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!  :-)

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!!

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

We recently finished reading Mary Poppins, and we got the movie from the library and watched it as well. "Rupert" must have been feeling inspired because he went up to the homeschool room and started creating. When he came down, he had this in tow and was begging to go outside and give it a try. Ahhhh...I love this kid's creativity!

1st Grade: Week 11 Highlights

Sheesh! It has been so long since last week that I think I've forgotten what all we did. I think I'll just tell my story in pictures.

Here's the aftermath of our reading time on Monday:

We worked on double digit addition, which "Rupert" picked up on quite easily.

Then there was free creative time, which he LOVES! This week he was working on his life-size ninja turtle masterpiece. He made his goal and finished it by Halloween!

"Rupert" does his copywork twice a week at his little table.

A couple more things he made during free creative time. He was SO excited about Halloween this year and was really into making decorations to put all around the house.

On Friday, we went to the pumpkin patch. I was worried that there would be nothing left since it was the DAY BEFORE HALLOWEEN, but it was wonderful! Plenty of pumpkins, and no crowd...perfect!!

We carved pumpkins on Friday night. This was the first year that "Rupert" didn't mind handling the pumpkin guts at all.

My ninja turtle got to go to the Halloween party/parade at our local library, then after dinner we went to the carnival at our church, and to Grandma and Grandpa's house. He brought home more candy than I ever imagined...enough to give us all a good solid start on the road to diabetes. :-)

I'm sure this didn't help matters. We found this in a Halloween cook book at the library. It WAS good. :-)

I also joined "Rupert" in his Kung Fu class and I LOVE it! I am so excited that I get another chance to train in martial arts. Doing it with my son is so cool. It has always been a dream of mine to train with my kids. Now if we could just lure Daddy into it, what fun we would have!

1st Grade: Week 10 Highlights

I'm a little late, so I'll go ahead and post last week's highlights even though I don't have the picture to go with it yet.

Phonics & Writing: "Rupert" got a letter from his pen pal this week, and, for the first time, he was able to read the entire thing all by himself!! It is so exciting to see him reaching these milestones and really starting to get (and like) this reading thing. We used one of our writing days to write a letter back to his friend. "Rupert" is starting to remember to use spaces between words. That is something that it is taking a while for him to get.

Math: We started learning double digit addition this week. I think we'll hang out here for a while before going on to carrying.

Science: We talked about Dolphins this week and did an experiment about condensation.

History: We talked about the Hammurabi Code. We also decided to make an Egyptian costume. "Rupert" loves costumes and this was no exception. He made the bracelets out of toilet paper tubes and paint, and I made the kilt and belt out of some old sheets, and even though I'm not much in the sewing department, it came out cute, and it was fun! Here he is walking like an Egyptian. :-)

Spelling: This week's words were common words in books, but harder to spell than the previous words we've had. He got tripped up on "are", "was", "of" and "to". Oddly enough, the first time I asked him to spell "to", he spelled it T-W-O. I never would have thought that out of all the possible options, he'd come up with the most difficult spelling of the word.

1st Grade: Week 8 Highlights

We took this week a little easier than usual because we had a lot to do to prepare for "Rupert's" birthday party. "Rupert" wanted to make his own pinata this year instead of buying one, and we managed to finish our masterpiece in time for the party on Thursday. It worked perfectly!

Science: We studied kangaroos and beavers this week. Oooh, that reminds me: we still need to watch the video on beavers that I got from the library.

ASL: We learned the ASL alphabet and reviewed counting to 10. "Rupert" even taught it to his grandma and practiced it with his cousin.

History: This is the subject we dropped this week. We'll pick it back up next week when we have more time and attention for it. We did change the "natron" salt on our chicken mummy though. Here's a peek at what he looks like this week.

Grammar: "Rupert" is currently memorizing his 3rd poem. We are also continuing to learn about nouns and proper nouns. We are moving fairly slowly through this but he enjoys it because the lessons are quick and easy.

Math: I'm trying to decide what to do for math. "Rupert" knows how to add single digits. The problem is that he gets his answers by counting. He almost always gets the correct answers, but he doesn't have his addition facts down cold. I'm not sure if I should keep him here until he learns them (and risk math boredom, which he is already showing signs of), or move on and experiment with the next concept. He loves math, and I don't want to kill that by drilling him to death. Still thinking on this one...

Kung Fu: "Rupert" learned the last half of his new form this week, and it looked so cool, I had him teach it to me. I can't wait until we can take lessons together!

