Sorry everyone I am not going to link the movies and books… I am rather sure it can all be googled and the Christmas season has me rushed! BUT! Roald Dahl… READ HIS BOOKS!
Roald Dahl’s birthday is celebrated on September 13th. He is best known for his books Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda which have been made into movies. We chose to start reading his books on the 13th of September and then go from there. We managed to find quite the selection of books to enjoy as a family:
Matilda
The Twits
The BFG
George’s Marvelous Medicine
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Glass Elevator
James and the Giant Peach
The Minpins
Our main resource for printables was Activity Village. Lots of colouring pages and even some fun worksheets for a nice portion of our books.
For a more in depth activity I also found this site HERE. They had classroom plans for portions of the different books. Some we skipped and some we leisurely enjoyed. This unit quickly went from a celebration of a birthday week to as long as we can find books to read.
For the kids, while they listened to my reading I had them doodle portions of the book. It was so much fun to see what they picked out as interesting. They all had a different method and style to their pages (though at times Trinity was SUPER resistant to doing a doodle).
There were multiple movies to watch beyond just the original first come to mind ones:
Matilda
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
The BFG
James and the Giant Peach
I came up with some additional activities to go with our books and movies. For The BFG I had the kids write their very own dream labels, and then compare the book to the movie. For Charlie and the Chocolate Factory we did various levels of comparison depending on the ability of the kids – a movie review, comparing the book to the movie, comparing the movies. It was interesting to see who liked what. The same for Matilda. The realization that movies are not identical to books came very quickly to the kids!
Of course we had to do a short insect study for four of the insects included in James and the Giant Peach… We had ladybug, silkworm, glow worm and spider (we went with Black Widow) chosen out of the list (funny how there is no silkworm in the movie). I got some pretty good links:
Ladybug had all our questions answered with National Geographic Kids HERE.
I found the silkworm highly interesting. Did you know there are none in the wild and that we have domesticated them so much that the moth that results cannot fly??? EnchantedLearning HERE and Itchy Fish facts for kids HERE.
Black Widow spider was our distinct spider of choice and we went again with National Geographic Kids HERE.
Glow worm was a little rough, but we went with the Encyclopedia of New Zealand HERE and A-z Animals HERE.
Roald Dahl’s books are a blast for our whole family. I am so glad we decided to make them a family experience. Even Echo is in on the listen and has her minutes for the BookIt Pizza Hut reading club counted during the time. One of these days I will take pictures of the binder and share it in another post! We really did have fun with this author’s work.
So with our in depth examination of China the kids requested another country… Being all democratic (first mistake) I let them choose… even after extorting the amazing qualities of some European countries (ok so Mommy has some interests not yet tapped) I was out voted and we chose a month+ long focus of MEXICO!!!
This is another first for us. I the topics I thought would be interesting and made up pages for the twins (and the littles to a more limited extent) to chose from. Topics like Sports, Inventions, Capital City, the list goes on and on… so we shall see how giving some more independence and choices works with the kids… FINGERS CROSSED!
However I am still verifying all websites before they settle on them so I had some major work ahead of me. And of course I have some to share as well!! I will post them according to topic, the only order is the one chosen by the boys to cover!
GEOGRAPHY
What hemispere is Mexico in? Ask.com has the answer HERE
DINOSAURS… yup we went there… Emanuel and Trinity and I!
Our dinosaur list was found on EnchantedLearning HERE
Gorgosaurus: a wonderful picture on deviantArt thanks to SommoDracorex HERE. Dino Hunt Canada with their “breathing” image HERE. EnchantedLearning facts HERE. Raresource HERE.
Labocania: not a common dinosaur AT ALL… so this is the best I could do! Dinosaurs.about.com HERE, CoolDinoFacts Wikia HERE, RareSource.com HERE. BUT an amazing picture to colour thanks to deviantArt and hyphenatedsuperhero HERE.
For Hypacrosaurus we used one site as our launching pad and clicked their links. VERY helpful. You can find our link HERE thanks to Dinosaur of the Week.
