1st Grade: Week 13 Highlights

History: This week we learned about the early civilizations of Ancient China. The people there (much like the people in Mesopotamia and India) settled near a river so they could use the readily available water for drinking and farming. In China, this area was between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River and was called the Yellow River Valley.

We learned about the first Ancient Chinese writing, pictograms, and "Rupert" had a lot of fun trying his hand at drawing some.

We also read about the Shang dynasty, the farming of rice, and the discovery of silkworm cocoons which led to the invention of silk fabric.

We're currently in the middle of making a Ming bowl. Here's what we've done so far:

This week we said good-bye to our dearly departed Chicken Mummy. We made a non-traditional sarcophagus out of a shoe box and buried him.

Science: This week we learned about penguins and chickens. We found and tried a couple of science projects relating to chicken eggs. In one, we learned about how the weight of the hen is spread over the surface of the egg so that it will not break when she sits on it. "Rupert" squeezed an egg in his hand as hard as he could to see how strong the shell is.

We also cracked an egg open to see the parts that are inside and talked about how each of these parts helps the baby chick to grow and hatch.

We made a bird feeder this week to go along with our bird studies. It'll be interesting to see if we get any visitors.

Math: This week we practiced double and triple digit addition and carrying, greater than and less than, and introduced the skip counting by 4s song.

Kung Fu: We worked mostly on his new forms and grab arts this week, but also practiced all his old stuff in an attempt to keep him from forgetting it. There really is quite a bit that he knows now.

Spelling: We finally ran up against a challenging list this week, and we will continue to work on this list next week. His lists are usually only 6 words, which I think is a good amount for a beginner. It won't burn him out, but he's still learning new things. This week we worked on words like: going, seeing, feeling, and keeping.

Grammar: I originally scheduled grammar twice a week, but "Rupert" seems to really like it and is requesting that we do it daily. I just may honor his request. Then, if he wants to slow it down later, we can do that too. This week we finished up our discussion on nouns and introduced pronouns.

ASL: I'm trying to use signs as often as possible as I speak, so "Rupert" can see it more than just at ASL time during school.

Writing: This week's writing consisted of making a birthday card for "Rupert's" great uncle, and we also did two lessons in his Writing with Ease book.

Reading: We're currently listening to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on CD in the truck, and Daddy started reading The Indian in the Cupboard this week as a bedtime story.