Monday school began with maths and a science lesson on light.
We then read together the book "A Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge" by Hildegarde Swift. Set in New York City, it tells the story of a lighthouse that is feeling overshadowed by the George Washington bridge which has been built next to it. We are using this as a springboard for a unit study based upon themes in the book such as lighthouses, boats, bridges, New York, personification etc.
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| Books to read for our project. |
The children thoroughly enjoyed the book "A Walk in New York" and learnt lots of interesting things about the city. The children then compiled a collage about New York.
On Tuesday we read together Rachel Lyman Field's poem "I'd like to be a Lighthouse" and the older children wrote their own versions of the poem.
"I'd like to be a lighthouse
which guides ships so tall.
I'd like to be a lighthouse
who sees fish so small
and when its dark, I shine so bright
with a great big flashing light!"
Nathanael age 7
"I'd like to be a lighthouse
so everyone can see me.
I'd like to be a lighthouse
not a tree."
Abigail age 4
Before piano lessons on Tuesday afternoon, we had some fun in the garden experimenting with different bridge designs to see which would hold the most coins.
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| This was the strongest bridge, with the card folded into concertinas. |
On Wednesday we had a family day out to Liverpool. Two highlights of the day were seeing the boats docked in the Albert Docks
and visiting the Merseyside Maritime Museum.
Nathanael found this P&O poster of particular interest, as it had been recreated using Lego bricks.
In the afternoon we visited the nearby
Speke Hall, a National Trust property.
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| Riding on the buggy. |
It was a beautiful afternoon, so we spent lots of time playing in the woods, the park and in the maze. It was lovely and quiet as the schools had started again after the summer holidays. Abigail would have been starting Reception today, if she had been going to school, so it was nice to mark the day with a family day out.
Building on our theme of bridges,on Thursday we split up into two family teams and tried to construct bridges using newspaper and sellotape that would be strong enough to support two toy cars and passengers.
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| Team A's bridge! |
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| Team B's bridge! |
That afternoon we visited a neighbouring homeschooling family, whose Mum, Elisabeth, is from America. She described to the children what is was like to grow up in America, she shared some stories from her childhood and talked about the similarities and differences between her homeland and England. She made the children popcorn to eat, which was a hit!
As part of our Bible study, we mind mapped all the references to light we could think of in the Bible.
In our technology session the children made their own working lighthouses out of plastic cups and some battery operated tea lights which I found at the pound shop. I hope to conclude this unit on the "Little Red Lighthouse" next week.
On Friday morning we enjoyed a nature walk at a local park, documenting the changes in season, seeing how much the ducklings had grown since our last visit and picking blackberries to make into a pie.
