Mr. Popper's Penguins Unit Study Chapters 1-3

Don't Miss the Best Part

And all My Hard Work!

*All of our FREE Printable Notebook Pages for this Unit Study are located at Noah's Ark Homeschool Academy on Wordpress.*

 

*This Unit Study does NOT work well without the FREE Printable Notebook Pages.  Please do NOT skip that step.*

Before we get started, please head over to Noah's Ark Homeschool Academy on Wordpress to download our FREE Notebooking Pages that accompany this Unit Study. The Notebooking Pages download is listed in the text as a clickable link, and then you must click it again on the next page.  You will also find a plethora or wonderful penguin resources!

• Download and print our FREE Notebook pages which include our comprehension questions.  Have your child answer the questions for a chapter directly after reading it.  This study guide covers the first 3 chapters of Mr. Popper's Penguins.
• Mr. Popper was a house painter.  Let's find out what a house painter does.  Now tell about what you learned in your notebook.

• Here are some free printable 1930's wall paper designs that you can just look at or use them to decorate a cardboard box doll house or to make pockets and mini-books for this unit study.
• Here is a free printable 1930's paper doll to live in your cardboard box doll house.
• 1938 was the year Mr. Popper's Penguins was published.  Learn about what it was like to live in the 1930's for children and compare it to what it is like for your today.  Organize your information on a Venn Diagram.
• Mr. Popper and his family lived in a Bungalow.  Find out what a Bungalow is and tell about it in your notebook.

• Find India, the Himalayas, South Seas, North Pole, and the South Pole on an atlas, globe, or world map.

• Mr. Popper said that penguins live in the South Pole and Polar Bears live in the North Pole.  Compare North and South Pole and record your findings on a Venn Diagram. (use the Venn Diagram link above or make your own)
• Do some creative writing and tell a short story of how a penguin traveled from the South Pole to the North Pole.
• Be a detective and use the clues from the book to figure out what kind of penguin Mr. Popper got for his surprise.

• The penguin came packed in dry-ice.  Learn more about dry-ice and do some fun experiments.
• Watch this dry-ice experiment video, and watch this one too.
• When you come to the part in the story where they mention 10 o'clock have your child change their clocks time to 10 o'clock and then have them change it to the time it is at your house right then.  Have them calculate the elapsed time.

• The penguin walked the length and width of the bath tub and it was 6 steps in length and 2 steps in width.  Of course your child's feet aren't the same size as the penguins but for a fun math exercise have your child take 6 steps one foot in front of the other and mark the start and finish point.  measure the distance.  Now do the same for the width.  Describe to your child the difference between length and width.
• This story starts off on Wednesday, September twenty-ninth and you will follow this family for 9 months.  Have you child record the Popper families adventures through these nine months.  They can tell details described in the story of what the seasons are like as well.  Keep a timeline of the events and any dates mentioned in the story.
• Spelling: Have your child spell these words with alphabet beads or jot them down in their notebook. You can use them all or pick a few.
• Thursday
• September
• Thirtieth
• Wednesday
• Twenty-ninth
• Penguins
• Length
• Width
• Calcimine
• Expedition
• Mending
• Spectacles
• Queer
• Stout
• Pompous
• Toboggan
• Bungalow
• North Pole
• South Pole

Here are the answers to the questions from the notebook:

1. House Painter
2. He had never seen the Poles, or even left Stillwater
3. Bungalow
4. The kind that lasted all year
5. Answers will vary
6. It had National Geographic Magazine Pictures all over the walls
7. Answers will vary
8. Answers will vary
9. Answers will vary
10. Too much dirt in the house and she already has enough dirt
11. Goldfish
12. They crowd together until one penguin gets pushed in
13. They didn't have a TV
14. Not a letter, a surprise
15. He was curious about Admiral Drake's message
16. The Expressman
17. A faint "ork"
18. The penguin kept biting the faucets
19. No
20. Captain Cook

Thank you for visiting Noah's Ark Homeschool Academy and please keep your eye out for following chapters of our Mr. Popper's Penguins Unit Study!

Life of Fred; Apples, Chapter 2 Math Lesson

Today we read Chapter 2, completed the problems, and expanded with a few activities that related to today's lesson.  The topics covered were circles, ellipses, elapsed time of 1 hour, addition (parts of seven), and the days of the week. 

Here's what we did with Fred today!

 

We set our clocks to 6 o'clock.

 

Then we set our clocks an hour later. (which was 7 o'clock)

 

We traced our Days of the Week Song in cursive,

 

and in manuscript.

 

 

 

 

 

We broke out the alphabet beads and spelled all the days of the week.

