Little House in the Big Woods

We started reading the Little House series.  The first book is Little House in the Big Woods.

I love this series because it provides so many opportunities for visualizing, good use of author's style from a first grader's perspective, and of course, inquiry.  I try to "prime the pump" before each chapter to get Room 408 thinking about what we will discover.  For example, we viewed this photo to predict what we think it is and what use it has.  We discussed drawing diagrams, labeling and writing, and explained our thinking in our Think Books.

The kids came up with so many great predictions--from yo-yos to dream catchers to eggs!

When we read the chapter about pig butchering and using every part of the animal for a purpose, you can see their gears grinding and realization dawning when they hear about how Laura and Mary play with the pig's bladder like a ball or balloon--which was the object in the observation picture!

These books are also great examples of how things were made and how people lived off the land before you could just show up at the store and buy what you needed.  For example, one of the favorite things we did so far was make butter.

We partnered up and collaborated to make and shake cream into butter!

It was pretty exciting when it started to thicken up.

Finally it was ready!

...and of course, we got to enjoy it!!!

...and we LOVED it!!!

Room 408 is enjoying the historical research!