Bringing Up the Rear with Week 37

This week we worked only on science and history, which is all we have left to finish up for the year.  We have thoroughly enjoyed our new, slower pace.  School feels a lot less like work, and a lot more like fun!  It makes me wonder if we really NEED to do all the subjects I have tentatively planned for 2nd grade.

Science:  We talked more about skin, we had fun learning about the digestive system, and we started talking about respiration.  We made a model of the digestive system and had fun decorating it:

Perhaps too much fun in some areas:

History:  We were introduced to the great teacher of ancient China, Confucius, and we played with Chinese tangrams.

  We also read about the life of Julius Caesar, and made a "Roman mosaic".

1st Grade: Week 36 Highlights

This was the last week of our full school schedule.  "Rupert" is so excited to be mostly done with the first grade, and is already asking when second grade will start.  We still have to finish our science and history studies, which will probably take about a month more.  After that, we'll celebrate with a little 1st grade open house party with the grandparents where we will have "Rupert's" projects and samples of his work on display.  Should be fun!  I'm also planning to put together a photo book of our 1st grade year, so he will have a book of memories and pictures of all his projects.  That way we won't have to keep the actual projects forever.  :-)


Phonics:  This boy has really taken off with reading!  This week he actually ditched his weekly monitoring of the garbage man in favor of READING!  I could. not. believe it!  He then declared himself the reading master!  When I sit down to read to him, he asks me if he can read to me first.  I've caught him reading along with me during our read aloud time.  And he is looking forward to taking a book to Grandma and Grandpa's house so he can read to them.  I'm not sure how this happened, but I hope it continues!

We officially love Beverly Cleary!  We have been enjoying the Ramona books for about a year now (we're on our 2nd time through them), and we were recently turned on to reading another book by Beverly Cleary, Socks (thanks to Writing With Ease, which we use for writing and copy work).  We finished reading that tonight, and are looking forward to starting The Mouse and the Motorcycle.  

Writing:  We finished up our writing curriculum this week, much to "Rupert's" delight.  I think copy work is his least favorite thing to do, but as I told him, not everything that is good for you is fun...so DEAL.  :-)

History:  This week we talked about ancient China and the Qin Empire.  "Rupert" also tried his hand at Chinese calligraphy.

Science:  We talked a little more about skin and learned about fingerprints.  We studied our own fingerprints to see which of the three main patterns each of our fingers had.

1st Grade: Week 35 Highlights

The biggest highlight of this week was our bird dissection.  I didn't know if "Rupert" would be upset or fascinated by this, but we gave it a try anyway.  Turns out he was not upset at all, and really liked learning about what was inside a bird!

The opened bird:

The brain:

The heart:

        

The eye:

Working the tendons to move the toes:

1st Grade: Week 34 Highlights

"Rupert's" play went very well!  He had 6 performances over the weekend and really loved it.  He's already talking about the next play which will start rehearsals in the summer.  He got some great experience with singing, dancing, and even did a little solo part.  He made lots of new friends, and we are both looking forward to working with everyone again this summer.

Phonics:  "Rupert" is still loving the Little Bear books.  I've actually caught him sneaking in some reading after bedtime.  LOVE that!

History:  We talked about ancient India this week and painted "Rupert's" nails like the ancient Indian men did.  This was actually done as a sign of manliness and strength, and to attract women.

We also tried an Indian dish this week, curried rice.  "Rupert" loved it!

Science:  This week we learned about blood.  We did a little project to show how much blood a baby, a child and an adult generally have.

 

"Rupert" made the signs himself, and I love how you can tell the adult is an adult because he is saying, "Go clean your room!"  LOL!

"Rupert" is on a crocheting rampage!  Ever since my friend's daughter taught him how to do the chain stitch, he has been chaining away like a madman.  He even took his chain to kung fu one day this week so he could work on it during break.  :-)

Speaking of kung fu, this week we sent our junior instructor off to the Air Force.  There was a nice good-bye party with all the students in the school on Tuesday.  Good-bye and good luck, Zach.  We are proud of you, and we will miss you!

