Sunday, May 31, 2026

Tall Tales - week 1

Here is the overview of our Tall Tales & U.S. Geography Summer Camp:

Week One

    Febold Feboldson

    Paul Bunyan

    Finn McCool

    Pecos Bill


Week Two

    Stormalong

    Mose

    John Henry

    Johnny Appleseed


Week Three

    Swamp Angel

    Mike Fink

    Davy Crockett

    Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind


Notes for

Mon - Febold Feboldson



Tue - Paul Bunyan



Wed - Finn McCool

    snack - read Fin M'Coul: The Giant of Knockmany Hill

    by Tomie dePaola


    activity - look at picture of the Giant's Causeway

    find and label states in the Southwest region
    7 states (TX, OK, CO, NM, AZ, UT, NV)

    Civil Engineer Special Guest ?


    lunch - read "Finn MacCool, the Greatest of Civil Engineers: A Tale of the Grand Canyon of Arizona as Told by Irish Work Gangs and Civil Engineers"
    from Heroes, Outlaws & Funny Fellows of American Popular Tales
    by Olive Beaupre Miller, p.283


    add to MLB


    look at picture of the Grand Canyon



Thu - Pecos Bill


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Saturday, May 30, 2026

Tall Tales Booklist

Really looking forward to our Summer Theme! Here are some of my favorite resources for U.S. Tall Tales. Do you have a book title that is not on this list?

Pro tip: Always check your local library! The call number for Folklore is 398.


Main Text

Heroes, Outlaws & Funny Fellows of American Popular Tales
by Olive Beaupre Miller

list of all the stories that are included


Supplemental Resources for

Midwest Region
10 states (MN, IA, MO, KS, NE, SD, ND, MT, WY, ID)

    States & Capitals List
    Minnesota - St. Paul
    Iowa - Des Moines
    Missouri - Jefferson City
    Kansas - Topeka
    Nebraska - Lincoln
    South Dakota - Pierre
    North Dakota - Bismarck
    Montana - Helena
    Wyoming - Cheyenne
    Idaho - Boise


    "The Sad Story of Febold Feboldson and His Enormous Load of Sand"


    Febold Feboldson: Tall Tales from the Great Plains
    compiled by Paul Beath


    "Big Paul Bunyan and His Blue Ox, Babe"


    Paul Bunyan
    retold and illustrated by Steven Kellogg


Northwest Region
3 states (CA, OR, WA)

    States & Capitals List
    California - Sacramento
    Oregon - Salem
    Washington - Olympia


    "Paul Bunyan Goes West"


    The Bunyans
    written by Audrey Wood, illustrated by David Shannon


Southwest Region
7 states (TX, OK, CO, NM, AZ, UT, NV)


Northeast Region (New England and the Mid-Atlantic)
13 states (ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, DE, MD, WV, VA)

    States & Capitals List
    Maine - Augusta
    New Hampshire - Concord
    Vermont - Montpelier
    Massachusetts - Boston
    Rhode Island - Providence
    Connecticut - Hartford
    New York - Albany
    New Jersey - Trenton
    Pennsylvania - Harrisburg
    Delaware - Dover
    Maryland - Annapolis
    West Virginia - Charleston
    Virginia - Richmond


    "Old Stormalong"


    Stormalong: The Legendary Sea Captain
    retold by Eric Metaxas, illustrated by Don Vanbderbeek


    Mose


    American Tall Tales
    retold by Mary Pope Osborne, illustrated by Michael McCurdy


    "John Henry's Contest with the Big Steam Drill"


    John Henry
    retold by Julius Lester, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney


    "Old Johnny Appleseed"


    The Story of Johnny Appleseed
    retold and illustrated by Aliki


    Johnny Appleseed
    retold and illustrated by Steven Kellogg


Southeast Region (Southeast and the Mississippi & Ohio Valleys)
15 states (NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MI, LA, AR, TN, KY, OH, IN, MI, WI, IL)

    States & Capitals List
    North Carolina - Raleigh
    South Carolina - Columbia
    Georgia - Atlanta
    Florida - Tallahassee
    Alabama - Montgomery
    Mississippi - Jackson
    Louisiana - Baton Rouge
    Arkansas - Little Rock
    Tennessee - Nashville
    Kentucky - Frankfort
    Ohio - Columbus
    Indiana - Indianapolis
    Michigan - Lansing
    Wisconsin - Madison
    Illinois - Springfield


    Swamp Angel


    Swamp Angel
    by Anne Isaacs, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky


    "Mike Fink and the Outlaws of Cave-in-Rock"


    Mike Fink
    retold and illustrated by Steven Kellogg


    Davy Crockett


    American Tall Tales
    retold by Mary Pope Osborne, illustrated by Michael McCurdy


    Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind


    Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett
    retold and illustrated by Steven Kellogg


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Tuesday, May 26, 2026

More Fun with Buttons

What could be more fun than the Button Game, you ask? Or sewing a fabulous Button Tree? Introducing the newest pattern from Trixi Symonds:


Tok

This alien is the cutest!!!

The children can't wait for summer camp to begin so we can dive into this adorable pattern.


Her email made me so happy when I got it this morning, and I instantly downloaded the FREE pattern. One of the things that makes Tok super-special is his fabulous belly button. I never thought about using buttons as a chance to practice decorative stitching and embroidery techniques with kids!

Trixi has made a whole YouTube video on Cute and Creative Ways to Sew on Buttons (for an ad free version of YouTube, did you know you can download Firefox as your browser and add AdBlock as an extension?), so check it out!

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Thursday, May 21, 2026

Zoology: Bison and Moose

Wrapping up Zoology II with two amazing animals native to North America: bison and moose.

Here is my booklist, with notes for these two ungulates (hooved mammals) in particular and ruminants (4 stomachs!) in general.


Ruminants


Bison


Moose


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Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Stream Table!

Many thanks to Emriver (formerly Little River Research & Design) for the loan of their traveling stream table! The last time we had this at the school was in October 2019 (see my blog post for lots of pictures of the setup and how the added sediment is constantly changing as the water runs through).


Zac was 4!


This year we have the stream table for the last two weeks of the school year, as a fun way to review our first block -- Landforms & Water Features -- from September.

We set it up on Monday May 18th. Each child helped pour in a bucket of sediment (30 lb each).


Now everyone is really excited to dive in!!!

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Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Resources for Animal Reports

It is Animal Report time again! Everyone is required to do a report on an African animal (including a map using the beautiful Africa Stencil) and then, if they wish, they can do a second report on any animal of their choice.



As children choose their animals, I will keep track of their resources here:

AR - African Bush Viper


EO - Leopard


EF - Ostrich


AAR - Impala


AAR - Klipspringer


Z - Fennec Fox


FR - Caracal

    International Wildlife Encyclopedia, vol. 3

    Caracals by Victoria Blakemore


CB - Flamingo


Useful blog posts that I've written specifically to help with this project!


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