It was nice to have a review of the memory verses this week. The kids enjoyed going back over and singing all the previous songs from 'Hide Em' in my Heart' CD.
We started out the week with a fun way to practice the new word lists. The kids love play doh and even though it ranks right up there with glitter and requires breathing therapy for me as they ball it up, get it under their nails and the colored crumbs scatter onto the floor... I decided to let them spell out their lists with play doh. It was a success!
The kids both enjoyed making their letters out of the smelly stuff and I survived much better without the cutting tools and spaghetti makers getting tiny pieces of play doh everywhere!! :)
Multiplication is going well for the oldest. The concept was simplified by graphing the tables out with rows x columns on graph paper. My visual learner grasped it much better this way and is beginning to memorize them. We are using flash cards, worksheets, math computer games and songs.
With the 1st grader, we talked a lot about time. She is doing great with a lot of practice and enjoyed making this clock!
In History, we continued learning about the lives of the Hollanders. We talked about their Dutch language, windmills, tulips, wooden shoes and canals. We listened to this song about a mouse in an Amsterdam Windmill and the kids thought it was so silly!
You can listen to it here:
We learned that people in Holland did weekly scrubbing of their houses. Since we weren't going to scrub our house, we had a family car washing day! The kids also washed both of their bikes! :)
We also talked about storks and how the people in Holland believed it was good luck to see a stork and that you shouldn't harm them. The pilgrim boy didn't believe that it was good luck and exclaimed blessings and good things are from God; not a lucky stork. We talked about the 4 seasons and learned that migration is what God gave birds as a natural instinct to fly to warmer areas to avoid cold temperatures.
In Science, we explored water birds a bit further and learned that God made them on the 5th day of Creation. Storks do not have webbed feet as they do not swim in the water. Storks only stand in the shallow parts of the water to eat fish and frogs. We talked about the food chain a bit too learning that storks eat the fish and frogs- frogs eat insects and fish eat algae.
Our experiment was to use a spatula to paddle through the water. We had more resistance on the webbed (aluminum covered) spatula. The other spatula allowed water to pass freely and did not resist water as much. The kids decided they would like to have webbed feet to be able to swim faster in the water. I think we will just get them some flippers!
For Storytime, we are reading more in our adventure book, 'The Twenty-One Balloons'. In my opinion, it is starting out a bit slow and I seem to have to reread a lot to get them to understand. It is a bit complex in explaining but seems to be picking up as we go. The kids begged for me to read just a little more! They narrate the reading back to me and are learning about conflicts/problems. Here is one review:
We learned that the main character, Professor Sherman had a very persistent personality trait as he kept his story a secret! We learned that the town prepared for his arrival by decorating everything with balloons. To tie into our Storytime, the kids did a watercolor of hot air balloons flying above the ocean water. They enjoyed the painting.
If you are reading The Twenty-One Balloons and are interested in this FREE PRINTABLE then you can get it from my Heart of Dakota Pinterest page at this link:
In Language Arts, we talked about what gets a capital letter. Here's what was on our dry erase board all week long!
In our journal writing, I asked the children to write their very own short story. The story had to include a setting, character, conflict and solution. This proved to be an easy task for my daughter and more complex for my son. It still amazes me how different they each are and am still learning how to develop their strengths and weaknesses. Anyone else notice this with their little ones?
Look at what I got in the mail today!?!?!
"PIZZA HUT BOOK IT!" READER REWARDS
I was really excited about learning that we could enroll in the 'Pizza Hut Book It!' program as homeschoolers. The kids enjoyed it last year in public school and it is a fun reward for reading books that we can continue doing. If you haven't signed up yet.... you can still enroll here:
Overall, it was nice to have the review this week as it gave us somewhat of a break in our routine. Hard to believe we have completed 6 weeks with Heart of Dakota and still loving it!
See you next week!
Blessings!
It's so good to see what the grandchildren are learning in school...Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mom! I love being able to share what we are doing across the miles with you!
DeleteI love Yoda on the white board, lol! And the graph paper idea for multiplication is great, too. Luke's math curric is still reviewing, but I'll try to remember that when we get there
ReplyDeleteLaura, the kids named Yoda so, I had to put him up there! Lol! The graphing really helped Mason understand so much better. He enjoyed it too!
DeleteWe received our Book It materials, too!! I know my son will love getting some pizza for all his reading effort! Looking forward to doing unit 6 next; thanks for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteYAY, Kristina! So glad Pizza Hut offers this program for homeschoolers too! Thanks for following my blog!
Delete