Our week with Madeline

A couple of weeks ago we rowed the book Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans. The story is about a a little girl named Madeline who lives in Paris, France with 11 other little girls and their teacher Miss Clavel. Madeline is a bold and fearless little girl who wakes one night crying in pain because she has appendicitis. She is taken to the hospital for surgery.

I was not sure how Justin would like a book with 12 little girls as the main characters. He loved it (so did Kaden and I). We learned so much about France, Paris and the surrounding countryside.

One of the first activities we did was to make Madeline. The directions are here

Justin's Madeline



Kaden's Madeline

We learned that all of the scenes in Madeline are real places in Paris. On one of the pages there was a monument that we originally thought was the Bastille Monument. It was actually The Palace Vendome.

Some things we learned:

That Paris is the capital of France.

The Highest Peak in France is Mont Blanc in the French Alps.

The currency used in France and Europe is called the Euro.

That there is a train that runs from Paris to London through a tunnel under the English Channel.

One of Justin's favorite activities was learning about the Eiffel Tower.

Here are some fun facts about the Tower!

Did you know that the Eiffel Tower was built in 1889 by Gustave Eiffel for the Paris Universal Exposition and was not supposed to be a permanant structure?

Did you know that the first first transatlantic wireless telephones were operated from the tower.

Did you know that it is composed of 12 thousand iron girders and two and a half million rivets.

Did you know that it stands 1,051 feet high (including the antenna) and took three hundred steeple jacks two years to build.

Did you know that there are 1,792 steps. In good weather the view from the top is about 45-50 miles.

We spent alot of time at the Official site of the Eiffel Tower you can view it here. There are alot of really neat things to see, including a virtual tour of the Eiffel Tower. The children's only section has alot of fun games. Make sure you check out the view at night and the fireworks page too!

We also watched Barnaby Bear's Day Trip to Paris. It is really cute and the boys loved it. You can view it here

We found a cool cut out of the Eiffel Tower here

We made french toast from french bread and it was yummy!

Justin learned about grouping with 48 Madeline and friends. He divided them into groups of 12 and then each group of 12 into groups of 2, 3 4 and 6

Here is the lapbook we made: (you can click on any picture to see a larger image)

Outside cover:

inside: We learned about rhyming words and Justin colored a picture of the Eiffel tower with watercolor pencils.

Justin located the Seine River that runs thru Paris. We also made an envelope for all of the little girls he counted and grouped.

We found a map of some of the famous Paris landmarks from the book and Justin drew lines from the location of the landmark on the map to the picture.

Justin also learned some anatomy. He learned where his appendix is and why it sometimes has to be removed. We found a really neat kids health website. You can see it here

Justin also learned about symmetrical and asymmetrical.

We read several great go-along books during our unit study. Two of our favorites were:

The Inside-Outside Book of Paris by Roxie Munro It has lots of great pictures of both famous and not so famous landmarks in Paris

Another favorite was The Story of Zachary Zween by Mabel Watts. It is a rhyming book and about a group of little boys who line up from A-Z. Really fun!

Another favorite was Madeline says Merci! A great book on manners.

We had so much fun rowing Madeline and learned so much! I am amazed at how much fun we have each day and how much Justin actually retains from our lessons!