What We Studied

Literature and Poetry

We started The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe this week. I’ve read this one, but it’s been years. Lots of things make so much more sense after reading The Magician’s Nephew the past two weeks. Arthur is looking forward to watching one of the movie versions after we finish reading. For language arts, he had his first big sight word test. 17/20 (and one he switched his b and d). Decent showing. We’ll be doing another test right before Christmas.

• The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Math

We had another week of review and math games. Arthur completed a few levels of Khan Academy and did some logic puzzles. I’ve decided that we aren’t going to start Singapore 2A until January. In the between time, we are going to keep doing review packets, finish our Khan Academy class, and start a coding unit.

Social Studies

We covered a few U.S. History lessons from A River of Voices (Blossom and Root). We talked about the formation of the English colonies and life in the early colonies. I found a great American Experience episode about the Pilgrims that we watched over the course of a few days (it was 2 hours long!). I even learned a few little tidbits from the documentary. We also talked about the arrival of slaves in the colonies. We didn’t go into too much depth, but I did want to introduce the topic and it’s lasting impact on life in this country. This will come up again in a few lessons. As a conclusion to the week I found a great 7 part series for kids about the legacy of Jamestown from 2019 Commemoration event. The series, called Guardians of Jamestown, features a young girl traveling back in time to learning about various artifacts from Jamestown. It was engaging and informative. Extra bonus, each episode is only about 5-7 minutes long. We watched it straight through on Tuesday before lunch.

• The European Settlement in North America 1492-1763

• A Timeline History of the Thirteen Colonies by Mary K. Pratt

• Recipes of the Thirteen Colonies by Joyce Jeffries

• Slavery and Slave Trade by Richard Spilsbury

Science

Part of our unit theme.

Art

We just have a few free drawing periods this week. Next week I’m hoping to finish our fine artist study with Vermeer and Seurat.

Music

Our composer was Frederic Chopin. I love his music. Arthur was less sold on him.

Unit Theme

Our theme this week was weather. Arthur really got into learning all about the weather. We started a month long weather study along with lots of interesting little videos. He really liked learning about the different types of clouds.

• DK Weather

• Boy, Were We Wrong About the Weather! by Kathleen V. Kudlinski

• How Does the Sun Make the Weather? by Judith Williams

• Wild About Weather by Ed Brotak

• National Geographic Kids Everything Weather

• What Will the Weather Be/ by Lynda Dewitt

• Watersong by Tim McCanna

• Sun by Sam Usher

• Forecasting Fun compiled by Terry Pierce

• Weather Clouds by Ann Herriges

• Cloud or Fog by Kelly Doudna

• Hail or Freezing Rain by Josh Platner

• Kate, Who Tamed the Wind by Liz Garton Scanlon and Lee White

• The Fog by Kyo Maclear

• Singing in the Rain by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown

Misc. - Random picture books read

• A Pandemonium of Parrots

• Baby Cakes by Theo Heras

• Is It Sukkot Yet? by Chris Brash

• Hocus Pocus, It’s Fall! by Anne Sibley O’Brien

• The Legend of King Arthur-a-tops by Mo O’Hara

• Shimmer and Shine: Save the Rainbow

• Do Not Lick This Book by Idan Ben-Baral and Julian Frost

• Lego City: Look Out Below

• Cooking with the Grinch by Tish Rabe

• Thomas the Tank Engine: Stop, Train, Stop!

• Cat Traps by Molly Coxe

• Katie and the Sunflowers by James Mayhew

• Dance Like a Leaf by AJ Irving

• Gus, the Pilgrim Turkey by Ellen Joy Sasaki

• How the Dinosaur Got to the Museum by Jessie Hartland

Highs

Arthur really got into learning about and recording the weather. I also love when he really gets into a topic.

Lows

I felt very rushed this week and didn’t get as much done as I had hoped. Maybe next week things will be a bit more easy-going.

Next Week

We are continuing our weather unit into this coming week. We’ll also be finishing The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and our National Parks / John Muir study. Our theme will be thankfulness with lots of Thanksgiving themed puzzles, pages, and readings. For social studies, we are going to cover the Native Americans of the Southeast, and then shift gears on Thursday to our continent study of Europe and on to the Minoans and Mycenaeans. We’ll be staying in ancient Greece until Christmas.

Next up on the TBR pile: