Five in a Row: Night of the Moonjellies by Mark Shasha
What a sweet memory to have captured forever in a book! The story is a true one from the author himself. When he was a boy he found a moonjelly on the beach. He took it to is grandma who then surprised him with such a beautiful memory!
Day 1
Social Studies: Geography
We located New England on our states map and colored it in. I briefly explained the group of states are called New England because the settlers that discovered the area were from England and it was “new” land to them. However, the story takes place in a seaside restaurant in Connecticut so we learned a little bit about what makes Connecticut special.
Day 2
Social Studies: Life Near the Sea
This story has my girls itching to go back to Hawaii—their favorite place on earth. Ever since we went a couple years ago, they keep asking when we will go back. We shared memories of the last time we were at the beach. Then the girls drew a picture of their favorite memory and wrote a few sentences to go along.
Day 3
Science: Moon Jellyfish
We talked about what would happen if Mark forgot to put salt water into his bag when he picked up the moon jelly. This led to a conversation about why the ocean is salty. So we watched a Mystery Science video about why the ocean is salty.
Then we did a crayon resist water color painting of a jelly fish. The girls sprinkled salt over their picture to show their jelly fish in the water. As we were drawing the jelly fish we talked about parts of the jelly fish. We watched another video about jelly fish and why they sting.
Day 4
Art: Biome-Aquatic
We looked back at the pages of the story and identified things you would find near the sea. Then we did a brain dump and I wrote down all of their ideas—star fish, lobsters, crabs, water, waves, seaweed, sand, whales, people, boats rocks, jellyfish etc. I had them draw ‘things near the sea’ in their art books. I photocopied their art work and put it in their notebook with the rest of the story.
VOCABULARY
The stomach flu has ran through our house and this week was my turn so I did not get all the vocab cards done in time. I only introduced the new words and matched a photo to each word. #ohwell
Day 1: introduction to word and definition
Day 2: examples and non examples of each word with a simple thumbs up or thumbs down
Day 3: match a vocabulary word to a picture and explain
Day 4: fill in the blank with the correct vocabulary word
OTHER FIVE IN A ROW LESSONS
Lentil by Robert McCloskey (Why I only do four days mentioned in this post.)
The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese
Night of the Moonjellies by Mark Shasha
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References:
“State Coloring Pages.” 123 Homeschool 4 Me, https://www.123homeschool4me.com/free-state-coloring-pages_24/. Accessed 17 August 2023.
“Why is the Ocean Salty?” Mystery Science, Youtube, 11 February 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGPFzHw-NDo. Accessed 13 September 2023.
“How Do Jellyfish Sting?” Mystery Science, 18 October 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2IpuB3EYkA. Accessed 13 September 2023.
“Glass Beach in Fort Bragg: How to See This Unique Beach.” California Through My Lens, https://californiathroughmylens.com/glass-beach-fort-bragg/. Accessed September 2023.
