What We Studied

We took it a bit easy for our last week of the fall semester. We wrapped up a few units, had our last coop meeting, and then took Friday off to go to the zoo.

Literature and Poetry

We finished reading The Wind in the Willows. I ended up really enjoying it and reading it out loud is definitely the way to go. We started on our next read aloud selection. It wasn’t on my original list, but we saw it at the library and had to grab it.

• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

• A Snowflake Fell: Poems About Winter by Laura Whipple

• Scary Stories for Young Foxes: The City by Christian McKay Heidicker

• How Santa Got His Job by Stephen Krensky

• How Santa Lost His Job by Stephen Krensky

Math

We mostly wrapped up some math packets and did some extra scale reading practice. Plus, there was lots of play with tangrams this week! And Arthur finished his Primarily Logic book.

• Primarily Logic

Social Studies

History Quest wrapped up our semester with a chapter about the Hundred Years’ War. We learned all about the conflict and focused on Henry V and Joan of Arc for our biographies.

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• When on Earth

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• Joan of Arc by Demi

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

We finished our dinosaur unit with more PBS Eons videos. I taught coop this week and we made simple circuits. The kids were very excited to play with the Snap Circuits board I bought. It was a good meeting to end on.

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

We had a park playdate planned for Wednesday but that was canceled when a very dangerous storm blew in. Tornados touched down about 10 miles from our house, but didn’t cause too much damage. To make up for our lost trip, I called school off on Friday and we went to the zoo. I love going in the winter when there are no crowds and you can really linger over the animals. We got to see the penguin feeding. It was a nice morning.

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.

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!

• The Nutcracker's Night Before Christmas by Keith Brockett

• Five Busy Elves by Patricia Hegarty

• Snow by Roy McKie

• The Christmas Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood

• Ten Ways to Heart Snow by Cathy Camper

• Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell

• The Littlest Elf by Brandi Dougherty

• The Littlest Reindeer by Brandi Dougherty

• Merry Christmas, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt

• Peppa Pug and the Christmas Party

• Russell's Christmas Magic by Rob Scotton

• The Great Reindeer Rebellion by Lisa Trumbauer

• 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Toms

• Jingle Bells by Rosie Greening

• The Story of the Nutcracker Ballet by Deborah Hautzig

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

• Snow Bunny's Christmas Gift by Rebecca Harry

• If Snowflakes Tasted Like Fruitcake by Stacey Previn

High

• Taking Friday morning off to go to the zoo was the right call. We wandered around and got to interact with lots of animals without the crowds. The mongoose was being playful and the baby gorilla was so adorable.

Low

• Wednesday’s bad weather cancelled all our fun plans! We were supposed to have a park playdate with coop friends and then that evening I was supposed to go to Musicals Bingo with some friends. It was to be my one night out before traveling with the kids. Darn midwest weather!

Next Week

• Nothing! It’s Christmas Break! Although we are going to be doing more holiday activities, puzzles, and games. We will officially start the spring semester on January 10th.

Next up on the TBR pile: