21 Nov Five in a Row: Madeline Part 2

We have gone well beyond the Five in a Row curriculum of 5 days of reading Madeline.  Clark and Luci LOVE this book, so we have just taken our own sweet time, and explored the entire series.  We went to the library and stocked up on Madeline books and DVDs.  Netflix had some Madeline movies, so we watched those, too!  We have had a ball incorporating the many different components into our homeschool day!

For a portion of our Madeline Study, my parents were here to visit.  We had a wonderful time with them and even paused one afternoon for a (questionably French) chocolate fondue.  Who cares if it’s French or not when you have pound cake and chocolate?!  Can you tell it was a hit?

Math

For our applied math we worked on our grouping and dividing skills. Clark and Luci LOOOOOOVE peg dolls, so I had made them a set of the 12 little girls from the book.  These worked perfectly for our math.

We talked about how many groups would there be if the girls walked in groups of 2, then 3, then 4, then 6.  Then we used the peg dolls to do addition and subtraction problems throughout the week.

We have been working on telling the time as well.  The book mentions: “They left the house at half past nine…”  This is in Clark’s math curriculum right now, so it works perfectly.

Character Development

In the book, Madeline, the twelve girls demonstrated some important character traits, which we in turn discussed.  We talked about how they girls recognized what was good and what was not good.  They showed empathy and compassion by visiting Madeline at the hospital.  We made a list of things we could do for someone who was sick.  A great go along book for this, was Madeline Says Merci, which talks about manners.  Grandpa just so happened to buy for us while he was here visiting us!

Science

I’ve been wanting to start a study of the human body with Clark and Luci and our study of Madeline was the perfect place to start!  We started off by playing doctor and pretending that we had an appendix scar on our tummies, just like Madeline!

We talked about good habits that keep us healthy, such as eating our fruits and vegetables, going to bed on time, brushing our teeth carefully and washing our hands properly.  To illustrate the importance of being thorough, we did a little handwashing exercise, which I described HERE. 

Our last project was our My Body study, which will be ongoing.  We started by tracing a life-sized replica of both Clark and Luci on a large strip of white paper and talked about the Digestive System.  I blogged about it separately HERE.

We love the book, Madeline, along with the many others in the series.  Five in a Row has an amazing ability to introduce children to classic literature and bring them to a love of it!  We have created life-long memories with this book and the children continue to ask for it to be read to them daily.