Cranberry Fun

We read Cranberry Thanksgiving at co-op on Monday.  In the book, the grandmother makes a judgment about 2 people based on their appearances.  The one that was clean cut, smelled good and dressed nicely she thought highly of.  She did not like the one that smelled like clams, had a long beard and did not dress the way she preferred.  It turned out that the clean cut man tried to steal her secret cranberry bread recipe and the man she didn't like stopped him. 

For one activity, the children chose a gift from several placed on a table.  All but one gift was wrapped nicely with a bow and pretty paper.  One gift was wrapped messy with newspaper.  They children opened their gifts to find trash in the nicely wrapped ones.  One child chose the messy gift, but inside was enough candy for everyone.

The lesson was that we cannot judge people from their appearances.  We need to look at what is inside, just the way God does.

The other lesson was about cranberries.  We learned that cranberries float.  That's how they are harvested in bogs.  The bogs are flooded and the cranberries come to the top.  They also bounce.  A cranberry has to bounce at least 4 inches when dropped from 12 inches to be kept and bagged as a whole cranberry.  We experimented with that.  Not many of the cranberries we tried bounced that high, but it was an interesting lesson.

So this week, at home, we have focused on cranberries.  Tuesday, the boys each wrote a poem about cranberries.  We used a fill in the blank format to create these.

Nicolas's:

As little as a cranberry.
As hard as a cranberry.
An apple is not as tiny as a cranberry.
A plum is not as round as a cranberry.
A grape is as small as a cranberry.
Nothing in the world is as sour as a cranberry.

Alex's:

As small as a cranberry.
As red as a cranberry.
As hard as a cranberry.
As sour as a cranberry.
As light as a cranberry.
An apple is not as red as a cranberry.
An orange is not as hard as a cranberry.
A peach is not as sour as a cranberry.
A banana is not as light as a cranberry.
A plum is not as small as a cranberry.
A grape is as small as a cranberry.
Nothing in the world is as sour as a cranberry.

Last night for supper, we had Cranberry Pork Roast and Cranberry-Apple Crisp for dessert.

Today we are going to have Cranberry tea to drink after lunch.

Tomorrow we are going to use the rest of our cranberries along with some popcorn and string them as treats for our birds outside.