Spooky Autumn and Columbus

Last month we talked about the trade along the Silk Route. We talked about what trading is, who the merchants were and what and why they traded. We will go over the main points again this week:

1. Trading is a profitable exchange of goods. For trading to occur, we need a good which is in excess somewhere and which is in demand somewhere else. Further, the trading process has to be safe enough to allow for the transition from the location of production to the location of consumption.
2. China had a monopoly of silk production because they were the only ones who had the recipe. The rest of the world has heard through travelers and later seen the fabric, so desire grew. The spices in India were similarly desired because they would allow for the food to last longer, for the old food to taste better, and for food not to spoil-all desired qualities in a product at the time where no coolers and refrigeration was available.
3. Trading was not easy, it was risky which also made it profitable because the price of the goods increased the more hands it touched and the further it traveled.
4. Trading was relatively safe because local leaders and especially Kubla Khan protected the traders.
5. Trading today is done in a similar manner. Goods are traded from a place where they can be easily and cheaply produced to a place where they are desired. Trading is fairly safe because of international and local laws. Trading can be international as was the case with the trading along the Silk Route or trading can be local as is the case with the local farmers' produce.
6. Aside from goods people exchanged-stories, beliefs, knowledge, germs, inventions, etc.
7. Eventually the trade became difficult because it was no longer safe, local leaders demanded too much tax. Europeans looked for other ways - going on land through Northern Africa, or trading with  the merchants in Northern Africa who trade with the merchants from the East; or going West across the ocean of which Europeans didn't know much.
8. We will mention the solution the Portuguese followed but we will discuss their approach in November.

We will demonstrate how price increase the more the good travels. This will be part of 'easy math'.

This will lead us into the story of Columbus. We've already tackled a few books, but we will be re-reading these. We have been looking at the map-recognizing Portugal, Italy, Spain, France, England the Canary Islands and mainland America and the islands on which Columbus landed. We read first "Christopher Columbus" followed by "A picture book of Christopher Columbus". Next, we will read  "Animals Christopher Columbus saw", followed by "You wouldn't want to sail with Christopher Columbus" during which we will talk about the importance of vitamins. Of course the premise of Christopher Columbus's journey were that 1)the Earth is round and 2) according to the Greek thinker Ptolemey, the Earth is small, so we will read "How we learned that the Earth is Round" and we will brainstorm how we may figure out how big the Earth is. We have also read and will re-read "Maps and Globes". Along with these read-alouds and discussions we will do three projects: 1) we will make a globe from paper. 2) We will demonstrate how much the north and south are distorted by the projection from the globe to a sheet of paper. We will measure the circumference around the poles with a rubber band, and we will mark the width of Greenland. Then we will stretch the rubber band to the length of the equator. 3) We will write and draw following Draw, Write, Now, book 2.

1. We will mentioned the origin of the name 'indians' for the local inhabitants.
2. We will mention the origin of the name 'America' for the new found land.
3. We will mentioned partially the cruelty that Christopher Columbus demonstrated towards the locals due to the lack of gold and spices.

When all is set and done, we will read the book "Who discovered America".

Then we will move to the science portion of our curriculum-Fall and the seasons. We will read the following books: "Awesome Autumn", "Busy busy squirrels", "The big tree", "The grand old tree", "Why leaves change color" and "Crinkleroot's guide to knowing trees". We will also talk about how the seasons come to be, with the assumption that the earth and sun move around each other as they do-the discussion of why that is and how people deduced this we will post pone for another time. For this portion of the month we will do two projects: 1)We will carve/decorate pumpkins. 2)We will make fall leaves collage.

I also plan an outing to Lake Katherine. There are two portuguese songs which the kids like "Quando chega o outono"(pdf) e "Folhas do outono". Of course, there is Vivaldi.

It is also Halloween this month. We will read some spooky stories-these will be in portuguese (Bruxa venha a minha festa, Bruxa atrapalhada, etc.). We will also read our old favorites from past years as well-these are still on the shelves in the basement but I will pull them out: "Nightmare in my closet", "Where the wild things are", "Monster", "The great pumpkin", "Room on the broom" and "Squeaky, creaky bed". For this portion of the month I plan two projects: 1) Make monsters from paper rolls or Make monsters from springs and a box. 2) Make Lego costume(s) out of cardboard.

This month is also Ballet girl's birthday. I am not planning anything grand but the day after her birthday we are going to the local portuguese school "Aqui se fala portuguese" and we will celebrate Dia das Criancas and the girl's birthday at the same time there with all other families. This I am truly excited about. We will also learn to sing Happy Birthday in portguese with Patati Patata e Galinha Pintadinha and Xuxa.

