Weekly Wrap Up #16

This week in first grade...

 In Poetry..

Poem of the week~ If.  I honestly can't remember this poem now as I write this, so it probably wasn't that great?
Poem of the month~  Our last week with It Fell in the City.  Ava started taking the book from me and instead of showing me how she memorized this poem, she chose instead to read it.  Works for me.
Silly Poem~ The Animal Fair.  Ava wasn't thrilled with this poem.  She liked it, but just didn't get into it much.  She chose to draw a list of the animals, the funny things that they were doing and and asked me to label it for her.

In Social Studies....
We finished Wagon Wheels, a true story based on the tales of a young family in 1840s.  Ava and I took turns reading a page aloud to each other.  It was very hard for her to wrap her mind around 3 young boys living alone for months, then traveling on foot for the 150 mile 3 month journey to their father.  We also read Sunset's of the West.

In the Kitchen..

We made playdough! (finally)  Using this recipe, we made lemon grass scented playdough.  I'm almost out of food coloring because of this, so we used turmeric for a nice yellow color.  It's bright, sunny, and the kids Love it.

In Music...
This was our second week of listening, and singing patriotic songs while painting.  Our song this week was America the Beautiful.  And the results were, well, beautiful!

In Art..

We made berry ink!  The perfect ink to use on our "old old paper".  The recipe is super simple.  I used one found here.  It's just berries, salt and vinegar.  That's my kind of recipe.  We found tiny little sticks in the backyard to use as our brush/pen/stylus.

In Art Study..

We explored The Gleaners, by Jean Francois Millet.  Ava said seemed to understand the hardship of these woman.  For the over all painting she said  "I like the blue. Blue is a color that you'd mostly see a lot.  But in this picture it's mostly yellow green, and brown so the blue stands out more.  That's pretty cool".

In Science We..
We had a big shift in science these last few weeks.  (that's the reason we've been growing crystals during science lesson time) I've been trying to decide how to work Cyrus into our science curriculum next year.  We use Building Foundations for Scientific Understanding k-3, and I love it.  We all love it. The curriculum isn't necessarily written for multiple children at multiple levels, but it is very adaptable.  After a few weeks of consideration I've decided to fold Cyrus into our science lessons starting this week.  From this week, and for possibly the rest of the year we will start from the beginning and 'do science again'.   All of this will be review for Ava.  That's cool with me,  it will make sure she's a solid in the foundation as she can be.  It will largely be review for Cyrus as well.  He spent the last year and a half participating in most of the activities, but not really paying attention to the lesson.  (which is another thing I'm cool with)  I have the basic idea of how our review will flow.  I plan on using the library suggestions this time around, as I think they will help reinforce the ideas in a way that Cyrus will respond to.


Over the weekend we played organizational games and talked about categories.  This week in our science lesson we talked about Solids Liquids and Gasses.

In Math We... 
~spent part of our week reviewing
~found the number of tens in 1000
~found the sum of numbers 1 to 10
~advanced to using 'the other side' of the abacus

This was an exciting week for us in homeschool.  Ava was able to skip six lessons in math, as they were subjects she was already confident in. (covered in level A) She thought that was pretty amazing.  Cyrus joined us in our science lessons and was so very pleased with himself that he asked if he could join us in math also.  Initially I rejected the idea of Cyrus doing any more school.  It goes against my ideals that I would have my preschooler doing 'work'.   After a while it dawned on me that if my almost five year old wants to be included in school more, than of course I will accommodate him.  Thankfully we use Right Start Mathematics,  the level A program is very gentle progression into numbers.  A few lessons here and there at his own pace will only serve to strengthen his excitement about becoming a student next year.