 

We learned that circles and ellipses have four equal parts.

First, make a perfect square.

Second, fold into four equal parts.

 

Third, cut the corner off to form a curve.

 

Last open it up and find your perfect circle with 4 equal parts.

 

We made our own version of Kandinsky's Circle's.

 

Click the links below for other examples of this project.

 

Little Guy used Watercolor Pencils for his Masterpiece!

 

I used Oil Pastels for mine.

 

Here's my finished project!

 

Big Man,

 

Mama Bear, and Little Mama used Watercolor Paints.

 

Big Man's Masterpiece!

 

Little Mama's Masterpiece!

 

 

After Little Guy finished coloring with the Watercolor Pencils it was time to paint over it with water.

 

How cool is that?

 

Little Guy's finished Masterpiece!

 

 

Mama Bear's finished Masterpiece!

 

We learned that ellipses are circles from a different perspective. 

 I showed them a real cup from both views as well.

 

We used what we learned about circles and ellipses in our next lesson about closed and open composition pictures.  

 



 

We drew a picture of coins (circle view and ellipse view) in an open composition picture, and then in a closed composition picture.

 

I had the kids represent 5+2=7 in 7 different ways.

 

Then we wrote out the math equation we had just made.

7(5+2)=__

We then solved the problem together.

7(5+2)=49

 

We recorded our answers in our math journals.

 

We completed our lesson with a word problem that we recorded in our math journals.

These links are were I received inspiration for today's lesson.

http://scienceforkids.kidipede.com/math/geometry/circle.htm

http://dollarstoremom.com/2011/06/kid-art-project-concentric-circles/

http://mightynest.com/blog/art-project-for-kids-kandinsky-inspired-circles

http://jeaninallhonesty.blogspot.com/2010/04/kids-art-projects-kandinsky-circles-in.html

http://spaghettiboxkids.com/blog/kids-art-fun-with-circles

http://www.sibleyfineart.com/tutorial--draw-ellipses.htm

http://www.uptoten.com/kids/coloringpage-mixedbag-coloring-drawing.html

Life of Fred; Apples, Chapter 1 Math Lesson

Today began our adventure with Life of Fred by Stanley F. Schmidt, PH.D.  It was very different then what we are accustomed to, but in a delightful way!  For starters, there is very little math "work" in the lesson itself.  In this chapter there were exactly 3 problems to be solved by the student.  Although in the text there are many mathematical ideas that are introduced with logic instead of memorization.  We enjoyed the gentle introduction into our math lesson, and of course the snuggling since we were all able to pile on the couch and READ our math lesson together.

Life of Fred is a stand alone math curriculum, but many substitute with a more traditional approach.  I will reserve my opinion on whether I feel Life of Fred is a complete curriculum or not until I have completed the Apples book.  Although I will say that we had very hearty math lesson today using only Life of Fred curriculum and doing a few activities that tied into the lesson.  We tackled a couple complex math concepts with very simple mathematical skills and activities.  I didn't feel like my children were missing out on anything or needed anything more. 

My children found this lesson curious and exciting!  All four of my children were engaged and learning.   Chapter 1 introduces the idea that if you have 7 (or a certain number) items and you split them up in groups they still together will equal 7.  Remember memorizing the rule is simple, but understanding how it works goes a little deeper.  Clocks and the concept of the passage of time was also covered in this lesson.  So, other than reading the text and doing the 3 problems at the end of the lesson, this is what we did.

We Made a Clock!

You will need 2 paper plates, brads, the arrows and numbers, glue, scissors, and colored pencils.

You can also visit Frugal Fun 4 Boys to see how they did it!

 

The kiddos colored and cut out their arrows and numbers.

 

Then they glued the numbers on and attached the arrows with a brad.  We also colored the sections different colors and labeled them O'clock, Quarter After, Half Past, and Quarter 'Til.

 

The kiddos cut slits between each hour and then labeled the minutes in intervals of 5 on the plate underneath.

 

After we completed our clocks we set our clocks to 5:00 just like in the text and calculated the elapsed time between 5:00 and 7:00.

And last but not least, we played!  We picked random times and raced to set our clocks.  We also made up story problems in Life of Fred style to practice and play with our new creations.



We Used Legos to Show Parts of 7

 

We started off with 7 Lego's.

 

Our first task was seeing how many ways we could make seven with two groups.

 

Then we moved on to making 7 with 3 groups, and then 4 groups.

 



While we were making our groups we recorded our results.

 

 

This is what we came up with.

 

This was only our first lesson, but we are having a blast with Life of Fred thus far!

 

Are there any Life of Fred folks out there that have any advice for me and other's that are interested or just beginning in Life of Fred?