1st Grade: Week 33 Highlights

Phonics:  This week "Rupert" read through the book Little Bear and LOVED it!  I am so excited that he is reading books with more words on the page AND he's enjoying it!  Thank you so much for letting us borrow this book, Morgan!

Spelling:  We worked on "Rupert's" trouble words list this week.  There are only a couple words from the entire year that he still needs some practice on; head and said.  He's starting to get them.

Math:  "Rupert" finished his math workbook this week and is looking forward to a trip to the ice cream shop!

Science:  We talked about circulation and watched the Bill Nye video on the subject.  Science will continue a little longer than the rest of our subjects for this year because we're really taking our time and enjoying it.  Once we finish up the human body study, we'll do plants (which I guess we are already doing a bit of since we are planting our garden).

History:  This is another subject that will go longer than the rest.  This week we read about the Punic wars and Hannibal and his elephants.  I think once we are done with this coming busy weekend, we'll make elephant ears to go along with this chapter.  I don't want to feed "Rupert" a bunch of sugar right now and risk him being sick for his play.  I'll add pictures of our elephant ears once we make them.  :-)

Social:  Today we say good-bye to our children's librarian of 3 years.  She is starting a new chapter and a new adventure in Australia.  We will miss her terribly, and we wish her the best!  Good-bye, Sandy!!

This week was an intensive practice week for the play "Rupert" is in.  They practiced every day this week and they will perform this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  This has been a great experience for both of us, and it has been so great for me to see it all come together.

1st Grade: Week 32 Highlights

Spelling:  Spelling went really well this week.  "Rupert" got all his words right even when I tested him a day early.  I think I'm going to give him a break from spelling until we start 2nd grade.  We'll go over his trouble words, but we won't start on any new lists since he's already almost halfway through the 2nd grade spelling list.

History:  We read more about ancient Rome this week.  We learned about Roman gods, things that the Romans built, and Gladiators.  We enjoyed a fun little book called The Time Warp Trio: See You Later, Gladiator.  We also tested the audio version of Story of the World.  It seems to really work for us.  "Rupert" really enjoys listening to audio books in the car when we're out and about, so why not do our history studies in the car?  He seems to get a lot more out of it when it is read by someone other than his fumbling, bumbling, checking pronunciation mid-sentence mom.  :-)

Science:  We are learning about the heart and circulatory system.  We watched a great video, Bill Nye the Science Guy: Heart.  They actually showed a real human heart that was having bypass surgery.  Really cool!

Math:  I introduced "Rupert" to a subtraction challenge...borrowing.  I've only shown him 2 or 3 times in very short segments, but I think he's already catching on.


Learning When He's Supposed to be Playing:  We had a playdate this week with my friend's girls and one of her daughters taught "Rupert" how to crochet!  She taught him the chain stitch, and he made a chain about 8" long while we were there!  I was VERY impressed to learn that this 9-year-old girl also KNITS!  You go girl!!

1st Grade: Week 31 Highlights

Just a couple of "highlights" this week:

We started learning about Rome this week.  I read the story of Romulus and Remus to him, and he told it back to me as "Romulus and Regis".  Has he been spending too much time with his Regis Philbin loving grandma?

We also made our own fasces, the Roman symbol of power.

The other highlight of this week was "Rupert's" renewed interest in cursive.  He's been working in his workbook a bit, but mostly he has just been going nuts writing his name in cursive.  I'm finding papers everywhere with his cursive name written on them.  He even COVERED a sheet of paper in his newfound script while we were driving in the car the other day.  I love it!

We had several social opportunities this week, of course, including:  Play practice, kung fu, 2 playdates, story time, and art day.

Peanut Butter Fruit Dip

"Rupert" found this recipe in the cookbook he got for Christmas.  We whipped it up today and loved it so much, I thought I should share it.  It's super easy, and super yummy!

1C vanilla yogurt
1/2C powdered sugar
1/4C peanut butter

Mix it all together and have at it.  We loved dipping apples in it, and as you can see, "Rupert" couldn't keep his hands off of it long enough for me to even take a picture.

