Has anyone planned or rowed Arabella?

[Candace C]

I'm wanting to row this one "lightly" the week before we go to the beach. But I'm having trouble coming up with enough printables and/or crafts for this one. Would anyone mind sharing ideas they have had? (I know all books don't NEED extras...but for my girly girls, the cutting/pasting/crafting and coloring pages are what they BEG for!)

So far I have books on reserve about Australia - we will spend 1 of our days talking about islands, finding Australia on the map. If any of you Aussies have book titles or something Aussie-like we could do, please share! :)

I also have a few books out on sailing, etc. We've already done several units that have pertained to ocean and ocean life this summer, so I don't think we'll go that route again.

Thanks for your help! Oh, and I also have that "draw a sailboat step-by-step" that was from the Old Schoolhouse this month! They will love that!!

Any links you might have would be great, too!

[Paige P]

Candace,
I haven't looked at the manual (I intended to wait on Vol. 4), but maybe one day the girls could paint their own water/sailboat pictures? Include the sun, clouds, sun reflecting off the water. If they're "fast" painters (like mine often are :D ) what about a daytime and nighttime water scene?

Your girls are SO like mine -- they LOVE FIAR in itself, but they like to do a craft of some kind (even if it's 15 minutes) almost daily.

Hey -- I just thought of another one (if they're still there....). The $1 craft/models at Michaels!!! They have a "type" of sailboat.

[Candace C]

Paige, thanks! I think I will let them paint a water scene with boat one day! That's a great idea!

And, I was asking on the Family Room board if anyone knew of an EASY model boat/ship the girls could do with daddy. Someone mentioned Michaels...there is not one really close to us and I don't get that way too often, but I might order one online. I need to get on that asap!

Thanks!

[Tami in IA]

What about different kinds of boats, boat/water safety, or buoyancy? At the Homeschool share site there is a unit study for Curious George (http://www.homeschoolshare.com/curious_george.htm)that has some great things in the science section. Some of it will work for Arabella.

[Candace C]

Thanks, Tami! I checked it out and those prepared boat cards will be great! The girls can make a little mini-book with those! :)

I had forgotten to check HSS, I think there is another book with Sailing in the title...I'm off to check that one now!

[Jennifer Unsell]

Hi Candace, :hi:

We are planning to do Arabella this fall and are very excited about it. I found a ship in a bottle kit that we will enjoy our hands at since one of Janes lessons is on that. Also- we have a Reading Rainbow video on lighthouses that shows how a ship in a bottle is made and we will be watching it before we attempt our kit. :D You might be able to get the video from your local library?

I have some sailboat crafts from Oriental Trading for the kids to enjoy including some wooden sailboats for them to paint and add their own "female" names in Italics to go along with Janes lesson.

I was planning for us to make some salt dough maps of various land forms as we discuss what an island is.

We have the book ship by Macaulay to read during our rowing as well as Moby Dick and Robinson Crusoe for Houston.

I was planning to do a craft with the kids on blood cells since that is also one of Janes lessons. I was going to print out outlines of human bodies for each of the kids and then punch out red circles for them to add to the pictures as we talk about this lesson.

I also have on our list to watch The Swiss Family Robinson. I think that was in Janes notes in the manual?? (don't have my manual in front of me right now)

The only other thing that I can think of that I have in my notes right now are to do a science experiment on high tides low tides for Janes lesson.

If you are focusing on Australia you might check out the Pumpkin Runner archives for additional info on that. Their are some great books out their on Australia!

HTH!

[Candace C]

Jen - thank you!! I should have known to ask you! :kiss:

Can you tell me more about the salt dough map? We are going to be learning about islands - what they are and finding them on the map, discussing life on an island, etc.

I would love to make a map just as an example of 1 island perhaps. With water around it? What would you use for the water?

Oh, and I think I remember a lighthouse video, I will check on that. Maybe we will do 1 day on light houses, as there are several lighthouses where we are going!

[Jennifer Unsell]

Candace,

I got the salt dough map idea from Jane in the lessons for Climbing Kansas Mountains. :clap: Do you have the manual for that book? We did our first ones with Climbing Kansas Mountains and the kids loved it! If you are focusing on Australia- what you could do is to look up Australia in your encyclopedia and find out what the geographical regions are. Then use various colors to paint your map once it drys to represent those areas. For instance blue paint for major rivers, green for areas with lots of trees, brown for desert, etc. I would personally place the dough map on a large piece of cardboard and then let the kids paint all around the island blue to represent the ocean. For mountains on our maps we just squeezed some dough up to form mountains in those areas. Depending on how large you make your map you would want to give it a day or two to dry before painting.

We did a similar thing for Mexico when we rowed Gullywasher but we did edible maps from sugar cookie dough cut in the shape of Mexico and used chocolate chips for mountains, green sprinkles for the rain forest and red sprinkles for the desert and hershey kisses to represent volcanos. It was really fun and of course :yum: too! :D Just another idea for your Australian focus.

[Jennifer Unsell]

If you did a map on cardboard and painted on the ocean around it the kids could use mini sailboats to reenact the story of Arrabella. :D

[Marcygirl]

Paige, thanks! I think I will let them paint a water scene with boat one day! That's a great idea!

And, I was asking on the Family Room board if anyone knew of an EASY model boat/ship the girls could do with daddy. Someone mentioned Michaels...there is not one really close to us and I don't get that way too often, but I might order one online. I need to get on that asap!

Thanks!

Candace...I'll try to run by the Dollar Store this weekend and see if they have any of the little wooden boat models. I can't promise, since Ben is sick, but I will if I can. Then I can just bring them to you next week!

[Candace C]

Marcy you are such a sweetheart! That would be fabulous!

And Jen, I do have the other manuals, so I will check that lesson! Thanks, your answers helped anyway! I will do cardboard and let them paint. And acting out the story with boats is FABULOUS!!!

ETA - Oooooh, I even have the little wheel chair from the Little People!! That will be cool!

[Marcygirl]

Oh, and I think I remember a lighthouse video, I will check on that. Maybe we will do 1 day on light houses, as there are several lighthouses where we are going!

Candace...we just finished studying lighthouses while rowing The Little Red Lighthouse....we loved this book (http://www.amazon.com/Beacons-Light-Gail-Gibbons/dp/0688073794/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0602400-2746422?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188009650&sr=8-1)!