We were able to squeeze quite a bit into this unit. We didn't have any appointments or any extra places to go for the first time in weeks, so we did a lot of school! This week we learned Rr-Rock. This was a hard one for us because Boo can not make the /r/ sound yet (she says /w/ for r's) which is cute when she talks, but very frustrating when trying to learn phonics. I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with the speech issues and reading. Our words to remember were "I listen and obey; I build my life on the rock." We talked about how Jesus is called a "rock' in the Bible. Jesus said in Matt 7:24 that those who hear his words and put them into practice are like a wise man who builds his house on a rock. We learned the song "On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand." Here is the youtube video we used for lyrics.
For our tactile letter activity we played with our Kenetic Sand. My kids LOVE this stuff. However, it wasn't very good for forming letters. It expanded and wouldn't hold the shapes, so we ended up using a toothpick to write Rr's on our sand instead. Not a very successful letter activity, but at least they were excited go get to play with their sand.
We used National Geographic Kids Rocks and Minerals to learn about rocks.
We were suppose to go outside to observe and collect rocks. The rocks are all buried under snow right now though. Last year Sis studied rocks in school and we started our own rock collection. It's grown quite a bit over the past year, so we got out the girl's collection and looked at all of them. Boo also used them for some activities like counting and grouping by color and size.
We also purchased this rock game last year called "Rock On" that also came with a really cool starter rock collection. It's been a great addition to our rock studies. It can be purchased on Amazon.
We read the parable of the wise and foolish builders. We learned the song and hand motions to "The wise man built his house upon the rock." and we watched this cute cartoon that illustrates the story.
After this we made our craft for the week. They had so much fun with this one. Even Baby Bear made one. First we drew a large rock and grass on a sheet of paper. We glued Boo's words to remember on hers. Then we made little houses out of paper lunch sacks. So cute and easy! We stuffed the bags with a couple plastic grocery bags, folded them down and stapled. Then we made a roof, door, windows, and chimney out of construction paper and either stapled or glued them all on.
We've still been working on number recognition and simple addition equations. Boo was proud of her very first addition worksheet.
Finally we listened to "Stone Soup," and made some soup for dinner (it was actually some yummy stuffed pepper soup, and it didn't have a stone...close enough. Right?)
Sis Highlight
Sis has been working hard. She been doing a lot more independent work. We're still learning about the war of 1812 for history. We're reading Caroline books for read-alouds. She's enjoying her Caroline Color and Craft book. We also started learning all about sharks and rays for science. In just over 2 months we have a big field trip planned to Shedd Aquarium, so we're trying to learn as much as we can before then. 
Other than that we are picking out new curriculum to try out for next year. I try to let Sis have some opinion at least on the things she studies. I find that when it's something she wants to learn about it makes school easier. She's decided to study anatomy and physiology for science. It looks like a lot of fun. I'm excited but a little bit nervous to tread into unknown waters with all of the new curriculum! We've already started the planning and purchasing, and I can't wait to blog about our 4th grade choices.
No comments:
Post a Comment