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.
