Montana

This week we read Montana by Jim Ollhoff.  This is a book full of state facts, historical information and more.  The text was a little wordy for C and R so I read the main ideas from each section and we looked at the pictures together. 

I printed the Montana state outline onto card stock and let C and R fill the pages as they saw fit.  I did suggest that they cover the space with pictures of things related to Montana, and they did a great job.  They both included the state flower (Bitterroot) and the state tree (Ponderosa Pine).  C glued on the grizzly bear (state animal) that he colored and he also stuck on some silver and gold stickers because the state motto is Gold and Silver.  R drew the state bird (Western Meadowlark) with a little help from me.  C also included a mountain and some rocks in his picture. 

I was really happy with the way C and R did these.  I wish I had thought of this in the beginning of our Fifty States Project.

Montana Grizzlies

We are currently studying the state of Montana for our Fifty States Project.  The state animal of Montana is the grizzly bear.  I read the book Moon in Bear's Eyes by Stephen R. Swinburne to C and R this week.  The book describes a day in the life of a grizzly bear family in Yellowstone's high country.  There are a few pages of grizzly bear facts at the end of the book.  C and R both enjoyed the story and the illustrations.  R is a little young for this book, but the fact that the book features a mother grizzly and her two cubs was enough to keep R interested.  It also helped that we brought this book with us to the doctor and read it while we were waiting for C's annual physical.  I had a captive audience.

C and R colored grizzly bear coloring sheets.  C glued his bear to a craft stick to make a puppet.  I cut out R's bear and she glued it onto dark construction paper.  We learned that grizzly bears are mostly nocturnal, so R made a nighttime scene for her bear by sticking some star stickers on the top of the page.  They also learned that grizzly bears are omnivores, so R drew some plants, berries, and animals on the paper.   Here is R's finished Montana grizzly:

The red circles are apples, the green squiggles are plants and grass, and the brown thing is a squirrel for her bear to eat!

I am linking this to What My Child is Reading at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns. 

The Trumpet of the Swan

C and I recently finished reading The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White.  He really enjoyed this book about a Trumpeter swan born mute who overcomes his disability by learning to read, write, and play the trumpet in an effort to communicate with others.

This weekend, C, R, and I watched the cartoon movie based on the book.  It did stray from the book a little, but for the most part it followed the book.  We all gave it two thumbs up.

There has been a lot of toy trumpet playing going on around here lately.

Since the trumpet playing swan's name is Louis, I thought it would be a good idea to listen to some Louis Armstrong music.  C and R were already familiar with "What a Wonderful World"; that happens to be one of their favorite songs.  We listened to some other songs and talked about how the trumpet sounds.  C and R really enjoyed watching YouTube videos of Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet.  We talked about his fingers and his cheeks as he played.  C and R also noted that he got very sweaty!!!!

Over the course of the book, Louis travels from Canada to Montana, Boston, Philadelphia, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and back to Montana.  We pointed out all of the places he visited on several maps.  C also drew lines showing the routes on a blank U.S. map.

In the book, Louis and his family live primarily in the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Montana.  We read about the wildlife refuge and the trumpeter swans on the website.  The swans were close to extinction with only sixty-nine birds in 1932, but now there are more than five hundred in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. 

We have fallen a bit behind on our Fifty States Project this summer.  I originally thought we would complete studies on four states over the summer.  Ha!  We only completed Kansas.  Summer was busier than I expected!!!!  Anyway, our current state of study for our project is Montana!  This was C's choice, and he was inspired by The Trumpet of the Swan.