Monday, September 21, 2009

Good finds of the week and Book Sharing Monday

Since my good finds are all books, I thought I might kill two birds with one stone.

1. The Roman Army--the Legendary Soldiers Who Created an Empire, by Dyan Blacklock with illustrations by David Kennett. DS (11.5) loved this award-winning book--snatched it from his workbox and ran to the sofa with it, in fact. The illustrations have a refined graphic novel appeal, and the information about a specific part of Ancient Rome was a perfect focus in what can be an massive unit study. Another book by this team is Olympia--Warrior Athletes of Ancient Greece, which appears to be OOP.

2. National Geographic's Photography Guide for Kids by Neil Johnson. From "All about Cameras" to "How a Camera Sees," and from the composition of photographs to the choosing of subjects, this guide was enjoyed by both DS (11.5) and myself. DS had the book (with pages marked to read), our camera, and his nature journal in a workbox, with the idea that he would take photos of nature, pick his favorite, and tuck it into his nature journal, since getting him to draw in it has not been successful at all. The book doesn't have an overwhelming amount of information--just enough to catch the bug. Shutterbug, that is. ☺

3. Geography through Art--International Art Projects for Kids, by Sharon Jeffus and Jamie Aramini. I must admit we are in the early stages of investigating this book, but I like what I've seen so far. I've had the two older kids reading about chiaroscuro (the contrast of light and dark--such a fun word to say) in art in preparation for our first project (on deck for tomorrow), which is to create a representation of the Earth in shadow on black construction paper. Art-happy DD (8) will likely love this undertaking, and I'm hoping at the very least for cooperation from DS (11.5). I love that it ties in with our Earth Science studies, as well.

Book Sharing Monday is hosted at Serendipity.

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