Birthdays and More

This month, we are blasted with birthdays.  Hayden and Sawyer are two of them, and with all the excitement, it makes it difficult for them to stay focused and calm (even without the excitement, it's hard for them to do that!).  But, we got through quite a bit over the last couple of weeks, and this is what the boys accomplished:

Language Arts:

Handwriting without Tears workbook.  Sawyer had to aim for each star and
firefly and scribble on each one.

Hooked on Phonics.  The -an Family.

Riley wanted in on the computer action once Sawyer left it.

Building words.

Reading out loud to baby brother.

Word Dice Game.  This actually was really hard, and I got frustrated with the
fact that we couldn't make words with half the rolls we made with these dice.
We were supposed to only use 3 dice, but I ended up going with all of them.

Matching capital letters to the lowercase letters.

Books We Read - (Sept. 16-20)
The U.S. Constitution by Norman Pearl
We the Kids by David Cartrow
Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss
Old Hat New Hat by Stan and Jan Berenstain
I Face the Wind by Vicki Cobb
Wind by Ann Herriges
Wild Science Projects About Earth's Weather by Robert Gardner

Doing some Reading Eggs on the computer.

Letter B worksheet.

Working on our pencil grasp.  He actually did it right without even realizing
it, but when I got all excited about it and tried to take a picture, he reverted
right back to the old fist grip.  Lol.  Oh well.

Finding sight words in the easy reader for the week.

Handwriting.  Writing words with beginning blended sounds.

Making Word Family Flip Cards with the -all and -ack families.

Oo and Xx Sounds worksheet.  Coloring and cutting and gluing each picture
to the correct side.  One picture he couldn't decide because both sounds were
in the word.  So, he just stuck it in the middle.  :)

Reading the easy reader for the week:  Jack and Stan

Word Family Sticks activity with the -at and -an families.

Math:

Symmetry with Letters

Adding more than two addends

Place Value Activity.  Roll the dice, write the number, and break it down
into tens and ones.

Sawyer learns how to use the abacus.

Hayden's work:  Mentally adding 2-digit numbers and checking his answers
with the abacus.

Even and odd numbers up to 100.

Learning with tally sticks

Science:

We have a lot going on with science these days.  Between the Magic School Bus, Nature, and Dinosaurs, we've got it covered!  

Magic School Bus

Writing in minibooks for the Magic School Bus lapbook on Rocks and Minerals.

 Random Science Experiment

Making oobleck after reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck.  This was actually
a spur of the moment idea.  I felt we needed a break in the daily routine, and this
ended up being the perfect opportunity.

It took a lot of persuasion, but I finally talked the boys into actually touching it!

 Dinosaurs

Mixing up some rocky looking salt dough to make some fossil imprints
for our study on dinosaurs.

Cutting out our rock circles.

Imprinting the "rocks" with baby dinosaurs

The coolest of the dinosaurs.

Finished product.  Didn't turn out as awesome as I would have liked, but
it was still fun.

 Nature

After reading about wind and weather, we made a weather vane.
It worked pretty well.  Until we forgot it outside in the rain.  

Social Studies:

We had a good amount of American History and Geography these last couple of weeks.  Little Passports sent us an envelope full of information from Brazil!  We had a really good time locating Brazil on the map and discovering little tidbits about the country.

Sticking a map pin onto Brazil.

We got a "stamp" to put in their passport.

Trying to solve the word search to figure out what food they'll be eating in
the country they'll be visiting next.

Coloring in the country of Brazil on the map of South America

Inside the envelope from Sam and Sophia, the boys got a picture of a red ukari monkey and an amethyst along with the stamp of the Brazil flag and the map pin for the world map.  It was very exciting!

For American History, we read about the Constitution and how it affects us (in little kid language), and the boys also started watching Liberty Kids, a series of cartoons that feature kids who travel back in time to confront the dangers of the American Revolution.  The show that the boys watched this week was The Very First Fourth of July.  I wasn't sure if they'd follow it well or not, but they really seemed to enjoy it.  So, yay!

Eating lunch and getting smart all at the same time!  (And they're so engrossed
with the show, that Hayden doesn't notice Riley stealing a treat off his plate!)