Inspired

Seeing the book I made in the 3rd grade not only inspired "Rupert" to make his own book, but also to use the same type of writing I had used in mine...cursive.  All on his own, he got out his cursive practice book and went to work.  After doing a few practice pages, he decided it would be easier to just print, and that is what he is doing.  He is currently writing chapter two of his own book!  :-)

Resurrection Lapbook

I just found this Resurrection lapbook this morning and I love it!  They have a little video showing each component of the lapbook and all the links to print everything out.  I just took what I liked and left what I didn't think "Rupert" would be interested in.  I'm also adding a couple more Bible verses to copy:

"He is not here; he has risen just as he said." ~Matthew 28:6
and
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." ~John 15:13

I'm currently getting it all set up for "Rupert" so he can just do the fun little activities and coloring and not have to worry about cutting everything out.

It's funny how the learning doesn't stop just because we're on spring break.  It just has a different flavor.  :-)

Photos of our lapbook:

We Made a Book!

My mom recently brought over a box of stuff I had made in school.  Some of this stuff was from kindergarten!  As "Rupert" and I went through it, we came across a book I had made in the 3rd grade.  The teacher had constructed the book and I had written my own story and drawn my own illustrations in it.  Immediately, "Rupert" asked if we could make one for him.  What a fun idea!  I went out and bought some Con-Tact paper and we were ready to create!

We used:

1. The cardboard from a large pizza box
2. A few of our handwriting pages
3. A needle and thread
4. Rubber Cement
5. Con-Tact paper

First, we folded the handwriting paper in half and stitched it down the center so it would stay together firmly.  I decided to do this because the book I had made as a child was starting to fall apart, and I wanted this one to be stronger.

Then, we cut out two rectangles a bit larger than the folded paper.  These were to be the cover.  We set these side by side on the contact paper and wrapped it around them, and the cover was made!

Then we just glued the pages into the inside covers of the book and TA-DA!!  Our own book.

I have to say...I have a new appreciation for my 3rd grade teacher who made these books for 30 students.  I can't imagine making 30 of these at once!  One is cool.  30 doesn't sound so fun.  So, thank you, Mrs. Wolkenhauer!!

1st Grade: Week 29 Highlights

Bible:  "Rupert" had 3 Bible verses to memorize for J-Force (his play practice) this week, and I think he's going to get them all down!  He has an incredible memory.  He only has to hear something a couple of times and he's got it.  I wish it were that easy for ME.

Speaking of his play, well, technically it's a musical, this week he found out that he got a small solo part and he gets to play the parts of Paul and Jesus at a couple of points in the play.  Add to that the ribbon dance that he gets to do, and you've got one excited little boy!  This will be a great experience for him and he is having a lot of fun with it.

Spelling:  Whew!  This week's list was HARD!  He got half of them down, and we'll work more on the other ones when we come back from spring break.

Math:  Now that "Rupert" has a pretty good handle on addition, we're starting to be more purposeful about subtraction.  This is a harder concept for him, but amazingly, it helps if I put things in terms of money.  "If you have 7 dollars and you spend 4, how much do you have left?"  works a lot better than "What's 7 minus 4?"  We also use his Funtastic Frogs manipulatives to help him to understand and visualize the problems.

History:  This week we were introduced to Alexander the Great.  "Rupert" had fun pretending to be Alexander while riding around on his stick horse, "Bucephalus", and conquering the Persian Empire.  We also learned how to tie a Gordian knot.

On Saturday, we had family over for an ancient Greek feast and Olympic games.  We had Greek pilaf, cheese, olives, grapes, apples, pears, bread, honey, almonds, spinach, Greek pasta salad, traditional Greek Easter cookies and cheese cake.

We did not follow the ancient Greek protocol for our Olympic games as we allowed girls to participate and none of the contestants competed in the nude.  The events we competed in were long jump, discus throw (frisbee), wheelbarrow race, foot race, and for the grand finale, a foot race with armor on!  The winners got the traditional wreath of olive leaves, fame in their home towns, and room and board for life (okay, maybe not for LIFE...that's up to their parents).

