Vocabulary Poster for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Our current car audiobook is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  I got it as a download from Audible.  I did a post about why here.  I think we're on our fifth listen and this is the first activity we've done around the story.  I like to use our audiobooks as vocabulary builders.  Last year we did a lot of free vocabulary puzzles but we needed some new activities.

We haven't done a lot of large format projects, mainly because our house is small and storage becomes an issue.  It's still fun once in a while so we're doing something large for this.  I had black poster board already but I think a color would have been nicer.
  
I downloaded the  educator's guide from the C.S. Lewis Foundation.  It's a great resource with lots of info.   There's also a value based activity guide on the same web page.  Home schooling is already a lot of work.  I don't have a need to reinvent the wheel constantly so I love free quality resources.  November 29th is C.S. Lewis' birthday so you might want to make use of the Foundation's resources this month.

I printed out the vocabulary pages and chose four or five words for each chapter.  I trimmed them down to be little strips of paper.  Then off the web, I printed pictures of the characters from the BBC television show in the 80's.  It's a lot less violent than the more recent Hollywood version so that's the video version I wanted them to watch.  We watched it for the first time last week.  I glued the pictures, and character names I typed up to the poster board.  Then it was play time.

Toad was given the slips with the words on them and asked to glue them to the poster board next to the character he associated with the word.  I tried to choose words that I thought he didn't know and/or were descriptive of the characters.  My goal was three chapters or 12-15 words a session.  

For him, the design of the project was not just about the vocabulary but helping him to strengthen his weaknesses.  He doesn't process information he hears as well as that which he reads.  It always surprises me how many times we can listen to a story and what he won't recall.  Also, he has a hard time with anything associated with people.  Talking about characters in a story with any information beyond a physical description is a challenge.  Trying to discuss the thoughts or motivations of fictional characters just mirrors the challenges the same activity presents in real life.
 

On the third word, lulling, the difficulties started.  He wanted to get out the story and read where it was so he could put it in the right place.  Very logical, yes, but it doesn't work to build recall well.  Instead, I said, "Read the word and definition and use your memory to decide which character faced a situation like that."  Still nothing.  "Was there a place in the beginning of the story where one character was trying to take advantage of another?"  At this point, the peanut gallery (younger Toad) pipes up with Edmund.  My kids are so different.  The younger one listens and process everything aurally so well and is Mr. Charm so this project worked to all his strengths.  He can't read but listening to us he caught on to exactly what was going on and he understands people so well he remembered where the Witch was manipulating Edmund.  I'm looking forward to the future when older Toad gets people better and younger Toad has more opportunities to help.

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Our Latest Audiobook Comes Without Turkish Delight

I signed up for an Audible account in August. 

This was breaking down for me a bit as it felt like it was an out of budget item and I felt like the library really should fulfill our audiobook needs.  I'm a frequent flyer at the library but it wasn't meeting our needs on this one subject.  

At least half of the audiobooks we were getting were damaged and wouldn't play in some way.  That was annoying for all of us to only get half the story.  Also, some of the titles had multiple editions available.  It was really hard to get information about the individual edition such as the performer who did it or overall quality of the performance.  We  got several books that had actors with voices that to me were like nails on a chalkboard.  The boys were fine with it and enjoyed them, but I'm riding in the car too and I figured out I'm pickier than they are.  Which leads in to the last point that I learned.  I need the better 'quality' audiobooks.  Meaning ones that are performed by acknowledged actors and have reviews to see if other people liked that particular edition.

The one that did me in was a lousy Wizard of Oz.  After that I was desperate for one I would like as well as the kids so I got Jim Dale's version of James Herriot's Treasury for Children.  As a kid I loved watching All Creatures Great and Small and it still reminds me of all my years around horses.  It seemed like something I'd enjoy sharing with the kids but the library didn't even have it.  So I signed up for Audible as a trial and got that for my free purchase.  It's a great audiobook.  Jim Dale's the actor.  He did the Harry Potter series and we'd previously enjoyed his version of Around the World in 80 days.  I like to support the audiobooks we listen to with an out of car activity so for this one I shared the beloved (to me)  TV series from the library with them.

We've since downloaded two more offerings.  Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (we just started this).  Both were well done.  I did a post here about our Journey to the Center of the Earth activity that includes a free vocabulary printable.

So far Audible has worked out great.  One downside, which I wish had been disclosed on the website before I signed up, was the need to have Itunes in addition to the Audible software.  Itunes is the only way to burn the books to CD to listen to in our car.  The Audible software will sync with a player fine but that's not how we use the books.  Itunes is free but you have to transfer the files through the programs and it's extra time.

Another downside is even they don't have everything either.  They didn't have Seven Little Australians.  Our library doesn't have it either but it's a fairly well known book in the greater Commonwealth so I was a little surprised it wasn't available online.  I ended up buying an edition used.  They have different versions of Audible for different countries (like Amazon since it's an Amazon owned company).  If you're an international reader of this blog and going to want books closer to home go with your local Audible service.


In honor of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe we made Turkish Delight.   I first looked in the cookbook below, Once Upon a Time in the Kitchen, which is our go to cookbook for literature based cooking but was really surprised to see they didn't have it.  

I've made Turkish Delight once from a Martha Stewart recipe and it was a failure so I didn't choose that one.  Joy of Cooking of course had it, but we FAILED (cue whiny reading voice)!   So now I'm 0 for 2 on Turkish Delight.  Too runny both times.  If anyone has any suggestions of fail safe recipes please comment on them because I'd really like to finally get this right.

Toads unsuccessfully tackle Turkish Delight

 

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* I did not receive any compensation for writing this review.  All opinions expressed are my own.  If you use the Audible link on the left sidebar of my blog to do business with Audible, I will receive a small commission.  Any monies generated by this blog go into more homeschool supplies.