24/25 School Year

Geography, Science, and History

I combined these subjects this year, and we used Minn of the Mississippi, Stories of the Pond People, and Paddle to the Sea as our main books. We studied US geography as we followed snapping turtle Minn down the Mississippi River from Minnesota down to Louisiana, and the Great Lakes and surrounding geography as we followed the little wooden canoe toy Paddle-to-the-Sea from the mountains of Nipigon down to Lake Ontario. Along our virtual adventures, Chase learned about pond and river life, kept a nature journal of animals she found most interesting, and observed nature around us in our own city. 

A few of our notable field trips included several trips to the Baltimore Zoo, Chincoteague island to see the wild ponies, Nixon Park Nature Center, Perrydell Farm. We also got pet gerbils this year and Chase enjoyed learning about the different animals that are related to gerbils, including muskrats which are found in ponds and rivers here in Pennsylvania! 

We also did smaller studies of a few different countries/cities including China’s culture and its many ecosystems, Yakutia in Russia, and Mexico, where Chase’s great grandparents are from.

Books & resources:

Paddle to the Sea

The Hidden Life of the Pond

Minn of the Mississippi

Forests & Wetlands

Among the Pond People

Crow Not Crow

The Country Diary of an English Lady

Yellow Time

An Egg is Quiet

DK Eyewitness: China

Handbook of Nature Study

Quorkle.com: 50 States Quiz

Merlin Bird Identifier app

YouTube: 

10 Facts About Blue Jays

How the Movements of the Sun Effect the Seasons

Why Do We Have Different Seasons?

Rooks vs Crows vs Ravens (various videos)

Five Continents Song

The Great Lakes (various videos)

A Day in the Life in the Coldest City on Earth

Geese Migrate

The Science Behind V-Shape Flyinh

The 7 Oceans Song

(Photos to come)

Math

This year Chase completed Math Lessons for a Living Education, level 3. She studied multiplication, division, fractions, telling analog time, adding and subtracting money, and Roman numerals. We use Xtra Math Daily 

(Photos to come)

Reading and Language Arts

Chase continued to mainly focus on learning how to read this year, but also loved studying and writing poetry. We studied Emily Dickinson and Chase memorized her poem “The morns are meeker than they were.” She also loves listening to books read aloud, and has quite the reading log this year!

Resources:

Emily Dickinson

Fairies of Autumn

Emily Writes

On Wings of Words

Sequential Spelling

Building Poems

Teaching Poetry

Reading Log

Wonder 

The Little House in the Big Woods

The Wild Robot

Ramona the Pest

The Little House on the Prairie

Ramona the Brave

Ramona and Her Father

Ramona and Her Mother

Ramona Saves the Day

Ramona Quimby, Age 8

Ramona Forever

 Ramona’s World

The Wild Robot Escapes

Paddle to the Sea

The Pond People

On the Banks of Plum Creek

Sarah, Plain & Tall

A Little Princess

The Ogress & the Orphans

Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone

Winnie-the-Pooh

The House at Pooh Corner

A Cricket in Time’s Square

Minn of the Mississippi

Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets