Learning Log 17

For language arts this week I read to the children the story of the First Thanksgiving, by Alice Dalgleish.  At the end of the week they put on a play, and acted out their own rendition of it.  Anna wrote down things she likes about Thanksgiving.  She also read some review words and a book called Fred's Red Hat.  This was the last book in the Level 1 First Grade Hooked on Phonics set.  She also reread the book Good Job, Denis to her Dad.  She started on Level 2 and went over the ch and tch blends.  She read a short story called In My Sketchbook.  Adam learned the blend "ig" and read a short book called Pig.  He practiced reading some review words, and then he learned the blend "id" and read a short story called The Map.  Kimball read a long chapter in Harry Potter, and he read some picture books to Anna and Adam.  He wrote 3 journal entries also.  Elsie read about 10 pages in The Hobbit.  She also read about 70 pages in Princess Academy.  Elsie wrote a chapter in her bear story and she wrote a poem about polar bears.  We all concluded the week with poetry and tea.  Anna memorized a poem called The Song of the Old-Man's-Beard Fairy by Cecily Barker.  Everyone else shared a poem they liked and we listened to some friends share their poems as well. 
For our Explorer's Club, only Kimball and Anna were feeling well enough to participate.  We had a very fun time though!  We went to Old Main Hill and found a HUGE leaf pile we played in.  We even played Hide-and-Go Seek in it.  We searched through the pile and found all sorts of different kinds of leaves:  different oak leaves, maple leaves, willow leaves, beech leaves, and even a tulip tree leaf.  As we were exploring we found a rare and small Monkey Puzzle Evergreen Tree.  The kids had a fun time searching for seeds as well:  Honeylocust, Kentucky Coffee Tree, Horse Chestnut, and grass seeds were found.  They also figured out the difference between spruce and pine trees and their cones, and they found cones from a Larix decidua. It was a very fun club this week!  For science, all the kids studied clouds.  We studied the different types of clouds, identified them outside, and made pictures of them out of cotton balls, and how they are formed.  We did experiments and watched water build up and then rain in a container.  We also learned how lightening was formed and did an experiment for that as well. 
For PE Adam had a fun time going to his brother's wrestling match with the family.  He had a fun time watching and learning about the sport.  He also had a fun time running lap after lap in the indoor track they had at the high school as well.  He played games with his siblings and we timed him to see how fast he could go around. 
Elsie, Kimball, and Anna all went to their piano lessons and Bows and Bridges School.  They are working on their challenges the music school has given them and they are all enjoying practicing hard on their Christmas songs they are preparing to play.
For Math Adam did chapter 21 where he learned to solve for the unknown in addition using the math blocks.  He also practiced counting by 2s and reviewed his other addition facts.   Kimball finished chapter 19 and took the test.  He started on chapter 20 where he is learning how to turn the remainder into  a fraction.  He also did some review work on conversions and multiplication.  Elsie worked on chapter 16 in her math, where she is learning to make measurements in fraction format.  Anna learned how to subtract 8s.  She practiced many problems with 8s.  They all learned about a little about money and budgeting.  They counted some of their money and learned what 10% is. 
For Tech Anna learned by exploration and direction the menus and choices on Paint.  She learned how to use the file menu to get a new page, how to use shapes, different pencils, and fill.  She also learned how to add Text to her picture and how to change the shape and font.  She learned how to save her picture, and then she watched her brother put it on as a screen saver.  Kimball and Elsie worked really hard on their Minecraft class this week and they are almost all caught up.  They built their communities in Minecraft, adding signs and buildings and homes.  They did assignments 3.2 and 3.3. 

