Holbrook Heroes: 2015

Friday, November 6, 2015

Sarah Plain and Tall

Apparently, when I said, "next week" I'd post about the two older boys, I actually meant, "next month"! This unit took a lot longer to complete than I anticipated. However, we learned a LOT, including when to just say NO to an activity. Lesson learned. We're moving on now.

As long as it was, Sarah Plain and Tall from the 7-9 year unit of Moving Beyond the Page was actually a really good unit. If you want your kids working on their writing skills, this is the curriculum to use. It is intense! And so many activities to do or choose from. It can be (and was) overwhelming at times, but I think we are all a little wiser now that we have completed two separate language arts units from this curriculum.

Here are some of the activities that the boys did:

- Made book covers using their name in place of Sarah with two words describing the type of person that they are.

Sawyer, Great and Awesome

Hayden, Nice and Confident

- Read the story on their own. Upside down most days.

- Wrote a persuasive letter.

- Learned about connecting two shorter sentences to make one.

- Researched the environments of the states, Kansas and Maine.

- Made a mini Wildflower Field Guide.

There was a lot more than that, but it gives you a general idea of their lessons. Then we finished out the unit with a pioneer party.

Game of hopscotch

Making boiled cookies

And they look like cow poop!

Making butter (Halloween-style)

It was very exciting.

Bobbing for apples

Pioneer lunch of homemade bread (and butter!), dried fruits and nuts, cheese, and ham.

Yum!

Math was more of the same. There wasn't much to get photos of. They get more paperwork and less manipulatives the older they get. So, it's not very exciting to photograph.

Hayden did start the next level of RightStart Mathematics (Level D). He had a lot of reviewing of addition strategies, adding time and perimeter, and adding fractions and money. Sawyer finished his Level B Right Start with measurement, constructing triangles, finding perimeters, subtraction, and graphing. Then he started Level C learning some of the addition strategies that Hayden has been reviewing as well as Venn Diagrams and a bit of fractions.

Using color tiles to work on addition.

Making a graph of birthdays

Fractions

Making an octagon

Word problems in adding time.

Venn Diagram

Addition for Sawyer

Our science fell in line with our language arts unit. The boys learned about mapping, resources, and the environment. They still need a little work on their mapping skills, but they can at least read one now without assistance which is what my goal for them was. In addition, they gained a lot more knowledge about farming and non-renewable resources than most 7-9 year olds could care to have, I'm sure!

Sawyer's imaginary world map

Hayden's imaginary world map

Finding Natural Resources

Categorizing the resources

Reading a political map and finding where we live.

Natural Resource Products Scavenger Hunt

More scavenger hunting

Coloring in the regions of the U.S.

Finished map

Drawing a map of the backyard.

This is really a scaled down group of photos showing all that we did with the science unit. They actually made multiple maps, both real and imaginary. They learned how to identify the different parts of a map (i.e. compass rose, map key, map grid, map scale). They discussed conservation of electric energy and water, and they touched on the individual states of the U.S. and their capitals. This was a great unit! Looking forward to the next one. :)

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Beginning of a New Year

Even though we are schooling it year round, I felt like we needed to do our traditional "beginning of the year" favorites photos. This year, we get to include Riley, which is very exciting for him. Our units of study are taking longer than a month to complete. So, for the sake of keeping the post from getting too long winded (which I'm prone to do), I'm just going to put up the boys' favorites photos, and some of Riley's Letter of the Week lessons. Here we go!

Riley's Letters of the Week
We got through the next four letters of the alphabet: E, F, G, and H. Man, this kid is LOVING his school time. He is one of the big boys now!

Letter E Books We Read:

Ella the Elegant Elephant by Carmelo D'amico

But No Elephants by Jerry Smath

The Ear Book by Theo leSieg

An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper

Letter E Activities

Do-a-Dot activity courtesy of The Measured Mom

Okay, so not an "E" activity, but this was one of our butterflies we got as a caterpillar
back when we studied letters B and C. We let them go this week.