Truman's Aunt Farm--a FIAR book

We just  finished up our row of Truman's Aunt Farm.  This was a lighthearted fun book.

The book is about Truman who is told by his Aunt Fran that she will be sending him an ant farm for his birthday present....only he gets many aunts....not ants!     He feeds and cares for them, watches them work and play and finally finds home for them. In the end, he and his Aunt Fran share a special day together.

 We took the time to learn about the insect ants (and others too)  Liam and Delaney learned what characteristics make an insect --exoskeleton, three body parts, six legs.

They watched  Magic School Bus and Bill Nye the Science Guy videos from YouTube. We read other books and learned about the different kind of ants there are.

 I was given this ant hill contraption from a friend (which is what inspired me to start our year with this book).  The coupon for ants from the company was missing.  After a website search I decided I didn't want to spend the extra money to buy a new coupon...and then buy the ants,  we just gathered some ants from our garden.  

Of course we explored homonyms.

 and made an Ant farm cake (actually brownies topped with frosting and cracker crumbs for 'dirt'. Chocolate chips were used to make the ants.

They really enjoyed writing  letters to their aunts....but since I was out of stamps I helped them send the letters  by email.  They've really enjoyed getting responses back.  Everyone loves mail...email is no exception.

 
We played around with the art style that  G Brian Karas used when he did the illustrations for the book.  Circular swirlies for cheeks, large bodies with itty bitty feet and hands.  We pulled out our new watercolor pencils.  They were fun to work with.