Week 16! December 8-12

Book List:

Snarly Sally
Asleep, Asleep
Dinosaurs On My Street
Frozen
The First Forest
Just Like Mamma


Highlights of the Week:

We've had a lot of family time this week! We've been to dinners, played games, watched Christmas movies, baked, watched a light display, went to an auction, had piano recital, went to Santa's Village, got a new kitten from Grandma Sherry and celebrated anniversary and picked up momma's new present- a horse. She practiced piano twice at the building and on recital morning she was nervous when it came time to play, but she kept on and finished her song and it sounded wonderful and we are all so proud. Her daddy and Nana also came. On Friday we attended the Instrument Petting Zoo put on for the homeschool group by UTM music education majors. She played everything but loved violin and piano the best. Going to try to get video to upload. We took an intro to coding, which we will review and complete next week, based on Frozen, at code.org. She loved it! She made it to lesson 26 in Reading Eggs, pages 108-114 in math workbook, we studied Japan via her shipment of World Passport, and she made lunch solo with supervision. We made wrapping paper signs and collages. Built buildings from Tegu and boxes.  We also studied forest conservation and how snow peas grow.

Week 15! December 1-5

Book List:

The Storm Book
Rachel Carlson and Her Book That Changed the World
Sofia Takes the Lead
The Adventures of Charlie and His Wheat Straw Hat

Highlights of the Week:

Construction paper christmas trees as part of a christmas party with Mim. Gymastics and piano. Snowman scene. Snowflake cutting. "Rain" by Robert Louis Stevenson sung as a song in round with interpretive dance. Composing a drum solo. Making and playing drums on everyday objects. Weather and Precipitation song. Engineering and Invention studies included watching How We Got to Now's episode on lightbulbs and neon lights, supplemented with textbook and drawing and she created and taught me a numbers game. Math saw discussions in weights and measures, comparing, descriptives, order, counting by fives and subtraction.  Science saw reading and videos on snow, storms, rain, reptiles, owl identification project, and a discussion on planets. For History and Geography we discussed the origin of the Caldecott medal, time zones, and did the North America puzzle. Cultural Studies included a boo of world holidays and a study of Hawaiian drums. We have been watching Master Chef Jr and she has been very inspired. She now makes her 'famous scrambled eggs' and has taken interest in selecting and buying ingredients that she then assembles. She loves mixed greens with a side of snow peas!

Week 14! November 24-28

Book List:

A Time to Keep
I Know an Old Lady
The Invisible Moose
The Storm Book
Is Anybody Up
The Deer in the Wood
Gorillas
Its Snowing
Sofia Takes the Lead

Highlights of the Week:

Gymanstics and piano. Butterfly dancing. Thanksgiving feast for dolls. Scarf dancing. Building Tegu structures, bridges, mud dams and water flow, design and sew of a doll dress. Adding and subtracting clementines. Reading Eggs lessons. Studying gorillas, the planets, how it snows and kinds of snow and snowflakes with books, videos and interactives. Further study of pilgrims, Wampanoag, and the harvest feast.

Week 13! November 17-21

Book List:

Asleep, Asleep
Tippy, Tippy, Splash
Peach and Blue
Puddle Pail
The Tomten


Highlights of the week:

She created a new piano composition and performed it for us. Listened to more music from Brazil and watched the Samba. Clothing design of a dress for her and Mary, including handwork, cutting, and sketches. Stamp collage. Ribbon dancing. Gymnastics and piano. Began the Reading Eggs program and completed lessons 1-3. Read 60%, 80% and then 90% of Asleep, Asleep on her own! Science saw a varied  study using books, magazines, programs, and youtube: prairie life; black piranhas of amazon; scientists growing ears on mice; how our ears work; how bones, muscles and joints work; how our immune system works; and growing and healing.  Thanksgiving was approaching so we used the Thanksgiving Interactive at plimoth.org to learn about the European settlers and the Wampanoag as well as other sources to learn about the truth of Thanksgiving and the origin of our modern one.  Cultural and geography studies also saw a further exploration into Brazil and South America. We used maps, videos and  inter actives. We also studied  Maine and the northeast as part of the Thanksgiving study. We watched the Pop & Olly video "What Does Your Family Look Like?" and discussed diversity.

Week 12! November 10-14

Book List:

Magic Treehouse: Dinosaurs Before Dark
A Trip To the Rainforest
Ladybug Girl Loves
Goodnight Moon
The Tomten
The Rooster

Highlights of the Week:

Making progress on her peg loom blanket. Large box space shuttle play and creation with a friend. Created and performed a princess play with a friend they included costumes, sets, dances and song.
We listened to the music of Brazil, learned a new dance, and classical music hour as well as piano practice. We built a winter cat shelter for Lucky. She and Bud built a model rocket.  We measured and talked about fractions while making waffles. Used dogs for addition and subtraction. Played Brainbox with friends and created a new game with it. In geography and culture Carmen Sandiego and World Passport took us to Brazil and we watched videos about the animals, rain forests and children who live there. Science included studies on the function of taste and smell, why people taste things differently, wildlife of the amazon and komodo dragons. She enjoys copying words from WordWorld and making stories with them.

Week 11! November 3-7

Book List:

Look Up! Henrietta Leavitt Pioneering Woman Astronomer
What People Have Said About the Stars
Indian Two Feet and His Horse
The Wonderful Eggs of Furrchia
Chapter 1 of Misty of Chincoteague
Good Dog Carl
Magic Tree House: Dinosaurs Before Dark ch 1-4

Highlights of the week:

We listened to "Makrokosmos1" by George Crumb as it was a piece composed about the universe and learned about how telescopes worked in text and video. Studied women in astronomy. Read about various world religions. Wonderful books were borrowed and read while at Aunt Karen's farm. We worked on the loom and knitted. Piano lesson and gymnastics. Learned about various careers including astronomer, ballerina, and jockey. Watched episodes 1-2 of Where In the World Is Carmen San Diego. In art we learned about "Starry Night"