Week 15

Apparently I'm getting a little boring in my picture-taking.  There are only four photos this week!

Preschool

Craft

Because Thanksgiving's coming up next week, we chose to forego our letter and make a turkey instead.  We finger painted feathers and then used tracings of each child's foot for the turkey's body.  I forgot to take a picture of how well they came out, but they did come out like cute little abstract turkeys.

This was Hyrum's first time actually painting and not eating the paint.  After a bit, he wanted a wipe for his hands, and then he tried to clean his paper.  LOL

Preschool Activity Book

We did some story comprehension questions, some patterns with shapes and colors, and some line drawing. Ellie still needs crayon nubs because otherwise she wants to fist the writing utensil!

Junior K

Reading

Emmett did some Dr. Seuss reading.  He picked Green Eggs and Ham again.  He's memorized most of it, so I'm not sure how much reading he actually did.  LOL

Math

He moved into the number bonds section in his book.  He really likes these papers, but does not like that he has to show me the answer with the rods.  I'm trying to encourage him to check with the rods because he is prone to miscounting.

First Grade

Language

Grammar

We did lessons 71 and 72 which focused on seasons and holidays as well as the proper use of sit/set and the pronoun I.

Writing

This week focused on The Railway Children.  Abby enjoyed the story, but had trouble remembering the kids' names.  I think probably because they were unfamiliar to her.

Reading

Abby finished Meet Molly!  I started her an account on Book Adventure so she is anxious to take the quiz for this book.  I guess that will tell me how much of the story she actually comprehended.  She can tell me what happened, but I'm always left wondering...

Spelling

To close up this section of r-controlled syllables, Abby worked through words with the /or/ sound.

Handwriting

We have been working for the last little bit on connecting letters to form words.  This week, she wrote her first sentence in cursive!

Math

This week we moved on to multiplication by three.  Abby surprised me by completely being able to skip count by 3s even though we've not practiced it!  Though, if she didn't know a multiplication problem, she's very prone to think of the number doubled and then added again.  I'm more than fine if she doesn't commit these problems to memory as my current plan is for her to move on to Beast Academy next year where they will work on multiplication again.  She is just six, after all!

All Together

Science

Our caterpillars have mostly all moved on to become chrysalises!  We have one straggler, but he was so long past the other guys, that we moved the other guys and have the caterpillar still hanging out in the cup.

History

This week we learned about Babylon taking over again!  Abby loved that Nebuchadnezzar was so nice to make his wife a garden that reminded her of home.

Week 10

This was our last week with Daddy home recovering from surgery.  It was so fun having home (after the immediate recovering part)!

Preschool

Letter Themes

We did the letter P this week.  This craft was easy to throw together.  Ellie made a Pink Paper Polka Dot P.

PreK Activity Book

Ellie worked with comparing colors some more in her book.  She also did a page which required her to line up ant stickers in a line and then a circle.  She really liked that one.

Junior K

Reading

I pulled out Green Eggs and Ham at the beginning of this week, thinking it would be a good book to read through for the whole week.  Emmett read through the whole thing in one sitting!  He just wanted to keep going!  Towards the end he did get a bit exhausted and started making goofy mistakes.  The rest of the week, he read Hop on Pop.

Math

I got Singapore Essentials Math book B this week.  It's a kindergarten-level curriculum for the second semester of K.  It starts out with one more than and one less than, which is still too easy for him.  I imagine he will accelerate through these pages until he finds something that's a bit more challenging...

Handwriting/ETC

We didn't do any this week.  :)

First Grade

Language

Grammar

Abby did lessons 61-63 in grammar this week.  The first involved proper pronoun usage when answering, "It is I."  The second was a narration from the story the Pitcher and the Crow.  The third was a review of the months of the year and days of the week.

Writing

We worked through some selections about Davy Crockett and Sacagawea.  She had a hard time with the narration about Sacagawea.  I wonder if that's just partly exposure...

Reading

Abby finished Stuart Little!  She really enjoyed this book and was happy to finish, but really bummed that it was done.

Spelling

This week's step involved plural vowel-consonant-e words.  The only word that tripped her up was "lakes."  She spelled it "lax" even though she properly spelled "brakes."  After a few days, though, she was working at  it with no problem.  Still, that particular card is under the review section.

Handwriting

We completed the letter j and I did some letter review with her on the white board the rest of the days.

Math

Her math introduced the traditional algorithm for regrouping (or "borrowing") this week.  She worked through it fine.  If she lines the problem up, she has no issues completing the problem.  She still tries to complete a problem in her head, though, and if it involves regrouping within more than one place, it seems like it's a lot to hold in her head.  She is still INSISTENT on solving problems her own way.  I'm sure some of that will change with maturity and experience.

All Together

Science

We began our unit on worms this week.  We went on a worm hunt.  The kids were supposed to hypothesize where they might be.  Since we've had some gardening moment and Emmett is our current Critter King, they went straight to the garden spaces.

We also created our own composting jars to observe the worms composting our layers or oatmeal, sand, and soil.  Unfortunately, though, we put them in the garage and then our weather turned cold.  Rather than beginning to compost, the worms huddled on top of the jar and went dormant.  Whoops!  We moved them into a closet and will check on them next week.

History

We talked about the Middle Kingdom of Egypt this week.  The kids learned about Amenemhet and the Hyksos this week.  I tried to show the kids what a chariot was, but was having a hard time explaining.  One day, though, we were at Target and saw this Lego box.  The kids are going through a Lego stint so it was a perfect way to explain to them...except the mummy/skeleton/monster-ish part.  LOL