Two weeks
Yet again I find myself playing catch-up. We have enjoyed two busy and exciting weeks. We have read two great books, and learned heaps! We visited the Philadelphia Zoo, and went on two local hikes. We have celebrated another year of Ana's life. So exciting!
Two weeks ago, we read the story The Little Red Lighthouse and The Great Gray Bridge, by Hildegarde Swift. This fictional story, personifies the George Washington Bridge in New York City and the little red lighthouse that stands beside it. We learned that the George Washington Bridge gets more vehicular traffic than any other bridge in the world! Pretty amazing!
Our vocabulary words: Girders, Cables, Catwalk, Anxious. The children enjoyed the different voices of the little red lighthouse and we noticed the text size increased and decreased with the lighthouse's self confidence.
For Math we tried our hand at simple multiplication and division problems (if 20 crew men are working on the bridge and five men take lunch at one time, how many lunch shifts are there? etc.)
For Social Studies we learned that it's always good to ask before assuming things have changed. Pride can be good and bad. We learned about New York City and the Hudson River.
For Spanish, we learned transportation words.
Science involved engineering bridges and learning about river ecology. Ideas for bridge building exercises came from PBS Building Big.
In art, we enjoyed the three color illustrations and the repetitious lines used in the story. We attempted to draw night-time as depicted in the story. We created birthday cards as well.
Friday, we enjoyed a visit to the Philadelphia Zoo with Grandma.
Some other books we enjoyed this week:
A Walk in New York, Salvatore Rubbino
My New York. Kathy Jacobsen (almost a Where's Waldo sort of book)
Bridges, Scott Corbett (awesome chapter book telling the history of bridge building)
Building on Nature, Rachel Roderiquez (a left over from our study of Spain, the story of Antoni Gaudi)
Keep the Light Burning, Abbie, Peter and Connie Roop
Hudson River, Peter Lourie
Math again consisted of simple multiplication problems (If Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail gathered 60 blackberries, how many berries did each eat for supper? etc.) We also converted the days for seeds to germinate into weeks and made a bar graph to show which seedlings should appear first. The children also completed a simple garden themed pattern activity.
Our science lessons involved learning about rabbits, and animals indigenous to the English countryside (hedgehogs, for example, are not native to the Americas), and we planted an herb garden from seed. We planted our seeds on Earth Day; that was special. Tristan created a garden journal writing down which seeds we planted, where, and which seedlings we expect to see first.
Social Studies/Geography we talked about the United Kingdom and colored the flag. We already colored the flag of England, the Cross of St. George (for middle ages week) and we colored the flag of Scotland (for Wee Gillis) so the kids seemed to comprehend what was going on with the Union Jack. We looked into Beatrice Potter a little bit. The kids are not as fascinated with her as they are with her characters. We learned some lessons from Peter Rabbit. Responsibility, repentance (seen in the Tale of Benjamin Bunny) and don't lose your head in a crisis.
For Art we noticed Potter's detailed drawings of plants/animals and not as detailed drawings of Mr. McGregor. She was obviously a student of nature. we looked at the action in the illustrations and how the illustrations matched the text. Tristan always pointed out that Peter is shown eating carrots in one of the first illustrations, but the words do not say that he ate carrots.
We enjoyed this week, and read through our entire giant treasury of Beatrice Potter stories. The Tale of Mrs. Tiggywinkle is one of our favorites and we are enjoying reading Dearest Prickles, Walter Poduschka. The true story of three orphaned hedgehogs.
Some other titles we enjoyed this week:
Jo MacDonald Had a Garden, by Mary Quatlebaum (a cute adaptation of the classic song)
Hedgie's Surprise, Jan Brett
Dolphins on the Sand, Jim Arnosky
Two weeks ago, we read the story The Little Red Lighthouse and The Great Gray Bridge, by Hildegarde Swift. This fictional story, personifies the George Washington Bridge in New York City and the little red lighthouse that stands beside it. We learned that the George Washington Bridge gets more vehicular traffic than any other bridge in the world! Pretty amazing!