Learning Log 16

For Language Arts this week we found the book The Witches and I finished reading it to the children.  Everyone loved the ending.  Anna did some reading.  She leanrned the blends dr, tr, and qu, and she learned how to read two-syllable words.  She went over some sight words as well.  She read a short story, some jokes, and a book called Good Job, Dennis by Amy Kraft.  She also worked hard on copying down a poem of 4 stanzas called The Naughty Ones.  Adam worked on learning the blend ab, and he read a short story called "Dab, Jab."  He started learning the blend ig as well, but we decided to continue to review before moving on.  He worked really hard at the sight words has, is and on.  He continues to work at writing his first and last name with the letters going the correct direction.  Kimball read one chapter from Harry Potter.  He also read Calvin and Hobbs to his younger brother, Adam.  He did four journal entries, where he wrote each time a couple sentences about his days.  Elsie copied a poem called Hat, she wrote in her journal several times, and she wrote another chapter in her dragon story.  Elsie also read The Captive Princess and went to a book club about it.  She discussed the attribute of bravery, and fortitude.  She also read about 30 pages in the Hobbit. 
For Math Anna finished chapter 21, where she learned how to subtract 9s.  She also did some review on solving for the unknown, and previous subtraction facts.  She did many story problems as well.  Adam learned how to count by 10s, and did chapter 19 in his primer book.  He also reviewed counting by 2s and some of his addition facts.  He also did chapter 20, where he learned to add by 100s.  Elsie took 4 tests, chapters 12-15.  She also took and one unit test.  Kimball took the test for chapter 18, and finished most of chapter 19.  He learned how to divide 1 number into a 3 digit number, and found the remainder.  He also reviewed conversions (ie from quarts to gallons), multiplication (3 digit by 2 digit), and adding and subtracting with regrouping.  He also did many story problems. 
For Science the kids learned about the Nitrogen cycle.  They acted out different plants and animals and how they are involved in the cycle.  They also learned about how Nitrogen is broken down from the atmosphere (N2) into plant available Nitrogen (ammonium).  This meant they learned more about atoms, and the triple bond in N2, and what compounds are.  They also learned that lightening can split Nitrogen.  We also reviewed the water cycle, and read a story about a drop of water.
Anna, Elsie, and Kimball all worked hard on their music this week.  They practiced their string instruments at least 5 times each, and they went to Bows and Bridges music school.  They also took their piano lessons and practiced as well.  They all had a fun time (except Adam) going to their brother's orchestra performance at the High School. Kimball said he was inspired to practice better.
Adam had a fun time exercising by playing outside games with his siblings and neighbor friends.  He also worked really hard and raked a bunch of leaves for his grandma and grandpa.  He gathered the leaves up in buckets and hauled them to their large garden.  He worked hard and had a fun time in the warmth and leaves.
For tech, Elsie and Kimball worked on their M inecraft assignments.  Elsie turned in her room to scale.  They both built their houses with escape routes out of them.  They also wrote out a map of their community, including a church, business, highschool, elementary school, and homes in our area.  Anna learned how to format in Word.  She followed directions, and created columns, a heading, and how to change font size and how to bold the font.  She did this to create our family newsletter.

