Massachusetts, and other things we have been up to

Today we learned about Massachusetts.

 

We used some books from the library

 

Front of the lapbook: A map of Massachusetts with Boston labeled.   

"Where in the United states?" with a map inside of the U.S.A, he colored in Massachusetts.  

 Inside:
On the left is the state quarter.  We discussed the image including what a minuteman is, and "The Bay state".  Levi didn't know what a "bay" was, so we talked about that too and looked at pictures.   Under that is the state flag which he colored.   Its a mini book showing whats on the flag:  A star representing that Massachusetts was one of the original 13 colonies, a native American with their bow and arrow pointing down, representing peace, and the state motto. 

In the middle, is the postcard we received for our postcard project.  A mini book (with the state flag, bird, and flower inside), and a "draw and write" of the Salem Witch trials.

On the right, is a "secret code" I wrote using Morse Code, which Levi had to interpret.  (it says "I love you", and under that is the Morse code Alphabet.  At the bottom, Levi wrote his name in Morse code. 

 

Here is his Salem drawing, we read a book on the Witch trials (its an easy reader, so not too detailed with the graphic material).  He dictated the bottom portion which his Nai Nai (grandma) wrote down for him (he was a bit tired of writing at this point).

 

The inside of the Morse Code flap.  The page for this comes from a Massachusetts printable from here

And some other things we have been doing:

 

I was planning on doing this on for our study on Alaska, but I forgot about it in the freezer.  Is a frozen chunk of ice with some plastic creatures hidden in it.  I left it up to Levi to figure out how to get them out, his weapon of choice was a fork.   This was a fun and easy project,  I'm sure we will do it again with other surprises hidden inside.

 Some busy work - sometimes I just haven't got a lesson plan together, so I pull out some busy work.  Levi likes to do worksheets, and the Kumon ones are great for reinforcing all kinds of skills.  This one is a simple word writing one, with the letters placed in boxes.

 

We found this little guy on our front door.  In Florida there are all kinds of critters around, giving lots of opportunities to spot and observe living things.  

 And another living thing we found this week - in our garage!  Levi and Nai Nai left the garage door open when they went for a walk, and when they came back, there were two doves inside.   The two of them just did not want to leave.  We tried everything we could think of (even googled it), including making a handmade bird feeder and hanging it in the garage opening, shutting off all the lights, chasing it with a laundry basket and a broom, and just leaving it alone with all the doors opened.   They would flit around making little squeaking noises if you got too close, but never tried to fly out.  Finally, Nai Nai managed to gently pick one up when it was perched on top of one of the bikes, and let it outside.  The other one stayed over night, the next morning we left the garage open for a while to see if it would go out, and it must have flown off when no one was looking, because when we checked again, it was gone. 

 

And lastly, Buddy took Levi to the Arnold Palmer golf tournament. So of course, he got a new outfit for the occasion - a pair of golf shorts, and a v-neck polo.  The back says "Arnie's Army".   They had a good time! 

Next up, some real dinosaurs!