Read-Aloud: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief

What we're reading together...Percy Jackson &The Olympians by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson & The Olympians is an easier fantasy series (Level S-- 4th grade) with five books focusing on Percy Jackson, a 6th grader with ADHD and dyslexia. He learns he is the demi-god son of Poseidon and is sent on the kind of adventures children love to daydream about. The first book has been made into a movie. (The second book has also been made into a movie and it is due to be released in August.)

Our Extension Activities

leather duster

• Once again, we have been collecting images off the internet of vocabulary words from the book: ambrosia, caduceus, chimera, Cupid, duster, furies, hell hound, laurel wreath, mausoleum, Medusa, minotaur, peacock, pomegranate, reed pipe, tunnel of love.
• We have abalone shells and coral in our science collection and a miniature figure of the Empire State Building in our world landmarks collection that made a fun hands-on way to visualize parts of the book.
• My son has a leather duster we found for his Halloween costume last year and our recent family pictures. I used it as a visual example of the one worn by Ares in the book. It's much more fun to touch and smell the leather than to simply read about it (or even see a picture of one).
• We also have a blowable conch shell (like the one used in the book to call the campers to dinner) which everyone took turns trying to play. Of course, B. plays the trumpet and was a natural at the conch shell. He did noted that it is actually more like playing the French horn, which made for a brief but fun tie-in to our musical instruments nomenclature set. In the book, Grover also plays the pan flute (or reed pipes) and they mention a lyre several times.
• We are studying Greek mythology simultaneously, which is perfect for increasing background schema. We put together a pedigree chart for the various Greek gods to help us visualize their lineage and we have paid special attention to the Greek mythological characters, stories and elements from this book (Procrustes, Athena, Pan, the three fates, Persephone, Rive Styx, Chiron, Charon, Kronos, Cerberus, Olympus, Medusa, Hades, Ares, Dionysus, Zeus, Poseidon, Echidna, Chimera, Minotaur, the three furies, Tartarus, Erebus, Hermes, satyrs, Perseus, the Underworld and Thalia).
• We also checked out the map for the various geographic locations mentioned in the book (New York City, Manhattan, Empire State Building, Long Island, Denver, New Jersey turnpike, Los Angeles, St. Louis Arch, Las Vegas, Mississippi River, Santa Monica Pier).
• The movie for book one has provided us with the opportunity to compare the similarities and differences between the two.
• We used my Cricut machine to screen print "Camp Half-Blood" T-shirts.
• After we read a few more chapters, we are planning a meal of blue foods as homage to Percy's mother.