A couple of weeks ago, we read, “The Clown of God” (by Tomi dePaola). The moral of the story is fantastic and there are so many awesome extension activities that can go along with it. Gleaning inspiration from Five in a Row and around the web, here are some of the things we did:

Bible

We talked about how God gives each of us special gifts and talents and how it makes Him happy when we use those gifts to bless others.

Arts/Crafts/Drama

We made juggling balls out of balloons and rice. These were a huge hit.

Since the main character Giovanni is a clown, we dug an old clown costume out of the attic and took turns dressing up. 

We had a lot of fun with our art project for this study.

We read up on egg-based paint, which was used in Italy during that time period. Then, using water, food colouring, ground up tempera paint and egg whites, we made some of our own.  

Geography/Social Studies/History

We found Italy on the wall map and we used our giant Italian flag as a table cloth for some of our activities. 

Since the story takes place in late Middle Ages/early Renaissance, we glued pictures of medieval Italian castles and churches into our notebooks. 

To tie in with the architecture of the time, we made stained glass window cookies. 

I didn’t want to miss the chance to talk about some of the things that make that time period so fascinating, so I found some pictures of Italian knights to include in our notebooks and then we looked through a book about castles and knights.

Gelato!