Michael and Mrs. Applebee were walking along the path once again. They came to a wall that was covered with velvety flowers.
"Mrs. Applebee?" asked Michael.
"Yes, dear one?" answered Mrs. Applebee smiling kindly at the little boy who was showing signs of growing tired.
"Where is our next fairy?" asked Michael.
"Up there!" said Mrs. Applebee as she pointed towards the top of the wall.
"Why hello!" said the fairy, cheerily. He was wearing velvet clothes that matched his flowers. "You must be Michael. A pleasure to meet you. I'm Wallflower!" he said with an impish grin that tickled Michael.
"Nice to meet you, Wallflower!" said Michael to the fairy. "May I hear your song?"
"Certainly!" said the fairy, who then sang:
Wallflower, Wallflower, up on the wall,
Who sowed your seed there?
"No one at all:
Long, long ago it was blown by the breeze
(...the rest is in the Flower Fairies Alphabet)
"That's AMAZING! No one plants your seeds?" asked Michael with wide eyes.
"No one at all!" answered the fairy.
"Do the flowers really grow on castles?" asked Michael
"Yes! In fact there is lovely old castle just behind my wall. If you and my mother would like you may spend the night there!" said the Wallflower Fairy.
"Oh thank you! I'm so very tired," said Michael as he walked towards the end of the wall.
"But haven't you forgotten something, Michael?" asked Mrs. Applebee.
"Oh my! The saint!!" answered Michael. "I'm so tired I almost forgot. Please share your saint with me, Wallflower."
"Gladly," said the wallflower fairy as he picked up the red book sitting next to him on the wall. St. Wenceslaus was a good king of Bohemia. He was a friend of the Church, who encouraged the missionaries and built churches and was well known for his kindness and charity. "Now, Michael, you look very sleepy,' said the fairy, "Off with you to the castle where you ask the good king to pray for you tonight and dream of Wenceslaus, the brave Christian king."
Lesson Plans:
Presentation: You can use the drawing of St. Wenceslaus in the book (and pictured in a child's example) as a visual when telling this story. You may want to print it on card stock and add it to your child's main lesson or sketch book.
Language: Use the Letter W in the St. Wenceslaus picture as an introduction to letter formation. Have the child trace the W with his or her finger. Practice the Letter W by copying the model drawing. Older children can draw the picture of St. Wenceslaus as well and use the song of the Wallflower fairy as copywork. Sing the song as well and soon it will be memorized.
Read the story W is for the Wallflower Fairy to your child and use it for reading practice. Download a PDF copy of the story and add it to your personal Alphabet Path Storybook [ Download W is for Wallflower.pdf ]
Continue reviewing what we've learned. This week we will add the letters "S" and "T" to our alphabet main lesson book. Ask your child to consider the things in the world that begin with the Letter S and T. Ask her to illustrate them in her main lesson book and label the pictures. You can write the word for your child to copy if necessary. If you have not yet made salt dough letters, now is the time to catch up. We are going to use those letters later along the alphabet path. If you are just beginning, you might consider letting your child paint the consonants green and the vowels gold (or yellow) to match the stems of the flowers in the story. All the flowers for the vowels will have golden stems.
Nature Study:
- Research the Botanical Information.
Look carefully at a pictures of Wallflower (there are several varieties from various locations) and sketch them in the main lesson book along with a narration. (An older child can do this independently, but a younger child can give an oral narration which you write or keyboard for him or her.) Since this is such a different setting, you might take this opportunity to research other flowers and grasses that grow by the sea. - With your older child, continue working through Apologia's Discovering Creation with Botany. Read a section and then ask your child to narrate the information in his main lesson book. Always encourage your child to illustrate his narrations. Work on the experiments that you feel would be most beneficial for your child. Take a picture of the finished project and add it to his main lesson book. The pace at which you move through this book is not as important as the child having an opportunity to really understand the material. Go at your child's pace.
- We've had great success encouraging older children to take their flower narrations well beyond what is provided at the Flower Fairy site. These children are able to truly appreciate the vast varieties of flowers and to to see God's creativity when they consider the lilies of the field.
- For further study, botanical nomenclature cards are a good way to apply the Montessori three period lesson to botany study. These cards can also be used for drawing and labeling.
- For some children, a living books/picture book approach seems to resonate and be more meaningful than any other approach. Consider choosing meaty picture books to teach the same concepts. If you choose to pursue this course of study, here is a science-themed picture book study for this letter:
Picture Book Science--W is for Weather:
It's Raining Cats and Dogs: All Kinds of Weather and Why We Have It
Flash, Crash, Rumble, and Roll
The Magic School Bus Kicks Up a Storm
What Will the Weather Be?
Weather Forecasting
Down Comes the Rain
Feel the Wind
Art: Using the illustration in The Flower Fairy Alphabet Book, ask the child to sketch the The Wallflower Fairy in the main lesson book. A younger child can color the The Wallflower Fairy in the Flower Fairy Alphabet Coloring Book . Perhaps on another day the child could model the fairy or flower with modeling beeswax. (Sources of excellent quality modeling beeswax can be found on the right sidebar.)
For this week's picture study, Museum ABC focuses on WINDOW on the W page. It's interesting to look carefully at just one segment of the painting in the book. The children can discuss what they think the rest of the painting might look like before you show them the print. The full image of The Annunciation Tritych by Flemish painter Campin and an assistant can be found here.
Really look at the picture. Soak in the details. Ask your child to narrate with a prompt such as, "Pretend that I am going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the first time and want to find this painting. What details could you give me so that I could more easily find it?" Keyboard the narration and ask your child to sketch the work of art. A younger child can copy the painting while an older child can narrate from memory and discover how much detail he remembers by attempting to sketch it from memory. Over the course of this unit, consider collecting the narrations and sketches in a single album and create your own family art history book.
(The goal of Picture Study is to train the eye toward the beautiful. Biographical information about the artist is secondary. Set the work of art as your family computer's wallpaper or screen saver or print the painting on card stock and display it on the refrigerator. After spending time with a picture and really taking the time to look at it, your child will make a connection. There is no need to explain a great deal, especially to a young child. Allow the child to make his own connection with the art. )
Make a Wee Felt Saint of St. Wenceslaus. Use your imagination to come up with different symbols of St. Wenceslaus, then craft a wee felt saint that includes those symbols.
This would be a great week to introduce your kids to the wonderful art books by Sister Wendy Beckett. They are an invaluable resource for your family art library.
Faith Enlivening Works by Brian Wildsmith:
More about St. Wenceslaus:
Read about Wenceslaus in the Loyola Kids Book of Saints
Ideas for "W Week:"
W is for Water: Brainstorm ideas for some watery fun this week--swimming, water guns, water balloons, water color painting, a field trip to a watery destination like an aquarium or beach. Make your own list and have fun with water.
W is for Weather: Use this site for some weather experiment fun.
Suggested Books for Read-Alouds and Narrations (These are to be narrated both verbally and artistically. For the younger children it is often fun to keyboard an oral narration for them and then ask the child to illustrate the printed page.)
Childhood Favorites:
Why Mosquitos Buzz in People’s Ears
When Sophie Gets Angry—Really, Really Angry
What If?: Just Wondering Poems
Meet the Author--W is for Audrey Wood:
The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and The Big Hungry Bear
Suggested Books for Independent Reading (These are for older children to read and narrate over consecutive weeks. Allow your older child to illustrate his or her narrations. Expressing oneself both verbally and visually is a peak of communication.)
The Burgess Flower Book for Children
The Secret Garden
Parables from Nature
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales
Writing
All children should illustrate their stories. Stories written by younger children can be used for reading practice. The written narrations are used by all the children in our families for Lively Language Lessons.
Serendipi-Tea Time (Breakfast and Dinner too!) Recipes:
Share a watermelon, then make preserves with the rind.
Walnut Chocolate Coconut Squares
Whip your own cream and top fresh seasonal fruit or ice cream.
