Mighty Girl of the Week: Jane Colden - First American Female Botanist
Math
5 pages of MEP (Red book 1A - grade 1, pages 41-45 )
She chose (as in magically appeared at my side with a coin bingo game and demanded to play) to explore coins and money.
We played 4-5 rounds of this. She understands coins and their "worth" and surprised me by being able to combine coins to meet the prices on the bingo card. She could do things that were less than 50 by herself.
She chose (as in magically appeared at my side with a coin bingo game and demanded to play) to explore coins and money.
We played 4-5 rounds of this. She understands coins and their "worth" and surprised me by being able to combine coins to meet the prices on the bingo card. She could do things that were less than 50 by herself.
Reading
She read:
Frog and Toad are Friends
Annie and Snowball and the Dress-up Birthday by Cynthia Rylant
Annie and Snowball and the Dress-up Birthday by Cynthia Rylant
We read:
The Frog Prince
The Frog Prince by Rachael Fuller
The Iron Stove
The Frog Prince
The Frog Prince by Rachael Fuller
The Iron Stove
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (chaps 14- end)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (chaps 1 - 2)
Sight Words
though
citizen
branch
jacket
botany
solid
movement
explained
formed
thought
Spelling
sad sap gap bag gag hag lag tag ban can
Writing Practice
She did 2-3 sentences of copy practice this week and wrote out some of her spelling words. We reviewed capital letters at the first of sentences, commas, and apostrophes.
She also wrote out part of the invitation to our neighbour to the tea party.
Science
New this week:
usuallythough
citizen
branch
jacket
botany
solid
movement
explained
formed
thought
Spelling
sad sap gap bag gag hag lag tag ban can
Writing Practice
She did 2-3 sentences of copy practice this week and wrote out some of her spelling words. We reviewed capital letters at the first of sentences, commas, and apostrophes.
She also wrote out part of the invitation to our neighbour to the tea party.
Science
We started learning about the classification of plants. We only did the first breakdown between vascular and non-vascular. We checked out the moss in the backyard and then took plants like carnations, celery and bokchoy and put them in a mixture of food dye and B vitamins. (Certain B vitamins glow in the dark.) We then kept an eye on the plants and at the end of the week cut them open under a black light. Et voila! The vasuclar system could be seen.
Art
We painted with leaves (so we could see the vasuclar structure) and made a fall tree.
Geography
We located New York on a map of North America. We talked about continents and the three countries on the North American continent.
She coloured the state of New York.
And, we talked about parks and where people who live in big cities go to see nature. We pulled maps of Central Park in NYC and looked at everything it contains. Then, she designed her own park.
She coloured the state of New York.
And, we talked about parks and where people who live in big cities go to see nature. We pulled maps of Central Park in NYC and looked at everything it contains. Then, she designed her own park.
Brave Writer/The Wand (Language Arts)
Completed week 4 of The Wand which included making a vowel chart and a chart of consonants that combine to make the "k" sound.
We did a fourth fairytale in the fairytale unit of Brave Writer. This week it was The Frog Prince
A witch cast a spell on a beautiful prince. It was a frog spell. A princess dropped her golden ball into the well. She met the frog prince. She was crying because she dropped her golden ball into the well. They made a deal. The frog jumped into the pond and got her ball back. She ran away. That night the frog came to her palace and ate from her bowl and slept in her bed. Then she threw him against the wall and he changed into a prince. And then they married. The end.
We still need to do the illustration.
Thursday Tea Party and Poetry
Our tea party this week was fun. We invited one of our neighbours to join us.
Rachel created a poem for the poetry part of it and read it at the tea party. (I typed it for her.)
The Frog Prince
by
Rachel Clare Endicott-Rey
A witch cast a spell on a beautiful prince. It was a frog spell. A princess dropped her golden ball into the well. She met the frog prince. She was crying because she dropped her golden ball into the well. They made a deal. The frog jumped into the pond and got her ball back. She ran away. That night the frog came to her palace and ate from her bowl and slept in her bed. Then she threw him against the wall and he changed into a prince. And then they married. The end.
We still need to do the illustration.
Thursday Tea Party and Poetry
Our tea party this week was fun. We invited one of our neighbours to join us.
Rachel created a poem for the poetry part of it and read it at the tea party. (I typed it for her.)
The Bunny Cake
By Rachel Clare Endicott-Rey
Cara the bunny is soft and white.
She's having a birthday party tonight.
Her mom bakes cakes down by the lake.Wake the snake eats a bite of the cake.
Cara loves strawberry and grass flavoured cake.
And sometimes she likes bananas on top of her cake.
I love the fifth line. It was so creative and nothing she and I have talked about.
Physical Ed
Gymnastics started this week. She is in a class with a wide age spread and for the first time is encountering older boys. So far, she finds at least one of them highly annoying and told him so.
Music
Singing classes have been cancelled because there weren't enough kids. :(
She spent afternoons at Colwell playing.
Reflection: Because of a dental emergency for me, we lost a full day this week and our schedule got a bit wonky. However, we persevered and covered most of the stuff we had planned.
Someone asked me recently how long we spend "schooling" every day. That's a good question and hard to answer. I don't consider sitting on the couch, sipping hot chocolate, and reading to Rachel "schooling". That's just life. Yet, it is "educational". Yeesh, I really don't like the distinctions we make between education and other stuff. It is ALL educational.
So, I would say that we spend about 40 minutes a day on the following subjects, combined: math, writing practice, spelling, sight words. The bulk of that is in math. MEP (the curriculum we're using for math) really does a good job of focusing on the logic and patterns in math rather than rote arithmetic. it isn't as fast as other curriculums, but Rachel is learning to think, not just add and subtract.
We don't do every subject every day, but we spend another 15-30 minutes doing science projects, art projects, language arts (Jot-it-down) and geography.
Reading happens at various times during the day and we spend anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour+ with our noses in books.
Having said that, the times vary. Some days Rachel is really engaged and doesn't want to stop. So, we don't. Other days, she's not and we cover just the basics and move on.
Someone asked me recently how long we spend "schooling" every day. That's a good question and hard to answer. I don't consider sitting on the couch, sipping hot chocolate, and reading to Rachel "schooling". That's just life. Yet, it is "educational". Yeesh, I really don't like the distinctions we make between education and other stuff. It is ALL educational.
So, I would say that we spend about 40 minutes a day on the following subjects, combined: math, writing practice, spelling, sight words. The bulk of that is in math. MEP (the curriculum we're using for math) really does a good job of focusing on the logic and patterns in math rather than rote arithmetic. it isn't as fast as other curriculums, but Rachel is learning to think, not just add and subtract.
We don't do every subject every day, but we spend another 15-30 minutes doing science projects, art projects, language arts (Jot-it-down) and geography.
Reading happens at various times during the day and we spend anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour+ with our noses in books.
Having said that, the times vary. Some days Rachel is really engaged and doesn't want to stop. So, we don't. Other days, she's not and we cover just the basics and move on.