Learning Log 14

For Science this week the kids learned about the Carbon cycle.  They learned about long term and short term carbon reservoirs.  They learned about the biological carbon cycle and the geological carbon cycle.  We also looked at carbon in molecular levels and played with building certain molecules.  We learned carbon is in a lot of things!
For history we learned about the story of Aenaeus and his family and how they fled Troy and eventually settled in Italy.  We learned about how his son married Lavinia and fulfilled a prophecy.
For Math Kimball worked on chapter 18.  He finished everything but the test.  He learned how to do some more division, this time with a 2 digit answer and a remainder, and then how to check his work.  He also reviewed how to convert miles into feet and did many conversion problems.  He did other conversion problems as well as column division.  Elsie did chapter 14.  She measured inches using fractions, and then simplifying the answer.  She reviewed finding the area of a rectangle.  She also did chapter 15 where she learned how to change mixed numbers into an improper fraction and vice versa. She reviewed finding the area of a square.  Adam did chapter 18 in his math, where he learned how to add groups of 10s together.  He did this using manipulative.  He also practiced counting and writing to 20 and counting by 2s. Anna started chapter 21, where she is learning how to subtract by 9.  She learned using manipulatives and also did many story problems.
For Language Arts Elsie read the 3rd Harry Potter yet a 5th time for the month.  She also read A Fish in a Tree and really liked it and about 60 pages of The Princess Academy.  She also wrote another chapter in her story about bears and she memorized a short poem called Ridiculous Rose for poetry and tea.  Adam also worked on a poem called A Little Red Apple, but he doesn't have it perfected yet.  He also practiced writing his name and some letters.  He also learned the blend ag, and we worked really hard on learning the sight words and, the, and no.  He read the book Tag and practiced reviewing previous blends.  He started learning the blend ab, but decided to stop and do a little more review.  Anna learned the blends pl, gr, fr, br, cr, and pr.  She read a couple short stories:  "A Bugs' Plan" and "Fran and the Frog".  She read headlines from a pretend newspaper as well.  Anna also practiced her handwriting and did some copywork and wrote sweet notes to people in her family.  Kimball did four journal entries and two copyworks, copying a stanza from Godfrey Gordon Gustav Gore.  Kimball read two more chapters of Harry Potter, where he read about the midnight dual. 
For music, Elsie, Kimball, and Anna practiced their string instruments and piano.  They also went to their piano lessons and Bows and Bridges school.  Anna can plan all the way through Go Tell Aunt Rhody on the violin already.  Elsie passed off her last song in book one of Suzuki and is officially in book two now in the violin.  Kimball is close to passing off several songs on the piano, and is working really hard.  They are all really excited to be playing Christmas songs as well!!
Adam played outside and went exploring along a the Logan River Trail with his friend.  They also threw rocks in the river.  
For technology, Kimball and Elsie measured their rooms and drew them to scale on paper.  Kimball used graph paper, but Elsie used a 1" to 1' scale on a piece of paper.  They have yet to upload them and turn them in. 

Learning Log 12

For Science this week we learned about the tropical Andes and how it contains some of the greatest biodiversity in the world.  We learned about the spectacled bear and the giant hummingbird, as well as some other animals.  We also learned how the mountains were formed.  We learned about tectonic plates, and the scientist Wenger, who developed the theory.  We learned that the Andes Mountains are right on two tectonic plates.  For history we read a selection from The Secret of the Andes from the Junior Classics series. We also studied the South American map and studied where the Andes run, where the tectonic plates were, and how that affected the boundaries of countries. 

For music Elsie, Kimball, and Anna went to their piano lessons and Bows and Bridges music school.  Anna worked especially hard on her practicing this week for violin, and she improved significantly on her Song of the Wind.  Kimball and Elsie also did their practicing for both their instruments.  Kimball is moving along quickly in his piano and is currently practicing Go Tell Aunt Rhody.  Elsie is practicing hard on her new Christmas son, Silent Night.
Adam played on the swings and went to Explorer’s Club.  He climbed a hill, played at a playground, and looked for treasures.  

For Language Arts I finished reading The Four story Mistake to the children.  Elsie read the third book of Harry Potter again (her second time this month).  She also read Jacyln Hyde from her Literati order.  She wrote 2 more chapters in the story she is writing about dragons.  She also started some copy work.  She copied a poem a couple other selections.  She memorized a poem called Window Boxes and shared it at our Poetry and Tea.  She also listened to other people recite their poems.  Kimball read a chapter from Harry Potter and read three children’s books out-loud to his little brother.  He wrote 5 journal entries about things he did that day, as well as doing copy work for three days.  He also participated in poetry and tea.  Anna started some Jenny Phillips handwriting, level 2.  She did several pages, and she practiced writing her first and last name.  She also practiced her reading.  She went over the wh, sl, and sn blends.  She read a short story called Super Chuck, practiced some review words, practiced some sight words, and she read a challenging book called Slim Slam.  This book she also reread to her dad later in the week.  After reviewing the letters and their sounds for a couple weeks, Adam restarted the Kindergarten level 1 Hooked on Phonics.  He learned the at and an blends.  We also reviewed the letters and the sounds they make while playing games.  He read 2 short stories: "Hat" and "Dan Ran". 

