MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 1
This week we will start learning some spelling words, learn about meaning of names, Vikings, pledge of allegiance, look at the U.S. map, and practice reading plus much more.
BOOKS
Some of the books we used this week
This was our first day back to starting school after taking a month off. We do year round schooling but always take the month of April off since we celebrate all of our birthdays that month. She was very excited to start school and learn about Vikings hence the reason why she is wearing her Viking helmet.
BIBLE
Observing and discussing the value of the Bible.
READING
"Dear Dragon goes to the hospital" by Margaret Hillert.
"Play, Play, Play, Dear Dragon" by Margaret Hillert
"Barbie School Days" by Apple Jordan
"My New Town" by Kirsten Hall
"My New School" by Kirsten Hall
LANGUAGE ARTS
Reading her spelling words which I wrote on some index cards and completing the first part of her worksheet.
Observing the picture and then answering some questions about the picture.
Completing the second page of her Spelling worksheet and some handwriting practice by copying a few sentences from a poem.
Had her spell out the spelling words using our banagram tiles then she closed her eyes and spelled out the words. This is the first time we are actually doing spelling words. She really enjoyed this activity.
Some handwriting practice
Practicing writing the letters A and B in cursive
Working on the other half of our spelling word
Doing all the spelling words and then spelling all of them while she kept her eyes closed.
MATH
Comparing different items and pictures
Greater than and Less than practice
Counting the difference between the pictures
Working on fewer than problems
U.S. WORK
Saying the pledge of allegiance and learning more in detail as to what the pledge means.
Made this several years ago when I was first teaching her "Where we live". Found this on 123 Homeschool 4 Me blog.
Learning about the compass rose and locating where we live on the map.
Playing with a magnetic USA Map at our local library
Reviewed our maps, we have always talked about our planet, where we live, and the continents. It was nice to see how she hasn't forgotten what we have discussed.
Looked through several books of Vikings to better understand the way they lived.
Wrote in her worksheet "Leif Ericsson was a brave Viking sailor".
TIMELINE
We added the baby Jesus and Leif Ericsson to our timeline this week. Not in the picture but we also added the "2017" at the end of our timeline. Use velcro dots to keep the pictures on the timeline.
ART
Learning to draw straight lines
Completing some pictures with lines and trying to draw a copy of the picture.
Working on drawing a worm and its reflection or double
Drawing railroad tracks and picket fences
SCIENCE
Learning about "What is a science?".
After learning about "What is a Scientist?" we did the egg experiment mentioned in the book: First Encyclopedia of Science p.7.
We completed our science worksheet, I wrote down all she said. I'll be writing things down for now but as we continue through the school year she will be doing all the writing.
NATURE WALK
Went to one of our local park for our nature walk.
Kids went exploring one of the many streams in the park
They had lots of fun exploring
Looked in the water to find different creatures in it and then they built a bridge out of bricks.
Completed our Nature Walk worksheet once we got home from the park.
VIDEOS
Watched the movies "How to train your dragon 1 & 2" and "Lyle the Kindly Viking" to go with our Viking theme of the week.
Also watched "Shows and Tells" from the Magic School Bus (S3 E6) about archaeology to go with our science theme "What is a Scientist".
ACTIVITIES
Made a viking boat for the kids to play with. They had two vikings from their Tangled collection which went great for this week. Little man has a pirate ship which the kids said goes great for this week, they pretended the pirate ship was actually a viking ship.
Pretending to be a very cute Viking.
After writing a note to Kanani as to why we chose her name we discussed in detail the meaning of her name. She was touched by the words in the letter and was very happy to know the true meaning of her name, "PRINCESS FROM HEAVEN, BEAUTIFUL ONE".
Spelled out her whole name using wooden alphabet beads I got from Wal-mart.
Hid some letter puzzle pieces in rainbow pasta for the kids to search for and place in the correct spots. They really loved this activity and wanted me to hide more items in the rice for them to find.
Went to the library for story time and this week the theme was Mothers
For craft the kids made "Mother's Day" cards and decorated a water bottle with some stickers to place their flowers in, while the moms got to sit down and enjoy a delicious Red Velvet cupcake with some water. This was such a sweet surprise and it was great watching the kids work so hard on their crafts.
This week for our co-op we had a end of the school year party at the skating ring and enjoyed some pizza and cupcakes too.
Our first week back to school and we have enjoyed every bit of it and learning lots of new things. We all enjoyed learning about Vikings and the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance, what our names mean and practicing our spelling words. Looking forward to what next week holds for us.
GOD BLESS!
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MFW: Adventures in U.S. (How I organize for the school year)
MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY
It's been awhile since I've posted anything or even wrote on the blog. We finished with MFW: Learning God's Story and loved it very much. Excited to start our next adventures with U.S. History now. Always loved history and just reading through the teacher's manual and prepping for our adventure has got me even more excited. I've talked with Kanani about some of the lessons we will be discussing this school year and she quickly begged to start. Of course that made me even more excited to start but I really needed to prep and organize everything. Here is how I've organized everything for this school year, of course as time passes things will probably change to fit our everyday learning. Hope this will help you in some way to make things easier for you.
Our books for this school year, we ordered the deluxe package. I've laminated the timeline pictures and the state cards. We ordered the suggested books: Language Lessons and Spelling by Sound and Language plus Singapore Math books 1B and 2A (which is not shown in the picture). Before ordering the math books I tested Kanani to make sure she was at this level just like MFW suggested.
