Exploring the Ballad of Mulan through cooking

This year Miss K is using Reading Rewards, Level 3 . Last week's Literature Unit was centered around the retelling of Ancient poem The Ballad of Mulan* by Author Song Nan Zhang. As well as the activities in the lesson plan we decided to try and cook something that went with our theme.

Miss K asked to try Crab Ragoons. While not traditional Chinese cuisine that are on the Menu at many Asian style Restaurants. Piwi Daddy  had just watched an America's Test Kitchen episode about deep frying and decided to give it a go.

I made the filling and assembled the ragoons and then handed them over to be fried...
If you want to make this as an additional to your China Unit study then this is what you will need...

Ingredients:

• 20 wonton wrappers
• 1 brick of cream cheese (we used reduced fat)
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• Pinch of black pepper
• 4oz Flaked 'Krab'
• A cup of water for 'sealing the wrappers'
• Canola oil for deep frying

Add the cream cheese, Krab, sugar, onion powder, black pepper to a bowl and mix to combine.
Place a teaspoon of the mixture in the middle of each wonton wrapper. I made purse shaped Ragoons but you could make triangle shapes if you prefer. Either way just seal the edges by brushing a little water on the edges of the wrapper before folding it around the filling.

I wish I had a great tutorial for the frying part. I asked my husband how he did it and he said 'Keep the oil at 350 degrees and cook them until they turn golden, about 2 minutes'. If that makes as much sense to you as it did to me, I would suggest visiting a link at Americas' test Kitchen that explains how to deep fry a similar snack.

They turned out looking like 'real ones'. More Miss K and Piwi Daddy were pretty happy with the results.

* The Disney Movie 'Mulan' was loosely based on the Ancient Poem of Mulan by an unknown Author. We found several other books that had more information about Mulan.

Language Arts: Piwi style

After 2.5 years of homeschooling, I still consider myself a rookie. Two of these years were with a virtual school. This school year, Second grade, is the first time we have made our own curriculum choices. For a longer version of our how we came to Homeschool see our Piwi classroom page.

By chance, I came across the Virtual Homeschool curriculum fair this weekend. A first I didn't even think I had a lot to offer in advice about curriculum. I began blogging so that our spread-out family could see what the kids were doing. Later it became more about our Homeschooling. However, I feel compelled to give back by trying to follow in the footsteps of some of the great bloggers out there who have unknowingly helped us in our Homeschool journey.



Our workbox planner

This week we are posting about Language arts. I was just outlining what we are doing this year for second grade. That was the plan until I realized (while folding laundry) that that wasn't really helpful unless I also included how we got to this point. I will try to keep it short. I come from a family who are notorious for making a short story long.

How we got to 2nd grade.

The curriculum for Miss K's Kindergarten and First grade year was sent to us our virtual school. Initially this was what we needed. I was freaking out about whether I could teach her. My DH  reminded me that in our current school district the Kindergarten teacher to student ratio was 28:1. Yes, I agreed, I could do better than that. The virtual school had a totally scripted program, what could go wrong?

Math went great, Social studies, Science, Language arts... and then we got to Phonics. After the first week, I called our support teacher, Ms. L, for help. It was not pretty, Miss K was upset she couldn't read yet.  All the lessons were about phonetic sounds and she was over it. Just bringing out the magnets caused a melt down. I was worried that maybe she wasn't ready. After a visit with Miss K,  Ms. L assured me that if we could just get through this first short unit, we would get to the sight words next and then Miss K would be fine. I was skeptical, but sure enough, once Miss K started memorizing sight words, she quickly started reading. Phonics have remained something she really disliked through first grade. Online programs like Time 4 learning helped. More recently Phonics have made a sneaky appearance back into her LA curriculum. The curriculum we use includes it in a very natural way. We are also working in Test prep guides which are making her think more phonetically. Whether we need to go back and revise phonics will become apparent soon.

Language arts in Second grade

Prior to this year, I had not heard of  Learning Language Arts Through Literature.  It is actually an entire LA curriculum. It sounded too good to be true but it definitely works for us. We supplement it with creative writing (Miss K writes has an ongoing series about the secret identity of our cat) and additional book studies. It would be fine to use alone but there is always something Miss K wants to explore further. This is one of the blessings of Homeschooling on your own (as opposed to virtual schooling). You are free to follow interests. There is a sense of peace in knowing things aren't set in stone. Of course the peace comes after a near panic attack about choosing the right curriculum (instead of having it arrive pre-packaged in a 5 big boxes).

