Ivy book list winter 2011

Mysterious Benedict Society x3

Percy Jackson x5

Cat Warriors x 6 or 7?

We lost track of the  many single books she read but somehow she fit in all these series' too!

LA Fall 2010

Ivy

Writing:

- lyrics & music for "Bounce" band she's started with 2 friends
- as many forms, notices, newspapers and posters as she can find content for!
- reflection on the dance class she tried
- Storyworld playing cards for creative writing/storytelling.


Comprehension:

- Artemis Fowl book review
- Accelerated Reader quizzes


Partial book list:

Secret of the Sirens, Julia Golding (of the "Companions Quartet")
Icefire, Chris D'Lacey, of the Last Dragon Chronicles
Septimus Heap, Syren



Ella

Writing:

• Kerpoof story
• Halloween poem
• Planet anthem
• Storyworld games Ella got a pack of these cards for her birthday and both she and Ivy have been involved in creating stories using these visually rich cards and their imaginations. Fun!
  

Comprehension:

• Ruby Gloom book report
• Accelerated Reader quizzes

Book list

• Amulet

• Ivy & Bean, Bound to be Bad and Doomed to Dance

Magic Tree House:

• Viking Ships at Sunrise
• Polar Bears Past Bedtime
• Ghost Town at Sundown
• Day of the Dragon King

Tashi Series by Fienberg, Fienberg & Gamble

• Tashi and the Giant
• Tashi and the Ghosts,
• ...the Baba Yaga
• ...the Dancing Shoes
• ...the big Stinker,
• ...the Demons

• The Cool, Krazy,, Crickets, The Cool, Krazy, Crickets to the Rescue

• Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye (Geronimo Stilton)
  
• Amelia's 5th Grade Notebook
• My Father's Dragon
• Tiny Tyrant

Throughout the summer and fall Jeremy has been reading the Harry Potter series to the girls at bedtime. They are very excited to be starting book 7!

Socials & Science With Friends

Seasons

As today was the first day of fall we reviewed the position of the earth and how the angles mark the changing seasons. Ella, Vanessa and Leigha also completed a fall crossword puzzle.


Animals

Ella and Vanessa finished their project on beavers. They made a posters showing what kind of homes they live in, their life cycle, what they eat and what is unique about them.


Fur Trade

Ivy, Cassandra and Jessica did some research for our fur trade party next week. They looked at authentic foods and how we might adapt those to suit our current tastes. So far we're thinking about beef jerky, dried fruit and bannock. That may not be exactly authentic but it will be fun over a fire.

The girls decided what role they wanted to play and started to consider what they would wear. Using a measuring tape, ribbon and stakes they marked off the size of a northern canoe to get an idea what it would have been like (sneaky math...). The biggest challenge now is deciding what we will trade next week and how the system will work!

Last week the focus was on the First Peoples and what their lives looked like before contact.

Egypt

Serpents reading level

Ivy took out these two "Theodosia" books from the library and it got us both going on ancient Egyptians. We've had many books out from the library and have worked on several projects. We researched different types of stone and carefully purchased red carnelian for a protective amulet. Ivy used a stick as an experimental subject and followed the steps to making a mummy, even wrapping it carefully. She made a fantastic drawing of a pyramid and a winged disk and several "ankh", a symbol of life. We now have a passing familiarity with the various gods and godesses with Ivy's favourite so far being Thoth, God of wisdom and writing.

Newsletter

This is a feature Ivy wrote on her grandma, Dianne Hiebert, in the spring edition of her family newsletter.

The Curious Garden

The Curious Garden is a story about a boy who lived in a bleak grey city.

Then one day while he is exploring an old railway he finds a little garden.

as he takes care of the plants ad the plants get stronger, the plants get restless and

the gaden expands to cover the whole track! by the next spring,it has grown

all the way through the entire city!

Related Links

An interview with the author, Peter Brown is here.

Peter Brown demonstrating his technique.

Pictures of the real Highline Park in New York.

Spanish

We are lucky to have an abuela and an abuelo (? did I get that right?) who are willing to spend time teaching the girls Spanish. Ivy and Ella put a lot of effort into a gorgeous sign welcoming them to our home last week (they live in Winnipeg). Grandma Pearl spent most of a morning teaching them the correct pronunciation of common words and short phrases. Very patient!

