This week's chalkboard featured my attempt at a Minion and a motivating quote!
Reading: While we waited for our Explode the Code books to arrive in the mail, Caleb and I read a couple of readers from the library, played our "a-e" version of Snakes & Ladders, and reviewed a couple of pages in Hooked on Phonics again. Caleb is doing much better with silent e, but he still gets confused easily, so I think we're doing the right thing by taking it slow and adding in other curriculum to help him think critically about the words he's learning.
Spelling: We started our new spelling curriculum on Monday. This week's list featured words more on Caleb's level, such as "of," "and," "mat," "cat," etc. They were all words he learned how to read in kindergarten, but now he's showing if he can spell them, or at least sound them out if he's not sure. This curriculum doesn't have a test or anything at the end of each week, just different activities to do each day, such as filling in the blank, finding the misspelled word, etc. I'm still considering whether or not to add a test element at the end of the week just to make sure Caleb remembers how to spell the words he's worked with. Since it's first grade, I don't really need to use the term "test" either...maybe "review?"
Handwriting: We're another week or two away from completing our Handwriting Without Tears workbook. This week Caleb worked on x, z, and did some copywork.
Vocabulary: This week's words were "favor," "giggle," "pause," and "ridiculous."
Math: Caleb had his second math test at the end of this week and did very well...he only missed one point out of forty-five! His lessons are starting to introduce telling time concepts again, which is good since we really didn't get that nailed down in kindergarten.
Bible: This week's devotionals focused on picking friends wisely, moving ahead even if we make mistakes, overcoming evil with good, being able to do all things through Christ's strength, and being faithful in the little things.
Science: This week we learned about forces, mainly friction and air pressure. We watched two different episodes of The Magic School Bus and did two friction experiments. The first involved laying out a variety of objects on a cutting board (in our case, we used an ice cube, an eraser, a small alphabet block, and a small rock), slowly tilting the board, and observing which objects slid down first. Caleb saw that the eraser was usually the last one to fall since its rubber coating had the most friction against the plastic board.
Our second experiment involved picking up a bottle full of rice using only a pencil! This one took a few tries, but once we pumped the pencil up and down in the rice several times, it would catch hold and we'd cautiously lift it! We did find that if the pencil shifted at all while we held it, the bottle was in danger of slipping, so we tried not to disrupt the force of friction!
To demonstrate air pressure, I had Caleb blow up a ziploc bag with a straw. Then once we sealed it the rest of the way, he was able to press on it and see how the air moved around inside. We also laid moderately heavy objects (like books) on top of the air-filled bag to show its strength. I also reminded Caleb that whenever Daddy uses our air pump to fill up a tire or a basketball, that pump is demonstrating air pressure too.
These are the library books we used to supplement our science studies this week. I got the idea for the cutting board friction experiment from the "Move It" one.
Social Studies: This week we learned about Connecticut and New Jersey. Caleb colored a state page for each one. We learned about Sybil Ludington from the Revolutionary War. While she lived in New York, it was the town of Danbury in Connecticut that she was trying to save when she went on her night ride to muster her father's troops. Apparently her ride (over forty miles) was even longer than Paul Revere's, and she was only sixteen at the time! We read a book detailing her mission, plus we watched an episode of "Liberty's Kids" that featured her as well. For New Jersey, we learned about Molly Pitcher (Mary Hayes) who risked her life during that same war by bringing water to the troops during battles, and then later on taking over on the cannon when her husband was injured. We read a book about her too. When we talked about Atlantic City's boardwalk and diving horses, Caleb was so intrigued that I found archival footage of it on YouTube so he could see it. I did explain to him that most horses didn't like diving and they were mistreated, so it's not done much anymore (in fact, one place in New York still has a diving horse act, but very limited so the horse can take long breaks). We also looked up a more detailed map of New Jersey to find the city where two of his cousins live!
We took a break from sweet recipes this week and made a dinner recipe instead. This was a slow-cooker Boardwalk Italian Beef Sandwich inspired by New Jersey!
Read-Aloud: We finished Ginger Pye this week! Caleb enjoyed it so much he requested that we go on to read Pinky Pye, which is a sequel featuring the same family. I found a book report printable for Caleb to fill out. He wasn't interested in drawing that day but he managed to make a hat (the "unsavory character" who took Ginger wore a yellow hat), and a train car (toward the end, the Pye children worry that Ginger was taken away to New York on a train). He copied down "Boombernickles" as his favorite part...the two Pye children often make up stories about a man named Boombernickles and Caleb thought his name sounded funny.
Links:
Rice Bottle Friction Experiment (Carrots are Orange)
Boardwalk Italian Beef Sandwich Recipe (Food.com)
Listen to Reading Book Report Printable (Seusstastic)
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