Five In A Row | Best Read-Aloud Books for Homeschool

If you’ve been here awhile, you probably know that my kids and I LOVE TO READ! I feel passionate about children’s books, and have since I was young. Even when I was in college, and my (now) husband and I were dating, he would often buy me children’s books, as gifts. I still have them today, and our kids love seeing the little inscriptions he wrote, all those years ago!

My kids and I compiled a list of our Favorite Children’s Books. I hope there are at least a few titles on there that are new for you! Today I will be covering a favorite title that we first read, last year! It’s called Very Last First Time, by Jan Andrews.

Very Last First Time, Read Aloud

I will be honest, I thought the title of this book was a little confusing at first! Then, once we read the book, we learned the meaning behind it. Eva, the main character, is an Inuit girl who lives in Ungava Bay. Though not in the Arctic Circle, Ungava Bay is in northeastern Canada, and considered an “arctic region.” In this region, people gather mussels from the seabed, when the tide goes out. It is very dangerous, because they must go below thick sea ice, onto the seabed to walk (or crawl!) around in the dark and quickly gather mussels before the tide comes back in.

Eva’s mother prepares her, and Eva goes alone for the very first time. Her candles burn out, and she has a few scary moments, but eventually she makes it back to the hole in the ice, climbs out, and completes her task successfully. She calls it “the very last first time” she will ever walk the seabed, alone.

Arctic Animals + Experiment

My kids love animals–so I thought it was fitting to do some research on what types of animals live in the Arctic + northeastern Canadian regions! I first found these incredible Arctic/Inuit Animal word wall cards, full color, on Teachers Pay Teachers:

I printed them at the library, then laminated them so I could use them multiple times. I couldn’t believe they were free-what a high quality resource!

A lot of the animals were ones my kids were familiar with: polar bears, narwhals, harp seals, and caribou. These cards provided the Inuktitut terms for some common animals (see above: nanuk, for polar bear!) and also provided other enriching general vocabulary to discuss! Some of our favorites were:

• migration
• glacier
• iceberg
• Iditarod
• Some cool Inuktitut words including nanuk (polar bear), umiaq (special boat), inuksuk (traditional stone landmark)

We also did some comparing/contrasting between our own home, and traditional Inuit shelters with this freebie. We talked about how the Inuit people live in typical modern homes today, but that preserving the culture and understanding it is still important!

As for the science experiment, we did the classic whale blubber one! SciShow Kids is one of our favorite YouTube channels, and we use SafeShare to skip the ads! Here is the blubber experiment we did, to show the kids exactly how insulated these animals are in chilly waters.

Arctic & Inuit-related Art Projects

One of the first art projects we tried was this one: chalk pastel Northern Lights! This one was doable for kindergarten and up. After blocking off the silhouette & swiping with the chalk, the finishing touch is some sprinkling of white paint, for stars. My son loved that!

My kids also did some simple coloring, while listening to other arctic-related books. I found this freebie for decorating your own Anorak (a type of coat popular to the region, that Eva wears in the story).

Along with the art theme, we also talked about warm versus cool colors. This YouTube video explained the concept well!

Finally, we observed that the illustrations in the book look similar to Pointillism, which we learned when we studied Georges Seurat for Art History.

Favorite YouTube Links for Learning

You can learn more about my love-hate relationship with YouTube in Homeschooling, here–but suffice it to say, I found a solution with SafeShare (not sponsored-just love this website!) Here are some of the incredible videos I was able to find, to complement our Arctic-related unit!

• World’s Riskiest Way To Get Dinner {the exact thing Eva does in the book!}
• Scholastic: A Walk In The Arctic for kids
• AumSum, Different Time Zones (My preschooler gets a huge kick out of the AumSum guy!)
• AumSum: What Causes Tides? (0:00-1:18 is the part!)
• AumSum: How Do Igloos Keep You Warm?
• Iditarod Racing
• Sled Dogs: Most Extreme Distance Athletes On Earth
• Outdoor Boys: Extreme Winter Survival Camping

Best Books about the Arctic

You know I hit up our local library for some supplemental books! Here are some complementary titles that we really loved:

• Mama, Do You Love Me? By Barbara M. Joosse
• I is for Inuksuk By Mary Wallace
• An Inuksuk Means Welcome by Mary Wallace
• Kamik by Donald Uluadluak
• The Magic School Bus In The Arctic By Anne Schreiber

Extension Ideas for for Read Alouds

As you can probably tell by this blogpost, I love the richness that read alouds provide! The Five In A Row curriculum was one of my first discoveries, when I started researching homeschooling, and it fit my goals exactly. I wanted something that enabled my family to experience rich literature together, and also be able to extend our learning across many disciplines: art, geography, history, math, science, you name it! Five In A Row does that beautifully, and I am so thankful for the curriculum. I truly think it sparked something in me, and starts my creative juices flowing!

When we read Henry The Castaway last month, we talked about survival skills. While Very Last First Time is survival in a much different climate, it would be fun to compare and contrast! You could also reuse the Explorer Scavenger Hunt freebie for this book as well; maybe repeat the outside clues in wintertime, and see how they’re different! (Where we live, we have four definitive seasons, and winter resembles that of Eva’s, in the book!) Along with the cards listed above, grab the free Teacher Key & Ideas guide, here.

If you love Five In A Row or are “rowing” along with us, let me know! I could talk about books all day!

Cait