Saints Note booking pages

We use unit studies, lap books and note booking to study Science, History and Geography. Along with everything she learns about the subject, the process has really helped her Grammar & Spelling.  Handwriting had been something I had relaxed about after being reminded how bad mine was as a kid. Our more Classical friends suggested Copy work. Recently we found the Catechism copy work at St. Annes Helper.  Catechism review and handwriting practice in one! Miss K is taking a lot of pride in her work.

 

 

We don't use an actual curriculum for spelling. We have a list of words to know by the end of second and third grade. Each week we have a list of 15 words to learn. She uses the See/say/spell/write method to learn new words. These words come from the list and from words that Miss K wrote incorrectly during creative writing or any other writing she did during the week from  unit studies, lap books or even math word problem answers. This was how we did it growing up in New Zealand and it works for Miss K.

The one thing that has remained the same throughout our journey, is our love of books. Most weeks we  return one mountain of books to the Library and check out another.

So that's a summary of our LA journey with Miss K, now 7. We are now beginning the amazing journey again with Mini Piwi, 3. Thankfully, this time around I have a head start. I know that kids learn in their own way, and in their own time. It also helps if they are enjoying the experience.

visit the other bloggers participating in this week’s edition of the Virtual Curriculum Fair:

 

Building Blocks of Education--Learning to Read  by Kristi Kerr @ The Potter's Hand Academy Finding Our Way Through Language Arts by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool

How Does a Unit Study Teach Language Arts? by Nicole @ Schooling in the Sun 

Our Language Arts Adventure by Linda @ Homeschooling6 2013 Virtual Curriculum Fair-Playing with Words:  The Language Arts by Leah Courtney @ As We Walk Along the Road Virtual Curriculum Fair-Playing with Words by Karyn @ Teach Beside Me Virtual Curriculum Fair ~ Language Arts by Dawn @ Guiding Light Homeschool Writing Help in a Critical Thinking book? by Missouri Mama @ Ozark Ramblings

Virtual Curriculum Fair: Foreign Language Immersion in the Homeschool by Tonia @ The Sunny Patch

Formula for Reading by Erin @ Delighting in His Richness

Words and Learning by Annette @ A Net In Time

A Custom Designed High School English Credit by Tech Wife @ A Playground of Words

Virtual Curriculum Fair 2013: Still Loving Language Arts by Pam @ Everyday Snapshots

Word Play by Lisa @ Golden Grasses

Loving Language Arts by Kristen H. @ Sunrise to Sunset

Learning Language Arts ~ 2012-2013 School Year by Laura O in AK @ Day by Day in Our World

Virtual Curriculum Fair - The Language Arts Department by Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory

Playing with Words:  The Language Arts by Christa Darr @ Fairfield Corner Academy: The Story of Our Life

Playing with Words:  Language Arts by April @ Coffee, Cobwebs and Curriculum

What Language Arts looks like in our house - Are we doing it right? by Hillary M @ Our Homeschool Studio

2nd grade-ish Curriculum plan for 2013

Last year we were virtual schooling so we had the year's lesson plans laid out for us. You can read more about our journey and curriculum here.

I had only planned our lessons until the end of the year so we could make any required changes in our curriculum. Here is what I have so far...I am still

Language arts/spelling

• Copy work from St. Annes Helper. Miss K can review her Catechism and do copy work at the same time! We downloaded some samples last week and they were great. Miss K proudly showed Daddy her beautiful writing.

• Continuing with Learning Language arts through literature (3rd grade)

• 2nd grade & 3rd grade word spelling list from Time 4 learning.

• MCP phonics B

Math


The Math in Focus curriculum is sold in two parts, we had just purchased the first semester books just in case it wasn't a good fit. The lesson themselves are really good for Miss K. We just recently changed up the order we did the chapters. I felt Miss K needed more confidence in addition and subtraction before we could move onto multiplication. I got a bit sneaky. We did two lessons of math each day. One from the math in focus measurement unit (chapters ) and then later in the day some from Mammoth math addition and subtraction 2b. Usually miss K also does 20 mins on IXL...so that's kind of three math lessons. She has yet to notice because she doesn't consider measuring stuff and computer work 'Math'. Having said that, the IXl novelty is starting to wear off now that the virtual prizes are not coming as readily now as they do in the beginning.

