Salamander Room

We finally  rowed Salamander Room!  This is a book I've wanted to do for three years, but each time it is planned the week before I go to the beach and has never actually happened.  This year I finally learned the lesson about my poor planning and was determined to get it done.  I knew Jacob would be too old for it next year.   It also fit in perfectly with our camping weekend in the Smokies!

We started the week with our field trip: salamander hunting!  Did you know the the Great Smoky Mountains are the salamander capital of the world?  Thankfully, we had Robert with us to help us catch the little slimy buggars.  I will say, I did catch one and I was quite proud of it.

Of course, Mattie was all over this.  She loves to dig in the dirt, play in the water and carry around live things some of us don't care to touch.

All of the ones we caught were Dusky Salamanders.

They must have all been at the same part in their life cycle, because they were all about 3 inches long.

It's always more fun with Daddy!

(Um, how did he get so big?)

Mattie has always tagged along for our reading time, but she's been joining us with some work lately in school. She loves to copy words, cut, color and of course, glue (things her brother would prefer to avoid at all costs).   

Jacob preferred to record his salamander info this way.  It was a report of sorts, and he did a great job on it! (Thanks www.homeschoolshare.com for both of those printables!)

There is another FIAR blogging mom who has her kids copy the illustrations sometimes.  I've never done this before, but I thought I'd give it a shot.

Jacob complained and thought his was horrible, but I think he did a great job!

I was pretty shocked at Mattie's!  I know she's no Monet or anything, but I thought she did a good job noticing the details in the illustration and making an attempt.

We finished by creating and painting clay salamanders!