Our Appalachia Homeschool : FIAR - Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel

We just finished "rowing" Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, written by: Virginia Lee Burton. This book is a modern classic that no child should miss reading.

Mike and Mary Anne, his trusty Steam Shovel digs canals for boats to travel through, cuts mountain passes for trains and hollows out cellars for city skyscrapers.... then new machines come along... and soon Mike and Mary Anne are out of work. Mike learns that the town of Popperville is going to be building a new town hall. Mike insists that his steam shovel, Mary Anne can dig as much in one day as a hundred men can dig in a week. They get the job and get to work. They manage to complete the task before sundown (with the help of an audience), but they forgot to dig themselves a way out. A child who has been watching them suggest that they build the town hall over them... and Mike becomes the janitor of the town hall and Mary Anne becomes the boiler for the town halls heating system.

First, after reading Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel the boys drew Popperville and we pasted it to our Land of Make Believe map. We started this map when we read Katy and the Big Snow.

Here are some of the topics we focused on this week:

Virtue - Diligence: We start fast, work hard and finish strong. Mike Mulligan was a very diligent man, he did not give up even when things were hard. The boys (along with myself, my husband and Aleah) have been trying to instill the virtue of diligence into our daily lives.... love hard work, don't hate it! Set the pace!

Vocabulary words we learned...

Drawing trees in motion (also, close up and far away)

Fictional Characters. The boys loved creating their own fictional characters. Aidan made Super Eraser Man and Noah made Johnny Winkle.

Non Fictional Characters - Noah drew Abraham Lincoln and Aidan drew Noah :)

Lego Skyscrapers and making diggers (you can find the printable here)

Learned about Virginia Lee Burton (she wrote and illustrated Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel in 1939)
Leaned about the Panama Canal and how people modify the landscape to aid in transportation.
Discussed "Then and Now", how things change over time, older models are put away and newer models are created.
Watched videos of Antique Steam Shovels:

Reviewed personification - we had already learned about personification with Katy and the Big Snow but we still did a quick review.
Painted with cars/trucks (hot wheels)..

Science Experiment, States Of Matter. My camera battery was dead so I didn't get any pictures of our experiment but I will explain what we did. For liquid - water, Alka Seltzer - solid, and adding them together made gas. Very simple but it really helped the boys to understand.
To say goodbye to Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne we had a little construction party today.... with a square cake, square baked spaghetti and garlic butter french toast.