Preschool Corner~ Wild Horses of Sweetbriar

 Since the beginning of our school year I have hoped to start posting our preschool happenings in an effort to keep my sweet little one's godmother in the loop of her little world. Here we are in May and I'm just now posting something. Life! What can I say?! No matter how much I desire to blog I won’t let it take me away from my family too much. So here we are…I suppose I can begin now and work backwards! I will still try to post things we have done throughout this school year because we simply love our Five in a Row book studies. 

Five in a Row (FIAR) is a literature based curriculum. (here is why it's called FIAR!) I have used it over the years with my kids from Before FIAR to Beyond FIAR. About 5 years ago a few ladies in my homeschool group created a “FIAR Club”.  We read the books at home and met monthly for some fun activities together. The memories of those club days are so special to me and my now 11 y.o. This year I have tried to recreate some of that fun with my 4 y.o. It’s been a blast! 

Last week we read Wild Horses of Sweetbriar as our FIAR book and My Chincoteague Pony as an extra to go along with the same theme. I like to add extra books that have the same theme as often as I can. There are so many great titles, there is hardly enough time to read them all!

I have been doing a mix of FIAR and Before FIAR titles this year. Some of the FIAR books “G” has not been quite ready for. For those we only read once instead of all 5 days. Sometimes she couldn’t even get through that. Others she would sit through many more times than the 5!! 

At times the activities to go along with the books were too advanced for her. Wild Horses of Sweetbriar was one of those, however I couldn't pass on this book because in my home horses and the beach are heaven to just about all of us!! I was part of a book club in two different homeschool groups and in each one I led the meeting for the book Misty of Chincoteague. The activity I created for the children to put together was this mini Chincoteague in a jar. “G” is a little young to create this so I went with a bigger version that she could actually get her hands into, a beach island sensory bin. She absolutely loves sensory bins! 

To do this I gathered these supplies

 

*Sand (from the floral section at Michael's. I chose this over play sand in the craft store b/c it was non-toxic and made in USA. Sadly the kids sand did not say non-toxic))
*Greenery that looks like sea grass (.50 cents at Michael's)
*Play horses from the girls toys
*Blue glass beads (for water) from Michael's
*Little seashells Also available at Michael's (we had some leftover from the last project for Misty)
*Play sand pail from the girls American Girl collection
*Plastic bin-I use the lids to those disposable pans. I always seem to have those on hand.
*Fence- I had a little fence from our Peter Rabbit's Garden sensory bin so I used that as well. It looked beachy!

Here is the finished product. Super easy! 

 

And let the fun begin!

 

 

 

  

Here is the pony swim!!

"G" had so much fun using this sensory bin. 

We still have it assembled so she can continue to play with it.

Here are the two books I used for this unit this past week. You can see all the books I have used for my wild ponies units in the below links.
Both of these books are out of print, but usually a local library will have them.

 

Here are my previous units on island ponies and Misty of Chincoteague
Island Ponies Pt. 1 (Misty)
Island Ponies Pt. 2
Places to see wild ponies on the beach:
Assateague Island, MD
Chincoteague Isalnd,VA
Sable Island, Nova Scotia
Various North Carolina Islands
Cumberland Island, GA
Payne's Prairie Preserve, Gainesville FL 

"But in my heart, I knew I would only need wild horses and the wind from the sea." ~Wild Horses of Sweetbriar

Island Ponies Part 2

 

Ponies at Assateague

June 19, 2013
If you read part 1 I am sure you are aware of my significant love for horses as well as the seashore. So combine the two and I am about in Heaven! Because of this, when we read Misty of Chincoteague the first time, I ventured off into a unit study researching more about island ponies. I couldn't believe how many places wild ponies can be found along the East Coast. Today I will share with you some of the things we did for our study on island ponies. This seemed to naturally lead into a unit on the ocean and seashore. I will discuss that unit in another post sometime soon.

 My daughter was at the age where she was very interested in lapbooks, and let's face it, so was mom! So I decided to create a lapbook to enhance the process of learning about the wild ponies and to document what she learned. Below are the pictures and explanations of our Island Ponies lapbook.

{Many components inside my lapbooks come from Homeschool Share's free template section. }

Here is the cover. I just typed up the title and printed a photo I found online. Then I laminated both and used double sided tape to stick them to the front of a file folder... 

Here is the initial view of the inside. At the top there are two "matchbooks" with explanations of two different theories about how the ponies arrived on Assateague.

