Stone Soup! {and Printable Power}

January is National Soup Month! How did I know? The Homeschool Share January Calendar told me so. 

So, I skimmed through the lessons on Homeschool Share, and decided Simon and I would read and compare various versions, use the nutrition lesson, discuss food sources, talk about sharing (and honesty!), and measure/weigh fruits and vegetables. This is one of the great things about the unit studies at Homeschool Share– you can pick and choose the lessons that best suit your student. 

I taught Simon the five basic food groups, and he sorted these game cards by food group.

Here's an example ~ grains.

Simon was confused about where to put some of the cards. When I told him that brownie was labeled as a grain, he decided to make an additional group for junk food. Smart kid.

I took Simon shopping and let him choose some new fruits and veggies–ones we'd never tried before. I told him we'd put the veggies in our stone soup at the end of the week. He chose a parsnip and a leek for the soup. He also chose a papaya, a minneola, a blood orange, and an African cucumber to taste test. 

We weighed lots of different fruits and vegetables.

We measured them, too, using Simon's Inchimals. 

We read so many versions of Stone Soup! Our two favorites were . . .

Stone Soup by Marcia Brown

and Stone Soup by Heather Forest

Simon narrated the story to Jason, and he dictated his own version to me! 

Of course, we had to make stone soup (what else was I going to do with that parsnip and leek)? We decided on the main ingredients: onion, garlic, parsnip, leek, red potatoes, carrots, cabbage, red beans, beef broth & bone (we had a roast the previous night), and a stone! Simon even learned how to peel carrots.

Since Monday is Printable Power (I should try a few more times, right?), here are a few printables to go with this unit. These are measly, but it was good to have a break from printing so much stuff; I needed the reminder that I don't need a ton of printables or lapbooks or really much of anything (but a great book) to have a rich learning experience!

You can type right on the dictation page as your child tells you a stone soup tale! The other page is for measuring and weighing. Click on the photo to grab the pages. Enjoy!

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2. Please link back to this post.
3. Please don't post the same printable more than once.
4. The printable can be anything homeschooling related (for any age — even something for mom!).