9.29.2016

ivey league academy: week in review!


This week is our "fall break" so I thought I'd write about what we did last week!  The movie "Muppets Most Wanted" is free on demand right now; both boys love it, and one of Caleb's favorite scenes is where the imposter Constantine (who looks almost exactly like Kermit) is watching clips of Kermit the Frog and trying to imitate him better.  He gets the words to the song wrong and Caleb thinks it's hilarious!

Reading:  This week we finished Six Ducks in a Pond!  Caleb was very proud of himself, and asked if we could leave the book in the living room for now in case he wants to read to Micah.  I found the next few books in the series (no small feat since it's out of print!), thankfully for reasonable prices through Ebay and Etsy, believe it or not (these books are considered vintage!).


We also started working in a language arts workbook so Caleb can learn more about parts of speech, grammar, punctuation, etc.


Spelling:  We did Week 13 of our spelling curriculum and Caleb got 6 out of 8 correct on his test.

Handwriting:  We continued in our handwriting workbook.

Vocabulary:  This week's words were "hush," "daring," "speck," and "tour."

Math:  Caleb had a test this week and did very well!  (He wanted to go back and fix the problems he got wrong.)


Bible:  We continued in His Mighty Warrior.  One day we discussed the idea of being strong in the Lord and "powering up with prayer," so I helped him fill in a simple "spiritual muscles" page.


Read-Aloud:  We finished Encyclopedia Brown near the end of the week.

Science:  This week's topic was digestion.  We watched the "Magic School Bus" episode about digestion; Caleb thought it was kind of gross since the bus literally goes through the digestive system of one of their students (well most of it...they realize they don't want to go south anymore, so they drive back up and make him burp them out!).  We did a fun activity with bread to demonstrate what food goes through as it's digested.  First Caleb ripped the bread (in this case, a couple of stale hamburger buns) into small pieces to represent chewing.  We also dribbled water on the pieces to represent saliva.  Then we squirted lemon juice on the bread to represent stomach acid (the original source used vinegar, but I figured lemon juice would be less stinky).  Finally we wrapped the mushy bread in a towel and rolled it up to demonstrate the intestines; when we were done we were left with a log of bread! So yes, we made "bread poop," which is pretty much perfect for a first grade boy!  I pointed out the liquid and small bits of bread left on the towel to Caleb, saying that the towel absorbed some of the bread, much like our stomach and intestines absorb vitamins and nutrients from the food we eat (then gets rid of what we don't need!).




U.S. Geography:  This week's state was Alabama.  Caleb colored his state page and we read a couple of books from the library.  We learned that Alabama has some caverns, and attempted to make our own stalagmites and stalactites using water, baking soda, string, and paper clips (we also colored the water to make it more interesting).  By the end of the week we had definite build-up, so Caleb opted to leave the experiment out to see what else would form during the next week.




We also learned about Rosa Parks and segregation.  I cut out several pictures of children out of a magazine, making sure I had diversity, and drew a bus on construction paper.  Caleb then glued the children on the bus, and he said they could sit wherever they want!




Homeschool Group:  This week we met at the center and learned about mammals!

Links:

9.19.2016

ivey league academy: week in review!


Here's what we did last week!

Reading:  Caleb finished Explode the Code 2 on Monday!  We have the third workbook but I'm going to hold off on that since it's more second grade level.  We also continued reading in our Six Ducks in a Pond reader.



Spelling:  We did Week 12 of our spelling curriculum.  Caleb got 7 out of 8 right on his test!

Handwriting:  We started a handwriting workbook for extra practice.  Caleb admitted that he still has trouble with some lowercase letters so he was fine with starting at the beginning of the workbook, which at first just has the student practice lines of letters.



Vocabulary:  Our words for this week were "compete," "cluttered," "victory," and "frisky."

Math:  We continued in our Horizons 1 math workbook.

Bible:  We finished our Growing With Jesus devotional and moved on to another devotional called His Mighty Warrior.  It has 50 "letters" from God, and since it has a treasure map kind of theme I made a map out of a brown paper bag as decoration.  I borrowed from the treasure map picture at the front of the devotional, but also added in Bible verses and 50 "paces" as we head toward our "treasure."





On Friday we did a fun art activity about how God chooses His children, just as He chose David.  Caleb painted with olive oil (to represent Samuel anointing David) to reveal a golden crown!  I was inspired by a similar activity on Pinterest, but the colors of the crown were feminine (especially when I printed it out since our printer is currently running out of ink!), so I found a free image of a crown and colored it yellow since Magic Markers don't usually bleed through paper.  The outline of the crown was on the front, and when Caleb painted with the oil, the golden crown popped up!




Read-Aloud:  We continued reading Encyclopedia Brown.

Science:  This week's topic was the circulatory system.  We watched the episode of "The Magic School Bus" about how the heart pumps blood through the body, and learned that oxygen-rich blood is red as it leaves the heart, and once it reaches the muscles, it turns blue before returning back to the heart.  I helped Caleb find his pulse on his wrist so he could feel his blood moving, and we also discussed how when we exercise, our heart beats faster since our muscles need more oxygen-rich blood to do their job.  We read a couple books from the library and did a simple model of the heart using a Ziploc bag, pipe cleaners, and straws.