Community Involvement

We've discussed communities of various sizes in different countries. Ivy has had an email exchange with her grandparents who are doing relief-type work in the Domincan Republic. They discuss food, housing, schooling and lifestyle.

At the local level, Ivy spent a morning at the SPCA with friends to learn about what they do for animals. She has been to the food bank and is eager to find a way to contribute to it. Together with her Brownies group she did a walking tour in Summerland and they paid particular attention to public art.

Before Christmas we spent some time talking about what we are thankful for and where we might want to help people out. We took a more global perspective and the girls chose to put together a shoebox for a girl aged 7-9. Our extended families put money together at Christmas to send to a helping organization instead of buying each other too many gifts. This year the Paper Kite Foundation was the choice as it was founded by several of my brother's friends. We read through the website to see what the money was going to go towards.

Neighbours are a major component of our community so we are making a little more effort into these relationships. We called an elderly former neighbour and met her for coffee. Our neighbours are very generous and help us out by clearing our driveway of snow and giving us food from the orchard. We try to give back in small ways but I think we need to pick up the pace in that department!


Issues in Communities/Homelessness

Through the contact with the food bank and a having a grandma that works at a homeless shelter, we had the resources to talk through many scenarios where people might have to use these services. The girls did some role playing and came up with some of the challenges they'd face. Some of their solutions were very creative! Being homeless they'd need to find shelter (electricity - extension from outdoor plug next door, blankets, cope with seasons, bathing), food (scavenge, rely on handouts, shelters, food banks, finding odd jobs, how to cook?), clothing (re-purposing or reclaiming what others have rejected, making do with less, toiletries).

Two books that helped us understand more about it were The Boxcar Children and Family Under the Bridge.

Language Arts - Ivy

Here is a list of some of the novels Ivy has read this term (books with stars are ones Ella has listened to as well):

*Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O'Dell
First Light, Rebecca Stead
City of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau (book & movie)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
Savvy, Ingrid Law
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
*Gaia Girls: Enter the Earth, Lee Welles
*Molly Moon, Georgia Bing
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, Trenton Lee Stewart
*Birchbark House, Louise Erdrich
*Secret of Roan Innish, Rosalie K. Fry (book & movie)
A Wrinkle In Time, Madeleine L'Engle

Supplementary novel work:
- Gaia Girls discussion & activity pages
- comparison study of City of Ember and First Light
- contrast between Ivy & Bilbo (The Hobbit)
- group read aloud, discussion and posters for Birchbark House
- A Wrinkle In Time study sheets (here and here, adapted to appropriate level)

Other language arts activities:
- creative writing (halloween math story, posters & magazine pages)
- spelling & vocabulary (mostly oral, some written)
- editing own work with help, particular attention given to sentence structure & use of capitals
- extensive non-fiction reading for fun as well as on the topics of stuctures and the solar system

Island of the Blue Dolphin

This was a read-aloud novel that we went though together (link in LA post). In summary, it's a story about a girl who survives alone on an island for over a decade. She builds her own shelters, finds food, builds canoes, makes tools and learns to appreciate animals as companions. This book was a great complement to the First Nations topics and histories we have covered so far. We were fascinated by the descriptions of her different dwellings for the various seasons of the year.

Ivy used ideas from the novel to make various beach villages during the early fall.

The Birchbark House

The Birchbark House, by Louise Eldrich

This novel follows a year in the life of Omakayas, an Anishinabe girl of 8 winters. The girls and I used it as a read aloud book so that we could talk about new ideas together as they came up.

Throughout the book we are exposed to the many ways in which animals are used and shown respect. Many different plants and their various properties are discussed. Canadian history is reflected in the life of the village, their Deydey's (father's) work as a voyageur, and the exposure of the village to smallpox. The culture of the Ojibway comes through in the language, stories, spirituality and relationships.

The girls and I made charts to keep track of some of the many ways in which animals & plants are mentioned. There is also a poster to show the different stories and legends that are told. The story is broken into very distinct seasons which we noted for Ella's science unit.

