Down on the Farm with ChiknGirl

Weekly Wrap Up - October 22nd

 

Language Arts

• Trevor did a page for letter G  in his Handwriting Without Tears book and did practice lines of magic "c" letters.  He completed lesson 7 in All About Spelling Level 1 .  He is confidently spelling 3 letter words with short sound vowels.  Trevor read books 9, 10 & 11 in Collection 2 of Bob Books and spent from time playing online at Starfall.  He has been wanting to read all the time, he started reading our small collection of books about Biscuit the dog.  He completed lessons18 - 21  this week in First Language Lessons .
• Anneliese has completed her Handwriting Without Tears book this week.  She has been continuing to practice upper and lowercase letters in cursive and is working on making her letters smaller.  Anneliese completed lesson 14  in All About Spelling Level Two.  Anneliese completed lessons 18 - 21 in First Language Lessons this week.  Anneliese did Writing with Ease for the first time this week and completed the first week's lessons.

   Math

• Trevor continued working in his Singapore Earlybird Math and listening to the readers that go along with them.  His current unit is about weight.
• Anneliese worked in her Singapore Math 3A book.  She is still working on multiplication and division.

  Social Studies

• This week Anneliese and I have started reading Squanto, Friend Of The Pilgrims by Bulla.  (Side Note:  I am displeased with this book.  It was listed on quite a few reading lists, so I thought it would be a reasonable accurate depiction of events.  It is not.  It is horribly biased with white imperialism.  We have already had some hard discussions about the realities of life for the colonists and for the Native Americans.  We will be reading some children's books that are not historically accurate, but I was hoping we would have one book that was.)  We are doing a few of the lapbooking projects from Homeschool Share about Squanto.  She has completed pockets 1 & 2 of History Pockets: Life in Plymouth Colony .  She also read Samuel Eaton's Day and Sarah Morton's Day .  She completed her timeline entry about Jamestown.

    Science

• We completed unit 5 in RSO Level 1 Life about the circulatory system.  We did two experiments, the first measured our heart rate while resting and doing various activites to show how our heart works harder when we work harder.  The second experiment was making a model of blood with Karo syrup, candies, beans and lentils.  We learned about the 4 major parts of our blood and what they do.  We read A Drop of Blood and both kids watched the movie about the heart on BrainPOP Jr.

  Fine Arts

• Anneliese and Trevor completed lesson 9 of Artistic Pursuits Grades K-3 Book 2 Stories of Artists and Their Art.

Five in a Row

• This week we read Grandfather's Journey by Alln Say.  We made mini-books about Japan, the continents, land types and family.  We also read Tea with Milk by Allen Say.   Every time I read this to the kids, I get teary at the end.  Allen Say was a new author to us, but he has fast become a favorite.  If you have read his books, I highly recommend them.

Extra Stuff

• We spent half a day playing with friends at the Tacoma Children's Museum.  Thank you to the library for having free passes to check out.

Here is a picture of Anneliese's replica of Jamestown from a couple weeks ago.  We used a toob of trees and Native Americans to add to it.  :)

 

Weekly Wrap Up - October 8th & 15th

I missed wrapping up our week last week.  We were very busy celebrating Gary's birthday at the end of the week and over the weekend and posting my wrap up completely slipped my mind.  Thank you to those of you who let me know that you missed it and enjoy reading each week.  Here is a combined wrap up for the last 2 weeks.

Language Arts

• Trevor did pages for letters U, V, W, X, Y, Z, C, O & Q in his Handwriting Without Tears book and did practice lines of those letters.  Hecompleted lessons 5 & 6 in All About Spelling Level 1 .  He is confidently spelling 3 letter words with short sound vowels.  Trevor read books 1 through 8 in Collection 2 of Bob Books,.  He has been wanting to read all the time, he started reading our small collection of books about Biscuit the dog.  He is working on memorizing his next poem in First Language Lessons and completed lessons 14 - 17 this week.
• Anneliese has continued working in her Handwriting Without Tears book and only has 2 pages left until it is completed.  She has been continuing to practice upper and lowercase letters in cursive and is working on making her letters smaller.  Anneliese completed lesson 12 and 13 in All About Spelling Level Two.  Anneliese is also working on memorizing her next poem in First Language Lessons and completed lessons 14 - 17 this week.

