What We Studied

Before we get to our W16 studies, we did some Thanksgiving activities during our pseudo-break week. There were some fun turkey based games and puzzles. Arthur really got into Captain Underpants, and made lots of comic stories based on the character. Beyond those activities, we read a ton of picture books over the week.

Picture Books We Read:

• Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein

• 365 Penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental

• Presents Through the Window by Taro Gomi

• I’m Trying to Love Math by Bethany Barton

• Pirates Aren’t Afraid of the Dark by Maudie Powell-Tuck

• Hogula, Dread Pig of Night by Jean Gralley

• Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks by Margaret Sutherland

• Thanksgiving with Me by Margaret Willey

• Llama Llama Gives Thanks by Anna Dewdney

• Turkey Tot by George Shannon

• The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors by Drew Daywalt

• Home in the Woods by Eliza Wheeler

• Boom Snot Twitty: This Way, That Way by Doreen Cronin

• This is a Book of Shapes by Kenneth Kraegel

• Bear Out There by Jacob Grant

• Swing by Michael Hall

• This is a Book to Read with a Worm by Jodi Wheeler-Toppen

• I am a Story by Dan Yaccarino

• Dump Truck’s Colors by Sherri Duskey Rinker

• Duck and Hippo Give Thanks by Jonathan London

• Fall Mixed Up by Bob Raczka

• The Thanksgiving Bowl by Virginia Kroll

Literature and Poetry

We started reading the story of the The Odyssey to go along with our history study of Greece. So far, Arthur seems to like it, but still has trouble settling into storytime.

• Tales from the Odyssey Part 1 by Mary Pop Osborne

Math

Instead of continuing Singapore Math, we switched over and started learning about computer science. We have a book on Ruby, but I also picked up some other books from the library to supplement. Crash Course has a 40 video series on Computer Science that is great if a bit much for Arthur right now. We did watch three episodes this week: history of computer, early computing, and early computer languages. We also did a bio on Ada Lovelace and talked a lot about how computers work, both the hardware and software. We’ll be getting more into computing languages next week. (Arthur has also been doing daily math pages to keep up his arithmetic skills.)

• Kids Get Coding: A World of Programming by Heather Lyons

• Ada Lovelace: Poet of Science by Diane Stanley

• Ada’s Ideas: The Story of Ada Lovelace, the World’s First Computer Programmer by Fiona Robinson

• Kids Get Coding: Learn to Program by Heather Lyons

• Hello Ruby: Journey Inside the Computer by Linda Liukas

• The Grapes of Math by Greg Tang

Social Studies

History was all about Greece (and will be about Greece until Christmas). This week we started with the Minoans and Mycenaeans. We learned about their culture, history, and art. We did a big of a deep dive into Akrotiri and the island of Thera. We talked about how environmental factors led to the downfall of the Minoans. Arthur really liked their sea life art. We also watched a NOVA episode about an ancient computer, the Antikythera Mechanism. Fascinating stuff! Arthur was sad that we have to wait until next week to watch another NOVA episode about Greece (I’m trying to space them out a bit). To help reinforce Greek myths, we started listening to National Geographic’s Greeking Out podcast. Each episode tells one of the Greek myths. I’m really enjoying those.

• Count Your Way Through Greece by Jim Haskins and Kathleen Benson

• Lost Cities by Giles Laroche (Akrotiri)

• How People Lived in Ancient Greece by Colin Hynson

• Eyewitness: Ancient Greece

Science

Science until Christmas is all about anatomy and physiology. Arthur really got into the idea of studying the human body, so I created a huge two month unit. We began at an overall picture of the human body and will start going through each of the major systems. We only got through the skeletal system this week. But we did take a detour to watch two Magic School Bus episodes: one about cells and one about DNA. Good stuff!

• Me and My Amazing Body by Joan Sweeney

• Who We Are by Robie H. Harris

• My Body by Martha Rustad

• Inside Your Outside by Tish Rabe

• Eyewitness: Human Body

• Professor Astro Cat’s Human Body Odyssey

• My Amazing Body Machine by Robert Winston

• I Have a Skeleton by Simone T. Ribke

Art

No formal art lessons this month, but we are doing a variety of projects related to the season and to our other subjects. This week Arthur did a lot of drawing related to history and anatomy. The picture above is his version on parts of the Antikythera Mechanism from history. He also drew some pieces relating to our Magic School Bus episodes.

Music

Our composer this week was Franz Joseph Haydn. Arthur still insists that nobody can beat Beethoven (fair, fair), but he said Haydn was okay. He really did not like his Trumpet Concerto, but the string quartets were okay.

• The Farewell Symphony by Anna Harwell Celenza

• Biography by Carole Greene

Unit Theme

Our unit theme until Christmas is holidays around the world. This week we learned about Kwanzaa and Hanukkah. Next week, we’ll be adding in more holiday activities. Plus, we are doing an advent (see my Christmas Bucket List post) that is all holiday themed. Finally, I wrapped the 24 days of Christmas books again this year to enjoy. The boys love opening a package of two books every night. I got some new ones from the library along with some old favorites (both borrowed and owned).

• December by K.C. Kelley and Bob Ostrom

• Kwanzaa by Julie Murray

• Celebrate Kwanzaa by Carolyn Otto

• World Holidays by Heather Moehn

• Celebrate Hanukkah by Deborah Heiligman

24 Days of Books

• The Crayons’ Christmas by Drew Daywalt

• Over the River and Through the Woods by Linda Ashman

• A Wish to Be a Christmas Tree by Colleen Monroe

• Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson

• How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas by Jane Yolen

• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

• Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney

• The Biggest Smallest Christmas Present by Harriet Muncaster

• The is Christmas by Tom Booth

• There’s an Elf in Your Book by Tom Fletcher

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Violet and the Woof by Rebecca Grabill

• The Eeensy Weensy Spider Freaks Out by Troy Cummings

• Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni

• Storybots: Triceratops

• Choo Choo School by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

• Happy Birthday Thomas

• Dinosaur Farm by Frann Preston-Gannon

Highs

• Going to see Santa at Cabela’s! We didn’t think we could see Santa this year, but the store made it possible with lots of rules and restrictions, but a painless process. We made a reservation for a Thursday at 10am ensuring that the store would be relatively empty. After pictures, we made sure to check out the taxidermy animals and the aquarium. Q really loved the big catfish.

• Generally, our advent calendar is such a joy. I love Christmas and was bummed that we won’t be traveling this year. I rallied and made sure our advent was stocked with fun little gifts and activities.

• My attitude change of just letting things go has helped not feel stressed about school. I’m purposely scheduling lighter weeks to enjoy the season.

Lows

• Sound - seriously the boys can be so loud some days. My ears cannot take it. We need to find a way to enforce a quiet hour.

• Library woes - The library is quarantining all books for 6 days after they are returned. We aren’t charged late fees, but have to wait extra time. At this point, they are very behind and my books are taking almost 10 days to be checked in after returning them. Couple that with the fact that many people still haven’t returned books from when the library was closed, and I’m a bit frustrated that I cannot get certain books. We’re winding down the semester and my numbers are going back down (want to get to almost 0 on all cards by Dec. 31st), but I need to strategize for next semester.

Next Week

More of the same topics! We will be continuing with the development of Ancient Greece, reading The Odyssey, learning about computers, exploring the human body, choosing a new composer, and doing all the holiday activities!

Next up on the TBR pile: