Spring is here! At least it is in our neck of the woods…or desert. Spring gives me garden fever (even though we can garden all year here) and it’s the perfect time to get the kids outside and digging in the dirt. Surprisingly, I don’t usually plan structured activities in the garden for my kids. I encourage them to help but I never require it. Sometimes they want to join in and other times they just run off and do their own thing. This year I’m trying to get them more involved with a doing a few garden related projects. I have a few spring and gardening books in our morning basket this month as a reminder to lead them in that direction. We have some planting fun planned with Bookshark’s Science 3. Here’s our book list for our March Morning Basket. Enjoy!
History and Read Aloud Books
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch – We’re still in the late 18th century American History and surprisingly the girls are far from tired of this time period. The books we’re been digging into with Bookshark’s level 3 History are really engaging. This one brings us out to the sea to learn about how Nathanial Bowditch made huge advances in nautical navigation.
Justin Morgan had a Horse – This is one of many horse books by Marguerite Henry. We really enjoyed White Stallion of Lipizza last year and the girls are excite to listen to this author again.
Light at Tern Rock – This comes from the Bookshark program that Comedian is doing this year. This is actually one of the few books that she doesn’t remember all that well when she listened 3 years ago when big sis did this level. Storyteller is looking forward to hearing this book again so this is one we’re going to reread.
The Tale of Despereaux – We love Kate DiCamillo books! This has been on my to-read list for a while so I’m glad we’re going to get to it this month. Plus, there’s a movie. Several of the books we’ve read this year have movies and it’s been fun compare the two different versions of the same story. A few years ago, the girls preferred the movies but now they’re seeing just how much is missing in those movies. The books have been the winners this year but they’ve enjoyed the movies too.
Art Books – Claude Monet
Last month we focused on Mozart so this month we’re going to switch art styles and learn about a visual artist. I choose Claude Monet because of his focus on gardens.
Who was Claude Monet? – This is be the main book we read for a biography. We love this series so I automatically turned to it when I had a hard time finding picture books with enough detail for my 9 year old. She’s needs a deeper dive when we spend a whole month learning about one artist.
The Garden of Monsieur Monet, Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists: Claude Monet, Linnea in Monet’s Garden, and Claude Monet Sunshine and Waterlilies will be the shorter picture books that we’ll be using this month. Even though they’re picture books, they do have a lot of info in them. We may not get to all of them but this will be a nice selection for the month!
Usborne Book of Famous Paintings and Usborne Book of Famous Artists – We used these earlier in the year but we’re going to revisit the Claude Monet pages in these books.
Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters – This book is packed with art projects that explore the style of many great artists. There are more than 150 projects so this is a great book to bring out as you read about different artists. We can’t read about a painter and not try out a few related art projects!
Nature and Spring Books
This month’s focus with nature is actually doing garden related hands-on projects. We’ll be starting Green Thumbs: Radishes this month which in included in Bookshark’s Level 3 scienceBookshark’s Level 3 science. Both kids will have their own labs even though it’s for Storyteller’s curriculum. I’ll be sharing pictures of the radishes over on Instagram so head on over there and check it out! We’ll be also be exploring these other books.
Gardening Lab for Kids – This book has 52 hands-on gardening projects for kids.
Junior Master Gardener Handbook – My girls are going through the Junior Master Gardener program this year with our homeschool group. This is the book the program uses for the home projects. You can buy the book on Amazon even if you’re not doing the actual Jr. Master Gardener program. We’ve been slacking on working through these projects. I’m hoping that adding this to our morning basket will serve as a visual reminder to us.
Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt -We enjoy Kate Messner’s Over and Under the Snow recently so we’re looking forward to reading this one.
Yucky Worms – I love worms! They’re a big part of our gardening fun. We have them in our gardens and we also use them for composting. This is a fun picture book that also goes into details about what worms eat, how they move and their different body parts.
St. Patrick’s Day Books
Our holiday / seasonal themed books this month include St. Patrick’s Day! When I was a kid, my mom used food coloring to mess with my school lunch and I was never able to bring myself to eat a sandwich with green butter on it. I think it’s time to start that tradition with my kids! Here are a few of the St. Patrick’s Day books that we’ll be sharing during Morning Basket.
How to Catch a Leprechaun and How to Trap a Leprechaun – I’m not sure we never knew about this tradition of trying to trap a leprechaun! My youngest daughter has a very strong inventive streak. I’m sure she’ll come up some crazy contraption!
Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato – This is a fun story of a lazy farmer who traps a leprechaun and gets his wish.
The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day – I love finding holiday books that are based on ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.
The Story of the Leprechaun – I love the illustrations in this book and the story of how one man tries to trick a leprechaun to find his pot of gold.
Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland – St. Patrick’s Day wouldn’t be complete without actually learning about St. Patrick.
O’Sullivan Stew – This is such a delightful story of a girl who gets herself and her neighbors out of a bind with her vivid storyteller ability.
I’m excited to explore these books this month! Even though I don’t like fully themed baskets, I think what we’ve been doing these last few months is a nice compromise. We still read about a wide range of topics throughout the month but we take a bit of a deeper dive with a few things.
What are you reading this month?
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Do you use any other curriculum or is the book basket your curriculum?
Most of the chapter books are from the history and literature curriculum that we use and other books are from the library or our own collection. For history and lit, we use Bookshark plus Brave Writer for language arts. Here’s a line up of what we’re using for 4th grade and 1st grade this year. Thanks for stopping by!