Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening, FIAR

The boys had their first taste of poetry this past week as we rowed Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost.  I’d completely forgotten Joe had already been exposed to this poem in Language Lessons at the start of our school year.  He was quick to remind me and also threw in how much he liked it and was happy to read it ‘again for five days’ :-).  It never ceases to amaze me…books that I’m not particularly excited to row always become well loved by the end of the week and hold special memories for me now.  We haven’t read one yet that the boys didn’t enjoy.

 

Language:  Poetry – Alliteration

“The only other sound’s the sweep…”

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.”

 

I introduced Joe to several poetic devices.  The first being alliteration.  He was quick to pick up on it not only in our FIAR selection, but as we read other books and poems throughout the week. 

 

All of the boys thoroughly enjoyed hearing me read aloud from Favorite Poems Old and New, by Helen Ferris Tibbets, each day.  Joe even asked for this book before bedtime.  This was a great book for reinforcing the poetic devices he learned while we rowed.  I plan to add this book to our home collection.

 

Language:  Rhyme

I didn’t have to do much to teach this device to Joe.  As we were reading the book Tracks in the Snow, by Wong Herbert Yee, he picked up on it and pointed it out to me.  A perfect time to bring up rhyming in poetry!

 

Language:  Literary Device – Repetition

“And miles to go before I sleep. 

And mile to go before I sleep.”

We discussed the use of repetition in poetry and how it is often used to get a point across or to make a certain part of the poem stand out more than another in the reader’s mind.  As soon as we got to this part in the poem, Joe stopped me and said, ‘that’s repetition!’, insert big smile from me here :-).  He loved our week of poetry much more than I thought he would—so did I.  I definitely want to study poetry more in our homeschool from time to time.

Joe wrote a couple of his own poems.  One about animals, and the other a winter acrostic poem.  Here they are:

Art

Joe and I read The Snow Globe Family, by Jane O’Connor.  He made a snow globe picture using a crayon/watercolor wash technique on cardstock.  He chose to make a gingerbread house inside his snow globe.  He had fun making it and it turned out really good.

The two little boys made (gummy) bears in a (black craft foam) cave surrounded by (Jell-O paint) snow.  Joe made this same thing in a zoo class when he was four, but with Kool-Aid paint.  I remembered how much he loved making it and since I was reading books about animals and hibernation all week with the little boys I thought this would be fun.  They LOVED it!  All three boys thought the Jell-O paint smelled and tasted so good.  They painted and licked and painted and licked :-).

Top is Jack’s and bottom is Jesse’s.Science:  Animal Tracks,  Winter Animals and Snowflakes

The little boys and I read lots of books about winter animals, hibernation and animal tracks.  I made them snow dough (white play doh with sparkly glitter mixed in) and got them an Arctic Toob so they could make their own animal tracks in the snow, since we obviously lack in that department here in South Carolina :-). 

Joe completed a lapjournal page about winter animals.A worksheet matching animal tracks. A book and worksheets for reading comprehension about winter animals and their adaptations during the winter months.Joe made crystal snowflakes using Borax.  We’d never done this but it had been on my list since our first year of homeschool.  All of the kids enjoyed watching the crystals form.  They formed so fast.  We started the experiment after lunch and by supper time they were huge!   This was fun. This was such a fun week.  Our activities were simple, but we enjoyed them so much.  My goal was to simplify our rows in certain areas this quarter to lessen my load in prep.  I was worried that may take away some of the fun for the boys, but it definitely hasn’t, and it has helped me immensely!

*Inspiration, ideas and printables for this row can be found at:

• Five in a Row Volume 1 manual
• Homeschool Share’s Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening printables
• Delightful Learning’s Stopping By Woods row—ideas for poems and link for animal tracks match pdf
• What the Teacher Wants—snow globe art project
• Steve Spangler Science—Borax Snowflakes
• Snacks and Stories—Jell-O paint recipe
• How and Why Animals Prepare for Winter book and go along worksheets from teacher's manual 

 

The Grades Are In

This is the first year of our homeschool that I am giving Hanna regular grades, tests and a report card.  This is actually the first year in all of her schooling to do any of these things since she always attended Montessori school.  I want to hold her accountable, have her used to meeting deadlines, taking tests and being issued grades well before she gets to college.  She’s done well with all of it. 

I issued her first report card for this school year last week. 

A/B Honor Roll :-).  I think she did a great job and I am very proud of her!  So happy to be her teacher and so happy to spend this time with her, with all of my kids each week.  It is amazing to teach them, watch them learn and learn with them.  I never in a million years thought I would be on this journey, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

US History Reading Log, 7th Grade, 2011-2012

Hanna has been reading lots of books this school year for history in addition to the History of US series by Joy Hakim.  (This year we are covering Volumes 1-5 of this series and will complete the remaining 5 volumes next school year.)  I want to keep a log of all that she’s read this school year for history for future reference.  I'll come back to this post throughout the year as she finishes more books.  These are both fiction and nonfiction historical reads.  She’s enjoyed all of them so far.

Here is her log:

• Double Life of Pocahontas
• Sign of the Beaver
• Witch of Blackbird Pond
• Calico Captive
• Johnny Tremain
• Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
• Ben and Me
• Night Journeys
• Nayu Nuki
• A Gathering of Days
• Amos Fortune, Free Man
• A Lantern in Her Hand
• Laddie

I am so pleased with this series of history books.  I purchased a curriculum guide with tests for each volume and project ideas from Hewitt Homeschool.  I am using the syllabus for completing each book in the volume from lovetolearn.net. 

