Bigger Hearts for His Glory - Unit 1

 2014-2015

Our first week homeschooling with 'Heart of Dakota's Bigger Hearts for His Glory' was a great success!  It looks like we have a future race car driver and a ballerina as of the first day of school!  I enjoyed summer break but, it sure felt good getting back into our routine.  

This week the kids loved the review of the globe, learning about persistence, the journey of Christopher Columbus, the seashore, and a famous hymn.  

We learned about the character trait 'persistence' and how Christopher Columbus persisted through many difficulties on his journey to find a "shorter way" to Asia across the ocean.  He thankfully was able to gain funding and support from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. We learned that on his journey Christopher Columbus was mocked and others wanted to return to Spain.  He told them if they didn't discover land within 3 additional days they would turn the ships around and return.  He soon saw the land of the Caribbean islands and planted the Spanish standard.

Using the history note booking pages, we drew Columbus journey on the map. 

We added Columbus to our timeline. 

We started our week making a paper mache globe. We used a 2 parts water, 1 part flour mixture and dipped strips of newspaper to cover our balloon.  It was a bit messy but, the kids had a blast with this ooey-gooey project.  

The first big balloon popped while we were working on it and the wet glue splattered everywhere! The kids thought it was hilarious!! 

Then, I decided they should each make their own smaller globe.  This worked a bit better, was quicker to dry, and just as much fun! We had to let them dry overnight. 

We used finger paints for the blue water on our globes. I printed the continents from this quick guide on Pinterest and the kids colored them and glued them in place.  You can get this guide and FREEBIE by clicking HERE.

   

Overall, this was a great project as you can tell they loved it... even the smurfy blue hands!  It also really helped them locate the continents and oceans with a bit of fun creative art. 

The kids were able to place the continents and label the oceans correctly.  It was neat to be able to show the kids - before they glued on the Americas - what it would have looked like had the Americas not been on the other side of the globe as some had thought. 

••••••••••••••••••••• ENGLISH

We have begun this week with Rod & Staff English 2. We learned the differences between sentences and phrases. We also reviewed and identified asking and telling sentences and learned the correct punctuation for each. 

I made these cute little balloon signs and read multiple sentences. The kids held up the correct sign after I read the sentence....   Asking or Telling.  They had fun with this! 

••••••••••••••••••••• STORY TIME

We started reading our Biography - Ben & Me.  This is a cute book and so far the kids are fascinated by the little mouse, Amos, narrating about Benjamin Franklin and his inventions. 

••••••••••••••••••••  VOCABULARY

Vocabulary is new this year in Bigger and the children did great! We are still working on dictation and I often have to spell for them but, overall this wasn't a battle and I was shocked!  They seemed to enjoy learning our new words, impostors, lamentation, and standard.  These vocabulary sheets are perfect to add into our binders.

••••••••••••••••••••• ART

The kids painted pictures of the waves in the ocean. They learned about fore ground, middle ground, and background as they painted their waves. 

They mixed different amounts of blue & red paint together to make different shades of purple for the ocean waves. Then, they mixed blue and white together for the swirly sky. 

I love seeing their unique creativity through their art expressions. 

••••••••••••••••••••• SCIENCE

In Science, we talked about high & low tide.  The kids made a diagram to show the gravitational pull. 

We learned God made the sea and dry land and designed the moon's gravity to cause the tides. He thought of everything!  The tides changing allows for plants and animals to live and eat as the tides change and water washes the shore.

We also talked about the strand line on the seashore. We are preparing for a beach day next week to look at all the cool things along the shoreline. 

One of our science experiments was about sinking and floating.

The ball floated because the water pushed back and kept it afloat. 

The coin did not float because it was too heavy and the water couldn't hold it up.

The kids completed their science sheets and we learned that water pushes back on the item but, heavy things sink. 

We also talked about what causes waves.  We learned that wind causes waves. 

We used a small glass dish and a little fan to show the wind making waves.  We learned that the tide makes the water rise and fall on the shore and wind makes the waves. 

These experiment sheets are great! I love the networking and sharing of the resources that the HOD Facebook pages offer. Everyone is always so helpful. 

•••••••••••••••••••••  MATH

Our 4th grader started with Christian Light Education (CLE) this week for math. We are new to CLE and so far I feel like this is a great fit for him.  It was a review of multiplication. 

Then quickly on to fractions. Great to review because the summer was a long break and there were some things forgotten.  

Our 2nd grader is continuing with Abeka Math and we are also beginning multiplication with Times Tales. We touched on this last year but, watched the video again this week.  She did great learning the stories and knows her first set of tables. Yay! 

••••••••••••••••••••• MUSIC

Music in 'Hymns for a Kids Heart' was about Reginald Heber, 1783-1826.  We learned he loved God and wrote a poem in school that won first prize. He wrote Holy, Holy, Holy! The kids listened to the famous hymn and sang along all week.  

The kids are using Rod & Staff Spelling workbook this year instead of the HOD list.  This workbook fit well into our schedule and gave time for one on one with math and reading while the other completed spelling and copy work.

We also started Cheerful Cursive with the little one. It's going good so far! 

Our verse this week was Proverbs 2:3-5.   I may need to print out some bigger lined paper with guidelines for better handwriting.  I love that there is room for pictures on this printable and the drawing my son did of Busch Gardens Mach Tower.  He has been persistent in trying to ride that for the past couple of years and finally did! 

We finished our week reading the parable of the woman who was persistent in Luke 18.  She did not give up.  We learned that we too should persist in our prayers to God.  We talked about being persistent with Him.  We learned that if we cry out to Him and seek Him, then we will find the knowledge of Him. What a fantastic study this week as we begin our homeschooling year. 

The kids had recess at the pool with some friends this week too!

I don't know about you but, I am already excited about this school year.  I pray that God will use this guide to speak through me and to me as we study more each week.  

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Thanks again for following our weekly blog!  Wishing you each the best in your 2014-2015 school year! 

See you next week! 

Be Blessed!