October begins!

October started off with a bang!  The first week included a field trip, a family day in St. Augustine, and a big race on Saturday to finish it off.  Week two came and went before I could even blink...So, as I begin this post, I'm curious to see what all we accomplished when I look back through our pictures.  Honestly, I would never remember anything that we did if it weren't for my diligence with the camera.  Thank goodness!

Language Arts:

Letters of the Week.  Coloring as nicely as possible since we know that we
are making a book out of them all when we are done!

Thinking hard about the "-an family"

ABC Arc in reverse.  We are getting faster!

Coloring Wink, Blink, and Pink (the seashells from his easy reader) to make
into puppets.

The lesson here was to write out his first and last name along with his phone
number.  Then he could illustrate it however he wanted to.  He chose to go
with the backyard swing set, I guess.

Hayden was a little envious of the above mentioned schoolwork.  I told him
he could do the same thing once he finished his own lesson.  So, he did.  Then,
he drew a picture of a place he'd like to go and I had him write a sentence
about it.  

Making words

Working on beginning sounds: W, I, O, G

"Head, Tummy, Toes" activity.  Using the words we created, he had to pick
out the beginning, middle, or ending sound of the word depending on the
brown cue card flipped over.

A little fun with Handwriting Without Tears:  Aim & Scribble!

Look at THAT grip!!!!

Looking up sight words in the easy reader

W Letter Hunt

Tracing sight words of the week.  The start of a sight word caterpillar.

Read, Trace, and Cut & Paste sentences with words from the -an family
along with sight words.

Making word family flip books with the families, -ust, -ink, and -and.

Sight Word Color-by-Number

Handwriting:  lapbook minibooks

Short story, "The Wind and the Sun" by Aesop.
After reading it, we talked about it, and then Hayden had
to color and cut out three pictures and put them in order
to make a Triple Story Chart.

The finished Triple Story Chart.

 Math:

Learning the rules of adding even and odd numbers

Reinforcement Time.

Counting with tally sticks

Putting bead cards in order.

.....and expanding to tally cards and finger counting cards.

Patterns in Counting (the abacus helps to visualize the patterns)

Continuing the Pattern

I can build stairs with my abacus!

Fun Game Time!

Annnnndddd it's another match!

Continuing Patterns Up and Down

Showing amounts by making tally marks

Reinforcement of Writing Tally Marks!

Making patterns with Rectangles

Playing a new card game:  Multiples Memory.  We each had an envelope
with multiples of a number (Hayden was 9s, and I was 7s).  We had to find all
the multiples of our number in the right order.

Learning to use the geoboard by creating different sized squares and rectangles.

Translating quantities (fingers, tally sticks, abacus)

Guessing the number of tally sticks when I add or take away a certain amount
behind the folder.

Science:

We stuck to mostly science the first week of the month:  dinosaurs and rocks & minerals.  I'm finding that alternating days/weeks with the science and social studies lessons works better for us and is less overwhelming.

Just how big WERE the dinosaurs?

Unrolling the measured out yarn to find out.....

Six dinosaurs' lengths measured out side by side

Graphing out the dinosaur lengths

Adding the graph to the dinosaur lap book.

Magic School Bus lapbook on Rocks and Minerals

Making a mini book for the four layers of the earth in the Magic School
Bus lapbook.

Social Studies:

Social studies was mostly the second week:  American History and World Geography.

World Geography books we read:
How to Make an Apple Pie and see the World by Marjorie Priceman
Children Just Like Me (pages on Brazil) by Barnabas & Annabel Kindersley

Watching Yakko sing the Nations of the World.

The painting of the globe (and Riley helped.....taste the paint, that is)

A short story during Hayden's language arts that coincidentally related to
what we were talking about in American History.  This also allowed us to
talk about truth vs. lie, being honest, etc.

American History books we read:
What Does the President Do? by Amanda Miller
The White House by Lloyd G. Douglas
The Lincoln Memorial by Terri DeGeselle
Abe Lincoln and the Muddy Pig by Stephen Krensky
Just a Few Words, Mr. Lincoln The Story of the Gettysburg Address by Jean Fritz