Learning Log #1-3

We started the week with a party, and the school fairy came to our house and left the all the kids with lunch box foods and their new curriculum and books.  They also had packages arrive from Literati and they got to pick the books they wanted to keep and read them.  It was a fun beginning!

As a group, we discussed how it takes good character to make a good writer. For Language Arts, Anna started her new reading curriculum, Hooked on Phonics.  She started with the Kindergarten level and is loving reading!  She went through 7 lessons, did some review, and read several short books.  She reviewed some helper words, and blends such as ag, am, ab, and ab.  She is working hard at distinguishing her b's and d's.  She also did some copy work and copied a poem about being obedient and another psalm.  Anna also worked on memorizing a poem for poetry and tea.  She recited it perfectly during our tea and earned 50 cents.  Adam also started on Hooked on Phonics.  He is learning the capital letters and learned A-G.  He is learning their sounds and going over how to write them as well.  He also is working on the nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle.  He almost has it down.  Mom also read out-loud to Anna and Adam their new Literati books.  Kimball really enjoyed his literati package, and kept all of the books.  One was a picture book called Flying Deep, about the deep sea.  He also read another book called Ratsos that was about 55 pages.  He also persisted and read another book called The Hartwood Hotel.  It was 152 pages.  He did not love it, but he was determined to finish it.  He was quite the reader this week!  He also wrote in his journal three times (3 sentences each time) and copied another stanza of Godfrey Gordon Gustov Gore.  Elsie read 5 books of Wings of Fire, a series.  She also started reading a book called Turtle in Paradise.  She wrote and brainstormed about things that light her up.  She took those things and wrote a beautiful poem with them.  She also copied a poem and started working on memorizing it, it is called The Song of the Blackberry Fairy by Cecily Barker.

For math Anna finished chapter 15, which went over what adds to 10.  She also reviewed other addition facts and did some story problems.  For math Kimball did 2 chapters.  He finished chapter 6, dividing by 9s.  He also did chapter 7, where he learned to find the area of parallelograms.  He also reviewed his division facts, solving for the unknown, and adding and subtracting with regrouping.  Adam loved his math and flew through the first 8 chapters.  He learned about number recognition and how to recognize triangles and rectangles.  Elsie did chapter 7 and took the test.  It was about learning to tell which fractions were greater than and less than and also how to cross multiply fractions to find a common denominator.

For Science we started our new Ecology book The Wonderful Workings of Planet Earth.  We learned about the different levels of ecological organization: bioshpheres, biomes, ecosystems, communities, populations, and individuals.  We also learned abut different biomes.  We learned about food chains, and the difference between and food chains and food webs, and what apex predators and producers are.  Elsie and Kimball took great notes and copied pictures into their new research journals.

For history we started a unit study on ancient Egypt.  We learned about King Khufu and his building of the great pyramids and the kind of ruler he was.  We also went over the beliefs and God's of the Egyptians, and the social classes the Egyptians were divided into.

For tech, Elsie and Kimball got on Mindcraft and got to know the software.  Kimball started building his house, a skyscraper and he built a house of magma and a house of diamond.  Elsie built houses and started building a roller coaster.  Anna got onto code.org and finished the first level from there.  She also watched a couple videos and learned about internet safety. 

The kids all started taking piano lessons with a new teacher.  They all worked on a scale and chords to practice.  They each have a suzuki piano piece they are working on, and another they are polishing.  They all are also playing a song of their choosing to work on.  Kimball decided to learn Duck Tales.  Elsie decided to learn Consider Yourself.

For Adam's physical exercise he played tag outside and practiced writing his bike.  We also went to Willard Bay and he played in the water and practiced kayaking.