Learning Adventures
For Little Adventurers

Sample Lesson Plans

Supplement for Little Adventurers (K - grade 3)
A World of Adventure

cover page - Little Adventures - Egypt_1   Day 26 (from the Ancient Egypt Supplement)
  Bible
  
Listen to the Bible lesson in AWOA with your family. 

    Pharoah's Brickyard
    Make a sign for a little freeplay center called Pharaoh's Brickyard. Put legos
    and blocks in this center for the children to build pyramids and other structures
                 as desired. 

Jiggly Bricks and Mortar Treat
Prepare a pan of Jello Jigglers. 
4 packages (3 oz. each) Jell-o, any flavor
2-1/2 cups boiling water
Dissolve gelatin completely in boiling water in a bowl. Pour into a 9" square pan, and chill until firm (about four hours). When firm, cut into brick-size rectangles. 
1 (8 oz.) whipped topping - or whipped cream
Have the children stack the Jell-o bricks with whipped cream "mortar." It's messy, but it's fun and yummy!

Language Arts (Phonics Enrichment)
I is for Israelites - make another page in your alphabet booklet.
Emergent - Write Ii on the page in dots for tracing. Then write "is for . . . " and add the word "Israelites."  Have the child draw or color, cut, and attach a picture of the Israelites making bricks.
Beginning - Write "Israelites" on the page and add a picture. 
Continuing - Add a picture of Israelites, and write about the Israelite slaves in Egypt in words, phrases, and sentences.

Language Arts (Grammar)
We have been learning about subjects and predicates. Write the following sentences on the marker board without slash marks. Have students separate the sentences into subject and predicate with a slash mark.

  • The Hebrews / made bricks. 
  • The tired people / worked hard. 

The simple subject is the key word (or most important word) in the subject.  The simple subject in each of the following sentences is underlined. 

  • The Hebrews / made bricks.
  • The tired people / worked hard.  

Underline the simple subject in each of the sentences on the marker board that you separated.

The simple predicate is the key word (or most important word) in the subject. The simple predicate in each of the following sentences has a double underline.

  • The Hebrews / made bricks. 
  • The tired people / worked hard. 

Make a double line under the simple predicate in each of the sentences on the marker board.

Language Arts (Spelling)

Let My People Go Spelling Game

Make an Egypt sign and a Desert sign. In the Bible story, Moses was to go to Pharaoh with a command from the Lord God to let His people go so they could offer sacrifices to Him in the desert. The object of this game will be to gain permission to go from Egypt and toward the desert by spelling words correctly. Post the Egypt sign on one end of the room where students will stand at a beginning line. The parent/teacher stands across the room, where the Desert sign will be posted. This is an oral spelling game, in which each student has a different set of spelling words (and will only be responsible for his/her own spelling list). Each student, in turn, must spell the word dictated by the parent (in his/her individual set of spelling words for the week).  The parent calls on a student, gives a spelling word, which the student must spell orally, and if correct, the parent tells the student s/he may "go" - and the student moves ahead one step. Students continue spelling words and may only move ahead if the parent gives permission for the student to "go." If oral spelling is difficult for your child, you may use a small individual marker board for each of them to write the word and show it to you instead.  The student closest to the desert at the end of the game wins! If you want to focus on practice only - post each child's list so they can use the list to help them learn the spelling as they are called to spell their words.  Use any words you are reviewing or practicing currently - or consider choosing from the following I words as in Israelite:

Continuing Students - I'll (I will), I'm (I am), I've (I have), idea, illness, imagine, immediate, impatient, impolite , impossible, improve, include, increase, independent, indoors, inflate, inject, information, injure, instead, instruct, introduce, invade, investigate, iron, Israelite, itch
Beginning Students - I, is, in it, if, its (the possessive - not the contraction that means it is), ice, into, ill, inch, ink
Emergent Students - must identify individual letters as the parent writes them on the board .

Social Studies/Science
Listen to the lesson in AWOA about weather and climate.

Let My People Go Game

Play the game as above, but instead of using spelling words, the students must answer the following Bible, history, and science questions orally in order to have permission to go, step by step, from Egypt to the Desert. Questions are as follows:

  • Which word refers to the conditions of the atmosphere at a certain time and place - weather or climate? (Weather)
  • Is a group of people traveling together with pack animals called a caravan or a mini-van? (Caravan)
  • In our Bible story, Moses runs away to Midian. What is his job while he lives in Midian - was he a fisherman or a shepherd ? (Shepherd) 
  • On which continent is Egypt - Africa or South America? (Africa) 
  • Which structure was completed on the Nile River in 1968 that provides a reservoir for year-round irrigation - Aswan Dam or Hoover Dam? (Aswan Dam)
  • Which desert is directly west of Egypt - The Sahara or The Gobi? (The Sahara)
  • When Moses is tending sheep in Midian, did God appear to him in the rushing waves of a flood or in flames of fire in a burning bush ? (In a burning bush)
  • Which reed was used by Ancient Egyptians to make a kind of paper - poppies or papyrus? (Papyrus)
  • Which word means the year-round weather that is typical of a specific area - weather or climate? (Climate)
  • God calls Moses to bring the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. God uses something to help Moses believe that God was, indeed, calling him. What was it - a staff that turned into a snake or a sheep that turned into a goat? (His staff turned into a snake when God told Moses to throw it on the ground.)
  • Which river is the longest river in the world and flows through Egypt - the Mississippi River or the Nile River? (The Nile River)
  • What was the annual flooding of the Nile called - the infestation or the inundation? (The inundation)
  • Did the annual inundation of the Nile help the crops to grow or make them die? (It helped the crops to grow, because when the flooding waters went down, dark, rich soil was left behind which helped the crops to grow.)
  • Who did God tell Moses would be his helper by speaking to the people for him - his sister, Miriam, or his brother, Aaron? (Aaron)
  • Does the word extinct mean that a plant or animal has been born - or that it has died out? (Died out)
  • If we wanted to use something carefully so it doesn't get used up, would we conserve it or complete it? (Conserve it)
  • What do we call it when crops can't grow because of very little rainfall - a delight or a drought? (A drought) 
  • What do we call it when water drops turn into water vapor in the air - evaporation or operation? (Evaporation)
  • Is fertile soil good for growing healthy crops - or bad for growing crops? (Fertile soil is GOOD for growing crops.)
  • What do we call a food shortage caused by a drought? Is it a famine or a family? (Famine)

Fine Arts

Bricks with Straw

The Hebrew slaves made bricks for buildings and monuments. Egyptian bricks were made of clay mixed with water and sometimes straw. They were often stamped with Pharaoh's seal. Make clay bricks with the air -drying oatmeal clay recipe below. Add bits of grass or straw to the dough and knead it in as the Hebrews did.  Egyptian bricks were usually 14-20 inches long and 6-9 inches wide. Your bricks will be much smaller than that . Carve your name (or initials) into your bricks. Decorate your bricks with tiny rocks or pebbles around the edges, if desired. 

Oatmeal Clay
1 cup dry rolled oats from a canister of oatmeal (can be quick oats or old-fashioned)
1/2 cup flour (or more)
1/2 cup water
Bits of grass or straw
Mix ingredients together, adding more flour as needed. Knead to make the dough workable and add bits of grass or straw as desired. Divide into portions for each child. Form into bricks of any size, carve initials or name into each, and decorate as desired. Air dry. You may paint your bricks after they are dry.

Language Arts (Writing)

List three steps (or more) that you took to make your bricks. Finish the following writing prompt:

To make our bricks we:
1.
2.
3.
(Some answers might be - mixed the dough, added bits of grass or straw, formed the bricks with our hands, carved our names in the bricks, decorated them with pebbles, and let them dry.)

 

 

Cover page - Little Adventures - Greece_1   Day 47 (from the Ancient Greece Supplement)
  Bible / Language Arts (Literature)
  
Read and discuss more of the Creation Story (Gen. 2:8-17) from AWOA
    with your family. 

    We can really only imagine how breathtakingly beautiful the Garden of Eden
    must have been. As beautiful and lush as many gardens are today, the Garden
    of Eden surely must have been even more stunning than we could ever describe, since God created it in His perfection, and it was not tainted with the devastating effects of sin in those early days of our world. The Garden of Eden tells us a lot about God's loving plans for mankind, for it shows His intent for us to live surrounded by good things. God's plan for mankind was to have a wonderful balance of responsibility, work, and rest. Discuss the responsibilities and work that you have at home, and how you take time to renew your body each night in a time of rest so you can be ready and refreshed to greet the new day with joy as you walk in the new daylight that God has lovingly provided. 

Bible / Fine Arts
Window into The Garden of Eden
Write "The Garden of Eden" across the top of a piece of white or manila construction paper as a title to this art project. Gather leaves and plants from your yard and make leaf rubbings by placing each plant under your paper and coloring over it lightly with a crayon so the plant structure will show through on the side you are coloring. Use a variety of colors for this all over your paper as you rub your crayons over different plants/leaves in different sections with different colors. When the leaf rubbings are finished, use water color paints to cover the entire page. The combination of crayon and watercolors will give the entire page a lush garden look. Let the paint dry. Then, write/copy the text of Genesis 2:8a across the bottom of the page. 

Language Arts (Spelling, Phonics Enrichment)
Garden Goodness
The Garden of Eden was beautiful and useful. The Bible says the things that grew there were good for food.  Gardens still provide the good food that helps keep our bodies healthy. In this game, children write garden food words as chosen by the parent from below on note cards (one word per card). Mix up the cards and line them up in garden rows on the floor. Provide a bowl or colander, gardening gloves, and a play plastic shovel or large spoon for children to "dig" out the garden crop cards and transfer to a bowl or colander. In order to transfer the vegetable card to the colander, the child must read/spell the word he has chosen. The object is to dig out all the vegetables and put them in the colander. For continued review/reinforcement, give child a stack of cards and have him/her order (plant) them in rows in alphabetical order face-up. Then, the child must read/spell them to a parent when they are in their alphabetical rows.

Continuing Students - potato, onion, beans, turnips, carrots, peas, asparagus, tomato, celery, cucumber, corn, radish, beets, lettuce, cabbage, squash, spinach, pumpkin, eggplant, broccoli
Beginning Students - words with v in them (for vegetables) - very, have, live, five, hive, give, gave, dive, river, ever, every, move
Emergent Students - write upper- and lowercase alphabet letters on each card (cut cards in half so you will only use a total of 26 full-size cards, if desired). "Plant" the cards in rows in the "garden." Students must identify the letter on each card and/or tell the sound it makes before putting it in the colander. Students must then arrange letters they've gathered in upper and lowercase pairs alphabetically in garden rows and identify them to a parent.

Bible / Science
Garden of Eden Tossed Salad
Help to wash and prepare vegetables for a Garden of Eden Tossed Salad. Combine your favorite/desired lettuces, spinach, cut carrots, cucumbers, onions, and other veggies in a crispy and delicious tossed salad.  Serve with the following oil and vinegar dressing - or your own favorite salad dressing. Yum! Good for you, too!

Favorite Salad Dressing
1/4 cup vegetable oil or olive oil
2 T. sugar
2 T. apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
Whisk in a small bowl or shake in a tightly covered jar to combine. Serve over tossed greens and vegetables - pouring desired amount of dressing on salad just before serving - and then tossing the salad and dressing together. Store any leftover dressing in the refrigerator. 

Language Arts (Writing) / Gathering and Organizing Information
Family Grape Juice Favorites

Sample red, purple, and white grape juice with your family. Poll family members, who must vote for their favorite flavor/color of juice. Make a chart on the markerboard that looks like the following:

Red Purple White

 

Make one tally mark in the appropriate column for each person's vote. Analyze your findings and write a conclusion about the results. Which juice did family members like best? Which did they like the least? Write the answers to these questions in a short story telling about what your family did in steps. Do this orally together, and the parent will write the child's description of this activity so the child can copy it later. Add an illustration of the glasses of grape juice in the three colors. (Possible mini story: Our family sampled three kinds of grape juice - red, white, and purple. We voted on which we liked the best. Our family members liked the purple grape juice best and the white grape juice the least. I guess we will probably be buying the purple grape juice in the future!)

Language Arts (Vocabulary Cards)
Add new cards for the root word and definition in AWOA. Play a Memory Game with your cards.

Social Studies (History)
Listen to the History Lesson in AWOA with your family.

Ancient Greece Notebook

Add a page to the Greek People section of your Ancient Greece notebook about Pericles. Include a picture of him along with some things for which he is known. Pericles was a general and leader of Athens during the Golden Age. He was called "The First Citizen of Athens" for his dedication to democracy and making Athens great. Pericles promoted art and literature, and helped to organize building projects in Athens, some of which are still standing today. These things helped to make Athens a beautiful city and the center of education and culture in Ancient Greece.

Science
Young children can help to keep their home a safe place by obeying the rules of the household. Sometimes, accidents occur because children have not obeyed. It's important to stay away from hot things like ovens and stoves unless a parent is helping you to know how to be careful around these things. Obeying this rule can prevent burns from occurring. Discuss other safety rules and procedures you have in your home. Discuss how to use the 911 emergency number and when to use it appropriately (and when not to use it). Practice learning/saying addresses and phone numbers so that if asked by an emergency worker how to get to your house, you can provide that information by memory. Help your parents by making a pretty sign with your home phone number and address, which can be posted in a convenient location so these can also be read easily and quickly in an emergency. Draw pictures of things you can do to stay safe and healthy in your home. 