Our vocabulary words: Girders, Cables, Catwalk, Anxious. The children enjoyed the different voices of the little red lighthouse and we noticed the text size increased and decreased with the lighthouse's self confidence.
For Math we tried our hand at simple multiplication and division problems (if 20 crew men are working on the bridge and five men take lunch at one time, how many lunch shifts are there? etc.)
For Social Studies we learned that it's always good to ask before assuming things have changed. Pride can be good and bad. We learned about New York City and the Hudson River.
For Spanish, we learned transportation words.
Science involved engineering bridges and learning about river ecology. Ideas for bridge building exercises came from PBS Building Big.
In art, we enjoyed the three color illustrations and the repetitious lines used in the story. We attempted to draw night-time as depicted in the story. We created birthday cards as well.
Friday, we enjoyed a visit to the Philadelphia Zoo with Grandma.
Some other books we enjoyed this week:
A Walk in New York, Salvatore Rubbino
My New York. Kathy Jacobsen (almost a Where's Waldo sort of book)
Bridges, Scott Corbett (awesome chapter book telling the history of bridge building)
Building on Nature, Rachel Roderiquez (a left over from our study of Spain, the story of Antoni Gaudi)
Keep the Light Burning, Abbie, Peter and Connie Roop
Hudson River, Peter Lourie
build a bridge with a piece of paper, 5 paper clips, a ruler that will hold 100 pennies
Daddy, the real engineer advised us to corrugate the paper. Genius!
Beam bridge breaks at 40 pennies.
Our suspension bridge holds 100 pennies easily.
Polar bear art sculpture made from recycled spark plugs.
Last week we read the book The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrice Potter. This beloved story has entertained children for centuries. Ana thought Peter would end up in the stew pot each time we read the story. We kept assuring her that he was going to be fine, but she got nervous each time.
Our Vocabulary words this week: Seive, Exert, Implore. We attempted to recall the veggies mentioned in the story after the third reading, and we enjoyed the use of onomatopoeia. Math again consisted of simple multiplication problems (If Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail gathered 60 blackberries, how many berries did each eat for supper? etc.) We also converted the days for seeds to germinate into weeks and made a bar graph to show which seedlings should appear first. The children also completed a simple garden themed pattern activity.
Our science lessons involved learning about rabbits, and animals indigenous to the English countryside (hedgehogs, for example, are not native to the Americas), and we planted an herb garden from seed. We planted our seeds on Earth Day; that was special. Tristan created a garden journal writing down which seeds we planted, where, and which seedlings we expect to see first.
Social Studies/Geography we talked about the United Kingdom and colored the flag. We already colored the flag of England, the Cross of St. George (for middle ages week) and we colored the flag of Scotland (for Wee Gillis) so the kids seemed to comprehend what was going on with the Union Jack. We looked into Beatrice Potter a little bit. The kids are not as fascinated with her as they are with her characters. We learned some lessons from Peter Rabbit. Responsibility, repentance (seen in the Tale of Benjamin Bunny) and don't lose your head in a crisis.
For Art we noticed Potter's detailed drawings of plants/animals and not as detailed drawings of Mr. McGregor. She was obviously a student of nature. we looked at the action in the illustrations and how the illustrations matched the text. Tristan always pointed out that Peter is shown eating carrots in one of the first illustrations, but the words do not say that he ate carrots.
We enjoyed this week, and read through our entire giant treasury of Beatrice Potter stories. The Tale of Mrs. Tiggywinkle is one of our favorites and we are enjoying reading Dearest Prickles, Walter Poduschka. The true story of three orphaned hedgehogs.
Some other titles we enjoyed this week:
Jo MacDonald Had a Garden, by Mary Quatlebaum (a cute adaptation of the classic song)
Hedgie's Surprise, Jan Brett
Dolphins on the Sand, Jim Arnosky
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