Unit Plans for Early 1800s and Pioneer America (Welcome to American History)

The countdown to kick off for our Welcome to American History block is on! All books have been ordered, and while they are trickling in ever so slowly, I wanted to share with you what we will be doing for our first unit. :-)

Remember, we will be doing a flip flop and studying our second semester plans first due to the fun Homeschool Day at a nearby historical living farm in May for this time period. At the end of the semester (1800s - 1940s), we will then begin with the beginning (Columbus - American Revolution).

The lineup for the first 5 week block (on our schedule, weeks 19 -23) includes 2 weeks studying the Early 1800s, focusing on the Meet Josefina American Girl book, and 2 weeks studying Pioneer America, focusing on Meet Kirsten. Week 5 caps off our study with a Project Week, which I will post more about later.

Early 1800s:

- Weeks 1 and 2 has us reading Meet Josefina (American Girl book) on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. After reading, we will complete an activity. We will be using the American Girl lapbook templates from Homeschool Share, completing the Who is Josephina, Josefina's favorites, Living in 1824, Spanish Words, and What Changes Josefina's Life? templates

- Copywork for week 1 will be broken down into pieces each day for Cali -- Jordan should be able to complete in a day or two. We will discuss metaphor and descriptive writing. The selection is from Meet Josefina.

It seemed to Josefina that the dancers flew around the room with as much ease as their shadows had. They whirled by in a blur of bright colors.

- Our Read Aloud for weeks 1 and 2 is Tom Sawyer. I found Junior Scholastic Editions of a few of my favorite books that the girls have seen me read and on our shelves, that we will now be able to read together. At first I wasn't sure about reading these adaptions, but I was impressed with how they actually used the original author's words, just taking out parts that would either be boring or inappropriate for this age. I think it is perfect for them!

- Copywork for week 2 will be broken down in the same way as week 1, and comes from our Read Aloud.

There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.

- Our Readers for the girls will be The Josefina Story Quilt for week 1 and Next Spring An Oriole for week 2.

- For Bible, our topic for week 1 will be Jesus as a boy found in the temple and week 2 will be John the Baptist. While we read through the Bible with Sonlight, toward the end I started following topics that I thought were important. One week the only thing we studied was Esther, but we read the story in all of the various children's bibles we have, as well as watch the Nest Video and Veggie Tales video (and discussed the liberties taken with the story!). The girls loved this! They really lived with Esther for the week and it helped the story come alive for them. What I chose to do for the next 36 weeks is take 36 episodes or stories from the Bible that I really want to focus on, and assigned one per week. We will read the story from the different Bibles, watch any videos we have, and do some activities.

- We will also be memorizing 12 poems throughout the 36 week block. I chose them based on interests, language, popularity and a few to reinforce topics we will be discussing in other subjects. Our first poem, which we will begin memorizing next week and finish at the end of these two weeks, was chosen based on the adjectives and descriptive language, which reinforces what we will be discussing in our copywork.

It is Four Seasons Author Unknown:

Spring is showery, flowery, bowery

Summer: hoppy, choppy, poppy.

Autumn: wheezy, sneezy, freezy.

Winter: slippy, drippy, nippy.

At the end of week 2, the girls will perform/recite this poem for Daddy!

- For our Fancy Fridays with our friends Skylar and Emy, we will be introducing Mary Cassatt for picture study and Introduction to the Orchestra for music. Our creative writing topics will be to Draw a picture of your favorite thing (toy or object you play or sleep with) for Week 1, and If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you want to live? for Week 2.

Pioneer America:

- Weeks 3 and 4 has us reading Meet Kirsten (American Girl book) on Monday and Wednesday. After reading, we will complete an activity. We will be using the American Girl lapbook templates from Homeschool Share, completing the Who is Kirsten, Kirsten's favorites, Living in 1884, and the fashion templates.

- Our Read Aloud for weeks 3 and 4 is Little Women which is also the Junior Scholastic Edition. ** I want to add here that I know this doesn't fit the time period... we already read Little House in the Big Woods and I am saving the rest of the Little House series for next year, but I am sure that would fit wonderfully here. The reason for Little Women here is because our next unit is Civil War, in which the book is set, so this serves as an introduction. . . also because this is really the only place it fit in my schedule LOL! **

- Copywork for week 3 will be broken down into pieces each day for Cali -- Jordan should be able to complete in a day or two. The selection comes from our Read Aloud for weeks 3 and 4

Give them all my dear love and a kiss. Tell them I think of them by day and pray for them by night. I know they will be loving children and will do their duty faithfully.

- Copywork for week 4 will be broken down in the same way as week 1, and is taken from Meet Kirsten.

"Since you live here now, you must have a place in our fort just for your doll," Lisbeth said.

- Our Readers for the girls will be Marmee's Surprise: A Little Women Story Step 3 for week 3 and week 4 will be open for a FREE CHOICE :-)

- For Bible, week 3 our topic will be The Lord's Prayer and week 4 will be The Good Samaritan. We will read the stories from the different Bibles, watch any videos we have, and do some activities.

- We will begin our second poem during this unit.

Tumbling:
In jumping and tumbling

We spend the whole day,

Till night by arriving

Has finished our play.

What then? One and all,

There's no more to be said.

As we tumbled all day,

So we tumble to bed.

We will be working on this for several weeks before the girls will perform/recite this poem for Daddy.

- For our Fancy Fridays with our friends Skylar and Emy, we will be continuing our study of Mary Cassatt week 3 and have a Nature Day week 4. Our creative writing topics will be an entry in our Gratitude Journal for Week 3, and an entry in our Feelings Journal for week 4.

I will be choosing all of our Project Ideas for Week 5 as we progress in the unit, capitalizing on what they find the most interesting. I will be pulling ideas from Kirsten's Craft Book, Kirsten's Cook Book, and Kirsten's Theater Kit.

I am really looking forward to diving into this unit with the girls, I know they are really going to like the new format. Happy Homeschooling!!!