U.S. Geography:  This week's state was Florida.  We didn't get to our Georgia craft the previous week, so on Monday we made Georgia peaches out of a paper plate and colored tissue paper.  Micah wanted in on the fun so he made one too!




For Florida, Caleb colored the state page and we also made a manatee craft.



Homeschool Group:  Friday was a park day for our co-op; we did the last little bit of work that morning before we left for the park.

Links:
Oil Heart Activity Inspiration (Jesus Without Language)
Heart Anatomy Model (Kids Activities Blog)
Giant Peach Craft (Activity Village UK)
Manatee Craft (Learn Create Love)

9.11.2016

ivey league academy: week in review!


This past week was a little strange, since we took Monday off for Labor Day and then had our first co-op meeting on Friday.  We still got most of our work done though!

Reading:  We continued in Explode the Code 2 and our Six Ducks in a Pond reader.  We're pretty much done with ETC 2, and are about a week or two away from finishing Six Ducks.  Rather than jump into ETC 3 or go back to Hooked on Phonics, I decided we would move to the next reader in the series, King on a Swing, since I did some research and it's on a first grade reading level too.  I also ordered a simple Language Arts workbook for first grade so Caleb can start learning the fundamentals and grammar, such as correct capitalization, punctuation, and parts of speech.

Spelling:  We did Week 11 of his spelling curriculum.  Unfortunately we didn't get to his test!  After our co-op Friday morning I had a pretty intense headache so we took the rest of the day off (I had planned a very light afternoon anyway, so we didn't miss anything else important!).  Since I'm the one who added in the test element anyway, I decided to just move on to the Week 12 list next week and plan for the test to be Thursday instead.

Handwriting:  We didn't do anything formal for handwriting this week, but a new handwriting workbook came in the mail on Saturday so we'll start experimenting with that!

Vocabulary:  Our words for the week were "handy," "dine," and "present" (the verb).  We didn't get to the fourth word, which was "poky," on Friday because of my headache.  I've planned our future weeks accordingly.

Math:  We did 3 lessons in his Horizons workbook.

Bible:  We're almost done with our Growing With Jesus devotional!

Read-Aloud:  We finished Henry and the Paper Route and Caleb chose the first installment of the Encyclopedia Brown series to read next.

Science:  We started a unit on the human body, and this week's topic was muscles and bones.  We watched an episode of "The Magic School Bus" where the students learn about the function and purpose of bones, tendons, and muscles, and also read a couple of library books about them.  I read Caleb a paraphrased version of Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones, and painted lines on his hands and feet to represent his bones, which he then pressed onto black paper to look like an x-ray.  When I had a bad headache on Friday, Caleb opted to draw his own skeleton on a small piece of posterboard, using a couple of printouts I had put in his science notebook for reference.




U.S. Geography:  Our state this week was Georgia.  Caleb colored his state page and we read a few books about Georgia.  We still have a peach craft that we didn't get to on Friday, so we'll probably do it early next week before moving on to Florida!



Homeschool Group:  This first meeting was more of an orientation, "getting to know you" type thing.  The kids (preschoolers through first or second grade) filled in their faces in a drawing activity and also answered questions about their families, likes/dislikes, etc.  Caleb knows a couple of the kids from church so he didn't feel too uncomfortable.  We're small right now but hope to get more members as word spreads!

Links:

9.04.2016

ivey league academy: week in review!


This week's chalkboard was inspired by "Mary Poppins."  We borrowed the DVD from the library and both boys have been enjoying it!

Reading:  We continued in Explode the Code and are about a week away from finishing Book 2!  I have Book 3, which after a short review of vowel sounds seems to share a lot in common with the 2nd grade level of Hooked on Phonics, so I might try to find a way to use both.  Caleb also continued to read out of his Six Ducks in a Pond reader.

Spelling:  We did Week 10 of his spelling curriculum, and Caleb got 7 out of 8 correct on his test.

Handwriting:  Caleb only did one journal entry this week.  He actually told me he wants more practice with handwriting since he still sometimes forgets how to form his lowercase letters (especially "b" and "d").  I found an Evan Moor handwriting workbook for first grade online so once that comes in we'll do that for handwriting practice and maybe keep the journal for when he's truly interested.

Vocabulary:  Our words for the week were "snoop," "texture," "wavy," and "grouchy."

Math:  Caleb had a math test this week and did very well!  He learned more about subtracting with a number line this week.

Bible:  We continued in our Growing With Jesus devotional.

Read-Aloud:  We read through most of Henry and the Paper Route by Beverly Cleary.  There are only 6 chapters, but they're each 20-25 pages long so some days we only read half a chapter.  We only have one chapter left, then we'll pick something else!

Science:  This week's topic was recycling.  We watched "The Magic School Bus" episode about recycling (with guest voice Dolly Parton!) and read a few books from the library about where garbage ends up and why we should recycle.  I pulled up a brief video from Reading Rainbow about recycling centers, and Caleb did a recycling sort activity.




U.S. Geography:  Our state this week was South Carolina.  Caleb colored his South Carolina page and we read a few books about the state, paying special attention to loggerhead sea turtles.



Links:
Reading Rainbow Recycling Video (YouTube)
Recycling/Garbage Sort Activity (Classroom Freebies Too)
South Carolina Coloring Page (USA Printables)
How to Draw a Sea Turtle Activity (Deep Space Sparkle)
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