The Story About Ping

We rowed our very first book, The Story About Ping, with Five in a Row!  If you're not familiar with FIAR, it's a literature based curriculum that involves reading quality children's literature and using elements of the story to guide studies. 

The Story About Ping, by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese, is a book about a duck named Ping who lives with his family on the Yangtze River in China.  While we rowed this week we learned about ducks, China, and buoyancy - among other things. 

EM and JR's Ping Lapbooks

Science

To learn more about ducks, we read:
Down on the Farm: Ducks
Fuzzy the Duckling
Ducks!

We added facts about ducks to our Story About Ping lapbooks.

The kids did a buoyancy experiment with some of their friends who are also rowing with Ping this week! 

Social Studies
Ping lives on the Yangtze River in China, so we read several books about China and the Chinese culture.

EM and JR painted and cut out maps of China and the flag of China.  EM also had fun cutting out Chinese paper dolls with traditional clothing.  They also did an awesome job learning to write numbers one through ten in Chinese! 

Math
Ping has a very big family!  The kids counted each of his cousins, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, and parents.

Language Arts
We read the story each day discussing terms such as author and illustrator.  The kids also painted, cut out, and sequenced story cards.

Art
EM and JR looked at the many ways the illustrator drew water and how drawing it differently caused movement or reflection.  They drew their own examples of water.

EM's water drawings

JR's water drawings

Field Trip

Grandma and Papa have ducks waddling through their own back yard, so we went for a visit!  While watching the ducks EM observed preening and dabbling - thanks for cooperating ducks!