What We Studied
We managed to cover a lot of ground in a week shortened by two field trips.
Literature and Poetry
We started another read about this week. The original language arts curriculum did not have enough read alouds for how fast we actually read in this house. So I ended up adding about 7 more to the list. This one is one of the Rick Riordan imprints for Disney and features Navajo character and myths. This will fit in nicely with our history unit on Cahokia and the Ancient Puebloans in two weeks.
Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
Hidden City: Poems of Urban Wildlife by Sarah Grace Tuttle
10 Minutes a Day Spelling
Math
We’re still working through Unit 3 about multiplication and division. We’ll be staying here for another few weeks to gain some mastery.
Singapore Math Common Core Edition 3A
Peg + Cat: The Big Dog Problem by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson
Peg + Cat: The Pirate Problem by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson
Peg + Cat: The Race Car Problem by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson
Social Studies
We covered The Crusades for world history this week. Not the nicest of topics, but it was important for Medieval History.
DK Timelines of Everyone
When on Earth
DK History
DK Castles and Knights
DK Eyewitness Knight
Arthur Independent Time
To allow for one-on-one time with Quentin, I have added an hour of independent work time for Arthur. Each week, he will have a mix of packet work (mostly grammar and math review), independent reading time, and special projects. Many of his projects will be aligned with our literature selections (some taken from B&R Language Arts curriculum) and history. This week, he focused on
Science and STEAM Coop
We finally started our big dinosaur unit. I bought the Blossom and Root Prehistoric Unit to give us a basis. From there, we are accelerating a few weeks and slowing down for a few weeks.
D is for Dinosaur: A Prehistoric Alphabet by Todd Chapman and Lita Judge
Dinosaurs! by Gail Gibbons
Dinosaur Tracks by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
The Street Beneath My Feet by Charlotte Guillain
Fossils by Ann O. Squire
Everything Awesome About Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Beasts by Mike Lowery
The Story of Life: Evolution by Katie Scott
Life: The First Four Billion Years by Martin Jenkins
Grandmother Fish: A Child’s First Book of Evolution by Jonathan Tweet
Annabelle and Aiden in The Story of Life by J.R. Becker
When the Whales Walked and Other Incredibly Evolutionary Journeys by Dougal Dixon
Prehistoric: Before the Dinosaurs by David West
DK Prehistoric
Prehistoric by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
Art/Music
Nothing this week
Quentin
I have scheduled at least four 1-hour time blocks for one-on-one time with Quentin. I bought Blossom and Root’s Early Years Volume 2 curriculum to use as our base. I love the variety of activities and some of the bigger projects included. For ELA, we continued our big overview of the alphabet. We covered more counting and some basic math concepts as well as simple map skills. And we had some puzzles to round out the week. We also started a big unit on transportation.
ELA
Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers
My “o” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
Oliver Otter’s Own Office by Barbara deRubertis
My “p” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
Polly Porcupine’s Painting Prizes by Barbara deRubertis
Math
Other
Let’s Go ABC! Things that Go, from A to Z by Rhonda Gowler Greene
On the Move
Fast and Slow by Britta Teckentrup
Little Kids First Big Book of Things that Go by Karen de Seve
Calling All Cars by Sue Fliess and Sarah Beise
Two Tough Trucks Get Lost by Corey Rosen Schwartz
Muddy, Mud, Bud by Patricia Lakin
Toot Toot Zoom by Phyllis Root
Trucks Roll by George Ella Lyon
Tow Truck Joe by June Sobel
Trucks Zooming By by Pamela Jane
Trucks Go by Steve Light
Go! Go! Go! Stop! by Charise Mericle Harper
Twinkle Twinkle Little Car by Kate Dopirak
Field Trip
We had two great field trips this week. On Tuesday, we headed to Arbor Day Farm for a guided field trip about animals and the forest. After the guided portion, all the kids had a ton of fun playing and exploring. On Friday, we headed to The Durham Museum for a transportation theme tour. We learned about moving to Omaha, homes throughout the ages, and train travel. The kids loved hanging out the various train cars and learning the various parts.
Documentary Selection
I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. We didn’t actually watch anything this week, but made up for it by all the PBS Eons videos for our dinosaur unit.
Misc. - Random picture books read
Letter Town by Darren Farrell
Leif and the Fall by Allison Sweet Grant and Adam Grant
Nothing Fits a Dinosaur by Jonathan Fenske
Fall Leaves Fun by Martha E.H. Rustad
Windows by Julia Denos
It’s So Quiet by Sherri Duskey Rinker
Monster Hug by David Ezra Stein
Ty the Dinosaur and the Substitute Teacher by Marcus Tallberg and Jill C. Faulkner
There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves by Lucille Colandro
Gus, the Dinosaur Bus by Julia Liu
Dinosaur Roar! by Paul Strickland
Lucky Leaf by Kevin O’Malley
Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
Zero is the Leaves on the Tree by Betsy Franco
Regina is NOT a Little Dinosaur by Andrea Zulli
In the Leaves by Huy Voun Lee
Highs
Not exactly a high point as it’s not much fun, but we did get our flu shots taken care of this week. One big thing checked off my list.
Lows
All of our activities made us so incredibly tired this week.
Next Week
Continuing to read Race to the Sun
Covering the Magna Carta and Robin Hood
Mastering multiplication and division
Moving forward in time for the Dinosaur Unit
Visiting Vala’s one last time for the season
Next up on the TBR pile:
