Monday, February 3, 2014

My Father's Dragon




We got the book and cd from the library. It is fun to listen to as the reader Robert Sevra does some great voices and expressions. 



The children love maps so this discovery inside the front cover was exciting. We studied it much before we even began the story. They we referred back to it several times as we were reading to follow the journey of Elmer Elevator and his rescue of the baby dragon.



The children enjoyed drawing the map. Their drawings were quite different and they seemed to focus on different aspects of the story - but they all included the blue and yellow striped dragon.



One of the characters in the story is a rhinoceros who is very upset with how yellowed his tusk has become with age. We used eggs to see the effect of soda on the shells. We started with hard-boiled eggs.



We poured a can of dark soda covering the eggs and let them sit about an hour while we were doing our maps. 

Here Wesley shows a fresh egg and one that had been soaking in the soda to show how discolored it had become.

The children got out toothbrushes and started to scrub the eggs.


They added toothpaste and got better results.



Diana needed some assistance as I do not think she was scrubbing hard enough.

The eggs were much improved by the brushing, but not completely back to their white color.

LESSONS LEARNED: 

1. Brushing teeth is important.

2. Do not drink soda. The children never drink soda. Now they understand why Mother has encouraged them to drink lots of water instead.
  
BENEFIT of our class today....


Egg-salad sandwiches for lunch! Served here with apple slices.

There are two more stories in the book to still be enjoyed.