Daddy took L into the office/school room
while me and J did school in the kitchen.
Here are so cute pictures daddy got
while they were "Schooling".
Saturday, October 15, 2011
When I was young in the mountains
Our second book this year was...
When I was young in the mountains
By Cynthia Rylant
We "rowed" this book for 8 days and here are the activities we did!
Day 1:
Geography
-We studied the state flag of West Virginia
and J colored his own flag.
and J colored his own flag.
-J colored the West Virginia bird and flower and we talked about those a little bit.
J placed our story disc for
When I was young in the mountains
When I was young in the mountains
on our state map to which
L (little brother) ripped it off.
L (little brother) ripped it off.
Day 2:
Social Studies: Emotions-Crying
Pg. 154
-In the book When I was young in the mountains it talks about the grandmother crying because her grandson gets baptised. We discussed that some times people cry when they are happy such as a wedding, birth or baptism.
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| J's "Crying" face. |
Day 3:
-J used lincoln logs to build his own general store.
This was by far his favorite activity to do at home.
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| Brother L trying to hit J's general store |
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| The final product |
Day 4:
Field Trip to Prehistoric Pets
-In the book it talks many times about snakes that would frequent their property or snakes that would reside in their swimming hole. So I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to go to Prehistoric Pets. We did many other activities involving snakes and J really enjoyed that.
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| petting Frank |
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| L wanted to ride him |
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| This snake wrapped around J's legs |
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| J and his friend I trying to help give Frank some water |
Day 5:
Math: List and Count
Pg. 158
-Me and J read When I was young in the mountains and counted how many cows, snakes, dogs, chickens and birds there were. We then looked at our graph and decided what animal showed up the most in the book. J loves finding things in books!
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| J writing on his graph |
Day 6:
Language Arts: Repetition
Pg. 154
-J wrote a story about his own life using the same repetitious phrase "When I was young". I filled in the story for him and then he wrote over my words to practice his handwriting.
Day 7:
Science: Snake Anatomy
-This activity was actually done
the day we went to Prehistoric Pets.
We had fun labeling the rattlesnake
and the J did a great job coloring it!
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| practicing handwriting |
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| goof ball |
Day 8:
Art
-In keeping with the snake theme
we decided to make a snake using an egg carton.
J had fun picking out different colors
for his snake and gluing on the eye balls.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
I Love Evan-Moor workbooks...
Me and J have been using an Evan-Moor Math workbook this year and I absolutely love it. It is really colorful and keeps his attention which is always key. I decided just today to find a new Spell & Write workbook and went with the same company. J is really excited to start this book and I hope it helps with our lack of enthusiasm in the "writing" area!
Mirette on the high wire
We are using Five in a Row curriculum Volume 2 for our first year of Kindergarten. Our first book was
Mirette on the high wire
by Emily Arnold McCully.
We "rowed" this book for 2 weeks and at the end of every book we do a FIAR co-op with a couple other families. Here is a look into what activities we did during those 9 days!
Mirette on the high wire
by Emily Arnold McCully.
We "rowed" this book for 2 weeks and at the end of every book we do a FIAR co-op with a couple other families. Here is a look into what activities we did during those 9 days!
Day 1:
Science: Physical Education (pg. 63)
-J practiced his "high wire" skills in our backyard.
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| Toasting the crowd while walking the hire wire like Bellini did in the book. |
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| Bellini also shot a cannon while on the high wire so J decided to shoot his gun up there. |
Day 2:
Social Studies: Geography - Paris, France (pg. 56)
-We studied France, their flag, their national anthem and some foods they are known for.
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| We talked about the French flag and then J painted his own |
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| Here is our story disc placed over France. J colored the story disc too. |
Day 3:
Art: Medium- Watercolor (pg. 60)
-I picked out a picture from the book and J tried to duplicate it using water colors. After he was done painting he explained to me what the picture was about and then he copied over my writing!
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| Doing some "writing" for the day! |
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| Here is the original picture. |
Day 4:
Art: Circus Poster (pg. 62)
-We actually did a collage for this activity with pictures that represent France. We talked about all the the pictures and he really enjoyed getting to cut and glue his collage together. J also copied my writing that said "Mirette and Bellini".
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| Add caption |
Day 5:
Art & Science
-I got the idea for this next activity from the blog below. We invited a few of our friends over cause isn't everything better with friends? I cut the cardboard (old cereal boxes) into the shape of butterflies the night before. The kiddos colored their butterflies, put their teacher tacky down, stuck the unsharpened pencil end down into the tacky and then tried balancing the butterfly just like Mirette balanced on the high wire. It took them a few tries to figure it out and then we made it even harder....we added 2 pennies to the front wings. They figured out that you had to move the point of contact with the pencil more towards the front of the butterfly so it wouldn't tip over. Overall...Great activity!
