American Girl History Unit

The Abeka history is gone. We just couldn't take one more minute of it. We also stopped using Bob Jones reading. BORING! Both of these made us dread these subject each day. The solution was found in a unit study called Portraits of American Girlhood by Cindy Sotelo. It is a seven unit study using the American Girl books. Perfect!

We were so excited to find that the first girl we read and study is Felicity! Poogie received Felicity and Elizabeth for Christmas. Since we only have the first book in her series I called my local library and found that they had the next two in the series so that will keep us busy. The study also calls for the use of Felicity's cookbook and craft book which I got from my library also. After looking through those two books I know those are books to put on my purchase list, they are wonderful.

The unit study is laid out for us Monday-Friday with reading and/or activities daily. Mrs., Sotelo recommends that you supplement the unit with a math and phonics program. You may choose to also use a separate spelling program if you wish. Most of the activities are grammar and language based so that is not needed. I however, will still use all of these programs we are currently using. The only thing I am changing is to use this unit study for history and reading. I am also replacing the writing portion of my current curriculum with the writing activities in the unit study. These just make more sense to me.

I also purchased a very inexpensive lapbook on the Felicity reading series from Curric Click. It has comprehension exercises, vocabulary, writing prompts, handwriting, sequencing, and the list goes on. Poogie is really looking forward to the newspaper activities in the lapbook. She works on pieces as we go and when completed with have a full newspaper layout.

So what have we done so far in the unit. We started by doing a book activity, naming the author, illustrator, copyright, etc. This is in the lapbook. I made vocabulary cards to go with each chapter, also from the lapbook. Today we will be doing a lesson from the unit study. We will be visiting a website about colonial Williamsburg and design a sign for a business of our choice found there. I hope to take photos and keep a log on my blog of the unit study. ttfn

American Revolutionary War Unit

We began our unit last week. This is a summary of the unit and what we are planning so far.

Week 1
We began by completing a map of the first 13 colonies. I got a free printable outline map from http://www.eduplace.com/ .

TT's Books-
Exploring American History-CLP Chapter 13 and 14
Mr. Revere and I by Robert Lawson (Read Aloud)
Revolutionary War on Wednesday by Mary Pope Osborne (Silent Reading)

Poogie's Books-
The American People & Nation by Michael J McHugh-CLP Chapter 5
Paul Revere and the Minutemen (Poem) by Carole Charles
Paul Revere by Jan Gleiter and Kathleen Thompson

Activities-
TT will complete a George Washington Tab book from http://www.enchantedlearning.com/ it is filled with facts and info about the life of GW.

TT and Poogie will do a " Stain Glass" American flag using white glue and chalk.
They will be making a colonial flag. Then they will complete a small book on the history of the American flag found on http://www.enchantedlearning.com/ .

Week 2
This week we will begin to focus on the causes of the war. TT will focus on researching for an oral report on George Washington. We had to go to the library to choose some more books for his report.

TT's Books-
Exploring American History -CLP Chapter 15
Mr. Revere and I by Robert Lawson (Read Aloud)
When Washington Crossed the Delaware by Lynne Cheney

Movies-
The Patriot
The Crossing

Activities-
TT-Work on costume and props for an oral presentation about the life of George Washington.

Poogie-we will recreate some of the meals shared by the soldiers.

Web Sites-
http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/history/vstory.html Good history of Valley Forge
http://www.multied.com/revolt/ Causes of war http://www.americanrevolution.com/index.htm Excellent for all aspects of war study
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/index.html Great timeline of events George Washington in portraits

I found an excellent timeline to print out of the Revolutionary War prior, during and after. However, I cannot find the web site. I will post is as soon as I can.

Week 3
I plan to study several of the major battles of the war and their location.

Week 4
This week we look towards the formation of a new country. The focus will be on the writing of the Constitution.

Week 5
We hope to study the formation of the national and state governments.

I will edit and post more as I get to the planning stage of each unit. We are having a great time with our unit.