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):

Weekly Wrap Up 2014 Week 3

We had a few setbacks-I was sick on Wednesday night, and I planned too many presentations for the week, but over all this week was AWESOME!

Seriously, I felt like things went smoothly, the kids learned something interesting (and new), there were very few attitude issues, and we had a lot of fun!

Here's a look at what Mustang (8) and Charger (6) did this week:

On Monday, we read A Picture Book of Martin Luther King Jr., and had a short discussion on the Civil Rights movement.  We will discuss it more in depth during Black History month.  I wanted to add that this is a GREAT book.  Just a little information, but great conversation starters!

We read Volcano! by Ellen Prager.  This was a great introduction to volcanoes.

We looked at the parts of a volcano using these wonderful (free) cards from The Helpful Garden.  The kids also worked on parts of a volcano booklets throughout the week.

I found a nice selection of volcano books at our local library and we enjoyed looking through them at the pictures, and reading more about specific eruptions (such as Mt. St. Helen's that exploded just 6 months after I moved away).

On Tuesday, we added Andrew Jackson to our President's studies.  We also watched Veggie Tale's 'Where is God When I'm Scared?' on Netflix (it is also on Amazon Prime streaming if you have it).

But, what was really exciting was our volcano eruption!!  We used a play-doh container, play-doh, baking soda and red cider vinegar.  It was perfect!

We found a DVD, Earth Science for Children All About Volcanoes, at the library and it fit in well with our lesson.

Wednesday, we had a Geometry lesson on the fundamental concepts of a point, line, plane and solid.  I found a set of lessons (free) from Elizabeth Ross Hubbell entitled Geometry: A Montessori Unit for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders.  I thought it was great for the lesson I wanted to present, so I used the first lesson in the unit to present the fundamental concepts.  

The lesson also presented graphing, so we tried our hand and the kids did very well!

The US Puzzle Map was popular again this week.  Probably due to our continuing of state studies.  This week we added New Jersey.

On Thursday, we continued our Geometry lessons with the presentation of the Geometric Stick box.  I found a free printable from Livable Learning and printed this set.  I will be honest, that as soon as I started cutting it up I wished I had the real wooden version.  So, I will be saving up to get it soon.  In the meantime, though, the free version served it's purpose.

I used the first lesson on the Geometric Stick box from the free Geometry album from Cultivating Dharma.  It's a really great album if you don't have it.

Let me just say, that the material was a hit!

Now, I'm thinking they were supposed to make shapes, but instead Charger built a water system for a town.  Whatever works, right?

Mustang has been happily trying some timed tests to check her addition skills.  I think it's safe to say she's got them down (factors 1-10).

For Bible, we are still moving forward with Bible Study Guide for All ages.  Lesson 21 took us through the Genealogy of Jesus.  I wasn't expecting to actually read the entire genealogy of Jesus (both of them) to my children-ever-but it went a LOT better then I would have expected.  

We finished out the week with our history 'lesson' watching Liberty's Kids.

I am very please with how this week went, and I'm looking forward to next week, when we do something a little unusual around here.  I try to avoid themes for my big kids, but I think it's time we did some fun snow learning.  Hope it works out!

How was your week?  I LOVE reading other family's wrap ups.  

God Bless,

Lisa

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Weekly Wrap Up 2014 Week 2

Well, to be honest with you, this was a VERY short week.  All of 2 school days, and one of them shortened, lead to not a lot to blog about.  But, I am determined to keep up with our weeks this year, so I am still going to share our short week.

Monday:

We did not have any 'real' school.  But, we took a field trip to see if baby #5 was a boy or a girl.  If you haven't seen it, you may want to see our posted results, here.

Then we headed off to celebrate with an ice cream and playtime!

Tuesday:

We read about John Quincy Adams in our president's book, then began work on our Claude Monet paintings.

In Bible, we watched Daniel and the Lion's Den from Superbook.




Wednesday:

We continued our state studies with Pennsylvania.  Both Mustang and Charger decided to go ahead and work on their new state pages right away.

We are using the state notebook from Primary Graffiti-it is FREE!  I found out about this from Carissa-thank you!

For individual work this week:

Mustang completed her Claude Monet copy work (using a page I got from Harrington Harmonies), worked on creative writing, and completed the US Puzzle Map.  She also memorized 3 sections in her AWANA book.

Charger worked on his Primary Arts of Language lessons, here he is playing a game to choose the correct form of to, too, or two.

Once again, the US Puzzle Map was a big hit.  They ask to work on it in school and also during playtime.  Charger and Mini Cooper love to work together (which of course I love to see).  Charger also completed 3 sections in his AWANA Sparks book and received a green jewel.

Like I said, it was a short week.  Next week, we should be back in full swing.  On the agenda is to finish our Monet paintings and finally learn about volcanoes.  Should be good!

Hope you had a great week, too!

God Bless,

Lisa

We will be linking up: