Weekly Wrap Up #9

This week in first grade...

In Poetry..
This was our first week with our poem of the month.  We are back to using one of my favorites, Swing Around the Sun.  Our poem of the week was a Jack Prelutsky classic.  This week's silly poem activity Ava chose to write her own short story using writing prompts, and the poem as inspiration.  This was the first week she's chosen this option, usually she chooses drawing.  I was delighted with the change, and the chance to hear her tell a story using prompts.

Seven Monkeys

Seven monkeys were hopping along.
Then they threw their sticks down and started swinging on a gate.

They didn't know who's gate it was, but they knew it belonged to somebody. 
They didn't know why they were swinging on a gate.  They were just having fun.
They could hear someone opening the door.
They saw the person's face, and she looked mad.
They ran away covering their ears so they couldn't hear her saying
"Stop Climbing On My Gate!"

In Social Studies....
We explored Australia!  We are very fortunate that my in-laws recently hada trip to Australia, they were able to bring back lots of fun things to explore for continent box.  I was equally fortunate to find this fabulous story book, Are we there yet? by Alison Lester at our library for fifty cents.  Are we there yet? is a family's real life account of their three month journey exploring Australia.

 

In the Kitchen/ Music..
This week we had some of our family stay with us.  We traded kitchen and music fun for cousin fun.
Totally worth it.

In Art..
We made Australian Aboriginal Bark Paintings.  We used this as our guide, and paper bags as our 'bark'.  We had such a good time, and the kids really got into it.

In Art Study..

We explored New York Waterfront by Stuart Davies.   Ava enjoyed this painting much more than I thought she would.  "It's cool.  I've never seen anything like it before.  It's really really interesting.  It reminds me of driving in San Diego, going to the farmer's market and watching everything out the window go by"  Maybe my girl has a little abstract in her after all.

In Science We..
Discussed sound, vibrations, and energy.  We used marbles on a strip of molding to demonstrate how sound vibrations travel through the air.  As always, Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding took something abstract, or complicated and made it hands on, fun, and clear.  I LOVE this book.

In Math We... 
~Played games
~Worked with manipulating right triangles
~Covered the concept of 'practice for accuracy'
~Started work with our addition facts sheets
~Experienced trading with our base ten cards

We were so blessed to be able to spend time with one of my sisters and her children this week.  Her daughter is about the same age as Ava, and she enjoyed going to "school" with us for a bit.  It was a pleasure having her.