Year 1 Unit 2 & 3 Celebration

Having been snowed out of our Unit 2 Celebration, this week we needed to celebrate two units.  If you were to ask me how I plan these, I would have to admit that I don't really.  Two things guide me:  the kids' costume choices and whatever projects we have really liked.   I would have to say that the kids lead this celebration with very little input from me.

One day last winter I was awakened by the Mayor explaining to me that he was drawing a big poster of Goliath, and that for the Unit Celebration we could play "pin the stone" on him.  "Fantastic," I thought.  Rock on. Zzzzz.
When I got up, I gave him a few pictures to guide his drawing, and that was that.  he was inspired by his love for the costume I made for him, using plastic milk jug sides sewed to a pillow case to replicate primitive armor plates.

The shield we made from aluminum foil-covered cardboard and the sword was leftover from another costume.  He hid in a cave behind his display board, and came out after guests promised that Saul was nowhere about, seeking to kill him.

Somewhere along the way this idea led to the development of a monster arcade idea, so we had to include Odysseus' battle with the Cyclops.  The Giant drew and painted Cyclops the day before the battle and we attached a dollar-store dart board for his eye. 

The next idea we added was that there would be Olympics, and that came straight out of the Tapestry Unit Introduction.  I had a few food ideas that we had tried and liked during the unit, and that was the extent of my plan until that morning.  We had two Display Boards and a State Report that were our writing projects for Unit 2.

I brought all the projects, lapbooks, etc. out and placed them on the table.  I quickly sorted them into areas, so that we could display them based on that.  On the dining room table I laid out the lapbooks and the unit-wide books we had used, as well as the newspaper produced together in Unit 3.  On the hutch I put the Mayan and Ancient Indian stuff, which was the gourds we had painted and some Indian beans Aunt Julie got us at Trader Joe's.  (We had eaten about half of them at our Indian dinner and they rest had been in the freezer.  Truth be told I thought they were pretty gross, although the rest of our Indian meal was yummy.)
On a shelf above that, the clay replica of the Ishtar Gate the Giant had made.  (Ancient Assyria) and the book we read, God King.

The Goliath area then had the Giant's Display Board about the Israelite neighbors, a few musical instruments we had made, and a placemat with a few Hebrew phrases on it.  We also had this salt dough map of the Promised land with the 12 tribes' inheritances marked.  Since Goliath was actually hanging on the back of the Mayor's Display Board about Greek Mythology, I made that area home to the Greek Dark Ages materials too- books about mythology and a couple of frescoes the girls had painted in wet plaster.

I had a tiny area for our kites and a few books from China, and one more area for the Greek Classical period.  On this table we placed the food- we made bread rings and spanikopita- (phyllo dough around cheesy spinach mixture- so yummy!).

Her "yuck" face.

I ran to the grocery store as we were preparing the food for some ricotta, and determined at then last minute to add whatever Greek food they might have there.  Huge grapes were on sale, so that was a win.  I grabbed some Greek yogurt, and then the real win- found stuffed grape leaves in the International Foods aisle.  The are oily and stuffed with raisins, rice and pine nuts.  The Princess didn't care for them-even though they were gluten-free.

As guests arrived, they started out at the general table, and then they could take their time, one by one, though the set-up.  Usually a student appeared to guide them.  They also handed out the two newspapers we had created as our Unit-long writing project.  As we had three writers and one is too young to type, we used his handwritten work- and the newspaper/scroll was rather long, so we went ahead and used two.  Really, by the time people came in I was sitting quietly.  The kids were so eager to have attention I figured I didn't need to crowd them.  Our guests managed to enjoy the displays and the food and played along with the arcade games. 

Grandma tried the javelin.

The guests were, by the way, two sets of grandparents, a cousin, and a home-schooled friend.  After everyone had made a try at the arcade (taped the rock on Goliath's forehead), we proceeded outside.  It was cold and damp, but not the rain we had expected.  We would have been sad if this part had gotten rained out, as the giant worked hard the night before making paper medals and laurel wreaths out of her grandmother's decorative plastic ivy.

My Dad being a good sport.

Outside we had a javelin throw, discuss toss (frisbee) and a some sort of shotput.  Everyone was co-operative and had fun, I think. And everyone won a metal, too. 

About the costumes:  I sewed large bedsheets into tubes a few weeks ago, folded the top down, and pinned at the shoulders.  That's all it took to do the girls' dresses, but the little pins didn't stay in so well.  I expected that might happen, but I was feeling pretty lazy.  The Mayor's David costume, as I said, was made of milk jugs and a pillow case, an idea found in the book Old Testament Days.  The Giant made her own costume from scraps really, and made her "bronze" warrior's skirt from cardboard a some shiny, coppery paper that Nana gave us.  She did change into a woman's dress for the Olympics, but the Mayor was so enamored of his costume that he didn't want another one.  The Princess greeted all of our guests with the phrase, "I'm Irene, I'm a Greek lady."  They had named her after our Greek paper dolls that I picked up, a boy and a girl with a set of costumes.  We may see them again if we study European cultures at all in the future, because the set came with ancient and modern costumes. 

super-easy tunic- queen sized bedsheet sewn into a tube and folder over

israelite soldier (David)- pillowcase and milk jug sides

Greek warrior with Brass over-armor.

Irene, a Greek lady.

All in all this was a laid-back but enjoyable celebration.

It ended when we all rushed off to The Girl's Promotional Test for her Green Belt in Tae Kwon Do.
Next Unit:  Ancient Rome and the birth and death of Jesus.  Speech-making will be a unit project, so we will have to do something majestic for that.