Wrap Up: Andy and the Lion

We just finished up a short row of Andy and the Lion, from FIAR volume 3.  My kids LOVED this book. They loved the story and they especially loved the illustrations.  It's an early Caldecott honor book from 1939--only the 2nd year the award was given!  We only spent a week on this, where we usually savor a row for a couple of weeks, so we didn't do it all, but we certainly enjoyed what we did!

Social Studies:
We chose to focus for geography on the dedication inside the book instead of on the setting of the story itself.  The book is dedicated "To Lady Astor and Lord Lenox, the Library Lions" who sit in front of the New York Public Library. I read the dedication, and then we looked up the lions in Google images, and learned that their names have changed!  From the page about the lions on the New York Public Library's website:

Their nicknames have changed over the decades. First they were called Leo Astor and Leo Lenox, after The New York Public Library founders John Jacob Astor and James Lenox. Later, they were known as Lady Astor and Lord Lenox (even though they are both male lions). During the 1930s, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia named them Patience and Fortitude, for the qualities he felt New Yorkers would need to survive the economic depression. These names have stood the test of time: Patience still guards the south side of the Library's steps and Fortitude sits unwaveringly to the north.

My kids were fascinated by this--more so than I expected them to be! They were also adamant that we go visit the very similar lion statues that sit in City Park.  We did go, later in the week when the rain let up, and had our nature study while we were there, too.

Nature study mostly consisted of investigations into the use of spanish moss hanging from sticks as nets to catch ducks.  They did not have much success in these endeavors. ;)  We did identify a new species of waterfowl--the American Coot! I was much more excited about finally remembering to look up the name for this little bird that is at every park we go to than the kids were, though.  

Language Arts: 

We read Aesop's The Lion and the Mouse and Androcles and the Lion, discussed the genre of fables (although it's one they're familiar with) and discussed parallels between those two stories and our FIAR book.  Then we made lions from three different cut-out hearts, with it being Valentine's week and all.  

Charlie lobbied to put the lion heads on sticks so that they could be masks, so we did that, too!

Science:

We read some library books about lions, their habitat, life cycle, diet, etc.  Each of the kids told me some things they learned from our reading and I wrote them down. They then took a couple of their sentences and used them for copywork (handwriting practice).  

Hazel also got a quick discussion about contractions. ;) 

That's about all we did for Andy! Short week, short row, but a delightful story.  We read some other go-along books that were much enjoyed, too.  We recommend Lions at Lunchtime (Magic Treehouse), Jan Brett's Honey, Honey, Lion!, Library Lion, and I'm Going to New York to Visit the Lions.  

Looking at the pictures above, you'd think I was missing a child for a week.  I wasn't! Here's some of what Charlie's been up to: 

overjoyed by the arrival of the cursive workbook he asked for

deep in thought with those tangrams that came in the Chick-fil-A kids' meal 

 I'm not sure how he escaped the lion pictures, but I promise he was there! Thanks for reading about our row.  We enjoyed it!