History/Geography

We have a few more days left of Advent and then we return to our Galloping the globe.

 

Science

• Considering gods creation
• Galloping the globe
•  Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett.

 

 

 

Dogs unit study Click here to view more details

Roller coasters Click here to view more details

 Volatile volcanoes Click here to view more details










Catechism

Grade 2: Call to Faith . Miss K really loves this series. We were using Faith and Life last year but our Parish is using this, but even if/when we move I would continue with it.

• St Anne's Helper copy work books. The samples we tried were really good so we have ordered some for Miss K. Use discount code: catholicmom

Click here to visit St. Annes Helper.

 

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Saving money on learning stuff for 2013

 

 

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Charlie and the Chocolate factory Unit update

Instead of going with the spooky or pumpkin theme for Halloween this year, we are going with candy. We have been reading Charlie and the chocolate factory together and working on a lap book from Confessions of a homeschooler.
Here it is all finished:

Lap book cover

The reallife wonka candy factoy in IL, the factorie's rooms in the book, vocab definitions from the book,

Candy math, Time  line and book report

Miss K's candy invention, character outlines, how and where Charlie lived.

We just finished the book and the Piwis both loved it. (I suspect the amount of candy involved in the story is helped keep their attention!). 

Miss K was disappointed that we couldn't meet Willy Wonka or visit his amazing factory. However when I showed her the real life Wonka candy brand online she seemed feel better. Of this meant we needed to find some of the chocolate to try. To date we haven't found any of the chocolate bars in store but the kids did get a box of everlasting gobstoppers which seemed to to live up to their expectations.

These are the Unit activities I have planned (Along with the lap book).

• Make an Ad for your new Candy invention: Lately we have been talking a lot about advertising so we are going to work on making an ad for the candy Miss K has invented as part of her lapbook. There is a printable here but I made up a simpler template.

• Chocolate science from Candy experiments: Separating the ingredients of chocolate...I found a cool experiment to create and find out about 'chocolate bloom' -you know when the chocolate goes white and gross looking...

• Make a Dio-rama of your favorite room in the factory

• Poetry    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Perplexed Poetry

• Character cause and effect

• Write your own Ommpa loompa song 

• Watch the Movie & compare it to the book using a Venn Diagram

Other great links I found

Real life Wonka candies

Use the Wonka imaginator to create a piece of art and post it in the Gallery

Leaping into 5th grade's Charlie and the Chocolate factory Unit has some great Literature resources

Drawing Pilgrim threw an amazing Willy wonka themed party that has some cool pics that inspired me to make some candy themed halloween decorations...did I mention I was over the spooky Halloween theme?

Shared with

Walmart ABCs

We needed more moving boxes to 'half pack'. 

S for snap peas - family fav.

On our summer list to do list is 'do an ABC scavenger hunt'. It was supposed to be an all summer project but I decided to challenge the piwis to do it in Walmart instead. It took a good hour but it was actually one of least stressful visit i have ever had to Walmart. Sure we got a few odd looks but I'm sure the staff have seen stranger things.

M for M&Ms

The hunt was on as we entered the store, we looked around and took pictures of things for each letter of the alphabet. Some needed some real thought and some big hunting -like for the one single box of mini quiche we found in the freezers for the letter 'q'. Miss K was annoyed that they did don't sell 'quills'.

Adjectives, first grade style

Miss K seems to be overwhelmed with what she calls 'big weird words' this year in her reading and grammar lessons. She has a point. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, predicates do sound pretty weird. I didn't ask her opinion on more recently learnt concepts, (antonyms, synonyms and homophones) as figured it may be less than polite. It did get me thinking about how I could create visual reminder for each of these concepts. Finally, I decided on a kind of poster book which we could create together and then use as a reference. I wanted each concept/word to have a theme or picture to associate with it so hopefully Miss K could think of the page we created when she heard the word.

First up was Adjectives. This was to be a flower with petals of describing words. There are eight petals for Miss K to add adjectives to. Four petals have hints on them such as 'number of petals' and four were left blank for her to come up with her own.

Perry was surprisingly comfortable demonstrating how petals should be arranged on the poster.