Ss-Sun

We completed our first letter themed unit Ss is for Sun. Boo practiced the letter Ss and we learned all about the sun for science. Her Bible words to remember were "Jesus is the light of the world." Just like the sun lights our world so that we can see where we are going, Jesus is a light to the world to show us the way we should go.

This is our picture box. For every letter she learns we will make an envelope with that letter glued to the front. Pictures that begin with that letter are kept in the envelope, then the envelopes are stored in the box and used for learning activities throughout the week.

We used this tray of salt for our tactile letter activity.               
and played alphabet concentration.

 We used this book on day one to learn science facts about the sun. It was a good book full of facts and we just happened to have it on our bookshelf! (Note: If you choose to use this book and you're young earth, there are a couple sentences that need to be changed, but can be done easily.)

 

We made some cute sun-catchers to hang in our school room. I found these kits for $1 each at the Dollar Tree! They always have such cute cheap things to go with our lessons.

In addition to learning our numbers and calendar, we're working on patterns for math. We did this pattern activity with construction paper. I just cut a yellow circle and then made orange and yellow strips for sun rays. She had to place them around the circle following the pattern: orange, orange, yellow. Then we bent them and stapled it together...kind of looks more like a flower than a sun, but it was fun. We wrote our words to remember in the center and hung it in our school room.

She was also so proud of this worksheet! She said "I'm really doing math? I can't believe it!" lol. I love her little self portrait :)

 She started using her Cuisenaire rods and book. We did the page for letter Ss.

We made a simple sundial using a paper plate, drinking straw, and a piece of clay to hold the straw. We had a few really cloudy days when we were suppose to make this. It is so frustrating trying to learn about the sun

when there's no sun shining! Finally on Fri we got a sort of sunny day. We went outside and looked for shadows and talked a little about what causes them. Then we put our sundial outside and checked it every hour. We drew a different color dot each hour to mark where the shadow was and we wrote the time next to it.  

  We also learned that raisins are made using the sun. Then we tried to make some of our own. We put our plate of grapes in a sunny spot and observed them each day. We put them out at the beginning of the week and 5 days later they are just beginning to wither. I read it takes 14 days to make raisins. So, I guess we'll have to wait a while to see how they turn out. We won't be really eating them of course, but it's fun watching  them shrivel up and dry out.

Finally at the end of the week Boo recited her words to remember and earned her 1st badge! She proudly wore it all day and then we taped it to our caterpillar to display on our wall. 

SIS HIGHLIGHT:

Sis started learning to type this week. She's loving it. I find her playing the games even after school. We also started a unit on the colonial days and the American revolution. A lot of it is review for her from  Adventures. Along with that we started reading her Felicity American girl books and watching our Liberty's Kids DVD . I will post specifically about our AG studies as we finish them later in the year. We've also been enjoying our Zoology 2 science. The first 2 weeks were all about the ocean. We studied the layers of the ocean, the abyss, aquatic animals, tides, currents, and filter feeders. Now we will study one specific type of sea creature each unit for the rest of the school year. Our first one was this week: Whales! I never knew there was so much to learn about whales! This is a pic of the beginning of her year long project...the "Ocean box." After each unit she is suppose to add the sea creature that we have studied to her box (either made of clay or a picture) and at the end of the year she will have a beautiful display of everything she has learned.