Read-Aloud Thursday: Five In A Row

We're spending time this summer with our beloved Five in a Row titles.   They lend themselves to relaxing summer reading, and it's a compact unit study that can be completed in just a week (or two, if you have to squeeze it in between swim lessons and playing with friends!)  You can NEVER go wrong with a FIAR book.    Since I have an almost ten year old and a six year old, I decided to choose a title from FIAR Volume 1, and also a title from Beyond FIAR.    The beautiful thing is that both children are doing both books!   

Grandfather's Journey is a beautiful story about the author's grandfather and his journey from Japan to America and back again (many years later).   Through beautiful illustrations and seemingly limited text, Allen Say writes about feelings we've all had at one time or another.   

These small thumbnail illustrations don't really do the actual book justice, but to see a preview, check out the book through Google books.... it's a treasure. 

The book is a Caldecott Medal winner for excellent artwork.  We have just scratched the surface in the past two days with activities to go along with the book.  The lapbooking elements from Homeschool Share are printed and we've cut them out - now to start assembling our book!   Once we finish, I will be writing a full post to put on my Five in a Row page!  

Thomas A. Edison, Young Inventor, is the title we are working on with Miss B.    My parents live very close to Thomas Edison's winter home in Ft. Myers, FL, so the memories of visiting his home last year are fresh in her mind!   We also traveled to some areas in NY (specifically the Erie Canal and some of the Great Lakes) last summer that are talked about in the book as well. 

As I read each chapter aloud, we follow the study guide carefully and read about any possible science, art, history (etc..) connections.   Today we learned all about the steam locomotive in the mid 1800s.   We're also learning about how inquisitive young Tom Edison was and perhaps this curiosity led him to become one of America's greatest inventors.  

This book also has a lapbook available through Homeschool Share, which Miss B is working on and I'll share with you in another post! 

 
What are you reading aloud this week?  I'm joining Amy, at Hope is The Word, for Read Aloud Thursday ~ you can get some wonderful reading ideas by reading through her blog and then looking at the Read-Aloud Thursday posts! 

Cooking Class: Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

  

We were giddy when the first zucchini was harvested from our garden!  Huge, isn't it?   Immediately GMan yelled "Zucchini Bread" (a tradition each summer).    Rather than use my same old recipe, I decided to troll the internet for something better.   BOY, did I find it!   This recipe is GREAT!    


I'll walk you through it:


First, shred your zucchini (1 1/2 cups, which is about 1 medium zucchini)

Place 3/4 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons vegetable oil,  and 2 large eggs  in your mixer -- beat until blended.


Add 1 cup applesauce (I am convinced this is what makes the bread soooo good!)  and stir into mixture.  (Do you like my shameless plug for The Fresh Market?  We just got one close to us and I LOVE IT!)

Combine 2 cups all purpose flour with 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa (yep, I was surprised by this ingredient, but it works!), 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Stir it well with a whisk.

Add flour mixture to sugar mixture, stirring until just moist.  

Add your zucchini

...and 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Be sure to reserve enough chocolate chips for cute children to snack on while the bread is baking!

Spoon the batter into a greased 9x5 loaf pan and bake at 350 for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  

This recipe came from Cooking Light, and I found it at Myrecipes.com.   I find a lot of great recipes at this site.  

Do you have a recipe that uses zucchini?  We are going to have TONS of them this summer and while I love the zucchini bread, I'd like some different recipes, too!!