This was our 2nd most read book
"Fair, Brown & Trembling: An Irish Cinderella Story" - I like this because I've seen versions of Cinderella for other countries we'll try in the future, too.
"Katie's Wish" by Hazen - This tells about the Potato famine at a young age-appropriate level.
"Crafts for St. Patrick's Day" by Ross - we're still planning on doing a few crafts out of this. They're pretty easy, but we just need to go get some glitter & some gold pipe cleaners.

The next few books I didn't read to Alex, we just looked at and discussed the pictures:
"Dublin" by Deborah Kent, "Look What Came from Ireland" by Harvey, "Count Your Way Through Ireland" by Haskins & Benson

We also looked at a few books on potatoes. We're planning on doing a "potato" craft or experiment.

MOVIES:
We watched 3 movies:
"Irish-American Heritage" (American Cultures for Children movie) - this was good. It taught some words in Gaelic. And, it showed how to make a harp with a box - Alex wants to do this, but I'm not sure we'll get around to it.
"Lord of the Dance" - she is LOVING this one. We've had it a week & she's watched it 3-4 times (she was pretty sick for 3 days & mostly just laid around watching movies) Now, she does Irish dancing around the house (me, too!!
"Riverdance" - we actually never finished this one because she loves "Lord of the Dance" so much, but I think I prefer this one.

We also listened to The Irish Tenors CD I already had and we learned the song about "Dublin's Fair City... and Molly Malone."

Some of my family just got back from Ireland so we're eagerly awaiting their package of goodies. :-)

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Harriet Tubman

Yesterday turned out to be unseasonably cool, so we did school outside! It was really nice. We also went for a long bike ride in the park. We worked some more on the castle, but still haven't finished it. Maybe I'll work on it some more tonight...

Besides Ireland, we are also studying about Harriet Tubman, slavery, and the Underground Railroad. Today we came across a National Geographic Site (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad/j1.html) that lets you pretend you are a slave who is thinking about running away. If you decide to run away, you may get caught! (We did) But, you can always go back and try again. We also looked at this site - http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/tubman/tubman.htmlIt is for second grade. We looked at their timeline, did their quiz, and a wordsearch. We've also been singing "Follow the Drinking Gourd" and watched the Reading Rainbow movie about the book which we borrowed from the library.

The best part of the day was when I tucked her in and she asked why we'd done "so little school" that day. :-)

Friday, July 08, 2005

Starting Ireland


We started Galloping the Globe this week by "traveling" to Ireland. Although this country is not covered in Galloping the Globe, we have family members visiting there this month, so thought we'd start with Ireland. They will also be sharing their experience with us via email and photos and some surprises when they return.

This week, we've been reading books about Ireland. We've learned about St. Patrick, the flag of Ireland, castles, and shamrocks. We've been listening to music by The Irish Tenors and have colored a picture of a leprechaun, made shamrocks, and are now making a pink (of course) castle.

Our family members took two "Flat Stanelys" with them to Ireland - they are named Lisa (in swimsuit) and Majetta (cheerleader). We will share pictures of them as they travel. This is a picture of Lisa and Majetta with their suitcase packed for their trip to Ireland.

Also this week, we are working on math, spelling, and handwriting. We will officially start kindergarten in August.
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