What We Studied
We had a good week full of lessons, a few outings, and a COVID vaccine!
Literature and Poetry
We continued reading Japanese folktales to coincide with this week’s history curriculum. We also covered a few picture book studies for our fall theme.
Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds
How I Met My Monster by Amanda Noll
Are You My Monster by Amanda Noll
Lily and the Wooden Bowl by Alan Schroeder
The Crane Girl by Curtis Manley
Japan ABCs by Sarah Helman
Yoshi’s Feast by Kimiko Kajikawa
The Beckoning Cat by Koko Nishizuka
Bokuden and the Bully by Stephen Krensky
Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White
Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper
The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig
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
Primarily Logic
Social Studies
This week was all about the medieval Japan. I really enjoyed learning about women’s lives in the time period.
DK Timelines of Everyone
DK Timelines of Everything
When on Earth
Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories
Traditional Crafts from Japan by Florence Temko
Japanese Gods, Heroes, and Mythology by Tammy Gagne
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 packet work and some random building projects.
Science and STEAM Coop
Continuing with our Dinosaur unit from Blossom and Root! We covered the Jurassic Period this week. Finally we’re into the more recognizable dinosaurs.
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
Prehistoric by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
DK Where on Earth? Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Life
Dinosaurium by Chris Wormell and Lily Murray
In Search of Dinosaurs by Dougal Dixon
Dinothesaurus by Douglas Florian
National Geographic Kids: Dinosaurs
DK Dinosaur
DK Eyewitness Dinosaur
Sink Your Teeth
Dinosaur Mountain: Digging into the Jurassic Age by Deborah Kogan
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. (Only two more letters to go!) 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.
ELA
Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers
My “w” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
Walter Warthog’s Wonderful Wagon by Barbara deRubertis
My “x” Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
Xavier Ox’s Xylophone Experiment by Barbara deRubertis
Math
Other
Fall Leaves by Loretta Holland
Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington
Why Do Leaves Change Color by Betsy Maestro
Field Trip
After a bit of uncertainty, we did get to tour the Omaha Fire Station #1 on Tuesday. The kids were super excited to see the trucks and watch the firefighters demonstrate fire safety skills. The kids even got to climb through the cab of a real fire truck!
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
The Little Fire Truck by Margery Cuyler
Fire Truck Dreams by Sharon Chriscoe
Harbor by Donal Crews
It’s a Field Trip, Busy Bus by Jody Jesen Shaffer
Planes Fly by George Ella Lyon
Airport by Byron Barton
The Littlest Train by Chris Gall
Under the Umbrella by Catherine Buquet
Little Monster Trucks by Doug Cenko
Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat by Philip C. Stead
Tiny Little Rockets by Richard Collingridge
Little Lunch Truck by Charles Beyl
All Aboard by Bill Mayer
High
The boys got their first vaccine! One step down! I am so relieved.
Low
The weather was all over the place. It was fairly warm at the beginning and then it got super cold and rainy and then snowy. Weather in the Midwest is so varied.
Next Week
Reading African folktales
Moving to the Khmer Empire for history
Mastering measurements and conversions
Moving forward in time for the Dinosaur Unit to the Cretaceous Period!
Attending coop for our second health themed meeting
Taking a break day on Tuesday (shh the kids don’t know yet)
It’s Snowing!
Next up on the TBR pile:
