ivey league academy: weeks in review!

Here's what we did over the last couple of weeks!

Reading:  We're done as far as formal reading curriculum goes!

Spelling:  We did Weeks 33 and 34 of our spelling curriculum.

Handwriting:  Caleb copied a joke a day for his handwriting practice.

Vocabulary:  Done!

Math:  We continued in his math workbook.  We're set to finish the rest of the lessons plus the last test within the next week and a half.

Bible:  We continued in Leading Little Ones to God.

Read-Aloud:  We started The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.  They've been showing the movie on HBO plus the Narnia series is referenced a lot in Randy Alcorn's Heaven for Kids book so Caleb wanted to read them.  We decided to go with the order in which the books were published.

Science:  One week, we learned about different kinds of seeds and how they are distributed (wind, water, attaching to animal fur, etc.), as well as photosynthesis in plants.  We read books from the library and also planted our container garden!

The next week, we learned about microbes.  The episode of "The Magic School Bus" centered around a cucumber turning into a pickle, and their experiment suggestion was growing bread mold.  I considered it but the only bread we had in the house was store-bought and I knew with the preservatives it would take forever to mold!  So we got out the microscope kit Caleb got for Christmas instead.  It came with some slides already set up, and also has mini experiments, such as comparing salt and sugar under the microscope, seeing what paper and other materials look like, etc.  He really enjoyed it, though I'm not a fan of some of the materials.  The slide covers are pretty sticky so it's almost like once you prepare a slide, you can't clean it and do it again.  I did find some other prepared slides online, plus later on I'll probably find better slide covers that aren't so sticky!

U.S. Geography:  Over the course of the two weeks, we learned about Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and California.  We're set to finish our states study within the next couple of weeks as well!

ivey league academy: week in review!

Here's what we did last week!

Reading:  We were more informal with reading this week since we finished up our curriculum.  A couple of days I had Caleb read a book aloud to me (Albert the Albatross by Syd Hoff, for example).  Toward the end of the week Caleb independently decided to work on "reports."  He's still very interested in extinct and endangered animals, so he used a couple of books on the subject to write out a few sentences on each animal.  Sometimes I could tell he copied from the book, but other times he paraphrased and used his own words (I knew because he would ask me how to spell something!).  I told Caleb it was great he came up with this on his own, and that I would be willing to count it as reading and handwriting!

Spelling:  We worked on Week 32 of our spelling curriculum.

Handwriting:  Caleb copied down jokes I found online.

Vocabulary:  This was our last week of vocabulary!  Our words were "method, "object" (verb), "thrill," and "cooperative."

Math:  We continued in his math workbook.

Bible:  We continued in Leading Little Ones to God and also read some of Heaven for Kids by Randy Alcorn.

Read-Aloud:  We didn't start a new book this week since we were doing extra reading from the Randy Alcorn book.  I kind of want to do read-alouds during the summer as well though....so we'll see what happens!

Science:  We did two different topics this week since we didn't get to science last week.  First we talked about wetlands.  Caleb put together a wetlands animal flap book.  Then we talked about rainforests and did a fun color-by-number of a toucan. 

U.S. Geography:  This week we learned about New Mexico and Arizona.

Links:
Wetlands Flap Book (Teachers Pay Teachers) $3
Color-By-Number Toucan (Education.com)

ivey league academy: weeks in review

Here's what we did the past couple of weeks!

Reading:  The first week Caleb hit a wall with Blueberries for Sal, so we took a break from Story Time Treasures and instead added in a couple of activities to work on comprehension.  I found a printable Blueberries for Sal game online so we played that a few times, and on another day we learned more about onamatopoeias since the story has several examples.

During the second week, we returned to Story Time Treasures but broke the lessons down into smaller units so Caleb wouldn't feel burned out.  Our last story was Make Way for Ducklings.  Since we only have about five more weeks of first grade, I think we'll just have Caleb read aloud from books in our home library from now on.

Spelling:  We did Weeks 30 and 31 in our spelling curriculum.  The words are getting more challenging but overall Caleb is doing well!

Handwriting:  Caleb finished his Joke Handwriting Workbook.  For now, we'll continue handwriting practice with jokes I find online!

Vocabulary:  Our words for the last couple of weeks were "mystery," "slumber," "ample," "question (used as a verb)," "sympathetic," "tally," "festive," and "voyage."

Math:  We continued in our Horizons Math workbook.

Bible:  We continued in Leading Little Ones to God.  We also read the introduction to Randy Alcorn's Heaven for Kids since Caleb has asked a lot of questions about heaven lately.  We plan to read more of this book, especially this summer.

Read-Aloud:  We finished Matilda and moved on to The BFG.  We finished The BFG at the end of this second week.

Science:  The last couple of weeks were unusual in that the first week, we weren't able to get to any of our states for geography, and during the second week, we weren't able to get to science!  I've consulted my schedule and as long as we're diligent, we'll get to everything by the time we want to stop first grade.

We learned about desert habitats during this period.  With the help of "The Magic School Bus," an episode of the BBC series "Planet Earth," and library books, we learned about different adaptations that desert plants and animals have in order to get food and water in an environment where both are scarce.  We also did a science experiment with a desk lamp and several kinds of food, and predicted which food would have the most water in it.

U.S. Geography:  During the second week of this period we managed to fit in Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado!

Other Activities:  At the end of the first week, we had a homeschool group meet-up.  The group has shrunk in the past couple of months, so this time we just met at a Chick-fil-A to play and have lunch.  During the second week, our public library system had lots of activities for kids since the public school kids were on spring break.  We went to story time on Tuesday afternoon as usual, then on Wednesday we went to a different branch to watch "The Lego Movie" and play with Legos afterward!  Then on Thursday we went back to the same branch, where a local mobile petting zoo had set up.  The boys had a lot of fun petting and brushing the different farm animals and enjoying free popsicles.  :)

Links:
Blueberries for Sal Reading Comprehension Game (via Teachers Pay Teachers) $1.50
Onomatopoeia Activity (via K12reader.com)
Onomatopoeia Word Search (generated on Super Teacher Worksheets)
Magic School Bus "Where's the Water?" Experiment (via Scholastic)