This week we learned about the California Gold Rush. We read the book By the Great Horn Spoon. This was nice for a "Boyish" aspect. I know Sky has really enjoyed this story. We used a lapbook from Hands of a Child. The kids aren't really loving the lapbooks but we pushed through- I will update a picture later of the completed books. We ended up playing North to Alaska for lack of a different game which inspired me to create one. When I finish it I will upload the files on here. At our co-op Ms. Alicia led the kids in a fun Trivia game covering different topics in the Big Woods book. The kids remembered alot! she also brought some yummy pumpkin bread and the gold rush bars featured in the PP. I thought it was delicious but my kids weren't too keen on it. I had the kids do a "gold nugget" hunt. These were yellow Easter eggs with scraps of paper in them. The papers either had an amount of ounces written on them or said Fool's Gold. When they had collected all of them each child totalled up how many ounces they had. We then figured up how much their gold was worth in 1849 and today. Sky had the most ounces and was the richest man so we dubbed him Sam Brannon. If you don't know who Sam Brannon was he was the man who made the most money off of the Gold Rush. He wasn't a miner but was very clever! Sam Brannon is actually the one who started the Gold Rush when he ran screaming through the streets that gold had been found at Sutter's Mill. John Marshall and John Sutter were trying to keep it quiet! Sam Brannon was clever because before he made the announcement he bought every piece of mining equipment around. Then he re-sold the items at a higher price. Sky was cracking up when he heard that. Anyhow, this unit study also sparked a mini-lesson about the law of supply and demand. Now, even Denim understands the concept :)
We had two outings this week in addition to our studies. On Monday we went on two tours of the Blue Bell ice-cream creamery. It was so much fun and a perfect introduction to summer ahead! It was also an easy field trip to host. We had such a great response to this trip that we ended up doing two tours. In all there were about 60 people who went with us for this. It was only a dollar per person, too, so it was very affordable. Here are some pics from our trip
We are planning to do this trip again this summer when my niece and nephew come down to visit. I think they will enjoy this as much as we did.
On Wednesday we were supposed to go see a beekeeper as a follow up to our unit on Bees. Something came up so we ended up going Friday evening. This man was so patient with them. The kids really enjoyed processing the honey and have decided that now they need to begin beekeeping! They are already planning on buying the stuff to get started. Here are some pics from that trip.
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