   Math

• Trevor continued working in his Singapore Earlybird Math and listening to the readers that go along with them.  He is almost finished with book A, he's been wating to do more than one activity per day.  I'll be ordering book B soon.
• Anneliese worked in her Singapore Math 3A book again this week.  She is back to working on multiplication and division.

  Social Studies

• Anneliese and I read lots of book over the last two weeks.  We read Pocahontas by the D'Aulaires, Book Two and Book Three of Elizabeth's Diary and completed all the lapbook projects from the Pocahontas book at Homeschool Share as well as a portion of the Overview of the 17th Century lapbook from Curr Click.  We completed a paper replica of Jamestown found at Homeschool in the Woods and spent some time at both the National Geographic website Jamestown interactive game and at Hisory.com's similar website about Jamestown.  Anneliese has a good grasp of the conditions at Jamestown, as well as what brought the settlers over from Europe, and why they survived.  Next week we start on the Mayflower's journey across the ocean.

    Science

• We completed lesson 3 & 4 in RSO Level 1 Life.  Anneliese and Trevor began work on their human body books and learned about bones and muscles.  We did an experiment that shows how muscles shorten and lengthen to make your bones move.  We read Bend and Stretch .  Both kids attended their Budding Scientist class at the Tacoma Nature Center.

  Fine Arts

• Anneliese and Trevor completed lesson 8 of Artistic Pursuits Grades K-3 Book 2 Stories of Artists and Their Art about Jan van Eyck.

Five in a Row

• This week we read Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel .  We made mini-books about steam powered vehicles, contruction vehicles, personification, and more.   We enjoyed this book, but weren't interested in doing many extras with it.

Extra Stuff

• The kids played across the street at the park almost every single day.  They really enjoyed the nice weather we have had the last two weeks.
• They both attended a birthday party at a local roller-skating rink.  Lots of fun!!  (I skated, too!)
• Anneliese and Trevor have been watching Schoolhouse Rock! frequently.  They dig it.  :)
• Anneliese attended her second Girl Scouts meeting.  She is loving this.

It's hard for me to believe we have already finished 8 weeks of school.  I'm looking forward to taking a week off next month for Thanksgiving.

Weekly Wrap Up - October 1st

Anneliese attended her first Girl Scout's meeting this week.  She loved it!  She earned her Letterboxing badge and a Friends Are Fun badge.  I'm going to pull out my old Girl Scout's stuff to show her before her next meeting.

Language Arts

• Trevor did pages for letter K & L in his Handwriting Without Tears book and did practice lines of those letters.  He reviewed lesson 3 in All About Spelling Level 1 and completed lesson 4, he knows which letters are vowels and consonants.  Trevor read books 15, 16, 17 and 18 in Collection 1 of Bob Books,.  Trevor has read all the boos in Collection 1.  He has been wanting to read all the time, he started reading our small collection of books about Biscuit the dog. 
• Anneliese completed her work on capital letters in her Handwriting Without Tears book and now can write all the letters, uppercase and lowercase, in cursive.  Anneliese completed lesson 11 in All About Spelling Level Two.

   Math

• Trevor continued working in his Singapore Earlybird Math and listening to the readers that go along with them.
• Anneliese worked in her Singapore Math 3A book again this week.

  Social Studies

• Anneliese and I read Our Strange New Land, Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary, Book One together.  We spent lots of time talking about conditions in Jamestown and how hard it was to survive.

    Science

• We completed lesson 2 in RSO Level 1 Life about cells.  The kids colored a page of different cells in My First Human Body Book.  We read Enjoy Your Cells by Evan Balkwill and completed lab 1 and 2.  Unfortunately no one here likes to eat jello.  :(

  Fine Arts

• Anneliese and Trevor completed lesson 6 of Artistic Pursuits Grades K-3 Book 2 Stories of Artists and Their Art .

Five in a Row

• This week we read How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World .  We made mini-books about apple tree lifecycles, parts of an apple, apple facts, chicken taxonomy chart, and more.  We had an apple tasting with 8 varieties and complied a chart about their traits and made a note of our favorite variety.  We also read Apples to Oregon , The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree and Chicks & Chickens .