Our Greek name tags:

Science: We learned about our sense of taste and hearing.  We'll do more with hearing after spring break, but this week we watched Bill Nye and did a couple of fun experiments with sound.  In one of them, we made a model of an ear drum, sprinkled salt on it and then made loud noises (beating a pot with a spoon) to make the salt dance, showing the vibrations of the sound waves on the "ear drum".

Social Opportunities: Play practice, overnight at Grandma's (with a little Grandma schooling thrown in), kung fu, playdate with my friend's girls, art day, and our Greek feast/Olympic games.

1st Grade: Week 28 Highlights

Bible: We've really been enjoying the daily devotions at kids4truth.com They have been such a blessing for us. Check them out! "Rupert" has also been reading his children's Bible for phonics this week.

Grammar: We were introduced to three more sentence types this week- the command, the question and the exclamation. "Rupert" practiced writing a sample of each of the four types of sentences.

Science: This week we talked about our sense of touch. We also did a fun little activity where I put miscellaneous items into a paper bag, and "Rupert" had to put his hand in the bag, and determine what was in there by using his sense of touch. We also talked about how sensitive our fingers are to touch, and did the activity again, but this time wearing a mitten on his hand.

Some of the things in our touch bag:

History: We read about the Greeks (Sparta and Athens) coming together to fight off the Persians, the origin of the Marathon run, and finally, the Peloponnesian war. We also played a Peloponnesian war board game that was in our Story of the World Vol.1 Activity Book.

Math: We reviewed our skip counting songs and double and triple digit addition with carrying. After doing a great job on that, "Rupert" asked for a challenge: a 10-digit problem! My little math master did his challenge problem perfectly! We called it our "monster problem", so when he was done solving it, he drew in a monster face around it. :-)

Kung fu: "Rupert" learned more of his double stick form this week. I finished learning it, and I'm here to say, it is tough! Keeping track of what your body is doing is tricky enough sometimes, then adding a stick in each hand and trying to make those do what you want them to...I don't know how any kid would be coordinated enough to get it down. But they do...and he is.

Social Opportunities: We took it easy this week and just had kung fu class, a baking/crafting playdate for St. Patrick's Day, and PE class.

Our St. Patrick's Day craft will grow parsley "hair"

Our cupcakes had rainbow colors inside!

1st Grade: Week 27 Highlights

Grammar: We began learning about sentences this week, and were introduced to statement (declarative) sentences.

Math: "Rupert" has skip counting by 2-6 down, so this week we started on skip counting by 7. I cannot express how happy I am with the skip counting songs we are using. It's right up "Rupert's" alley as he is mostly an auditory learner and has a great memory for music.

History: We read a little more about the Greek gods and the fall of Troy. "Rupert" really liked the story of the Trojan horse and had fun acting it out.

Science: We read about the sense of smell, watched a Bill Nye video about smell, and did a taste test without using smell to see how important smell is in our ability to taste foods.

Social Opportunities: Overnight with Grandma and Grandpa, play practice, Kung fu, peanut butter bear playdate, PE class and art day.

1st Grade: Week 26 Highlights

Math: I made a little math memory game for us to play this week. The object is to find two cards that make 10 when added together. This went over really well, and we played several times on two different days.

History: We read about the differences in values and way of life between Sparta and Athens this week. We also made a "wax tablet" to write on like the schoolboys in Athens had.

Social: This week we had the usual play practice, kung fu, playdate with his buddy, Seth, homeschool PE and art day. We also had a special Caterpillar Cupcake Playdate with a couple of homeschool buddies. We had lots of fun things going this week!

Spelling: This week's words were a bit tricky with double "l"s and silent "l"s as in the words talk, walk and chalk. I thought for sure we'd be spending two weeks with this list, but "Rupert" did fine with them.

Grammar: This week we talked about writing dates, and I showed him how to write some of the special dates we know.