Madeline Finished

LAST Monday we finished up Madeline and below are the pics of some final projects. I've been blog-absent the past week. :o)

K made this cute little Madeline out of a TP roll and a printable from DTLK's site.


K's lapbook cover...



K's lapbook inside...she learned about symmetry, the body, manners, France and sizes.

D's lapbook cover...

D's lapbook inside...France Facts, Rhyming words, Buildings in Paris, symmetry, manners, Flag and the body... We were at a friend's house yesterday playing and he drew the Eiffel Tower and the flag of France. Wow! He remembered it a week later! ;o) I love when they play/pretend about subjects we've learned about...they are truly learning!!!

More Madeline, Math & ABCs

We've been continuing with Madeline - though D doesn't want to read the story each day, he wants to hear the other Madeline books. Ha!

They watched the movie (with real people) yesterday that incorporated the original story plus a lot of the sequel stories we've been reading. (Madeline & Bad Hat, Madeline's Rescue, etc.) We also read Madeline Says Merci today. It was a book about manners and we stopped and talked about each part. The kid's are learning a few French words this week...including "si vous plait" and "merci" (please & thank you).

K continues to call the Eiffel tower the "Rifle Tower" - makes me laugh and D always corrects her every time they see it in one of the Madeline books.

D studied a map of France today and learned how to read the topography map of France...he found it fascinating. He also learned a bit about Paris, the Euro and what the weather is like in France.

I've been making a few new file folder math games for K to help her with addition. This game came from File Folder Fun's website. She will finish up Singapore Early Bird math in a few weeks and I need some things to keep her busy before moving into 1A. (I'm not sure she'll be ready for it this year or not...)
D began a math unit on money on Tuesday. Today, we pulled out a fun game (found at a thrift shop Sunday :o) called Cool Cash Bingo. He loved it and I love that it's a fun way to count a lot of $ including half-dollars!

K finished learning to write all her uppercase letters Monday and reviewed all of them on Tuesday...

She loves to write and I'm happy with the HWT book! Should have used it for D's printing two years ago! Oh well, I'm learning...

Madeline

Our Five in a Row book this week is Madeline. We've read it before just for fun, but haven't used it in a unit study. D&K enjoyed listening to it today. In the story, Madeline needs her appendix out. When the story was over, both D&K asked if they need to have theirs out. I assured them they are fine, if they weren't they would have really bad pains in their sides. Hopefully, they won't be like this every time we read the story this week. :oS

We discussed how the girls in the book are orderly...their lines to go places/do things and their schedule. We realized order is good and was created by God. D looked up a few verses in the Psalms that deals with God ordering the steps of man and talked about ways we can do what God wants us to do...so our lives our orderly. (Obey God, those in authority over us, read our Bible & learn more about Jesus, etc)

K enjoyed the pictures...The story takes place in France and so the kids found France on the globe and stuck Madeline to it! They also colored the flag of France and colored France in Europe for little mini books to go in their Madeline lapbooks.

The best activity of the day was building the Eiffel Tower out of vanilla wafers & icing!

I would have thought D, being the Lego-Zoob-Tinkertoy-Skyrail builder that he is, would have had the most solid structure...not so, he was more interested in licking the icing off his fingers.

D's tower is in trouble!!! (It fell just seconds after I took this pic!) :o(

The kids colored their own little France flags for the top of their towers (toothpicks & a blank address label folded over). K was so proud of her work!

She really enjoyed eating the top of the tower as a special treat BEFORE lunch today!

Here are all the Madeline books from our bookshelves & the library...I even checked out the DVD of the Madeline movie to watch one day.
I'm finding that our FIAR activites take about 45 minutes. The kids do their independent work (math, LA, HWT, etc) on either side of the time and so far, 5 days into the school year, it's working well. C is getting her fill of preschool shows on Netflix, DVDS or PBS during that time...not ideal, but it works right now. I'm hoping she'll do more indpendent activities (busy bags) as the year goes on and she gets a little older. :o)

1st week!

We made it through our first week of the school year!

We all enjoyed learning about ducks, boats, China and water safety this week through books, DVDs and online videos.

Today, the kids watched a Danger Rangers water safety video and filled out a little book to go in their lapbooks. They drew pics for each "rule."

K's pic for the rule...don't swim alone.


K's pic for...check the water depth before entering the pool. (Notice 1 pool is 10 and the little pool is 1.)


D's pic for...always wear a lifejacket in a boat.



D's pic for...walk don't run near the pool. (Black lines around person are to show motion.)


Kids completed their lapbooks for The Story of Ping. (Printables from homeschool share's website...except the cover. Cover is my freehand in a thin black sharpie the kids could color.)

D's cover...


D's inside...


K's cover...her coloring skills have really improved!!!



K's inside...


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Float or Sink?

We had a fun second day of school getting started a little later this morning after a bike/walk in a nearby park.

We read The Story of Ping again and the kids completed a science activity...




They had to predict which items would float/sink and then figure out if they were right. K surprised me and predicted more right than D!

They also colored Ping's family (a line in the book repeats... two sisters, three brothers, eleven aunts, forty-two cousins etc.). Coloring helped them visualize that there were more than just a few ducks!


They illustrated a poem and practiced drawing "water" using similar lines the illustrator uses. D's is top left above in pic and K's is lower right (she colored a duck outline I drew for her).

K picked back up with 100EZ Lessons. She did a quick review of 1-19 today. She was on 50 when we stopped it last year.

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First Day!!!

Breakfast was our usual first day of school tradition...OJ, fruit & homemade cinnamon rolls.



We took the traditional first day pics and I dressed them up a bit with a photo app.





I love D's expression!!!

We began the day with our Five in a Row (FIAR) activities which included reading our story of the week... The Story About Ping.


The story takes place in China on the Yangtze River. The kids put Ping in China on our globe...



While I was busy with D&K, C colored on paper (& herself). She also watched Word World. She was better than I thought she'd be...there is hope for schooling in the morning this year...hooray!


K busy coloring the China flag...


They love the Crayola Twistables colored pencils! Especially D because he disliked the scratching sound regular colored pencils made. :o)



For the rest of the week, we will read The Story About Ping each day and review & add to what we have learned about China, boats, rivers & ducks.

Our Bible story for the week is about Jonah & obedience as it goes along with Ping (he disobeys authority). We read a few verses from Jonah today.

I really thought I would use Saxon this year since I found most of the teacher guides for pennies at a sale this summer. However, I am sticking with Sinapore because the kids love it and I realized the levels don't match up easily to switch between. So today, they picked up where the left off in June.

After our morning of work, we went to the bowling alley... Fun PE today!


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Delaying the 1st Day

I was tentatively planning our first day of school to be today, but due to some unforseen events we will start on Monday.

I picked up a lot of library books/dvds yesterday about ducks, boating & China as we will be kicking off our year with The Story About Ping.

The kids enjoyed an animal event at the library yesterday, too. The presentation was very fun and the kids were able to see an owl, bullfrog, coral snake, rabbits, tortoise, skink (no typo), and a kinkachew (sp?). They were able to touch/pet each one at the end...even the snake!!!

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