Here's what we did for our last two weeks of school in 2016!
Reading: We made great progress in Caleb's language arts workbook; he's learning that every sentence should begin with a capital letter, end with a period/question mark, etc. We also learned about the "naming" and "telling" parts of a sentence. He is also doing well with his King on a Swing reader. We only have a couple of sections left in there, so once we finish I have Story Time Treasures by Memoria Press to carry us through till the end of first grade. I'm interested to see how Caleb will do with a literature-based program so if it's a good fit I might consider more of it for second grade!
Spelling: Caleb continues to do well in spelling now that we have hands-on activities for practice. He enjoys using our Scrabble tiles and a salt tray! He still practices writing each word too.
Handwriting: Caleb continued in his joke workbook. We weren't consistent with it, but on the days we left it out, it was usually because Caleb had lots of handwriting in another area, like with language arts.
Vocabulary: Our words over the last two weeks were "hobby," "rustle," "appreciate," "nutritious," "sample," "dazzle," "flutter," and "sensible."
Math: We continued in our Horizons Math workbook and ended our fall semester with Test 10. Caleb got everything right and is excited that we made it to Lesson 100.
Bible: We switched gears once we hit December 1st in order to do something more advent-related. I downloaded the ebook The Truth in the Tinsel with the intention that we'd do each day's ornament and read the Scripture/lesson that accompanies it. Caleb likes crafts and enjoys it. We haven't been consistent but he's liked what we've done so far. If we don't finish every day this year (it was doubtful since we'll be out of town a few days before Christmas anyway), we could always do it next year and maybe by then Micah will want to participate too.
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| Days 1 and 2: Jesus is the Light of the World (candle) and He will rule forever (crown). |
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| Days 3 and 4: Zechariah and Gabriel. |
Science: Last week we learned about eggs using The Magic School Bus and library books. We also did MSB's suggested experiment where Caleb cracked an egg and we tried to identify all of the parts.
This past week we studied reptiles. We mostly read about them, truthfully. Caleb knows a lot of reptile facts (and animal facts in general!) from shows like "Wild Kratts" so he found it a lot of fun. I did print out a reptile fact sheet and told Caleb he could draw in the reptiles at his own pace.
U.S. Geography: Last week we studied Wisconsin and made fun paper "cheesehead" hats!
This week we studied Illinois. We read a few library books about Illinois (I found one or two more ebooks using my Epic app), and also specifically about Chicago. We also looked up pictures of some of Chicago's famous buildings.
We'll take the rest of December off, but will continue our read-aloud for the next week at least. We will also try to make more ornaments, but again, if it doesn't happen this year we can always do it next year. I also told Caleb to keep reading on his own...he claims he hates reading but I think what he really hates is making mistakes. I "caught" him reading a book to Micah this morning and he did great. He tried to sound out words he didn't know, and if he still couldn't figure it out he'd shrug and tell Micah he didn't know what that word was, and then just move on. So I think he's just being dramatic when it comes time to read for school! :)
Links:
The Truth in the Tinsel ebook information (Not Consumed)
Magic School Bus Egg Printable (Scholastic)
Reptiles Fact Sheet Printable (Little Miss Glamour Goes to Kindergarten)
States Coloring Pages (USA Printables)
