What We Studied
Another week of lots of holiday fun and changes to our schedule. But it’s okay. I love December and want to soak in all the fun while we still can!
Literature and Poetry
We kept at reading The Wind in the Willows. I’m not sure Arthur really loves it, but I’m enjoying his writing style. It sounds lovely when read out loud. We’ve only got one chapter left to read (reading today) and then we’re on to our next selection.
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
A Snowflake Fell: Poems About Winter by Laura Whipple
Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet (Picture Book Study)
The Secret History of Hot Chocolate by Stephen Krensky
Math
More review, puzzles, and wrap-up. I decided to hold off starting 3B until January. Until then, we are continuing our logic puzzle book and lots of math games.
Singapore Math Common Core Edition 3A
Primarily Logic
Social Studies
This week was all about Medieval Plague and Cathedrals! I do love infectious diseases, but we kept it light for Arthur.
DK Timelines of Everyone
When on Earth
DK History
DK Timelines of Everything
The Plague by Lawrence Andrews
History Smashers: Plagues and Pandemics by Kate Messner
Chanticleer and the Fox by Barbara Cooney
The Canterbury Tales adapted by Barbara Cohen
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 ended up watching a lot of Eons to cover most of the Cenozoic.
The Story of Life: Evolution by Katie Scott
Life: The First Four Billion Years by Martin Jenkins
When the Whales Walked and Other Incredibly Evolutionary Journeys by Dougal Dixon
DK Dinsoaur
DK Where on Earth? Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Creatures
Prehistoric by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
Dinosaurium by Chris Wormell and Lily Murray
For Coop, we had our Robots and Engineering second week. The big kids finished their hydraulic crane builds and Arthur got to take one home! The little kids made scribble bots and played around with some other robots Ms. Heather had. Next week, is our last coop meeting of the semester and I’m teaching circuits to the little kids. We did a bit of wrap-up Robots packet at home to end the week.
Rosie Revere Engineer by Andrea Beaty
Robots, Robots, Everywhere! by Sue Fliess
Nat Geo Kids: Robots by Melissa Stewart - Read and Packet
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. Quentin and I read a lot of books, did some alphabet review, and completed a few math packets. We also played a decent number of dice games and board games.
ELA
Math
Other
Field Trip
On Wednesday, I randomly grabbed the library pass for The Durham Museum to check out the exhibits. We also got see Santa while we were there and did a scavenger hunt to find all the elves hidden in the museum.
Friday was our official coop field trip at DoSpace. We got a great tour of the facility and then the kids explored two different robots. Our tour guide and teacher was great with the kids and really engaged them throughout. Now that we have a membership card, we definitely need to go back and check out some of the games and programs. Maybe January we can put some class on our calendar.
Documentary Selection
I have carved out a one hour time block each week to watch a documentary related to our studies. We actually did watch a NOVA episode about the great cathedrals of Europe. I learned a lot about various engineering obstacles and our modern exploration of them. Really fascinating episode. We also watched some more PBS Eons videos about the Cenozoic.
24 Days of Christmas Books - It’s become a tradition. I wrap packages of holiday books for each day of December until Christmas. We have a great group of books this year!
Comet, the Unstoppable Reindeer by Jim Benton
A Polar Story in the Snow by Mac Barnett
Snow by Sam Usher
The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett
Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett
Snow is Fun by Steve Henry
Little Fox in the Snow by Jonathan London
Good Night, Reindeer by Denise Brennan-Nelson
How Santa Really Works by Alan Snow
Snow Friends by Margery Cuyler
A Chick n Pug Christmas by Jennifer Sattler
Mouse's Night Before Christmas by Tracey Corderoy
The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst
The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers by Lisa Campbell Ernst
Last Stop on the Reindeer Express by Maudie Powell-Tuck
The Christmas Eve Tree by Delia Huddy
Martin MacGregor's Snowman by Lisa Broadie Cook
What the Dinosaurs Did the Night Before Christmas by Refe and Susan Tuma
Hurry, Santa! by Tomie dePaola
One Wild Christmas by Nicholas Oldland
Vegetables in Holiday Underwear by Jared Chapman
T. rex at Swan Lake by Lisa Carrier and Lenore Hart
High
On Tuesday, we hosted three coop families for a board game day. The kids split into groups and played a variety of board games for about an hour before abandoning them for free play. it was a lovely morning.
We also went to see the Werner Park Lights on Wednesday night. It was lovely!
Low
Nothing really. We had a good week!
Next Week
Finishing The Wind in the Willows and Starting Scary Stories for Young Foxes: In the City
Covering the Hundred Years’ War for history
Reviewing our math concepts
Finishing our Dinosaur videos
Covering circuits for coop
Having a park playdate, going to see a movie, and potentially going on a small hike through the bare woods
Next up on the TBR pile:
