In February, we rowed The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills.

This is the story of a little girl named Minna who lives in the Appalachian region with her family. When her father, a coal miner, dies the family is left struggling to make ends meet. Through the kindness of the women in their community, a coat is made for Minna from pieced together odds and ends. She in thrilled as this means she can now attend school. However, her new garment is not kindly received by her schoolmates.

Social Studies:

This story provided us with various things to talk about.

First, we talked about the culture of the Appalachian Mountains and pointed out specific things in the illustrations. The girls were quite interested in the dulcimer they saw hanging on the wall of the family's cabin. We ended up finding some videos of people playing the dulcimer and the girls danced their hearts out!
Our favorite? Whiskey Before Breakfast! ;)

Next, we talked about death - how people feel when they lose someone they love, traditions that often occur when someone dies and ways in which we can remember them. That weekend, their grandmother was kind enough to show them things she has that help remind her of her Mom who passed away a few years ago.

Finally, we talked about teasing, how it makes you feel and ways to respond to it.

Art:

Piper and I colored our own rag coat.

Piper and Taitum both designed their own quilts by filling in printed quilt grids.

Science:

We learned about coal and coal mining.

To start, we read this book which was interesting and informative.

We made sedimentary rock out of crayon.
(For instructions, watch this video.)