The last three weeks of school have been a bit crazy, honestly. We had great momentum going and then my youngest decided to try toilet training! We tried to do a little school but in the end we had to take a few days off to really be consistent. During that time Caleb suddenly got really into "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." He used to be afraid of the movie because when he was smaller he saw the part where Violet Beauregarde turns into a blueberry and it freaked him out! But Micah chose it as a movie to watch while we were training and Caleb loved it. So over the last three weeks, we've gotten probably the equivalent of a week or week and a half's worth of work done. Thankfully we're right on schedule still.
Reading: We went through Caleb's language arts workbook some more. I skipped some parts that were too easy, as well as some parts that were really heavy on writing since I'm more concerned with Caleb learned basic stuff for now. One fun thing at the end was ABC order! Caleb knew a little about it but got much better at it after practicing it in his workbook. After that there were a few other "research skills" activities, and Caleb wanted to see them...one was using the table of contents, which I informed him he already knows how to do, since that's how he finds what page we're on in his reader! He finished his workbook and his King on a Swing reader, so on Monday we're going to start our Storytime Treasures curriculum.
Spelling: We continued with our K12 Reader spelling lists. Caleb's doing well, but I think he's still going more by sight than by sounding out words. On his recent test, he spelled the word chop as "cohp," yet spelled shop correctly. We're going to see this curriculum out to the end and then I'll figure out if it's worth using again in second grade or if we need to try something different.
Handwriting: Caleb continued in his Joke Handwriting workbook. He really enjoys copying down the joke of the day and as long as I remind him to focus and take his time, his handwriting comes out very neat.
Vocabulary: Our words were "vehicle," "horrible," "peer," and "wealthy" (learned over the course of two weeks because of breaks), and then "yelp," "swift," "cluster," and "gnaw."
Math: We continued in his Horizons Math workbook. He had a test a few days ago and did very well.
Bible: We read from Leading Little Ones to God and used Caleb's study bible for the verses.
Read-Aloud: Caleb requested Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl after he realized he liked the movie! He's finding it really funny (though I do have to edit just a bit as a read...Wonka says "silly ass" at one point and I'm not sure I want my seven-year-old or three-year-old saying that!).
Science: Over this period we learned about honeybees, butterflies, and then the water cycle, all with accompanying "Magic School Bus" episodes and books borrowed from the library. Because of our weird schedule we didn't always get to read the books we checked out, but those are more supplemental anyway; as long as we get to watch MSB and do an activity or two I'm satisfied!
For the bees lesson, we did a fun pollination activity using Doritos as the "pollen" (Cheetos were recommended but we were lucky to even have Doritos in the pantry!). I printed out flowers on cardstock, glued a muffin paper liner to the centers, and placed a few Doritos in each one. I had Caleb put on one of the bee puppets and eat the Doritos without wiping off or licking his fingers. Sure enough, he left "Dorito dust" on some of the petals as he ate!
For the butterflies, we learned about how a lot of butterflies use camouflage to hide from predators. I printed and cut out paper butterflies; I glued on to a striped piece of paper and then colored the butterfly in to match its surroundings. Caleb decided to do a yellow butterfly to blend in with our kitchen and living room walls! We also watched "The Flight of the Butterflies" documentary on Netflix, which features the migratory patterns of monarch butterflies, and how up until the 1970s it was a mystery to everyone regarding where the butterflies went each year!
Then, for our water cycle lesson, we filled in a printout using fancy words like "precipitation" and "condensation." Once I explained the terms to Caleb, he figured out what they meant and where to put them. We also taped a ziploc bag with blue-colored water to our kitchen window to see if we could create our own little water cycle! Nothing much happened the first day because it was really cloudy and, as we learned, you need the sun to help evaporate water faster. Plus we figured out blue tape works better than scotch tape for attaching bags to windows! After a few days we could definitely see condensation happening.
U.S. Geography: We learned about Arkansas and Mississippi. We didn't get to much except coloring our state pages and reading a few books about each state.
Homeschool Group: We had to skip our group's park day the first week because Micah was still getting the hang of this whole underwear-wearing thing. The next Friday we were at the center, and we learned about weather. Then the next Friday we took a field trip to Children's Museum of Atlanta. Both boys had a lot of fun with all the hands-on activities. I'm glad we got to go now, since in another year or two Caleb would probably be too old for it.
Links:
Pollination Activity (Teachers Pay Teachers, $3.50)
Butterfly Camouflage Inspiration (Ashleigh's Education Journey)
Water Cycle Printable (First Grade a la Carte)
Water Cycle in a Bag Inspiration (Playdough to Plato)