Language Arts (Phonics Enrichment)
N is for Nerves - make another page for your Human Body booklet.

Emergent - Write Nn on the page in dotted fashion so the child can trace the letters. Then write "is for . . . " and add the word "Nerves." Have the child draw or find a picture on-line of nerves that can be colored and/or cut out and attached to the page. 
Beginning - Children will write Nerves and add a picture.
Continuing - Children will write Nerves and add a picture with a phrase, sentence, or more to tell about the Nerves. 

 

 

Cover page - Little Adventures - Rome_1   Day 63 (from the Ancient Rome Supplement)
  Bible / Language Arts (Literature)

   Listen to the Bible/Literature lesson from AWOA. 

   Family Census
   Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem according to the decree of the Roman
   Emperor, Caesar Augustus. Bethlehem was the birthplace of David. Mary and Joseph were descendants of David's, so this is where they had to go to register for the census. A census provides information about the people living in a certain region. It lets the leaders of that region know how many people are living there, and what to expect in taxes from those people. Create a record of your family members and their birth dates. Include grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, as desired. This is a good project for children that will help them learn more about family members. It is a good way to keep track of the birthdays of family members, too! Decide how to organize your family listing. You could create one list in order of individual families and another list in monthly order of birthdays for later use. Add family photos next to each name for a pictorial listing, if desired.

Language Arts (Grammar)
Beginning Students - The word I is always capitalized. Names of things (proper nouns) must always begin with a capital letter. The first word of a sentence always begins with a capital letter. Copy the following sentence from the marker board and fill in the blank.

I am _________. (Fill in the blank with your age.)

Write (or copy from the marker board) the names of your family members. Remember to begin each with a capital letter.

Continuing Students - The word I is always capitalized. Names of things (proper nouns) must always begin with a capital letter. The first word of a sentence always begins with a capital letter. Addresses and dates begin with a capital letter. Complete the following activity, using capital letters correctly.

Write a sentence about yourself using the word I. 

  • Write the names of three friends. 
  • Write the name of your town.
  • Write the name of your state.
  • Write your street address.
  • Write which day it is today.
  • Write the month.
  • Write your favorite holiday.

Language Arts (Writing)

Write (or dictate and copy) a list of three important things that happened in today's Bible story. We will work on making these ideas into stronger sentences tomorrow. Examples/Ideas:

Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem.
Jesus was born.
Angels told about His birth.
Shepherds worshiped Him.
They told others.

Social Studies
Listen to the social studies lesson in AWOA.

Tour of Ancient Rome Game
Print (or draw) pictures of Ancient Roman places such as: The Colosseum, Pantheon, Roman Forum, Roman Baths, Trajan's Column, Arch of Constantine, Roman Aqueduct, etc. These are available on numerous web sites. Have children cut and mount pictures on note cards. Place the Ancient Roman Places pictures in a line at one end of the room on a table or the floor. Also have the children make separate labels for each place, copying the names from the board. Place each label with its picture to begin the game. To play, children will stand on one end of the room and when the parent calls out a place name, the child must "go to Rome" and "visit" that thing by identifying it and "studying" the picture. After a few rounds with the labels, remove the labels from the game.  Now, when the parent calls out a place name, the child must locate the places by sight only and be able to identify them by name after s/he arrives at the place. The goal of this project is to become familiar with names of Ancient Roman places and to recognize them by name and picture. When students have a strong knowledge of each place, play the game with them adding oral facts connected to each location, such as "The Roman Forum was an open rectangle in the center of the city of Rome. It was surrounded by government buildings and was a meeting place at the center of Roman public life. The Roman Forum was also a marketplace for business and trade." 

Tour of Ancient Rome Graph
Choose three Ancient Roman Places and create a graph as shown below. Poll family members to see which place they would most like to visit and place tally marks after each place. 

Graph Example:
The Colosseum lll
Roman Aqueduct l
Pantheon  ll

Interpret the results of your family graph by answering the questions below.

  • Which of the Ancient Roman Places would your family members would most like to visit? 
  • Which of the Ancient Roman Places would your family members like to visit the least?

Science
Listen to the science lesson in AWOA. Read about rocks and minerals.

