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.
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| Sawyer, Great and Awesome |
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| 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.
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| Game of hopscotch |
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| Making boiled cookies |
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| And they look like cow poop! |
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| Making butter (Halloween-style) |
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| It was very exciting. |
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| Bobbing for apples |
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| Pioneer lunch of homemade bread (and butter!), dried fruits and nuts, cheese, and ham. |
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| 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.
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| Using color tiles to work on addition. |
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| Making a graph of birthdays |
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| Fractions |
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| Making an octagon |
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| Word problems in adding time. |
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| Venn Diagram |
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| 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!
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| Sawyer's imaginary world map |
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| Hayden's imaginary world map |
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| Finding Natural Resources |
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| Categorizing the resources |
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| Reading a political map and finding where we live. |
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| Natural Resource Products Scavenger Hunt |
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| More scavenger hunting |
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| Coloring in the regions of the U.S. |
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| Finished map |
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| 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. :)
