Weekly Wrap Up 2014 Week 9

I have to say that I am ridiculously happy to be able to write WEEK NINE.  And, those were 9 CONSECUTIVE weeks.  Seriously, I don't think that has ever happened throughout the time that we have been homeschooling.  There has always been a break-sometimes a very long one-somewhere in the middle.  I am so, so, so thankful and finally feel like we have a routine that works for us and that we can continue with.  

So here's a peak into week 9 :).

Calendar Time (Solar System):

Since we are in a new month, we changed calendar themes.  I realized I don't have any photos of this, but trust me they are pretty cool.  We chose to learn about the Solar System thanks to (free) calendar cards from 1+1+1=1.  This week we talked about Astronomy, the Solar System, rotation and revolution, the sun, solar flare, and solar eclipse.  

Parts of an Amphibian:

We started out with the basic parts of an amphibian cards.  We went through them together, and I added parts of amphibian booklets to their workplans.  Charger makes a BIG mess when he is working on things.  Cracks me up!  The cards are free from The Helpful Garden.

Frogs by Gail Gibbons is a great book (mostly about Frogs) but it does touch on Amphibians, too.

We read About Amphibians, by Cathryn Sill.  It's a really great book for my crew.  The basic book is geared for young children, but then in the back there is a bunch of detail about each page and photo.  This allowed my littles to listen in and then leave when they were bored as I read the details for Mustang and Charger.  The book on the left, Amphibian, is not a very good read aloud, but it is great for a curious young boy to learn more :).

This was something I picked up at a yard sale last summer and I thought it might be fun. But, I didn't really want to dissect anything.  So, we just looked at all the pieces.  The kids REALLY enjoyed this!

It included the skeleton and organs.  

St. Patrick's Day

Charger enjoyed our last Magic Treehouse book so much that when I saw these on the end-cap when I was at the library last week, I decided to pick them up.  I have been reading the storybook aloud each day and Mustang has been working on the research guide on her own.  She has already finished it.  These are some of her favorite books.

Beginning Animal Research

This week we added animal research to our workplans.  I was happy to find direction and a free printable for this on Montessori for Everyone.  Because this is so new for us, I went with her ideas and figure I will make it more difficult as my kids can handle it.  

The work is to find an animal to research.  After reading about the animal, the cards at the bottom are to be answered.  There are answer cards in the packet as well.  After answering all the questions, they draw a picture of the animal and use the cards to write a sentence about the animal.  This is Charger's work (age 6).  We used the Bald Eagle as an example and did the research and questions together.  The work page he did alone.

I have asked the kids to research one animal a week for now.  I've suggested that they may want to use our Wild-Life Fact File binder (an AWESOME hand me down from a friend who graduated her homeschool students).  But, of course mentioned that any animal they want to research I will help them get books on that animal.  

Bible

We completed our lesson packet from Bible Study for All Ages.  We LOVE this curriculum.  And, I can't wait to order the next session.  But, for Christmas my parents gave us a learning game from Dave Ramsey about money.  We are going to do that, first, and then order our next set.

State Studies

Our state this week was South Carolina.  When I introduce a state, we first go through all our previous states and see if we remember the capitols.  Then I introduce the new state using the three part cards and state cards that I purchased from Montessori Print Shop.  I read a book about the state-my favorite are the alphabet books like the one in this photo.  

The work added for each state are pages in their state notebook.  I print the state pages free from Primary Graffiti.

Types of Musical Instruments

Our last group work for the week was to talk about the different types of musical instruments.  For this work, I found these great posters here.  I printed off two different copies.  The first set, I laminated and we went over them together.

The second set I cut all up.

And, turned it into a sorting activity.  It was well received!

I hope you had a great week!  Thank you so much for stopping by!

God Bless,
Lisa




Books and items we used this week (affiliate link in widget only):