Pterosaur: not so much a specific animal but a grouping of apparently NOT dinosaurs, so fun for the kids being as these were FLYING critters. EnchantedLearning HERE. SomeInterestingFacts.net HERE. And our colouring page on SuperColoring.com HERE.
Lambeosaurus: A duck-billed dinosaur we had a few good resources we used – KidsDinos.com HERE, EnchantedLearning HERE, and our colouring page was from IAmFritz.com HERE.
Apatosaurus: Our last dinosaur chosen to research… Science Kids HERE, Kids Dig Dinos HERE, EnchantedLearning HERE and our colouring page from Ducksters HERE.
PLANTS AND ANIMALS
The National animal/bird is the GOLDEN EAGLE… and the plant the PRICKLY PEAR CACTUS. We found that out using Wiki HERE. Learn more about the Golden Eagle thanks to Sandiego Zoo HERE. And all about the Prickly Pear Cactus thanks to DesertUSA HERE.
Of our list Zander chose TWO animals to research (online)… Axolotl was the first with three links: A-Z Animals HERE and National Geographic Kids HERE and Mother Nature Network HERE. It is crazy cool! The second was the Tigrillo or the Margay. We found various pages once we realized the secondary name so here is a quick list – Encyclopaedia Britannia HERE, SoftSchools.com HERE, PoC HERE, The Animal Files HERE.
TRADITIONAL CLOTHING
Education.com worksheet for traditional clothing for both genders HERE.
Facts about traditional clothing thanks to FactsAboutMexico.com HERE.
Gavin did the research and write ups for this one. First Frida Kahlo, mainly from our book list but also from Wiki HERE.
And her husband Diego Rivera, again mainly from our library finds and Wiki HERE. Our colouring page of one of his murals can be found HERE thanks to Scribble Blog.
LANGUAGE and PEOPLE
Learn Spanish at Duolingo.com (app available too) HERE.
Famous people born in Mexico list with links onward thanks to Biography.com HERE.
NATURAL DISASTERS
An article of interest on the examination of an area in Mexico that experienced a massive drought for about 650 years thanks to NBC HERE.
AGRICULTURE
Livestock numbers (from 2008) thanks to Answers.com HERE. We used this as an example of the types of common animals raised for food and other reasons.
Learn about the Cacao plant and chocolate thanks to Wilderness Classroom HERE.
A list of common plants to Mexico (short) thanks to ehow HERE.
Plants of Mexico list (long) thanks to Backyard Nature HERE.
Spanish word book and more HERE thanks to Homeschool Share.
Clothing colouring page HERE thanks to Coloring Book 4 Kids
BOOKS… boy did we have books!! I may have cleaned out 2 or three local library branches!! So enjoy the fruit of my requesting! I will try and point out the super useful or fun books with a bit of further information. After all, this is useful for me too when we chose to revisit a topic for the littles to learn more about!
Cactus Soup by Eric A. Kimmel. This is a take on the stone soup idea set in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution (1910-1922). The kids picked up right away that it was a great lesson about sharing. Though the girls were VERY put out about the people lying about having things at first… not cool! Great book HERE.
Little Egret and Toro by Robert Vavra. This is not a MEXICAN story but we chose to read this book because it was set in Spain and about a fighting bull. The whole concept of bull fighting and the ending of the fight in the death of the bull is visited. It does have a happy ending though! HERE
Mexico by Gina DeAngelis (a common name for a lot of the books we borrowed but I will link each one if I can!): Many Cultures, One World. HERE
Mexico! 40 Activities to Experience Mexico Past & Present by Susan Milord HERE
Traditional Crafts from Mexico and Central America by Florence Temko HERE
AZTECS AND MAYANS – we only did a cursory discussion on these two groups but had a lovely stack of books for reading and enjoyment and of course the fact finding.
Ancient Aztec The Fall of the Empire (Ancient Civilizations for Children) HERE
I really enjoyed this unit and the kids seemed to learn and enjoy a lot too… Please enjoy the images from some of our finished work!
Our craft… This was traditionally started when the child was born and each colour added for each year. Birth Charms.. though the kids and Ken made theirs up in one day.
Here is a quick peek at our finished notebook/binder… sorry about the quality and the babbling!