Special Mini Units September 8-13, 2013

To see how we are using mini-units in our homeschool, you can see the post that shares all of our mini-units for September 2013.

9/8 Grandparent's Day

- Spanish word of the day: grandparents- los abuelos
- Write a letter or make a card for each of your grandparents and great-grandparents.
- Get to know a grandparent better. Write out several questions to ask a grandparent and/or ask them to tell you a story or 2 from their childhood.
- Make a gift for a grandparent.  Some ideas are:

• A handprint and poem
• Puzzle Piece Picture Frame
• Cookies or brownies

9/9 Teddy Bear Day

- Spanish word of the day: bear- el oso
- Writing Prompt: Imagine your favorite teddy bear were real, write a story (or for pre-writers, draw a picture) about an adventure they might have.
- Sing Going on a Bear Hunt and The Other Day (I met a Bear).
- Make a Venn diagram comparing real bears to teddy bears or gummy bears.
- Have younger children describe their bears.
- Give each child a small bag of gummy bears.  Have them sort them color and make a bar graph to represent the number of bears of each color.  Then write out some math equations using the bears.  You can tailor this to your child's math skills.  We did some addition and subtraction, as well as greater than/less than equations.
- Make teddy bear cookies.

9/10 Sewing Machine Day

- Spanish word of the day: to sew- coser
- Learn the parts of a sewing machine. (I found a Power Point that showed this, but cannot figure out how to link to it here.  Try Googling "sewing machine power point")
- Read the history of the sewing machine and answer the following questions:

1. What were the first sewing needles made from? (bone or animal horns)
2. Who built the first commercially successful sewing machine? (Isaac Singer)
3. Who invented the machine that Isaac Singer based his machine on? (Elias Howe)

- Make a Canning Jar Sewing Kit
- Use a flexible tape measure to make body measurements and/or fabric measurements.

9/11- 9/11/01 Remembrance Day

- Spanish word of the day: liberty- la libertad
- Read A Moving Picture and answer the following question:

1. What is the name of the movie that Sumra Mian and her classmates produced? (Empty Spaces)

- Read and take the Pledge to Stop Hate.  Answer the questions asked in the pledge.

9/12 Chocolate Milkshake Day

- Spanish word of the day: milkshake- el batido
- For this day, we simply made chocolate milkshakes for an afternoon snack.

9/13 Birthday of Roald Dahl

- Spanish word of the day: peach- melocotón
- Watch a movie based on a book by Roald Dahl.  I chose to base today around James and the Giant Peach, but other choices include Matilda, and  Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  If you have recently read the corresponding book, you can compare the movie to the book.  We prefer to watch the movie and then read the book, as we find it easier to spot the differences that way.
- Learn about Roald Dahl and answer the following questions:

1. Where was Roald Dahl born? (Llandaff, South Wales)
2. What was the name of Roald Dahl's first book for children? (Gremlins)
3. How many children did Roald Dahl have?  (5)
4. What year did Roald Dahl die? (1990)

- Prepare a recipe that features peaches.  We chose to make Peach Bread, which was so yummy.