Language Arts (Literature, Phonics Enrichment, Spelling)
A fun book to read during this unit is Stone Soup, since it fits so well with a study of rocks. It is a folk story in which hungry travelers trick the people of a town into giving them food. There are numerous versions of the tale, representing different cultures. All the travelers have when they come into the town is an empty pot.  When the villagers will not share their food, the travelers fill their pot with water, add a large stone to it, and place it over the fire. Curiosity gets the best of the villagers, and the travelers tell them they are making stone soup. The soup is delicious, they say - but it still needs a few more things to make it just perfect. Thus it is that they trick the villagers into adding a bit of this and a bit of that to the soup so that eventually, all the additions have made a truly delicious and nourishing pot of soup! Following is a storybook version of the folk tale, but it is available on the Internet in various versions as well.

Brown, Marcia. Stone Soup. Aladdin Picture Books, 1997.

Make some stone soup with your family and see if you think it is as delicious and the soup might have been in the story!

Stone Soup
6-8 cups chicken stock

1 large stone (washed very well) - stones are available from the craft section of most superstores - or you can use any stone you like - as long as it isn't limestone or sandstone so it won't break down in the soup! Quartz is a rock that will not break down. Also make sure the stone is large enough that it won't get lost in the soup so you can remove it before eating. 

Vegetables of your choice - the recipe is very forgiving so you may omit or add items as desired - 2 stalks chopped celery, 2 chopped carrots, 2 chopped potatoes, 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped summer squash, 1 chopped tomato, a small handful of chopped parsley

Salt and pepper to taste, a sprinkling of garlic powder and onion powder

Place the well-washed stone into the chicken stock (gently please!) Add the vegetables of your choice and the seasonings to taste. Bring to boil and then turn to a low simmer for 30-40 minutes, until vegetables are tender.  An alternative is to cook on low in the crock pot for most of the day. There is something about the delicious smells of that soup cooking away all day in the crock pot that makes even the most reluctant eaters want to gobble it up! Either way, remove the stone before serving - and enjoy! 

Stone Soup Play-Time
Provide a pan, stirring spoon, ladle, hot pad, plastic bowls and spoons. For a realistic dramatic play experience , provide chunks of real vegetables and a large stone for the child to add, stir, and "cook" in the pretend soup.  For a longer-lasting play experience, and one that is not as messy, add felt pieces that you have cut to go along with the items in the story you read with your child - a large stone, carrot, potato, celery, etc.

Stone Soup Spelling/Phonics
Have your child draw and cut a stone and vegetables from the story on appropriately colored paper. Make your stone soup ingredients large enough to write spelling words on each. Write each child's spelling words in a list on the marker board, and have the child copy one word onto each cut-out soup ingredient. Place ingredients in a kitchen bowl or colander and provide a kitchen tongs. The child must take one soup ingredient at a time from the colander with the kitchen tongs and read/spell the word written on it. If correct, the ingredient can go into the soup pot. If incorrect, the child must make the correction, and the ingredient must be returned to the colander or bowl to try again later in the game. When all of the ingredients have been read/spelled correctly and the colander is empty, provide a large stirring spoon. Children can stir the ingredients of the soup as it "simmers." Place the pot on a hot pad when it is "finished" and it's time for the next player to take a turn. Use spelling words you are currently practicing, or choose from the following words.  

Continuing Students - St words for stone - stack, stable, stadium, stage, stagger, stain, stair, stalk, stamp, stand, staple, stare, start, starve, state, station, statue, steady, study, steal, steel, steep, steer stick, stitch, stone, stomach, store, story, straight, student  

Beginning Students - S words for soup - see, so, saw, said, sit, say, six, sing, soon, sleep, small, seven, sat, sad, sip, sun

Emergent Students - Write alphabet letters on the soup ingredients and have the child identify the letter and sound as abilities permit. 

Language Arts (Phonics Enrichment)
M is for Mohs Hardness Scale - make another page in your Rocks and Minerals ABC's/A-Z booklet. 

Emergent - Write Mm on the page in dotted fashion so the child can trace the letters. Then write "is for . . . " and add the words "Mohs Hardness Scale." Have the child draw or attach pictures of rocks or minerals of different colors and textures.

Beginning - The child should write Mohs Hardness Scale and draw or add a picture.

Continuing - The child should write Mohs Hardness Scale and draw or add a picture. Then write about it in a phrase, sentence, or more. Examples might be: "Mohs Hardness Scale is used to determine the identity of minerals." "The scale includes a color, luster, cleavage, and hardness test." "It was developed by Friedrich Mohs, a German mineralogist." 

Fine Arts
Listen to the fine arts lesson from AWOA.

 

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