Bigger Hearts for His Glory- Unit 15

This week we learned about the character trait, initiative.  We talked about the importance of initiative and learned that many great leaders showed initiative in their decisions.  

Our bible verse was Proverbs 13:13. 

In poetry, we read and copied. The copy work is going well and the handwriting is getting better and better for each of our littles. 

•••••••••••••

We started the week with an art project. Who doesn't love autumn? 

The kids divided their paper in 6 sections and drew a leaf in each section. They outlined with black sharpie and then erased any pencil markings they could still see. 

Next, they used watercolors to paint their leaves. 

And finished their projects by alternating the colors of the grid. These turned out so cute and they had a lot of fun making them. 

Here are the finished projects! They each did great and they are all unique and different! 

Watercolor Leaf Art

In Science, we took a closer look at a leaf.  Leaves have layers of cells. The veins carry food and water to the cells. 

The kids even colored their own in the science note booking pages. 

We learned that the deciduous trees  shed their leaves in autumn. Their leaves stop making chlorophyll and turn colors brown, gold, red, and orange. 

Plants that are living have stomata to 'breathe' through. 

We also learned about the different layers of a tree trunk. Tree trunks are made of rings. Each ring has a purpose for keeping the tree alive. 

••••••••••••••••

This week we read about some of the many battles of the Revolutionary War. George Washington and how he out smarted Cornwallis the British Army. I read the story and the kids acted out the narration with figures. 

We learned that Washington left several men to noisily dig barricades near the Delaware River. The British heard the movement and digging and thought Washington was simply preparing for the upcoming battle. 

Meanwhile, Washington had lead his army across the creek and around to surprise the British from behind.  They had nowhere to run and Washington defeated the enemy.  

•••••••••••••••

We learned that many important battles were fought near rivers during the Revolutionary War.  Washington showed initiative in crossing the Delaware River and attacking Trenton the day after Christmas. No one expected him to do it.

We read a story of George Rogers Clark. He was an American Colonel who stopped the British from sending Indians to kill the settlers in the west. He showed initiative when his army overtook 2 British forts. 

Marion's Tower

We read about Francis Marion who was a strong leader during the Revolutionary War.  The British called him 'Swamp Fox' because he was so hard to catch.  Marion was sneaky and hard to find. He  showed initiative and made a tall tower during the night. He was able to climb up and shoot fire down onto the British army.  The British surrendered their fort. 

We used stick pretzels to build our own towers. The kids enjoyed this! 

••••••••••••

The kids enjoy the daily speed drills for their math lessons. They have 2 minutes to complete as many correctly as they can. We keep track of their progress on a graph. 

Our oldest ds learned the 5 steps of long division this week.  He grasped the concept well and is excited to move forward with dividing larger numbers. 

Report cards went home. Lol! The kids all did great these last 15 units and I'm so happy to report we are already seeing many improvements. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to teach each of them. 

Be blessed and safe travels for Thanksgiving. 

Heart of Dakota BLHFHG - Week/Unit 9

A much needed day at the Children's Museum kept us busy learning and having fun!   There was a perfect demonstration of the earth orbiting around the sun and it made it much easier for the kids to understand more so than my make shift beach ball with a crooked taped wrapped equator that I attempted last week.  

Our memory verse this week was Colossians 3:23. We talked about how the pilgrims believed in this scripture and knew there would be much work that needed to be done in the new land. 

This weeks poem is  'Maker of Heaven and Earth' by Cecil Frances Alexander.  Since there wasn't a song assigned to this unit, we searched YouTube and found this version to listen to of the poem.   Click here to listen!

Wow.... The penmanship of my dd and ds have both made huge improvements since the first of the year.  I'm so proud of how far they both have come in their writing. They may not like Copywork but, it has really helped and is becoming routine, easier and less of a battle for them each week. 

We needed a change of environment and decided to take school out and about. We worked on our HoD outside and the kids enjoyed changing things up a bit. 

After our work was finished, we raced around the track and took a few minutes to admire this awesome Navy F-14 plane and to play at the park. 

I am learning that the more breaks in our routine...  the better our school day goes. The kids enjoy doing different things and it keeps me on my toes too! 

I found these awesome FREE princess and helicopter math color sheets on Pinterest. You can get them here.  Multiplication & Division or Addition & Subtraction

They enjoyed math a little bit more this week with the pictures appearing as a reward for their math effort. 

Multiplication tables are completely learned for my ds and he tested great on his facts. I'm so proud of him for learning them so quickly but honestly can take very little credit once we used the Times Tales referenced in my earlier blog post.  Click here  That program was a God-send and was a snap without the battle to teach multiplication tables to my visual learner.  I highly recommend looking into it for anyone struggling with multiplication. 

In History, we learned that the storms blew the Mayflower off course and the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts instead of the intended warmer Virginia. We were able to demonstrate this by blowing a marble straight to Virginia...  But when we added the side storm winds (brother) the ship/marble blew north to Massachusetts. 

We learned that the Pilgrims were anxious to get their washing completed after so long being on the ship.  The women set up kettles on the shore and scrubbed their clothes.  The men began searching for a stream of fresh water when they saw the Indians. They tried to offer a string of bright colored beads to the Indians and they did not accept, turned and ran away.  We learned that the Indians watched the Pilgrims from afar.  Meanwhile, the Pilgrims discovered a deserted Indian village with wigwams.  The Pilgrims discovered a basket of buried corn and took it back to the Mayflower because they were getting low on food.  They hoped to repay the Indians someday for what they had found.

In Geography, we made a giant poster and used a compass rose to give directions to follow the (fist painted) footprints to the basket of corn.  The kids played this for awhile taking turns giving directions...  Go 3 footprints north and 1 east... etc. 

In Science, we learned how God made sea creatures with spiny skeletons on day 5 of creation.  We learned that the starfish squeeze clams with their strong rays/arms.  You can find the starfish FREE printable that we used below on my Heart of Dakota Pinterest page  here.   We crushed up frosted flakes and glued them onto their starfish after they colored.  They enjoyed feeling the texture of these after they had dried... as it felt much like a real starfish. 

In Writing,  I pulled this "Create a Lego Character"  and write about it from my Pinterest homeschool board. The kids enjoyed being creative with their characters and wrote neat stories about their unique figure.  Find it here:  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/98938523037293290/

*********

Our Day 5 Bible Story was Nehemiah 4:6-23.  

God called Nehemiah to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem. Just like Nehemiah, the Pilgrims needed to build a protected town. The Pilgrims were willing to work hard at the job they felt God had called them to do, just like Nehemiah did.  The kids used Jenga blocks to build a wall 3 bricks high. I sounded a warning by pounding the floor 10 times before attacking their wall. It was hard to build the wall when worried about an attack. 

~ART~

We finished the week with an art painting project. The kids have been so fascinated with the leaves changing colors and falling off the trees that we decided to go outside and paint with some of them! We used a black piece of construction paper and painted firm leaves white. We made an imprint of the veiny side by pressing it onto the paper. The kids then used sponges to add the colors surrounding their leaves.  These turned out so cute! We love autumn! 

See you next week! 

Be blessed!