It's back to the grind, now that Thanksgiving is over....These holiday weeks sure are a mental teaser! However Peter has started with renewed energy and vigor! He has some aggressive goals, and so far this week, is working hard on following through. For his math, he took his chapter 22 test, as well as a unit test. He did well on both. He also started chapter 23, and did most of that chapter as well. He is learning how to add polynomials, and how to build them as well. He is also reviewing finding the surface area of cubes and pyramids. Elsie started and finished chapter 23, and just needs to take the test. She is dividing single digit numbers into 4 digit numbers. She also did several word problems and conversion problems as well. Kimball did chapter 17 where he learned to count by 7s. He also reviewed solving for the unknown in multiplication problems, regular multiplication facts, and greater than/less than problems. Anna worked on chapter 3, which was mostly review. She is reviewing what numbers the math blocks represent. She is also reviewed writing to 20.
For Language arts Peter finished reading his book about the Periodic Table. He said it was a tedious book, and is glad to have it done for his Pyramid Project class. He also wrote a concrete poem of a birdhouse and other types of poems with different rhyming schemes. He also prepared for and did a debate about snickerdoodles vs. chocolate chip cookies. Kimball read several Dr. Seuss books and lots of scriptures. He is really loving reading the scriptures from his new MP3 player. He also did several pages of handwriting. Elsie read about 70 pages of The Railway Children. She also practiced her cursive handwriting and started a new story about a girl in France during WWI. She is using information she learned and read about a month ago. She studied various French names, French maps, and has a good outline going for her. Anna read another chapter of her primer book. She is reading better and better. she learned the blends "ay", "th", and the long i. She also learned the sight word "do". I also finished reading Pilgrim's Progress to the children. We all loved it and refer to it often!
For science, Peter did a short crime scene of a bank robbery for his Forensic class. He took sketches and made diagrams of the scene. other groups took fingerprints and photos. He also worked on a science fair project with a friend. They are building a boat with a motor and looking how weight and aerodynamics effect speed. Elsie and Anna made outside observations as the weather changes. She noticed certain true bugs on a tree trunk. some of them had frozen, but they hung out mostly at the base of the tree. She wondered if it is the warmest spot there? Kimball watched a Labrakazam about the food web. He learned about what is at the base of the food web, and what top predators are.
For Tech, Peter built his room in Minecraft and attached it to a building he had previously built. He also worked on turning in all his assignments he has done so far. All the children had a good lesson on business this week as they helped clean and make repairs on a rental home we own. We talked about how an entrepreneur can sell a product or service, but that renting was another branch of business as well. We learned the positives and risks associating with renting, not just homes, but any product.
For their music classes, the kids started getting ready for their Christmas recital for Bows and Bridges. They are working hard to polish their songs. Peter is trying to get Gavotte all ready for the viola and Short Story for the piano - it's crunch time for sure for him! Elsie is working on her Minuet 2, and will be playing Etude on the violin. For the piano she is playing Musette. Kimball is playing Cuckoo for the piano and still deciding on the cello. He is continuing to practice Go Tell Aunt Rhody. Anna will be playing her Twinkle songs on both the piano and violin. It is a swarm of sounds at our house with various instruments going all at the same time as they practice and polish their songs.
We are also having a lot of fun learning about the states. We finished learning about the Southwest states, and are learning a song from the Animaniacs that has all the states and their capitals. We learned about the Anasazi Indians from Arizona, and that the southwestern states were aquired from Mexico after the Mexican American War.
In Spanish we also learned how to respond to questions like "Puedes caminar?" or "Can you walk?" this is good exercise in learning to conjugate verbs, and review the verbs we have already learned.
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