What We Studied

This is actually a recap of two weeks: one normal week and one flex week. But, I’m really asking myself, What happened to my weeks? Everything seemed to just go off the rails these past two weeks and I wanted to get back on track. School work was all over the place. Everyone was stupid exhausted. And scheduled kept changing everyday. Not a fan. Here’s hoping we can get it together for this week.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur wrapped up the unit on Langston Hughes with lots more poetry and a new picture book. We also started reading Tristan Strong Destroys the World. It’s number two in the series. B&R has the first book in its curriculum for grade 4, but we’ve already read it. So I’m just adapting. Unfortunately, we didn’t get very far at all. Her'e’s hoping we make some progress next week. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• Tristan Strong Destroys the World by Kwame Mbalia

• There was a Party for Langston: King O' Letters by Jason Reynolds

Quentin first covered a unit theme about owls for his reading. We then moved onto starting B&R Level 1 Language Arts. We introduced the concept of fairy tales and covered two different themes. He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Where I Live: Poems About My Home, My Street, and My Town

• Owls by Gail Gibbons

• Berkeley’s Barn Owl Dance by Tera Johnson and Tania Howells

• Whobert, Whoever Owl Detective by Jason Gallaher

• Knight Owl by Christopher Denise

• Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton

• Hooray for Today by Brian Won

• The Happy Owls by Celestino Piatti

• Owl Sees Owl by Laura Godwin and Rob Dunlavey

• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen

• Whoo-ku Haiku by Maria Gianferrari

• Otto the Owl Who Loved Poetry by Vern Kousky

• Good Luck Baby Owls by Giles and Alexandra Milton

• Owls are Good at Keeping Secrets by Sara O’Leary

• The Owl and Other Night Creatures

• Owls by Valerie Bodden

• Owl Babies by Martin Waddell

• Happy Owl-Oween by Laura Gehl

• Knight Owls by Eric Setlzer

• A Haunted Ghost Tour in Nebraska by Louise Martin

• The Turnip by Jan Brett

• The Gigantic Turnip by Aleksei Tolstoy

• The Giant Carrot by Jan Peck

• It Could Always Be Worse by Margot Zemach

Math

Arthur continued to dive into Singapore 5A. We are definitely going to slow down our math lessons a bit to make sure that Arthur achieves mastery. These past weeks, the units were very much a review of decimals and fractions. We also continued our next logic book.

• Singapore Common Core 5A

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin finished Singapore 1B with a unit on math to 120.We will be taking a short break between levels to do a Tinkeractive Book and finish our math packets.. We also continued our logic book.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Singapore Common Core 1B

Social Studies

Arthur continued through the passage of time with a few weeks on the Transcontinental Railroad and conflicts with the Native Americans.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Words that Build a Nation

• Heart and Soul

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

• Which Way to the Wild West by Steve Sheinkin

• In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse by Joseph M. Marshall III

• The Transcontinental Railroad by John Perritano

• Ten Mile Day and the Building of the Transcontinental Railroad by Mary Ann Fraser

Quentin dove into Egypt. We will be sticking to that civilization for the next few weeks also. So much to learn and explore!

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• Human Wold

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

• DK Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories

• Find the Journeys Around the World by David Long

• Mummies, Pyramids, and Pharaohs by Gail Gibbons

• Nat Geo Investigates: Ancient Egypt by Jill Rubalcaba

• Egypt in Spectacular Cross Section

• Ancient Worlds by Miranda Smith

• Ancient Egypt by Jinny Johnson

• DK Eyewitness Ancient Egypt

• DK Eyewitness Pyramid

• 20 Fun Facts About the Great Pyramid by Kristen Rajczak

• Pyramids of Ancient Egypt by Christopher Forest

• What Did the Ancient Egyptians Do for Me? by Patrick Catel

• Nat Geo Investigates: Ancient Egypt by Jill Rubalcaba

• Who Built the Pyramid? by Meredith Hooper

• Mummy Cat by Marcus Ewert

• The Mummy Makers of Egypt by Tamara Bower

Science

Arthur explored more of the periodic table and atom basics. We also covered another chapter in our Story of Science. At chemistry class, they built elements and learned about how changing the combination of elements changes the outcome.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

• Story of Science Vol. 2: Newton at the Center by Joy Hakim

• DK The Elements

• The Periodic Table of Elements by Jenny Karpelenia

Quentin ended up not covering any units from RSO Life these two weeks. He did get some great clouds and weather lessons from coop, so that’s okay. We’ll catch up soon.

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

STEAM Coop

Arthur finished art mediums with two weeks spent exploring watercolors. He really got excited by the projects. Quentin covered clouds and weather. His favorite part was making a glittery red tornado bottle. .

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

And I continued not fitting in these subjects. I just could’t seem to get it to fit in our schedueles. I suspect this will be an issue until November, but hoping we can slide it in at least half of the weeks.

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• 13 American Artists Children Should Know

• A Child's Introduction to Art

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

• We are Artists by Kari Herbert

Field Trip

We did a fun free exploration day at Arbor Day Farm with coop friends. We really love it there. The kids enjoy the nature classroom and treehouses. Unfortunately, the trampoline had been taken down. I assume that it needed to be replaced. Just annoyed that the website didn’t notate that. The kids very disappointed about running full out to the treehouses and realizing that the trampoline wasn’t there.

High

We finished our season of visits at Vala’s. Our total for September and October was eight visits. Many rides were ridden and ciders were drunk. We had tons of fun. Until next year Vala’s.

Low

Constant schedule changes left me a bit of a mess. I really hate last minute changes to plans.

Next Week

• Continuing Tristran Strong

• Covering Tell It in Three as a read aloud theme

• Multiplying and diving fractions (A)

• Lots of math review (Q)

• Continuing Egypt for Q’s History

• Moving into cowboys and farmers for A’s History

• Covering more of the Periodic Table

• Learning about insects

• Having fun for Halloween!

Next up on the TBR pile: