First 3 Weeks of School

I posted briefly a week or so ago about how well school is going for us so far.  Everything is still going very well.  Things are getting even better for me!  I'm figuring out how to get more grading done during the day and I got next week's assignments planned by Friday night this week!!  So, that means I have some time this afternoon to show you some pictures of the kids' work. 


Here are just a few things that Maria has done.  I photograph much less of her things than anyone else.  She does a lot of work, but I guess it's just not as "cute" as the younger ones, so it doesn't occur to me to take pictures.  I did post a poem on Friday that she wrote for a spelling assignment.

This is a sketch Maria did of Mary based on the picture below it.  We try to do art, either instruction or imitation (this is imitation) 30 minutes per day after supper is cleaned up in the evenings. 

Here is a picture of Maria's first science experiment, or model, rather, of this school year.  She is studying Earth Science this year.  This is a cross-section of clay that she took core samples of to see if she could determine the different layers.

And here is her report on this model.

On to Cati...

This is some map work she did...

Cati's first science "experiment" of the year was somewhat disappointing to her because it didn't involve working with clay like Maria, or planting flowers like Matteo (see below), but rather it was graphing.  She is studying ecology for the first part of this year and she had to graph the average rainfall and temperatures of a rainforest and here.  It was great practice in presenting and evaluating results, but that's hard to appreciate as a 9-year-old :)

 

She did a great job, though!

 

Cati's primary grammar program for this year is "Fix-it Grammar" by IEW.  She reads a paragraph from a story 4 days per week and finds errors (spelling, punctuation, etc) and evaluates the use of good verbs, adjectives and adverbs that make for interesting writing.  She also finds the definition of one word per day.  Then she writes a correct copy of the paragraph in her notebook.  She really enjoys it, except for the copying part :) 

It has been really great because it is available as a PDF download, so she can do the editing on my iPad using the Notability app ($0.99).  Here is a screenshot of her first week of work. 

Here is some more science work from Cati.  At the end of each chapter, I have Cati draw a picture as a summary, in addition to answering some questions.  Here is a picture of an ecosystem that shows some of her vocabulary from the chapter:  community, environment, population, abiotic, biotic, niche, and habitat.  I always love her drawings :)

Cati did get to do something fun for science this week.  She made a model of the earth showing how ground water collects into lakes.

In literature this year we are using "Teaching the Classics" (by IEW) to study literature.  For this first month we are working altogether reading some children's stories while learning about different aspects of literature analysis.  So far we have read "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to learn about literary devices like alliteration, onomatopoeia, imagery, and others.  Then we read "The Adventures of Peter Rabbit" to learn about plot and conflict.  We write out the plot on a chart like this, and while we're learning this altogether, we are using that handy Notability app on my iPad again to do it.  Once they start using this for their own books, I'll have them write it out on their own charts.  The third story that we read and are still discussing is "Rikki-Tikki Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling.  We are using it to study setting. 

Since this process of really analyzing literature takes a while, I only plan on the kids delving into 3 or 4 books of their own this way during the year.  They will also choose some other books to read from a list I've compiled and then journal about.  They will make a page like this (this is Cati's):

It will include the title and author of the book, the date read, a picture of the cover, a summary, and a rating based on a system of their choosing.  You can see what Cati chose here:  a different color star for what she thought of the book ranging from "best" to "worst".  

Cati's just so cute with that wild hair and funny face, that she deserves another picture :)

Onto Matteo...

As I mentioned earlier, Matteo got to plant some flowers for his first science protect of the year.  He was studying ecosystems and how different elements work together.  By removing one element of the system, you can hurt the living parts of the system.  We intended to remove light from the system by leaving one plant outside and one in a dark cupboard for 4 days.  Well, the lack of light didn't seem to affect this plant, but since we didn't cover the plants with plastic wrap as we were supposed to, the one outside became wilted while the one in the cupboard stayed damp.  So we actually removed water from the system.  Our mistake turned out to be a good lesson!

Here's the drawing he made of his flower and the layers of rock, sand, and soil that he planted them in.

Here is his sample literature journal page that I wrote about earlier.  I'll try to remember to post a picture of an actual journal entry once they do one.  Right now we're spending all of our literature time working through the elements of literature analysis so that they can move onto their own grade-appropriate books for analysis.  They are keeping a record of the books they are reading.

Here is Matteo studying Latin.

Here he is practicing his math facts with the XtraMath site (free!).  He has mastered addition and subtraction facts and is working on multiplication now.

For math lessons, I used to use a lap-sized dry erase board, but I always worried about the kids writing on themselves with the dry erase marker and making a permanent mark on their clothes.  This year we are using this (free!) chalkboard app on my iPad (can you tell we're making good use of the iPad this year?).  Completely mess-free!!  Here are a couple of screenshots from a math lesson with Matteo.

I don't have a picture, but another thing I use my iPad for is spelling practice.  We use the "A+ Test" app.  I type in and read their weekly words into it and it helps them practice their words once a week.  For their spelling tests each week, they have to write sentences from dictation that test the current lesson's words and reviews old words.  For this I read their sentences into my Voice Memo app on my phone that they can listen to.  This allows them to be independent for this work instead of having to wait for me to read their sentences to them. 


Well, there's a glimpse of our first 3 weeks of school.  I'm planning a post soon (maybe tonight??) of how the younger 3 stay busy during the school day.