Phonics: We've started working with the silent e. We've been here before, but when we started first grade, I decided to back up and start with quite a bit of review. I think this has been beneficial to him, helping him to gain more confidence in reading.

Music: We finally got a piano back in the house last weekend, thanks to a wonderful friend of mine! I wasn't the only one to be excited about this. "Rupert" loves playing with the piano, and has been really impressed with my playing. For now, I am just answering his questions and teaching little tidbits. It will be interesting to see if this excitement for the piano will last or if it is just the newness of it that he loves. It sure is fun to watch him learn and get excited about it though. :-)

First Time with Modeling Clay

G and I went to the craft store today and ended up with a package of modeling clay. He was excited to play with it and this is his first modeling clay creation...

Creative Love

Here are a couple of things G has created this week:

This one was for me, because he loves me. :-)

And this one is for Grandma because she's always nice to him and he wanted to do something special for her. It's about 3 1/2 feet tall! I'm not sure how she'll get it home.

Artsy Fartsy

I'm feeling rather artsy today. This week we are reading a bit about Mozart and listening to some of his music. Today I thought it would be fun to paint while listening to Mozart. I got the idea for this painting project at Art Projects for Kids . I'm making it a 2-day project, so I'll just post our day one pics now, and you can see our finished artwork tomorrow.

Today G painted one sheet of paper in a single color, he chose blue. Then he painted another sheet with all the colors he wanted. We will wait for them to dry and finish the project tomorrow.

On a side note, it's amazing how G's feet couldn't resist dancing when I turned on the music. I'm feeling a little Mozart aerobics coming on...

Happy Birthday Mommy!

G worked for a couple of hours altogether on my birthday present this year. When he was finished, he presented me with a box full of rolled up papers tied with yarn. On each one he had drawn a picture. I loved it! Here are some of my favorites. They are just too cute not to share.

The stages of plant growth:

Monster Jam...he's never been, but wants to go.
A vampire bat, his latest interest.

Shrek

God...he is big!

Of course, "I luv cats".
"I luv Gezus".

A New Twist on Phonics

I really like the Explode the Code Online program we've been using for phonics. G, on the other hand, isn't so impressed. So, I've decided to mix it up a bit. We'll still do ETC Online 3 days a week, but the other two days we'll get more creative. A few days ago I made up some sight word flash cards and each time G read the word correctly, he got to jump from one stool to another (it doesn't sound that exciting, but G LOVED it!). When he got through the whole set of flash cards without any problems, his reward was a picnic lunch on the living room floor, something he also LOVES. Worked like a charm!

Today, I took those same flash cards and had G write his sight words on the patio with chalk. His idea, and again, he loved it.

Bedtime Drawings

He was supposed to be going to sleep, but couldn't resist the urge to draw. Looking around his room, he spotted his Mickey Mouse ears and he had his subject.

Daniel in the Lion's Den

Here's G's Lincoln log version of Daniel in the lion's den, starring Gonzo as Daniel. :-)

Scheduling

I'm trying to be more creative and flexible with our activities. Running just exactly by the schedule seems to strip some of the fun and spontaneity out of our day. A loose schedule is good and helps us to stay on track, but if that schedule gets too strict, I believe we miss out on great spontaneous learning and the fun that comes with the variety of it.

Today, as a new activity, I took down our December calendar (it's our first day back to school today) and had G put up the January one. It is a pocket calendar so he had to find each number and put it in order on the calendar. I think this will be a great once-a-month activity for him. It seems so simple. Why did I not think of this before? I was probably too worried about staying on schedule. Silly, silly me.

Rocket Ship

We had to buy more paper cups because G has been using them like crazy for his creations. So here's his first creation with the new cups. :-)

Creativity Strikes Again

Last night G noticed that Daddy's watch was broken. The band had come off and all that was left was the face. Daddy had been carrying it around in his pocket so he could still tell the time even though he couldn't wear the watch. G decided he would fix daddy's watch. Using a paper cup, some scissors and some tape, G fashioned a new band for the watch. What a resourceful boy!

Creative Free Time

G is a very creative guy. He gets that from his daddy. They are both on a never ending quest to figure out how to make things. Quite often during free time, G will wander around the house looking for things to use for his newest project. Yesterday the project that came to his mind was puppets. Now remember, he did this on his own with no help from me other than my approval of the materials he wanted to use. He used paper lunch bags, tape, markers, popcorn seeds and mini marshmallows (for the eyes, mouth and nose). Here's what he came up with:

Later in the evening, he used paper bags cut into strips and some tape to make himself into a helicopter. He taped the strips to his head for the blades, then he twist-jumped off the couch so his blades were spinning. LOL!