The first month of the new year is nearly gone!! My commitment to simplify my life is coming together, but takes a lot of work to get it there. I suspect by spring it will be working it's self out.
This month Luke and I have discovered the world of snow. Every week we have explored many different aspects of snow. It has been so much fun!! I am going to summarize the month in bullet format below because I have been so busy I haven't had time to blog weekly!!
Topics and activities we have enjoyed in Jan. 2009
Week 1: " The Three Snow Bears" by Jan Brett
Social Studies: (SS) The Inuit Culture and the Artic Circle
Language Arts: (LA) Discussed setting of the story and how it effects the story. Rewriting the story in Luke's words, and speaker tags in the story
Art: Facial expression, watched online video of Jan Brett drawing a baby polar bear and giving it a try ourselves! We played the "eyes" game where we covered everything but our eyes and tried to guess what emotion each other was acting out. Luke also worked on his fine motor skills by cutting out some Jan Brett book marks from our story.
Bible: We discovered the many Arctic and Antarctic animals and their special characteristic that God created them with.
Applied Math: Comparing sizes, big, bigger, biggest as in the 3 bears
Science: Polar Bear study; their family names, where to find them, their anatomy, diet, classification, and many other facts.
We continued with writing practice, and our lessons in Reading Made Easy (RME) both are coming along slow but steady
For Math we continue going through Math U See (MUS) at a steady pace. We also used the pattern blocks and copied patterns off the Internet discussing the geometric shapes used.
Books we read:
"The Mitten" Jan Brett
Books on Polar Bears (nonfiction)
"Face to Face with a Polar Bear
"Jacob and the Polar Bears"
"Polar Bear Night"
"The Snowy Day" Ezra Jack Keats
Luke also picked out many nonfiction books on cats and dogs this month. Hos favorite was "Gretchen The Bicycle Dog". A book about a wiener dog that had a back injury and got a special wheel chair for dogs! It was very cool.
DVD's we watched: National Geographic's "Polar Prowl"
Week 2: "Katy and the Big Snow" by Virginia Lee Burton
SS: Street signs, cardinal sign review, discussing the compass, map skills
LA: Vocabulary; bulldozer, steamroller, drizzle, water main, emergency, three alarm fire, patient
Listed details given about Katy in the story
Review of the personification in this story and others we have read this year
Read site word book "Go, Go, Go!" throughout this week.
Art: Discussed the different ways the illustrator used detail in the pictures through color, action, and personality. Luke did a personification drawing of the moon. He named it "mooney"
Applied Math: Began the concept of counting by 5's
Bible: Studied the character traits patience and responsibility as it was use din the story and also through the Bible story of Joseph.
Science: We discussed and recorded the weather patterns in out town. We read a book called "50 Weather Words" and discussed what each means. To take care of our cold weather birds we created bird feeders with pine cones, peanut butter, seeds, raisins, and berries.
We continued reading with RME and math with MUS.
Books we read:
DK book on weather
"I Drive A Snowplow" by Sarah Bridges
"If I Had A Snowplow: by L.S. Jean Patrik
"Best Little Wingman" Janet Allen (our fav. of the week)
Week 3: A Penguin Study
SS: Discovered where the North and South poles are on the map. Discussed the Arctic and the Antarctic the differences and similarities. We also went over more map skills and Luke created a map of his room complete with a Yettie and a Jedi on hid bed!
LA: Review of days of the week and months of the year. Vocabulary words were; exploration, tundra, Arctic, Antarctic. We read a chapter book named, "To Antarctica or Bust an Egg" where 3 boys are transported through time to Antarctica to study penguins and their eggs.
Art: Luke used water colors to create penguin pictures. He was very creative and painted 3, even though he was only required to do one. We looked through many penguin pictures where the artist used water colors. In Luke's black and white painting of a penguin he decided to paint the belly yellow because "he was standing in the sunshine"!
Math" We counted the moths of the year, weeks in a month, and days of the week. Luke numbered penguin cut outs with the months on them and placed them in order.
Science: Penguins!! We discovered how many different breeds there are, their food chain, anatomy, why they are black and white, how they babies are cared for, and much much more. Now, Happy Feet makes a little more sense.
Luke also helped in the kitchen this week learning to pour his own drinks and help peel carrots with a veggie peeler.
We watched "Reading Rainbow" a lot this week and learned all about sea cows aka; manatee's and Russian egg painters. Luke insisted on blowing out and painting his own egg after that show. He also got out his 2 stuffed manatee's and acted out the stories shared on that show!! I love that imagination and the ability that homeschooling affords him to act on it!
In RME this week LUKE read his first sentence! We both jumped up and down and shouted!! This was an awesome mile stone for us!! It was, "A cat sat."
Book List
"Me On The Map" Joan Sweeny
"Penguin " Frans Lanting
"Penguins Puffins and Auks" Art Wolfe
"My Season With The Penguins" Spohie Webb
"A Mothers Journey" Sandra Markle
"Penguin In The Snow" Doug Allen
"The Emperor Lays An Egg" Brenda Z. Guiberson
""Stuart Little" from the I Can Read Seriese
For math we continued daily in MUS and added a snowman dot to dot. (his favorite)
Week 4: Snow and Mittens
SS: Proper dress in the cold weather. Calendar review, Learning Left and Right hands and directions.
LA: Continue reading & writing the RME sentences and word pages. Snowman tracer pages. for writing and fine motor practice. Record a story Luke creates about a day in the snow.
Art: Decorated mittens, built a hexagon snowman, make a puffy paint snow picture.
Science: A snow study and making snow play dough
Special Activities this week: Out to eat with Mama Jan & Big Popa for MaMa's birthday. Grandjo spent the day here with Luke, Homeschool group on Friday to play and learn a song using American Sign Language.
MUS: Counting by 2's
Book List:
"The Mitten" Jan Brett
"The Hat" Jan Brett
"The Missing Mitten Mystery"
"The Hat" Jan Brett
"The Missing Mitten Mystery"
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