Science Fair

This year, the homeschool group we are with is having a Science Fair. To introduce the subject and get ideas, we read the book No Fair Science Fair by Nancy Poydar. The story is about a boy that makes a bird feeder, to count how many birds visit it each day, but no birds come. At the end of the book is a list of about 30 science fair project questions, because "'Good projects start with a question,' said Mr. Zee."

Fourth Grade, Writing, Set Seven

In this Set, we are reading some good short stories (picture books), then K. is deciding which graphic organizer would have been best for this story and filling it in. Here are a list of our graphic organizers.

• Time Line
• Chain of Events
• Character Web
• Sensory Web
• Expository Structure
• Story Map
• Story Map with Feelings
• Top-to-Bottom Organizer
• Learning Log (for science experiment)

Suggested books

• The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco
• Aunt Flossie's Hats (and Crab Cakes Later) by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard 
• The City Mouse and the Country Mouse retold by Graham Percy
• Cows in the Parlor: A Visit to a Dairy Farm by Cynthia McFarland 
• Just Plain Fancy by Patricia Polacco
• Leah's Pony by Elizabeth Friedrich

Fourth Grade, Math, Set Seven

We are using Real World Math books during this set. These books take a vocation and walk you through a day or situation and show how math is used, with the student solving the problems along the way. These are very good books! There are three levels of books:

• Blue Level for beginners, grades 2-4
• Orange Level for intermediate, grades 4 - 6
• Purple Level for advanced 

There is also Real World Math: Natural Disasters, where you learn about the subject and practice math skills.

• Droughts
• Earthquakes
• Floods
• Hurricanes
• Tornadoes
• Tsunamis
• Volcanic Eruptions -- we did this one
• Wildfires

Fourth Grade, History, Set Seven

Covering World War I; Years 1914 - 1919

I used the book, The 1910s: Decade in Photos by Jim Corrigan, at the end of this Set to review the decade and cover or introduce a few things we didn't cover in other books.

A Child's History of the World, chapter 84

Mother's Day was instituted

• Mother's Day by Ann Heinrichs

Stories about animals in World War I

• Bunny the Brave War Horse by Elizabeth MacLeod
• The Donkey of Gallipoli by Mark Greenwood
• Rags: Hero Dog of WWI by Margot Theis Raven 
• War Horse by Michael Morpurgo -- we watched the movie instead of reading the book
• Fly, Cher Ami, Fly! by Robert Burleigh

Historical fiction books about WWI

• The Doll Shop Downstairs by Yona Zeldis McDonough -- about a family with three girls in New York that own a doll repair shop. Repair parts for the dolls come from Germany, so when war breaks out they can no longer get parts. How can they stay in business?
• Hero Over Here by Kathleen Kudlinski -- Ten year old Theodore dreams of being a hero in Europe like his father and brother, but must nurse his mother and sister, who are sick with the Spanish flu. 
• The Silver Donkey by Sonya Hartnett
• Tikhon by Ilse-Margret Vogel
• Archie's War: My Scrapbook by Marcia Williams
• Waiting for the Evening Star by Rosemary Wells -- picture book about a family whose son goes off to war
• When Christmas comes Again by Beth Seidel Levine
• The Extraordinary Music of Mr. Ives byJoanne Stanbridge -- story of a musical piece written because of the sinking of the Lusitania

 Nonfiction books about WWI

• Everything World War I by Karen Kenney -- covered the war well; lot of illustrations
• World War I: An Interactive History Adventure by Gwenyth Swain
• Dogs of War by Sheila Keenan
• Line of Fire: Diary of an Unknown Soldier Introduced by Michael Morpurgo
• America's First World War: General Pershing and the Yanks by Henry Castor
• World War I Memorial by Maureen Picard Robins -- tells about the end of the war and the memorial built in Kansas City, Missouri 
• Going to War in World War I by Adrian Gilbert -- lots of information and illustrations
• The Sinking of the Lusitania: An Interactive History Adventure by Steven Otfinoski
• World War I for Kids by R. Kent Rasmussen -- this has some activities I wish we had been able to do, but there are only so many hours available.
• Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood by Nathan Hale

Books that I will want to get when we study WWI when K is older.

• Assassination at Sarajevo by Robin S. Doak
• The Split History of World War I by Michael Burgan
• Voices from the Past: World War I by Kathlyn and Martin Gay
• World War I: From the Lusitania to Versailles by Zachary Kent
• The United States in World War I by Don Lawson
• Stubby the War Dog by Ann Bausum 

Black Sox Scandal

•  The Black Sox Scandal of 1919 by Dan Elish

 18th Amendment

• The Constitutional Amendments by William Loren Katz