We began our week unit today on Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats. Keats is one of our favorite authors/illustrators….and I didn’t want to do The Snowy Day again….so I picked this one. It’s a cute story about trying at a task, not giving up, and being proud of accomplishments.

I found a list of neat ideas from HomeschoolShare to go along with this book, but still, I feel like I am having to stretch this topic a lot to make it fill up the week. I am branching out a bit and incorporating pets (namely dogs) into our lessons, seeing as our family IS in the market for our first family dog this spring. (Yippee!)

We are working towards a mixed media illustration/collage at the end of the week, reminiscent of Keat’s artwork….so today’s activity was to create our own marbleized paper. I read several tutorials and felt very confident about it…but it flopped. It failed big time. I was disappointed and frustrated…the kids were just downright confused. (It was one of those things where they had to see the finished product to understand what we were trying to make.) Augh.

We did end up with two oil-soaked pieces of semi-swirly papers that we’ll make work when the time comes for our collage projects. Next time, I’ll just buy some paper already marbleized.

Willie is a dachshund, and we’ve been talking about types of breeds and which one would best suit our family. This week marks the first official week of actually talking to breeders, rescue organizations, and pet shops in order to make the best choice. We’re just a little bit excited.