This Week @ K5 In Our Cozies........

This week we are studying PUMPKINS, what else? We have many fun activities planned. We kicked off our week of pumpkin study by carving our very own jack o' lantern. Luke picked this kitty pumpkin off the cover of one of the many pumpkin books we checked out from the library. Travis drew and carved it almost exactly like the one depicted on the cover of that book. Luke was very excited when we took it outside and lit it up. It was truly adorable. The rest of the week should be just as much fun. Here is a list of our plans;

Language Arts: We will begin "Reading Made Easy" for our journey in learning to read! We also will revisit simile's and create our very own pumpkin simile's. We will read many books about pumpkins. We also have a lower case pumpkin vine activity.

Social Studies: We will discuss the holidays we celebrate and why, as well as what happens on the special days. We will have a generosity lesson after reading, "Pumpkin Town" by Katie McKey. We will also have activities to work on etiquette and social skills! ( much needed at this age! LOL!)

Math: We will review "unit bars" and then begin our lessons on addition and it's symbols in our Math U See curriculum. We will use candy pumpkins to continue our addition study. YUMMY fun! We have a "complete the pumpkin pattern" page to complete. We will also use 3 small gourd pumpkins and compare them by weighing them and measuring the circumference of each.

Bible: We will copy and discuss the verse Zech. 8:12 and how our Lord blesses the seeds to bring forth an increase. we will discuss the awesome creator and how he takes a tiny seed to care for us!

Art: We will carve, paint, and decorate pumpkins. We will also create a monster bag for trick or treating. We will also decorate cup cakes!

Science: We will study pumpkins by classifying them, learning the life cycle, and the many different ways we can use them.

Cooking: We will roast pumpkin seeds, bake and decorate Halloween cup cakes that correspond with all of our October lessons. We will make spiders, bats, owls, and pumpkins with our dear HS fiends the Ray's!

On Fri. night we will visit Kevin, Stacy, & Skyler's house for hot dogs, cup cakaes, and trick or treating!! Luke plans to be Luke Skywaker for his costume, custom made by GrandJo, of course!!

Our Study Of "Owl Moon" by Jane Yolen

This week we continues our journey with another mysterious creature, the owl. This is one of Luke's favorite animals. We have had a grand time discovering yet another one of God's awesome creations! Below is a list of our activities from this week
Social Studies: We learned where New Jersey is on the US map, placed our story disk, and colored a picture of the state flag, bird, and flower.
Language Arts: We discussed simile's and metaphors from the story and created some of our own. We read a poem "The Owl"and then Luke dictated an owl story of his own.
Art: We discussed the tree's and shadow work used by the illustrator in the book. We tried to draw one of the trees and then made a bare tree on paper by blowing black paint with a straw. We also made an owl mask and Luke acted out a mother owl caring for her owlets.
Math: We discussed units of time and made a clock Luke with a minuet and hour hand. Luke practiced telling time with his new clock. We also went on a "time piece" hunt to discover the many ways we tell time in our home. We experimented and guessed how long a minuet was. We did activities and timed them to drive home the point of the length of time. We also worked on number recognition and writting numbers.

Bible: We learned about the CREATOR and how marvelous his works are! We read Psalm 136 & Psalm 8:3-4
Science: We studies the owl and the many fascinating facts about this animal. We are thankful they eat a lot of rats!! We also learned about the phases of the moon and manipulated felt "moons" to better understand this concept.
Other: We had an owl maze. We also read books on scarecrows and did a scarecrow craft. Luke created new binnacles and gave them all names and practiced writting the names for some hand writing practice. He also played Jump Start Kindergarten to work on his phonics.
It was another fun filled busy week here!

Why Fall Is My Favorite TIme of Year!

Psalms 33:6

By the word of the Lord

were the heavens made;

and all the host of them by

the breath of his mouth!

Monday October 20, 2008 our family went to Sky op Orchard in Hendersonville, N.C. It was a sort of "impromptu" trip where my brothers, sister in law and nephew, Benjamin got to go. It was an absolute perfect fall day! The morning was complete with fresh warm apple cider donuts, apple picking, feeding farm animals, and a hay ride. We finished the day with barbecue and a visit with Daddy in Black Mountain. Although the visit wasn't perfect it felt good to be together as a family since this happens so rarely now. I could say a lot about it but I will let the pictures speak for me this time.

This Week at K5 In Our Cozies

We will continue our "creepy crawly" October theme this week with "Stellaluna". This is a story about a fruit bat who doesn't fit in to her new found family of birds. Below are th eubjects that we will study.
Social Studies: We will discuss adapting and the feelings experienced in this book
Language Arts: We wail discuss and explain what a simile and onomatopoeia are. We will discuss some grammar and show that the capitalization of names and other proper nouns. We will also look at the very descriptive language used in this book to paint a picture of the happenings in the story. Do reading comprehension book.
Vocabulary; clutched, downy, clambered, anxious, peculiar, perched, sultry, limp, babble, graceful, clumsy, and muse
Math: Count all the bats, birds, stars through out the story. Bat dot to dot. Continue MUS lessons.
Gross Motor: "Fly" like bats & sing "The Batty Bat"
Art: Discuss the medium used in the illustrations and weather they are like cartoons or realistic. Make an egg carton bat craft.
Science: Bats, predators, defenses from them, echolocation. Classification of herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores

Where has the time gone? It is the middle of October and I haven't blogged in quite some time!! Life has been happeining and at a very high pace around here. So far this month we have studied one of Luke's least favorite spiecies, spiders! He hates them. We read "Sophie's Masterpiece" and pulled our other lessons out of this book with the help of HSS. For Social Studies we delved into the 7 wonders of the world and speculated how thses this could have come to pass. We attempted a few of them with blocks as well. We made an "Itsy Bitsy" spider book in the correct sequence of the song. We also had fun singing and acting out the song! We had a long list of new vocabulary words; wondorus, incredible, masterpiece, swatted, scampered, scuttled, exhausted, and wonderment. We made a list of all of Spohie's homes and what gift she tried to make each owner. We also had a review of personification. On Wed. we discussed and discoverewd the art of weaving. We weaved a placemat with orange and yellow consruction paper then laminated it, Luke was quite pround. We also had a discussion on "masterpieces" and we explored some of the famous masterpieces. His favorite was "Jungle With A Lion" by Rousseau. His least favorite was Mona Lisa by da Vinci. We discussed the geometric shapes in the webs the spider spun. We continued to work with MUS building in the concepts of units and combining them. We made spider webs with plastic spiders on them and Luke even decided to draw a few spiders himself even though they are not his favorite thing. The coolest thing is that there is a gardern spider right outside our living room window that has been busy weaving and eating in preperation for her babies!!