Corduroy, Before Five in a Row

January 2-6th  We had a very fun time with Corduroy this week.  By the end of the week I was actually sad to end our time with this selection.  I will always remember our time rowing this book anytime I see it in the future.  This was the first row Jesse participated in.  He has come a very long way since the beginning of December.  He has gone from listening to only a few pages of our book(s), or listening from afar (at a nearby table while playing with trucks or trains), to running as fast as he can to the couch (while his chubby little cheeks and fluffy hair bounce) when he hears me say ‘it’s time for our book’ and listening to the whole story.  He asks almost daily now for ‘cool stuff’—school stuff.  This week it was wonderful to see my boys around the table together.  Homeschool was truly all I hope it to be every day this week.  It was a week where everything clicked and we had so much fun.  We are able to do our school now in one session instead of a morning and late afternoon session and this is like new found freedom for me.  I absolutely love having our school done and our late afternoons free for playing, outings, errands and so forth.

I used the Before Five in a Row manual for Jack’s and Jesse’s activities and a unit from Teachers Pay Teachers for Joe.  This was perfect to bridge the gap for Joe and make this a unit I could use with all three boys at the same time.

Language Arts

We discussed feelings and the way they can change.  We used Corduroy as an example and Joe wrote and illustrated a paper about Corduroy and how he changed from the beginning of the book to the end. There was a Teddy Bear Questionnaire and Joe got to use his very own Ted to complete this one.

Joe also completed a fact or opinion activity about bears in general.  This was his first experience differentiating between fact and opinion.  I thought he’d ace it, but it was actually quite challenging for him.  We will be doing more fact and opinion activities very soon for reinforcement.

Manners

Jack and I spent time throughout the week talking about manners using examples of Lisa from the book.  I always love it when we are out and about and one of our lessons from FIAR is remembered, demonstrated and/or talked about by one of the boys.  Jack pointed out each time he remembered to say please, thank you, etc., all week long.

Math

Jack, Jesse and myself spent time on simple math lessons from the BFIAR manual.  I was so excited by how enthusiastically Jesse participated in each activity while we were still on the couch using the book.  He is doing so well and his attention span has grown lots in the last six weeks.

Jack sorted buttons by color and then we counted them together.  They also strung them on pipe cleaners. On a different day of the week they sorted and counted our counting bears.  While they did this, Joe used our Education Cubes to play a place value game with the counting bears.  First, he separated the bears into three different baskets—big bears (hundreds), medium bears (tens) and small bears (ones).  He would roll a cube then choose the number on the cube for hundreds, roll again for tens, and one last roll for ones.  He completed a place value worksheet to go along with the game.

Joe had fun with ‘Teddy Bear Measurements’, again using his own Ted.  He measured Ted using a ruler, paper clips and duplos.

Science

Joe read several nonfiction books about bears throughout the week.  I checked out a variety of bear books and let him choose his favorites.  He chose polar bears and grizzlies.  He completed a short writing prompt on polar bears.  He did another sort on grizzlies, but I forgot to take a picture of it. We did a fun experiment with gummy bears.  Before we conducted the experiment, Jack and Jesse did more sorting and counting and a little tasting too :-).  I love these pictures of my handsome Jack.  He looks so happy. Jack lasted much longer sorting and counting his gummy bears.  I pulled out some lacing cards for Jesse and he was concentrating hard.  I love the look on his face in these pictures.

We put one gummy bear in salt water and one gummy bear in plain water.  Joe said he thought when we looked at them the next morning they would have both dissolved.  Surprise! The gummy bear on the left was the one in the plain water and the one on the right was in the salt water.  I explained to him that the salt caused the gummy bear to ‘dry out’ a bit even in water.  This stopped it from being able to absorb water and expand.  The gummy bear on the left absorbed water which made it grow.  Jamie actually explained this to Joe, not me, and did a much better job than I’ve done here :).

Art

Jack and Jesse did some simple arts and crafts making cotton ball polar bears and Corduroys out of cardstock.  (Top Polar bear is Jesse’s and bottom is Jack’s.  Left Corduroy is Jesse’s and right is Jack’s.) Joe drew a bear following instructions from an online art lesson at Art Projects for Kids.  He did a great job! Savings and Paying Tithing

One of the lessons from the BFIAR manual was about saving money.  Lisa used money she’d saved at home in her own piggy bank to buy Corduroy.  I talked with Joe and Jack about saving money they earn and paying tithing on it first and foremost.  We read about the importance of paying tithing in the scriptures and played a matching game about what our tithing is used for. 

I gave each of them their own bank.  Joe immediately got his money and counted it out to put in his bank in the right places—savings, fun money and tithing.  Hanna has a bank similar to this and Joe was so excited to have one of his own. Jack has been asking to do chores and jobs all week to earn money for his little bank.  I made a job jar for him over the weekend and will give it to him Monday so he can have real chores to earn money from.  I know he’ll be excited about this.  He told me he is saving for a new Build-A-Bear :).

And, I made the kids a cute Polar bear treat that they all ate right up.

We had a wonderful week learning together.  It was a great start back to school after our Christmas break. 

*Ideas, inspiration and printables for Corduroy can be found at:

• Before Five in a Row Manual
• What the Teacher Wants Bears/Corduroy Unit at Teachers Pay Teachers
• Draw a Bear Lesson from Art Projects for Kids
• Cotton ball Polar bears from Kids Soup
• Yummy Gummy Bear experiment from A Survival Guide to Middle School
• Polar Bear treat from Snacks and Stories
• Education Cubes and inserts from Mama Jenn