Weeks 14 & 15: France

Bonjour! Welcome to our study of France!

Lindsey has been learning French this year using Duolingo & was excited to finally study France. We especially enjoyed the food :)

We made French hot chocolate (a few times), grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, Eiffel Towers built with sugar wafers, and cream puffs. We used the recipes in Another Trip Around The World for the hot chocolate and sandwiches. The idea for the sugar wafer Eiffel Towers came from Pinterest.

This is the recipe we used for our cream puffs - http://www.cookingclassy.com/2013/02/cream-puffs/ 

For the sugar wafer Eiffel Towers, we used the same icing that we used for our gingerbread house. It's just confectioner sugar and water mixed to a glue consistency. Building the towers was challenging, but fun.

I printed a mini version of Paris from Made by Joel on cardstock and Lindsey arranged the buildings and colored the people. You can find the printable paper Paris at http://lapetitepeach.com/paris-paper-city-from-made-by-joel/.

Then Lindsey decided to build a LEGO Eiffel Tower and create Paris for her LEGO Friends. She even added a French flag on top of the Eiffel Tower. She placed a fountain in front and had her friends ride bicycles, picnic, and shop. An apple tree, ice cream cart, chocolate and flower stand are included. A salon and a pet shop (not pictured) are on the next level of her LEGO world.

Art -

We learned about Claude Monet and impressionism. We have a jigsaw puzzle of his water-lily pond painting, but when we tried putting it together our cat kept stealing the puzzle pieces. Silly cat! We read Linnea in Monet's Garden by Christina Björk, Monet by Mike Venezia, and What Makes A Monet a Monet? by Richard Muhlberger. Then Lindsey created her own masterpiece with watercolors and a crayon resist of the Eiffel Tower. I love how it turned out!


Music -

Lindsey started piano lessons!

Books We Read -

A Taste Of France by Roz Denny

Long Ago In A Castle by Marie Farre

France by Donna L. Knoell

Welcome To France by Meredith Costain

France by Don Nardo

Linnea in Monet's Garden by Christina Björk

What Makes A Monet a Monet? by Richard Muhlberger

Monet by Mike Venezia

Hero Tales From Many Lands by Alice I. Hazeltine

Christmas Around the World

We decided to study Christmas Around the World during December. We gained insights into the history of some of our Christmas traditions and tried some new ones while learning about other countries.

We decorated our tree and added a pickle ornament to it this year, hiding it like the German tradition. We set up our lighted Christmas village and our nativity. Our advent calendar counted the days until Christmas with candy and small gifts. We also used this online advent calendar to learn more about celebrations in other countries - http://projectbritain.com/Xmas/calendar/index.html#calendar
We made cookies, fudge, & peanut brittle. We went caroling at a senior center with our church. Our elf Holly visited. We read several Christmas books, watched Christmas movies, and listened to Christmas music.

Lindsey filled out several worksheets where she researched traditions in different countries. She learned how they say Merry Christmas in their language, how and when they celebrate, what foods they eat, etc... We also used some Christmas worksheets for math and writing that were fun. After learning about the legend of the Christmas Cat in Iceland who eats anyone not wearing a new outfit Christmas Eve, Lindsey drew a picture with colored pencils designing what she would wear to avoid being eaten.

These are some of the resources we used:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Christmas-Around-the-World-Math-Literacy-Worksheet-Packet-171345

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Holidays-Christmas-Around-the-World-Scrapbook-Freebie-885381

http://www.123homeschool4me.com/2012/10/christmas-around-world.html

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Inferencing-Problem-Solving-Vocab-Comprehension-Christmas-Around-the-World-451676