The First Weeks of April

The first two weeks of April are combined in this post.  It's really more like one week's worth of school which is why I just waited.  We did a lot of running around these last two weeks, playing outside, going out of town, etc.  

Language Arts:

This week, Hayden's easy reader was "Duke has a Tube".  Sawyer's reader was "It's Circus Time, Dear Dragon".  Below are the activities they did that went along with those readers.  In addition to the activities below, Sawyer also watched a couple of fun videos on the hard and soft c sound from here and here.

Making a sequencing strip using pictures and phrases from the easy reader.

Hard C and Soft C activity sheet

Venn Diagram activity on the hard and soft c sounds.

Hayden made a word family flip book using with the -ole family.  Then he did the
writing activity below in his journal.

After making the flip book, he chose two of the words to write and illustrate.

"mole" and "stole"  

Working on verbs

Math:

Sawyer started adding with tally marks this week.

Worksheet with abacus beads.  Sawyer had to fill in the equation using tally marks.

Hayden worked on "doubles" and "near doubles"

He also started a temperature graph for the month of April.

Reviewing tens and hundreds by adding 5, 10, 15, or 20 to numbers given.

Review and practice of addition equations.  

More tally marks and writing equations.

Sawyer also made an "abacus" bracelet to help with visualizing numbers that
add to 10.

Finished product!

Social Studies:

For our Mexico unit, we read a few books, watched a few videos on youtube, and managed to get in just a portion of a couple of art projects that I had planned.  The videos we watched stemmed from the National Geographic Kids website.  There was actually other information there as well, and I'm starting to find that we are spending a LOT more time finding clips and movies on the computer either through youtube or Amazon Prime or Netflix.  Books are great, but to be able to hear the music, see the people moving, hear them talk in their language.... it goes a lot further, and it gets the boys a lot more excited about each country.

The books we read this week on Mexico:
Viva Mexico! The Folk Arts by George Ancona
Faces and Places Mexico by Mary Berendes
It's Cool to Learn About Countries - Mexico by Barbara A. Somervill
Many Cultures, One World - Mexico by Gina DeAngelis

We started making sombreros this week, but we ran out of paint.  I had no idea how low on paint we were.  Took me till the end of the week to finally go buy some more.  So, the goal is to finish them next week.  They look pretty hilarious right now, but bear with me, and hopefully, the end result will be much cooler.  We are making them out of newspaper, masking tape, modpodge, and tempera paints.  That's it.  Unless we decide to get crazy with pom poms for decoration or something....

Hayden's ojo de dios that he made in the car on the way back from out of town.

The little world beside the month of May was designed to hopefully serve as a reminder to the boys when we will be able to bust up our piñata that we made at the beginning of the school year.  I must get asked at LEAST once a day by Sawyer when we are going to have our party and break the piñata.