Five in a Row- Mailing May

Mailing May was a real fun row.  

We started the row first reading it then going to the post office for a field trip.  I didn't get any pictures but I wish I did.  It was lots of fun.  We went to a distribution center.  We were shown exactly what happens when you mail a letter or package.  How it gets sorted. What the mail carriers go through each day.  It was interesting.  The tour guide and another carrier told us some funny stories.  I shared with them the story of Mailing May.  They told us about a dog name Owney who traveled the country on a mail train.  Owney story.  The mail carrier recommended this website mail

Once we were home we talked about Geography.  Did a worksheet on Idaho.  

I had my daughter research the American Flag of 1914 when the story takes place in time.

I had a chapter book about Daniel Boone. In the story May comments that she "felt as adventuresome as Daniel Boone"  It was a short chapter book she read it over the weekend.  

We read some books about trains.

Had a discussion about Department stores and life in the 1900's.  She was able to relate to the department store May went to since we go to a quaint general store when we go to New Hampshire.  

I shared with my daughter about stamp collecting. My uncle collects them.  When my sister and I were young we would collect them also.  I had her look up how much a normal stamp cost in 1914 and what it looked like.

I had my daughter write examples of Hyperbole.  I will have to update this when I dig out her sentences and share.  they were funny.  All about our family. 

We also talked about how the author took a real story and added to it.  He didn't know all the details of what happened with May but he had the basic information so he used creative license to add details to the story.  

We did the creative painting project.  to draw with white paint or chalk on black paper make a snowman like in the book.  

For the science part I had my daughter research the Boar Hog.  May compared the Steam engine to a boar hog.  I love having her dig deeper.

Finally we talked about steam power and how it works.  watched a few videos on it.  We tried and experiment we found you make a pinwheel and you use steam to make it move.  We tried we failed. LOL  that's science.  

We did so much more but this was the highlights of our 2 week row.  I highly recommend this book and FIAR Row.