TEACHER'S NOTEBOOK
In my notebook I've organized all the student sheets by week. In each folder are all the worksheets for the week, my plans for the week that I've written down by what we will do each day, and the spelling words flash cards for the week. Also have two zipper pouches: one has the timeline pictures in it and the other holds the state cards.
Here are the two zipper pouches and the timeline. I've laminated everything to hold better or you can say for durability. Got the timeline worksheets from The Good the Bad and the Truth website. For now I printed 8 worksheets. Use velcro dots to put the pictures on the timeline so we can move them around if we need to. Behind the pictures for the timeline I wrote down what week they are for to make it easier for me to know which one we need for the week we are on. For the state cards I wrote the number of when they became a state.
Here is a closer look of how I've planned our week.
Wrote the order of the states out so it would make things easier for when when we start to study the states.
STUDENT NOTEBOOK
In her notebook we will put her completed worksheets, spelling words, her work she copied down, and book list of the books we read together. Also have her Science, Nature walk, and Field Trip worksheets in there.
In her Science Journal section she will have her "Scientific Method" worksheets which I got from Google Document where she will document what she observes and does for her science experiments. Printed some "My Nature Walk" worksheets for our nature walks that I found on Teachers Pay Teachers website. Next I printed some Field Trip worksheets so we could write down what things we learned and enjoyed on our trip, got these on Kickin It In Kindergarten website.
Here is an example of one of the worksheets we completed for two of our field trips. I place the worksheet in page protectors with some fliers we get on our trips.
EXTRAS
We will be practicing our cursive this year, love the way cursive looks and hope this will get her into writing more.
Top left and Bottom Right are some state cards that a friend of mine gave me these awhile ago. I wrote on the back of the cards the name and number order from which it became state on the cards. Top right are state coloring books with facts about each state which we got at our local post office. Bottom right picture are some state cards I got from Target in the dollar section.
On the wall next to our Cock-a-tiel cage is a board with the month and day, where we will have our state card, pledge of allegiance, bible pledge, and christian pledge. Also on the wall is the days of the week, the weather, numbers, alphabet, and some information with our address and phone numbers on it (which is covered by the picture of books).
SUPPLIES/SET-UP
This is the laminating machine and pouches I use for all of our laminating needs. Got it at Wal-Mart and have used it for a year and have loved it.
In our hallway we have all of our maps on the wall, which we all love to look at.
This is where all of our art, school, and office are, educational games, Geo-boards, small books and puzzles, matching, projects, ABC activities, and much more.
Our living room is a family room and playroom. We have an indoor trampoline and a toy box full of different toys on one side and legos on the other. Have several baskets of different animals, cars, and blocks. In the plastic container next to the trampoline is our pretend foods items, with cups, plates, silver wear, and pots and pans.
Another part of the living room we have a shelf with different Melissa and Doug items: fruit/vegetables baskets, puzzles, word puzzle and wooden blocks, our music items, globe, and more food items items like cake, pizza, sandwich, and cookie trays by Melissa and Doug. Next to that is our toy bins, and then a shelf with lots of books, and items for little man and his bucket of super heroes and bat caves. Also have a big bucket full of dinosaurs, kids love all things dinosaurs.
On the other side of the chimney is our library book shelf and on the bottom of the shelf is our puzzles. Kids have their couches in front of the chimney which they move all over the living room. Also have a table which they usually eat their lunches on or do activities together.
This bookshelf is located in our dinning room area, we do most of our school work on the dinning table. All of our school books are here with some games, encyclopedias, kinetic sand, lapbooks, and much more.
This shelf is also located in the dinning room area, here is our Science stuff: microscope, materials for experiments, balance, and etc... Our big jugs of paint is here with a box of stickers, different types of scissors, containers with flash cards, moon dough, and tissue paper. There's also a tub full of materials we will need for the first 6 weeks of school, which I will fill again after the 6 weeks are up with materials for the next 6 weeks. Also have construction papers, and school supply materials like pencils, rulers, glue, etc..
This shelf is more like an educational shelf: manipulatives on the top shelf, educational games, life cycles, etc on the second shelf, and more manipulatives and puppet baskets on the bottom shelf.
On top of the dog kennel (which is located next to the educational shelf is our book basket, and some write on books for little man to use while I'm teaching his sister.
Well here is our setup so far, which is subject to change. I'm so ready to start the new year. Will be keeping track of all we do each week. I'll add a link to each week as we complete them on the bottom of the page. I've done the same with MFW: Kindergarten and First Grade.
UPDATE ON A FEW CHANGES
Moved the shelf with all the buckets to the living room so the kids could play with the items more. Noticed it being in the entry way it wasn't getting much attention.
Moved some of the items (Melissa & Doug toys) from the shelf that was in the living room and put them on this shelf.
All the containers are together in this area and some school supplies for the week are on the top shelf.
Moved the 2 supply carts over to the dining room area since that is where we do most of our school work.
The metal shelf got moved to the dining area next to the bird's cage and moved several games and toys that we don't use often to the garage. In the garage we have a shelf of toys that I rotate for the the kids so that way they don't get too bored playing with same toys all the time.
I like the new set up now, things seem a lot more organized now. Before I had everything in different spots which was a hassle to find sometimes.
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MFW: God's Creation from A to Z (Kindergarten)
MFW: Learning God's Word (1st Grade)
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