Weekly Wrap Up #13

This week in first grade...

 In Poetry..

We read from  Read Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young for our weekly choice, and began a selection from In Winter for our poem of the month.  Both poems talk about snow, something I'd very much like my children to see someday. Our Silly Poem this week was a variation on the BINGO song.  Instead of drawing a picture Ava chose to write a story.  This has been her newest passion.  I just Love her writing so much, I can not even say.

In Social Studies....

Social studies was skipped big time this week.  I have a project in mind that will hopefully help illustrate the concept of globe to home, ie, earth, continent, country, state, county, city, home.  Maybe we'll get it this week end?  If we do, I'll edit this post and add pictures.  We'll see.

In the Kitchen..

This week we made butter.  Not a new activity for us, but we did try something completely new...  Ava used her new (Santa gifted) butter molds.  She has wanted to make beautiful shapes with our butter since she heard how Ma made floral shapes in Little House in the Big Woods.  The silicone mold was very successful, we are still working out the kinks with the old fashion butter press.  I'm not sure if we should ever use the antique butter press.

In Music...

We have started talking about the classification of musical instruments.  This week we started with The Brass Family.  Using these little nomenclature cards, google, and youtube we were able to have a nice comprehensive discussion. 

In Art..
We stamped with celery!  (thank you pinterest)  The result is a large floral shape print, perfect for our Spring binder covers.

In Art Study..

We explored The Artist in his Museum, by Charles Wilson Peale.  Ava was pretty enthusiastic about this painting.  She said "It's kinda cool.  Because how could he keep his hand so steady to make those little tiny details?  And it's kinda not cool, because you know how I like light things?  Things that have a lot of bright colors?  This is full of dark colors."  Maybe it was the freshness of being back after a long break, but she was very excited about studying this painting.  I think it also had a lot to do with the fact that there are so many interesting things going on.  Taxidermy,  a mastodon, and a wall of paintings to name a few.

In Science We..
We started to work with Ava's new crystal growing kit.  First up getting familiar with our kit.  We are starting our first experiment this afternoon making stalagmites.  More on that later!

In Math We... 
We started the week with some math games to get us back on track.  I love these games, almost as much as she does.

I also laminated our math practice sheets, for easier use.  (laminating is very very fun).
We only had one official math lesson this week, which Ava rocked.  I so enjoy seeing her work out puzzles.  This week we
~review the value of a penny and a nickle
~value of a dime as 10
~learn 100 cents equals 1 dollar
~solve coin and story problems

This week is our first official week back, and it was not with out its set backs.  We all suffered from various ailments.  (which impeded motivation)  But I was so very please with the quality of work that we did get done.  My goodness.  I LOVE homeschool.