March Comes In Like A Lion

The first week of March for us was a little tricky.  Monday fooled us into thinking it was going to be an awesome week weather wise, but then Tuesday came.  And Wednesday.  And Thursday.  And Friday. Every single day this week was gross gross weather!  We were stuck inside for the last half of the week, and holy COW did we go stir crazy!  I tried to keep things interesting, but I can't deny that our family MUST have sunshine and out-of-doors activities, or we just all go nuts.

So, thank goodness we took advantage of Monday's beautiful weather!  We shirked our normal school duties of reading, writing, and math, and we took it outside.  We begun a new experiment this week of making vertical gardens with bamboo stalks.  Of course, the rest of the week made it impossible for us to continue working on them.   We will start again next week if weather allows.

Distracted by all the earthworms we were finding as we pulled up the plants to move them.

Our biggest elephant ear.  Those suckers were HARD to get out!

The beginning stages of the bamboo structure.

Tuesdays are usually our co-op days, but this was an off week.  Luckily, Daddy was able to take off from work, and we made a special field trip to the zoo.  That's when the weather started turning sour.  But it was still a great day, and we spent a little extra time in the Australia area of the zoo since that's the country we are studying right now.

Heading from the monkeys and apes to see the jaguar and some reptiles.

Watching the ducks and other cool birds.

Koi pond (would've fit in well with our Japan unit).

As you can see, it went from super warm and sunny on Monday, to chilly and misty weather on Tuesday.  From that point on, it was downpours and just yucky weather.  We stayed inside the rest of the week.  And, that's where school came in!

Language Arts

Spelling word practice using the Trace-Copy-Recall activity.

Sawyer working on some letters.  

Hayden does a little research on a favorite animal.

The finished "research" paper.

Sawyer's sight word caterpillar parts for the week.

Hayden making sentences with his spelling words.

Sawyer working in his HWT workbook.

Vocabulary words from Sawyer's Dear Dragon reader.

Matching the post-it note words to the ones in the book.

Sight word hunt on chart paper.  He finds a word, says the word, and then circles it.

Sawyer making up sentences in his journal for his sight words.  I wrote the
sentences, and he filled in the blanks with the sight word.

Working on writing a friendly letter!

Math:

Sawyer and I played some math games with the tally stick, bead, and finger cards.

Sawyer couldn't BELIEVE that I got the better card AGAIN!

Sawyer also worked on grouping objects together in a way so that he wouldn't
have to count every single one to tell how many there were.  First, he had to
guess how many were in the pile.

He kept trying to group them into pairs, which I guess works, but wasn't
what I was going for because it still created too much work for him (as far
as the assignment went).

I grouped them like this, and asked him to tell me how many there were
without counting them individually.

Then he had to show me with the place value cards.
(Baby is trying to get in on the action here).

Working on reflections using megabloks.  

Sawyer also did some work with money.

Hayden started his new Right Start Math curriculum learning how to fill out
an addition table.

He also got a little introduction to different types of Venn diagrams.

Like Sawyer, he also had to take a large group of objects and group them in
a way that he could tell how many there were without counting them.

It took him a couple of tries, but he figured it out.

Social Studies:
We are in the Land Down Under this month, as you know, and this week, the boys had plenty of exposure to some videos, books, and maps.  We haven't gotten into the art and people and music yet, and I'm really anxious to get there, but it's also kind of nice just taking our time with the country.

We opened the newest package from Little Passports, put our passport sticker,
suitcase sticker, and boarding pass all in their proper places.

Then we found Australia on the Little Passports map, our wall world map,
and the globe.

There it is! (It's now become a battle over who gets to put the map pin sticker
onto the Little Passports map.  I also put a map pin on our wall world map,  and
every time, they try to get me to let one of them do it, but I'm not giving them
free reign on my wall with those little suckers yet!)

Our Australia boarding pass got us in to the Little Passport's website where
we played a few games, one of them being a "create your own" aboriginal
print.  That was fun.  All of us did took turns with that one!

Hayden's print

Sawyer's print

Coloring the map(s).

And coloring the flag.

I rented this movie from Netflix.  I saw it when I was a kid, and I remember all
the Australian animals in it, the songs, the suspense, etc.  So, I thought it'd be
good for the boys.  Boy have we come a LONG way in animation!  I forget that
until I see an old movie like this!  They did like it, however, until the end.  It
really bugged Sawyer that it didn't have a happy ending.   Sorry - spoiler alert. 

Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter.  MUCH more entertaining than Dot and the Kangaroo!

And, finally, the books we read on Australia:
D is for Down Under by Devin Scillian
Where is Little Wombat? by Charles Fuge
Read-About Geography - Australia by Allan Fowler