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Day 6:
Social Studies:
Not giving up- or Practice Makes Better! (pg. 57)
- This activity talked about how both Bellini and Mirette practiced walking the high wire a lot in hopes of becoming good. They did not give up no matter how many times they fell. We talked about what J likes doing and about how practicing helps him get better. He loves soccer and plays almost daily so that night we went to daddy's soccer game and I had him "practice" just like Mirette and Bellini did. Now that was a really fun activity.
Not giving up- or Practice Makes Better! (pg. 57)
- This activity talked about how both Bellini and Mirette practiced walking the high wire a lot in hopes of becoming good. They did not give up no matter how many times they fell. We talked about what J likes doing and about how practicing helps him get better. He loves soccer and plays almost daily so that night we went to daddy's soccer game and I had him "practice" just like Mirette and Bellini did. Now that was a really fun activity.
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| No my husband doesn't play for the Galaxy and that is not where J got to "practice" but I don't have a photo of J playing soccer so this is what you get! Go LA Galaxy!!!! |
Day 7:
Clown Pattern Blocks
-Since the story talks about the vegabonds that stay at this boarding house I decided we could incorporate the whole "circus" theme. This book talks about mimes, high wire walkers, jugglers and acrobats so we did a clown pattern blocks sheet! J just attended the Ringling brothers barnum bailey circus with his grandma so thankfully this was all very fresh in his mind.
-Since the story talks about the vegabonds that stay at this boarding house I decided we could incorporate the whole "circus" theme. This book talks about mimes, high wire walkers, jugglers and acrobats so we did a clown pattern blocks sheet! J just attended the Ringling brothers barnum bailey circus with his grandma so thankfully this was all very fresh in his mind.
Day 8:
Make edible Eiffel tower
-I got the idea from the blog below and just fell in love with this activity. Now I must admit there was some structural help from mommy but he had a blast putting it together with just frosting and sugar wafers. After we finished the Eiffel tower it was quickly getting wobbly so J decided it was time to eat it.
Make edible Eiffel tower
-I got the idea from the blog below and just fell in love with this activity. Now I must admit there was some structural help from mommy but he had a blast putting it together with just frosting and sugar wafers. After we finished the Eiffel tower it was quickly getting wobbly so J decided it was time to eat it.
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| Yummy snack! |
Day 9:
Math: Counting (pg. 62)
-Every day before we would start a Five In A Row activity I would read him the book Mirette on the high wire and this day was no different except we were on a mission....to count windows! We read through the entire book and J's job was to be on the look out for windows and count them. I kept a tally on a piece of paper and let's just say there were a LOT!
Math: Counting (pg. 62)
-Every day before we would start a Five In A Row activity I would read him the book Mirette on the high wire and this day was no different except we were on a mission....to count windows! We read through the entire book and J's job was to be on the look out for windows and count them. I kept a tally on a piece of paper and let's just say there were a LOT!
We only did activities for 9 days because the 10th day we have a FIAR co-op with many other families and 3 more activities there. I am thoroughly enjoying this Five In a Row curriculum and can't wait for our next book to start on October 3rd.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
J's first day of Kindergarten
J was so excited to start Kindergarten
and just loves to do "school" as he says.
We started our day off with prayer and a bible story
After bible we got right into writing....both me and J's least favorite subject!
We are doing Five in a Row and our first book is Mirette on the high wire by Emily Arnold McCully. The story takes place in France and we decided to do a unit study to go along with it. This included listening to the National Anthem for France (Thanks Lyndsey for the idea), painting a French flag and talking about what they eat there.
We then placed our story disc on France showing
where France is in relation to the USA
We did a few pages of math (not pictured but our favorite subject) and then onto some pattern blocks.
After some educational games we started our reading for the day. I am using Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons by Siegfried Engelmann. This book worked wonders for my sister and so far J is loving it! I will let you know how it works.
Part of the reading time was spent writing "M" and "S"
and working on those sounds (which he already knows).
In the five in a row book we are reading it talks about how Mirette walked a high wire so naturally we needed to do the same. My hubby made a "high wire" for J and it has been his favorite activity so far.
In the book Bellini toasts a crowd while
walking the high wire so J did that too.
In keeping with the book J wanted to shoot his gun while walking the high wire just like Bellini shot a cannon.
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