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!

Apples, Apples, Apples!

We got lots of apples when we went to our family's annual apple cider pressing weekend, so I decided to make some chunky applesauce and some dried apple chips. The applesauce came out AWESOME! I followed my grandma's advice and used Golden Delicious apples, and I didn't have to add ANY sugar! I threw in some cinnamon and that was it! As for the apple chips...they are the best kind of chips you can eat, in my opinion. I love having yummy foods that are healthy too!

Crocheted Candy Corns

I get a weekly newsletter from Lion Brand and these cute little candy corns were featured in a recent one. I could not resist! I made several of them, modifying the pattern a bit, to leave a small hole at the bottom so that the "stuffing" could be squeezed out. I bet you'll never guess what I stuffed them with. ;-)

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 9 Highlights

Bible and History went together this week as we read about God's promise of a son to Abraham. We followed Abraham's journey from his birthplace in Ur to Haran, then later, on to Canaan on the map. We also read about the life of Joseph and how God used him to help the people of Egypt and surrounding areas.

Writing: We spent our writing time on birthday thank you notes this week. "Rupert" also enjoyed drawing pictures for his friends on the back of each note.

Math: I've decided to move along in math even though "Rupert" hasn't memorized the addition facts we have done to date. For the next couple of weeks, we'll loosely review addition, then we'll move on. I'm getting more relaxed with the curriculum, and not following it to a T. I think this is better for his individual learning style.

Science: This week we studied skunks and rabbits. "Rupert" especially liked that rabbits have their own version of recycling (eating their droppings until they come out hard and dry and have no nutrition left in them), and that their babies are called "kittens".

ASL: We learned the signs for several fruits and vegetables and for the colors of the rainbow.

Spelling: I gave "Rupert" 2 spelling lists this week, and there was just one word that he needed practice on. The spelling words will be getting harder soon.

And here is this week's Chicken Mummy photo update:

Spelling Games

Dana at School for Us posted this on her blog and I think we'll give it a try next week. Spelling City has all kinds of games you can play with your spelling words. It looks like something "Rupert" might enjoy. Thanks for the tip, Dana!

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. :-)