Fort Langley & Science World

In September the girls and I took part in a trip to Fort Langley that was arranged by another home schooling parent. We covered the bases of BC & Canadian history as well as getting some good exercise! The group arranged to add a voyageur canoe trip up an arm of the Fraser River. It poured rain but the kids were good sports and so were the adults. The hot tub was all the sweeter at the end of the day.






We swam in the hotel pool every day. The kids got a full workout on the waterslide while we supervised from the hot tub.


On the way to and from Vancouver we enjoyed listening to Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism on CD.


Since were were near the big city anyway, the girls and I navigated our way to the King George skytrain station and rode it downtown to Science World. It provided a great hands-on boost to our science learning, particularly for the "Structures" unit.

The Eureka Gallery
This area commanded most of our attention and the girls had a blast playing with all kinds of force, motion and water based activities.

Our World
In this gallery we experimented with different ways to generate electricity. Solar, wind and a crank come to mind.

-from the website:

Our World encourages us to find solutions for a better future—while examining the environmental, social and economic factors that all need to come together to make for a sustainable society. Through colourful, bright and imaginative exhibitory, Our World engages our attention, while focusing on the everyday choices that we make and how those choices will impact our lives, both immediately and in the future.

Search Gallery

After a bit of time in the main areas we were all ready for the quiet of the Search Gallery. It ended up being one of our favourite spots. It wasn't the flashiest by a long shot, perhaps that's the answer. It's hard for us to learn in environments where there is a lot of noise and activity.

A world of discovery awaits you in our newly-renovated
Search: The Sara Stern Gallery. Gaze in wonder at a T. rex skeleton, climb inside a giant 800-year-old Western Red Cedar, crawl through a real beaver lodge, stroke a collection of animal coats, hear vibrations travel through rock, visit the poison dart frog and discover our updated discovery boxes.

This calm, contemplative gallery will mesmerise you on a journey through the past and present of some of nature’s magnificent wonders.

Dragon of the Red Dawn

Ella has recently discovered the Magic Treehouse series and we finished Dragon of the Red Dawn (#37) last night. The artwork was beautiful so we were inspired to do some drawings and paintings of Japanese gardens today. They were so pleased with the results that they proceeded to play an imaginary game involving the family traveling to Japan, based on Ivy's interpretation of the Imperial Gardens from the story. We followed up with trying our hand at Haiku and short poems. The girls are developing a base of knowledge about the Japanese culture this year, including popular motifs, plants, architecture and artwork.

Ella's poem

Imperial Garden - Ella

Basho's House - Ivy

Imperial Garden with Friends - Ivy

Koi

The golden koi fish
Swimming in it's rocky pool
Quietly waiting.

-Ivy

web games

Several times a week we spend about half an hour on the computer playing games that we feel are both fun and educational. Here are some of the most recent favorites.

Science - Matter


or link to game

Typing practise

Story making (mostly Ivy)

Math patterning(Ella)

Drama

The girls have written and performed several skits together. Ivy tends to do most of the writing but they collaborate on ideas and making the props.

While they were still working on their unit on Animals in science, they were inspired by one of Ella's assignments in which she was asked to colour an animal and then cut it out and find places in the house where it was well camouflaged. Ivy wrote a play and they made puppets and a backdrop for it. Here's the video:



Ivy ad Ella occasionally spend days with their Grandma who helps facilitate some of their learning. In January they co-wrote and performed " Alice Saves Coneland". We regret that we did not take video or photos of the performance but we have pictures of the props. (note the cursive writing Ivy is working on!)

Books and Reading

We're avid users of the Summerland Library, cycling through at least 10-20 kids' books a week and almost always having around 50 out at a time. A few notes on what we're reading:

• Ella enjoys reading the better Easy Readers on her own, usually from Level 1 to 3. She also enjoys reading picture books, and probably goes through five or six a week. We read aloud together every night, often a picture book and a chapter of a chapter book.
  
• Ivy is a voracious reader, plowing through chapter books daily. It's been a challenge to keep her well stocked with good quality books at her reading level, with appropriate content. She loves the Penderwicks, the Ivy & Bean series, the first Harry Potter, My Father's Dragon, Spiderwicks, Judy Moody, Little House on the Prairie, several Roald Dahl books, Clarice Bean, The Doll People, Dragonology, Far-Flung Adventures, etc. She also enjoys non-fiction, but hasn't seemed as interested since the schoolwork started.