In the middle section I have added two flaps using blue card stock. On the blue flaps you can see a map of Assateague and Chincoteague as well as an accordian type of book. I can't find the template for that book now, but if you look below you can see some close ups of it. The green "accordion book" is a piece of construction paper that measures 10.5 x 5 inches. Along the length I created 6 folds that are each about 3/4 of an inch. (These folds should be in the middle, allowing for a front and back that are about 2.5 inches.) Then I glued the back into the lapbook. On each of these folds I glued a little square piece of card stock that showed the cover of a book we read for this unit. (I found images of each book cover on google images) The top and bottom rows of squares were glued on opposite sides of the folds. This allowed the flaps to go one direction on top and the other direction on the bottom.

 Here are two more close ups so you can see how the booklet works...

As you pull the front cover out the flaps will lay flat, revealing the pictures on the squares.

The rest of the middle section just has a few of our photos from our trips to Assateague and Chincoteague.

Here is the view of the inside once the two blue flaps are opened.

On the left we placed a map printout of the East Coast. On the map we labeled each place wild ponies can be found. On the right side you can see a "graduated layer book". This book has a page for each island or coastal town where wild ponies roam. Each flap has a photo of wild ponies from that place. (This was a great way for my daughter to learn to search the internet)

The middle has two "file folders" and a "mini accordion book". One file folder has a photo of the ponies swimming. Inside is an explanation of the annual Pony Swim. The second file folder has a photo of the cover of the book Misty of Chincoteague. Inside this folder my daughter wrote a little bit about Misty. 

The mini accordion book has little bits of information on each flap about how the ponies live.

A few of the books we used, in addition to Misty...

There are many more wonderful books on wild island ponies. These were just a few we really enjoyed.

To finish up our unit we watched Misty!

Here are a few links to some helpful websites:

Chincoteague Pony Center and the Misty Museum

History of Misty

The Misty Foundation

And finally a few of our photos from Assateague...

 And Chincoteague...

I hope you have enjoyed our Island Ponies unit. I will post soon about our ocean and seashore unit. Until then, have fun learning about Misty and all the other wild ponies that roam our coast.
God bless, 
Jen

Island Ponies Part 1

June 18, 2013
Two of my favorite things in this world (outside of my family!) are horses and the seashore. I was blessed to have been able to grow up spending my summers by the sea. The beach we lived near was very close to Assateague Island National Seashore. I used to love to go watch the ponies graze and wander around the island. Back then there were few people that gathered at Assateague so it really felt like I was in a different world and time. 

Every year in July we'd hear all about the annual Pony Swim from Assateague to Chincoteague. Because of my love for these animals and the beautiful sea, it is no surprise that I was very excited when my daughter's book club a few years ago chose Misty of Chincoteague. I quickly jumped on board to volunteer to lead that discussion. Now that another daughter and I are part of a new book, I chose once again to read and discuss Misty. 

 For both book club events I had the kids make a little mini "island" in a jar. 

Here is how to create it....

Gather together:
~ a glass votive jar 
~ a plastic toy pony (you can buy them in bulk like this)
~ some sand and a few decorative mini seashells. (both can be found at a craft store if you don't live near a beach)
~ acrylic paint in blue, green, and maybe some brown and yellow for more details in the sea grass
~ a couple of small paintbrushes
~ superglue

{NOTE! If you are doing this project for a large group of children, reverse the first 2 steps and have the ponies glued into the jars ahead of time}

First, have the children paint some waves and sea grass around the entire jar.

Second, superglue the pony into the jar.

 

Once the jar is dry and the pony is set, have the children add sand to their jar.

Finally, place a some seashells in the jar.

Now they have their own little "Misty"!

 In the story, Paul received a candy bar from his grandfather before he headed out with the men for the roundup. Then when he brought in the Phantom and the colt the men cheered for Paul and gave him candy bars. Candy bars were so rare back then for the Beebe family so this was significant. To tie in to this theme, the last time I led the discussion, I typed the questions up and cut them into strips (1 question per strip). Then I wrapped each question around a mini Hershey Bar. The kids were able to keep the candy bars after they answered the questions. I ran out of time this time and couldn't do this step. I'm guessing the moms were really okay with that!



And finally, to keep with the beach theme, I purchased some salt water taffy at a nearby Cracker Barrel to share with the children.

In addition to the book club, I ventured off into an entire unit study (with my own kids) about wild ponies up and down the Eastern Seaboard. We also enjoyed an ocean unit. I will share those things with you in part 2 very soon!

For now, I hope you will enjoy Misty as much as I have.
God bless, 
Jen