Week 4

Daddy went back to work this week, which was a bummer, but also good for us to get back into our regular routine.

ABCs:

We reviewed the letter N this week. Lately, mostly reviewing our letters involves reading the sounds it makes, the shape and a lettaer craft. We used noodles for our N this time.

Ellie wanted to make a necklace afterwards. She loved it and made four and exclaimed, each time we finished one, "So pretty!"

PreK:

Emmett decided he wants to begin reading lessons this week. I'm indulging it, though we're going very slowly. So far he has completed 1.5 lessons. :) We also talked about body parts this week, including bones and muscles. We found parts of our body that aren't as common: elbows, wrist, ankles, hips, etc.

Reading:

Spelling:

We made it through three steps this week, which sets us at just past halfway through AAS Level 1. This week we learned whether to use "c" or "k" at the beginning of a word. Later, she was pleased to tell Daddy when a c is before e, i, or y it says /s/. We were in the middle of Chick-Fil-A and she bursted it out. LOL

Math:

My middle two love to watch Team Umizoomi. We have this math kit that came with cards that have "mighty math missions." This particular card had Emmett searching for numbers 1-10 throughout our house.

We headed back to Miqoun this week. Most of our time this week was directed around pairs that make five. We played a game we call "Yellow!" You need a deck with 0-5. If you're using face cards, you can use a Q for 0. Uno cards are PERFECT for this, though, just take out what you don't need. Then, the first player lays a card in the middle face up, and the next player follows. Each take turns laying a card. When you see a pair that makes five (or the yellow rod, hence the name), you exclaim, "Yellow!" and take the pair. Whoever has the most cards at the end of the game wins.

We also played a game that we call make a pair. With the same deck, each player is dealt five cards. The deck is placed in the center with two cards drawn and face up on either side of the deck. If a player can cover one card so the showing pair equals five, he does so. Otherwise he draws a card.

We've also played Old Maid with the same deck, just pulling out our "mystery card" before we begin play. We need more than two people for that one.

And of course, Go Fish or Go to the Dump with pairs that add to five.

Abby can now tell us all of the combinations of numbers that equal five.

She worked through the C-addition pages in Miquon and completed them. With the rods, single-digit addition is easy for her. Working these pages, she has committed to memory her +0, +1 addition tables as well as 2+2, 3+3, 4+4, 5+5, and 6+6. She's also fairly consistent with addition to 10, but only if she thinks about it in terms of rods. For being only 5 and only doing Miquon for the last 4 weeks, I'm fairly pleased with her understanding.

Memory Work:

This week we've worked on skip counting by ten. It will probably continue in to next week.

Unit Study Completion:

As a topper to our fire safety unit study last week, we visited the fire department! We visited the last firehouse in OKC that has fireman's poles. And it was a great tour! Besides just touring the firehouse and meeting the firemen, they also took us for a ride in a ladder truck.

The let the kids try on their equipment.

They let the kids spray the firehose!

FIAR:

This week we rowed a favorite, Madeline. My kids have never actually done any FIAR activities with it, but they are familiar with the books and the cartoon.

Social Studies:

• This isn't the first time we've rowed a book that is set in Paris. This time, we focused on the Seine River that runs through Paris. We got on Google Earth and looked at the river. Then, we found the picture in the book where it says that "nobody knew so well how to scare Miss Clavel." We supposed that the bridge was built to cross the Seine River and then practiced "scaring Miss Clavel" in our back yard.

Language Arts:

• We discussed rhyme this week. Abby can rhyme orally, so I assumed this would be a review type of lesson. Much to my surprise, she's never actually paid attention to written words that rhyme!

Art:

• We discussed impressions verses photographs.
• We noticed the differences in the pictures in the book: Some are full color and some are done with just black and yellow. We even compared the pictures where Miss Clavel says, "Something is not right."
• Finally, we drew a picture of a Tiger using Draw Write Now 7.

Applied Math:

• We arranged the "twelve little girls in two straight lines" into one, three, and four straight lines.

Science:

• Madeline has her appendix removed in the book. We found out where the appendix is and why someone might have to have theirs removed. This led us to an awesome discussion about the digestive tract. The kids enjoyed watching the BrainPOP Jr. episode on digestion.

• Because of Madeline's surgery, she has a scar which becomes the envy of the other little girls. We talked about our body's mechanisms to heal itself and how we get scars. Then, we found some on our bodies. I also took a picture of Abby raising her shirt so we could see her stomach. On it, she drew her own scar.

Other:

• We checked out a Madeline collection from the library and read other Madeline books.
• We watched a fair amount of Madeline cartoons via our Netflix instant play.
• For our movie tonight, we watched the live action Madeline, which is really a composite of all the original Madeline books.