Learning Log 11

For science this week Elsie, Kimball, Anna, and Adam learned about the Pampas ecosystem in South America, mainly Argentina.  They learned about the animals and plants that grow there.  They also finished up the unit study of the Atacama desert and learned about volcanoes and how they work and the pH scale.  They learned what an acid and a base was, and using pH strips, found the pH of various kitchen solutions.
For music Elsie, Kimball, and Anna went to their piano lessons and Bows and Bridges music school.  They practiced their songs on their piano and string instruments.  For piano they decided on a Christmas song they wanted to play.  They also had a recital where they performed at a retirement home their Suzuki piano pieces they had worked so hard a polishing.
For Math Kimball took 4 tests to catch up on tests he had fallen behind on because he had lost his test booklet.  Adam worked on learning the addition facts 4+4 and 5+5.  He reviewed adding 1, counting and writing to 20 and building and saying 3 digit numbers.  Anna finished the chapter where she was learning to subtract by 2.  She reviewed her addition facts and solving for the unknown, and she did some story problems.  Elsie did chapter 12 in her MUS book.  she learned about using the greatest common factor to reduce a fraction.  She also reviewed long multiplication, multiplying 4 and 3 digit numbers, and did lots of story problems. 
For language arts, I read some more of The Four Story Mistake to the children.  I also read a story called Chucaro from the Junior Classics series about a boy who lived on out on the pampas.  We learned lots about the lifestyle of the famous gaucho.  Elsie wrote an article about our family trip to the West Heritage Center for our family newsletter.  She also wrote her weekend story.  She read the book Inside Out and Back Again, which she got from Literati.  Kimball read 50 pages of Harry Potter.  He also wrote an article about an event we did the previous week, and had 2 journal entries.  He did a little copy work for 2 days as well.  Anna learned writing is getting easier for her, and she wrote several long sentences from the books we were reading for copy work.  She also started on her new Hooked on Phonics level for 1st grade.  She learned about the ch, sh, and th blends and read a short story and a recipe she is really excited to try out.  Adam worked really hard at writing his name over and over, trying to keep the "d" going the right direction.  He also played lots of games trying to help him remember the letters and the sounds of the letters.  We played BINGO, musical letters, and we read an ABC book.
For Tech Elsie and Kimball printed out patterns to build Minecraft guys.  They cut them out and put them together.  As a family, we also had a lot of fun at the Family Search building by the temple in St. George!  We learned how to find out who our ancestors were, how we were related to famous people, what percentage we were of various nationalities, and all sorts of fun information.  We spent over an hour exploring our personal history!
For PE, Adam, as well as the rest of the family had a lovely time climbing on Dixie Rock: exploring slots, catching lizards, and climbing the highest peaks.  We also had a fun time at a pumpkin patch, going through another corn maze (this time Adam was the leader), and playing on the activities: slides, zip lines, trampolines, and other fun!  Everyone played hard!