ivey league academy: week in review!

Here's what we did last week!

Reading:  We continued in StoryTime Treasures.  Caleb finished Caps for Sale and moved on to Blueberries for Sal.

Spelling:  We did Week 29 of his spelling curriculum.

Handwriting:  We continued in his Joke Handwriting Workbook.

Vocabulary:  Our words this week were "befuddle," "chum," "demonstrate," and "grateful."

Math:  We continued in his Horizons Math workbook.  This week he learned how to "carry the 1" when adding two-digit numbers!

Bible:  We continued in Leading Little Ones to God.

Read-Aloud:  We finished Matilda and moved on to The BFG, also by Roald Dahl.  I also requested the DVD of the recent movie from the library; we're only in spot 2 or 3 in the queue, so hopefully by the time we finished The BFG we can watch the movie version and compare!

Science:  This week we learned about habitats and what plants and animals need to live in certain places.  After watching the episode of "The Magic School Bus" on habitats, we looked at a couple of library books on the subject and also completed a little habitat activity book.

U.S. Geography:  This week we learned about North Dakota and South Dakota, with special focus on Mount Rushmore.

Links:
"What's a Habitat?" Printable Book (via Teachers Pay Teachers)

ivey league academy: weeks in review!

Here's what we did over the last two weeks!

Reading:  We continued in StoryTime Treasures.  Caleb finished up Little Bear's Visit and moved on to Caps for Sale.

Spelling:  We did Weeks 27 and 28 of our spelling curriculum.

Handwriting: We continued in Caleb's joke handwriting workbook.

Vocabulary:  Our words for one week were "pity," "reduce, "jealous," and "hoarse."  Last week, our words were "abdomen," "occur," "intense," and "lack."

Math:  We continued in our Horizons Math workbook.  Caleb is getting very good at adding and subtracting numbers in his head.

Read-Aloud:  We started reading Matilda by Roald Dahl.

Science:  We studied salmon migration the first week with the help of "The Magic School Bus" and library books.  We also watched a Netflix documentary on the subject (the "Salmon Run" episode of BBC's Nature's Great Events).  To help Caleb remember the life cycle of salmon and how incredible their journey through both salt and fresh water is, we constructed an information wheel out of cardstock using a MSB printable.

During the second week, I had intended on doing deep ocean creatures, but since Caleb had developed an obsession over extinct and endangered animals, we did some informal stuff revolving around his interest.  We checked out Dinosaurs to Dodos from the library and I also found him You Can't See a Dodo at the Zoo on Ebay.  We also watched a few episodes of "Last Chance to See" on Netflix where two men (a zoologist and an actor) travel around the world to find animals on the brink of extinction.  Now, when you deal with the topic of extinction, most resources are bound to teach the theory of evolution, Old Earth, etc.  I prepared myself for this, and decided that it would be pretty difficult to find an interesting book on extinct species from an author who believed as we do, so instead I found what was available, and explained to Caleb that different people believe different ways about things.  Just because his books say a species went extinct millions of years ago doesn't mean that's what happened (like Caleb's dad said, "Were you there at the very beginning?").  I think it's important for him to learn the different theories so he'll know how to defend and explain what he believes.

U.S. Geography:  We learned about Iowa and Minnesota during these two weeks.  We learned that Charles Schulz was from Minnesota so we decided to have some Peanuts-related fun!

Links:
Magic School Bus Salmon Migration Wheel (Scholastic)

ivey league academy: week in review!

This week's chalkboard was inspired by Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator!

Reading:  We returned to Storytime Treasures and finished Little Bear as well as the activities related to it.

Spelling:  We did Week 26 of our spelling curriculum.  Caleb struggled with this week's words; most of them were of the "a-e" variety, something we'll really concentrate on in second grade.  We did extra practice and in the end, we skipped the test for this week since I knew it would only discourage him.

Handwriting:  We continued in his jokes and riddles workbook.

Vocabulary:  Our words for this week were "dwelling," "bustle," "react," and "merry."

Math:  Caleb started out the week with a test and did great!  The rest of the week's math lessons went smoothly as well.

Bible:  We continued to Leading Little Ones to God.

Read-Aloud:  We finished Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.  Caleb really seems to enjoy Roald Dahl's writing so we're going to continue with another one of his, Matilda. 

Science:  This week we learned about coral reefs.  We watched "The Magic School Bus" episode about coral reefs and read a few books from the library.  Caleb also constructed his own coral reef using half of an egg carton, paint, pipe cleaners, pom-poms, and sea life creature stickers.  True, whales usually don't live around coral reefs (they're found in more shallow waters), but I allowed Caleb to use those stickers anyway!

U.S. Geography:  This week we learned about Nebraska.

Links:
Coral Reef Craft Inspiration (Micador)

ivey league academy: week in review!

It's been an interesting few weeks!  After my last post, we ended up taking the next week off since both boys had horrible colds and I knew whatever work I could get out of Caleb wouldn't be all that great.  Then the week after that, we got in a car accident; thankfully nothing serious, but that week of school was light since we were all sore and tired.  Then, the next week, Micah and I got a cold and we took that week off!  Here's what we got done during this odd period of time:

Reading:  We took a break from StoryTime Treasures and instead, I let Caleb pick out a book each day to read to me.  One day I also had him copy a couple of sentences from one book and illustrate.

Spelling:  We did the Week 25 spelling list in our spelling curriculum.

Handwriting:  We took a break from any formal handwriting practice.

Vocabulary:  Our words were "drowsy," "glitter," "pantomime," and "selfish."

Math:  We continued in our Horizons 1 Math workbook.

Bible:  We continued in Leading Little Ones to God.

Read-Aloud:  We continued reading Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.

Science:  We learned about tidal zones and tide pools.  We watched the episode of "The Magic School Bus" about tide zones, and Caleb also independently tried to recreate those zones with blankets in the playroom!

We also made a tidal zones model; I had Caleb stack small rocks and pebbles in an aluminum baking dish, as well as some plastic ocean animals.  Once he was done, I slowly poured water into the dish from one end (demonstrating low tide and then high tide), and had Caleb observe what areas filled up with water first.  We discussed which animals live in which tidal zones, and what advantages and disadvantages each zone has in terms of available food, protection, etc.  We also read library books about tide zones and watched the "tidal seas" episode of the BBC documentary series "Blue Planet."

U.S. Geography:  We learned about Oklahoma and Kansas.  Caleb colored a page for each state and we read library books as well.  

  
Links:
Tidal Zones Model (Buggy and Buddy)