Our Read Aloud is "Little Witch" and Ballet Girl is tackling the Little Witch readers.

Update 10/13/2014: We finished Little Witch last night. During this second reading, for me, I found the story somewhat dull and slow-flowing. My kids were not enthusiastic about it too. For Sunlight boy, the book lacked illustrations-he kept on looking for illustrations; for Ballet Girl, the story lacked magic, a dynamic story line. I was disappointed that I had picked a dull October book. I think next month, for our read-alouds, we will concentrate on books about celebrating birthdays.

We tackled 'How we learned the Earth is Round' tonight. I showed them what happens to a boat on a flat surface as it goes further out; we repeated with a curved surface. We also played with shadows. I showed them the shadows different shapes cast. We will cover another time what happens when a round object such as the moon enters the shadow and how that can be used to strengthen the belief that the Earth is round. When we came to Columbus I did emphasize that he was wrong about the size of the Earth; he was motivated by gold and fame and success, but he was also a risk-taker and brave and it paid off; he met, not discovered, people who were different than what he expected but driven by his desire to discover India he called them indians, a huge misnomer which stuck.

This is a great book. We read it once and we will read it again. After we read it the first time, I showed them why the masses on a map near the poles may appear bigger than they really are as seen on the globe. I pointed out that on a map the longitude lines do not meet at the poles while on the globe they do. I also showed them on the map the distances between the longitude lines are the same on the map at different latitudes (I need to bring out what Ballter Girl and I are learning in Geometry now), but on the globe this is not the case. I used elastic to capture the distance between two longitudinal lines near Greenland, and then showed how much we needed to stretch the elastic in order to match the same between longitudinal line distance at the equator.  I think they got it, if not, it's not a big deal. At least, I got around to demonstrating it. By the end of the month, I will ask them to demonstrate this for me. We will re-read this book one more time before the end of the month.

This month's science team is fall and the changes that occur. I found a bunch of really good books which I hoped to read during second half of the month but instead I read a book here and there. It's better this way, it seams. This book in particular I like because it is about a boy and his mom exploring fall. The mom answers the boy's questions and they do all the things you would do on a nature walk in the fall. Pretty picture, good information delivered in comfortable manner. I recommend this book for audience K-2nd grade. This in particular, I will assign to Ballet Girl to read as self-read.

This is a wonderful book. We also borrowed from the library the Disney version, which corresponds to the Disney cartoon. However, this version, pictured here, is authentic in representing the Russian culture. The story is well-adhered to as well. I recommend this book along with 

Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf: With a Fully-Orchestrated and Narrated CD by Janet Schulman, Sergei Prokofiev and Peter Malone 

 This is a good book. I recommend it. I did combine it with A Picture book of Christopher Columbus and Animals Christopher Columbus saw to make the material less dry and more understandable by little listeners. The Step into Reading book is at Ballet Girl's reading level but I chose not to have her read it. I think that next year I will have her read both books in October herself and we will discuss the topic with different eyes.

Ballet girl read all books in this series. She enjoyed them. Each is around 48 pages and it typically took her around 4-5 days to finish the book at no more than 10-15 minutes of reading per day. All I want to harvest is joy of reading. She is a reader, a fluent reader for the most part and all she needs is consistent practice in order to continue improving. I try to pick books that she will have interest in or books that we have read and she understands that she can read herself now. For instance she will be reading next "Leaves Fall down". 

                                                                                                              Last month we talked about classifications and we mentioned living vs non-living things. I came across these series during my Amazon browsing and decided to give them a shot. They are very simple and reinforce the concept with real-life pictures which children love. This series is suitable for advanced first graders and beginning second graders to read. I recommend this series. 

This is a book my kids love even though it may look like a baby's book. No, this is a book about Paddington and there is not a kid who would not love this book. The pictures are fascinating, the adventures are silly and simple and for a bed time story I doubt you want something complicating and intricate and philosophical. Paddington is perfect. 

                                         

These two are fabulous books about autumn. Grand Old Trees is about the life of a tree which incorporate the seasons. So this book is more encompassing and more intriguing and interesting. We read it together with A boy and an airplane and while the children. Awesome Autumn is a book full of beautiful pictures and suggestions for nice activities.

Someone posted this article and I remembered that while we are probably living in the golden age of children's books, it is becoming more and more difficult to sort through all the junk i.e. the good books are becoming a rarity, a needle in a haystack, if you will. Well, recently, in an used book store I found this series of books, All aboard railroad books. These are fascinating in that things are not only labelled but their use is explained which requires specialized language, vocabulary that children lack. To me the gold was in the meaning-things have been designed with a purpose and for a reason. I recommend this series very much.