For Math Kimball started on chapter 16.  He is learning how to divide with a remainder.  He also did some review where he practiced writing numbers in standard notation and he did some story problems.  Anna finished chapter 20, where she subtracted by 2s.  She also solved for the unknown, reviewed some addition, and did some story problems.  Elsie worked really hard in Math this week.  She went back through her math to clarify on some concepts she wasn't understanding.  She also did chapter 12, where she learned how to simplify fractions using manipulatives.  She reviewed adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions and finding the GCF to simplify the answer.  She also practiced multiplying 4 digit by 3 digit numbers, and she did lots of story problems.  Adam did chapter 16, where he learned what 4+4 and 5+5 were and reviewed some other addition problems he has learned already.  He also practiced counting and writing to 20.  
For Minecraft Elsie and Kimball built paper minecraft guys by printing off the patterns from the software.  Then they cut them out, glued them together, and took pictures of them.  They learned how to take pictures, download them to the computer, and upload them to canvas.

Learning Log 13

For science this week the kids learned that potatoes originated in the Andes and they all looked at a potato and found the eyes in it that could propagate.  Then we cut a couple up, stuck a stick through it and put them in some water to see if we could get them to propagate.  They also watched a YouTube video of Mark Rober about the importance of trees and how much carbon they consume.  They learned how they are trying to plant trees using drones.  They are excited to donate some money to plant 20,000,000 trees.

For music, Elsie, Kimball, and Anna went to their piano lessons and their Bows and Bridges music school.  Anna is learning how to play Cuckoo on the piano.  Kimball is learning how to play Allegretto on the cello and is practicing making good sound when he plays Long Long Ago.  Elsie is on her last song in the book for violin.  She is working hard on Gavotte so she can move to book 2.  She is also polishing up The Happy Farmer.  
Adam played a Zombie game with his siblings and neighbors (like tag).  He also walked all over the neighborhood as he went trick or treating.  

For Language Arts I read The Witches by Roal Dahl to my kids.  We got half way through, and all the kids were entranced.  It inspired Anna to dress up as a true witch for Halloween.  Elsie dressed up as a half-blood from Percy Jackson.  Anna went over the blends sm, sp, sc, sk, sw, st, fl, gl, cl, and bl.  she read several short stories and some directions on how to build something.  She also went over some sight words and read a book called Lucky for Me.  She also reread the book Slim Sam to herself and then to me as well.  She practiced writing her entire name, first, middle, and last.  She also did some copy work.  Elsie read the 3rd book of Harry Potter again (making it the fourth time this month). She also read 10 pages from The Hobbit and about 80 pages from The Princess Academy.  She wrote a couple chapters in her story about bears and 1 chapter in her story about dragons.  Adam reread the book Cat from the previous week and learned the blends ad and am.  He reviewed previous blends by reading words and by playing kinesthetic games to help.   He also read the short stories "Dad Had A Cat" and "Pam and Sam".  He practiced writing his first name as well as he learned to write J and e for Jeppson in his last name.  he had to practice the "e" lots. Kimball read 2 chapters of Harry Potter.  He also wrote in his journal and did some copy work. 

For math Adam learned to count by 2s in chapter 17.  We also sang a song that helped him learn how to count my twos, and he reviewed some addition facts he had already learned.  We realized Anna was behind on a bunch of math tests, so she spent the week taking a bunch of tests (5).  To do so she had to review her addition and some subtraction facts as well.  Elsie did chapter 13 where she learned how to find the prime factors of numbers by either using a factor tree or by repeated division.  She also learned how to simplify a fraction by finding all their prime numbers.  She reviewed adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions and then she simplified her answers.  Elsie also reviewed long division, for example 9442 divided by 53, and did several related problems.  Kimball finished chapter 16, learning to divide with a remainder, and took the test.  He also did lots of story problems and did some review adding, subtracting, and multiplying.
For tech, the Elsie and Kimball worked on mapping out their rooms for their minecraft assignment.  They mapped their rooms and and then scanned, uploaded, and turned in their assignment.