Learning about Viewpoint

While going through The Story About Ping for Five in a Row, we talked about Viewpoint. You know, how something appears depends on your point of view even though it is the same object. There are many pictures of the same duck, Ping, from different viewpoints in the book, and while I think most kids their age understand it is still a duck, this gave them a word to go with it.

To further illustrate this to the girls I gave them a very simple task....to take pictures of the same object in as many different ways (or different viewpoints) as possible. I let them choose their object and gave them the little point and shoot camera. 

They both came up with a lot of different viewpoints including various angles other then straight on front, back, and side (although we had those too).

   

A few of Bria's:

And a few of Nadia's:

Although this was  a super simple activity the girls loved it because it meant they got to take pictures! It also clearly demonstrated the idea of viewpoint, and how an object is still the same even though it looks differently depending on where you are standing,

Paper Gondola for Papa Piccolo

Recently, for our Five in a Row Studies, we read Papa Piccolo by Carol Talley.  The story takes place in Venice, Italy and highlights all the canals and boats that travel through the city, especially the gondola.

 

Nadia kept getting the word gondola and the word canal confused. Every time I asked her what a canal was she would tell me a type of boat. After 3 days of this we decided to make some gondolas.

Start with a sheet of black construction paper and fold it into quarters.

Start cutting along the double folded side forming a scoop that comes up on the open side.

Now when you open it you have a giant, capital "I". 

Fold your "I" lengthwise  Glue the very ends and then decorate however you wish!

I printed out some tiny cats for them to color, so they could have their own version of Marco, Polo, and Papa Piccolo too.

The gondolas were ready for a regatta, and now she could remember the difference. 

We didn't have many hands on projects with this book other then painting with water colors and making gondolas, but the girls really enjoyed the story! I think Triscuit did too!

Apple Math for How to Make and Apple Pie and See the World

The last activity we did to go along with How to Make an Apple Pie and see the World was Apple Math!

I started by reviewing simple fractions. I drew apples on blank index cards and then cut one in half and one in quarters.  This way the girls could easily see there are 2 halves in a whole and 4 quarters. 

I also made ten more of these apple cards and taped them to the piano (the girls thought it would make a good apple tree).

From there they took turns collecting the number of apples I told them. Once they had the apples I asked them to give a certain number to their sister and then tell me how many they had (subtraction). I also asked whoever received the apples how many they now had (addition). This was repeated over and over and over, refilling the tree several times. While I'm sure they didn't memorize any of their addition or subtraction tables; I do think it helped to cement the idea of addition and subtraction (what we really needed to work on). 

Need other activities to go with this book; check out these:

Collecting Salt from Salt Water

Milking Cows

Kid-Made Butter

Milking "Cows"

The second activity we did to go along with How to Make an Apple Pie and see the World was to milk cows (our first was Collecting Salt from Salt Water). No we don't have dairy cows or even know anyone who does, so we had to make some cows.

I started with some latex gloves (with the thumb taped down) and filled them with a very diluted solution of white paint.

I then hung them under a folding table with a bowl underneath. Using a needle I made small holes in the fingertips of the glove; I tried to swirl the needle around a little to make the holes a bit bigger but not so big the water just flows out.

 Then I showed the girls how to milk their cow by squeezing and pulling on each glove finger. They really enjoyed this and went through a few gloves each before we decided to stop and measure the amount of milk we got.

Once they we're finished I had them each poor their milk into a measuring cup and read me how much they had.  This was good practice in reading measurements for them. Too bad it wasn't real milk, so we could make our own butter again (Kid-Made Butter)!

Collecting Salt from Salt Water

One of the first activities we did to go along with the book How to Make and Apple Pie and See the World was to get salt out of saltwater.  I suppose we could have just boiled it dry, but I decided to take a different approach.

 First I had the girls add salt to the water and see that it disappears (dissolves).

To get it back out We prepared a bowl with clay in the bottom and popsicle sticks sticking up (I wanted skewers, but apparently I'm out). Then we poured in the salt water we made. And waited overnight.

The next morning this is what we found. Look close, and you can see some crusty stuff above the water on the popsicle sticks....salt!

This was a pretty easy little experiment, and only the first of several activities we did along with this book. Be on the look out for more!

Homemade Compass for Katy and the Big Snow

Recently the girls have shown more interest in school and as a result I have started going through Five in a Row (volume 1) with them. Honestly it isn't much different then some of the things we would normally do like book related activities, but it gives a great guideline that ties tons of topics into a single book (which you read each day for five days).  The makers of Five in a Row only expect you to discuss each topic or do a small project, but we all know I have to further with, well, everything, and add something hands on.  So the first book we chose was Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton; because at the time, we had a big snow!

One thing we went over with this book was cardinal directions and reading maps. My girls have only had to read maps before for things like treasure hunts, so this was new. Especially when we threw the directions in with it! We decided to make a map of our neighborhood, and to help with the directions we made a compass.  

To do this you need a strong magnet, a needle, a piece of cork or styrofoam, and a glass of water.

Start by rubbing your magnet on the needle; always going the same direction. Then insert your needle into your cork or styrofoam and place gently in your glass of water. The needle should spin around and point to north. (More complete instructions at the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration)

Obviously, while standing in my kitchen, I knew where north was, but to show the girls that we actually did make a compass I got out a real compass to compare. And look! They point the same way! 

With this information we were able to make our map.  I drew our house and a little compass on and then started asking then what would be north, south, east, or west of our house. At first they struggled a bit, so I would point int he direction and tell them to imagine they were standing outside, what would they see.  Eventually they caught on, and I was able to ask them which directions things even farther away (like Grandma's) would be. 

They got the idea pretty well and went back to the book and were easily able to read the directions on the map and figure out which way Katy drove while she was clearing snow. 

Over the 5 days of reading and discussing Katy and the Big Snow the girls came to really enjoy the book and remember the lessons taught by it.  I definitely think they will enjoy Five in a Row, and I am sure you will be seeing more book based activities to go along with it!