What We Studied

We started our week with almost 14 inches of snow in about 24 hours! Oh goodness. The boys have really gotten into playing in the snow, but our previous snowfall had long since melted. We were super excited to watch the snow fall all day and night on Monday so we could play in the snow for the rest of the week. I’ve never been so glad to not have to leave the house for 4 days or so as we dug out.

Literature and Poetry

We did a ton of picture book studies, read alouds, and independent reading this week! We’re really leaning into being literature-based homeschoolers. Oh so good! We finished our Matilda read aloud and started our Just Beyond the Very Very Far North read aloud. On Friday night, we watched the Danny DeVito/Mara Wilson movie version of Matilda. Both boys really loved watching the movie. We even had a little discussion about the changes the movie made to the story. We all agreed that it’s still a really good movie. We also celebrated our 100th Day of School with some books and a Lego build.

• Matilda by Roald Dahl

• Just Beyond the Very Very Far North by Dan Bar-el

• Blizzard by John Rocco

• The Hat by Jan Brett

• Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner

• Ready, Set, 100th Day by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

• Rocket’s 100th Day of School by Tad Hills

• Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin

• Dragons Love Tacos 2: The Sequel by Adam Rubin

• When the Sun Shines on Antarctica by Irene Latham (poems)

• Who Ate My Book by Tina Kugler (Arthur read)

• Rocket Brave by Tad Hills (Arthur read)

• Peanut Butter’s First Day of School by Terry Border (Arthur read)

Math

We officially started Singapore Math 2A Common Core Edition this week. It’s definitely a big review for Arthur, but it’s great to get some extra practice before we tackle the next big milestone.

• Peg + Cat: The Penguin Problem by Jennifer Oxley

• Give Me Half by Stuart J. Murphy

Social Studies

We got back into ancient world history this week and covered two chapters and a continent study. We covered Mesoamerica (huge hit with Arthur) and the Kushites and Aksumites. Beyond the history, we covered North America for our continent study. That leaves just Australia for the continents.

• The Ancient Maya by Jackie Maloy

• Eyewitness: Aztec, Inca, and Maya

• National Geographic Investigates Ancient Maya by Nathaniel Harris

• Ancient Maya by Sue Bradford Edwards

• Ancient Maya by Barbara A. Somervill

• African Beginnings by James Haskins and Kathleen Benson

• National Geographic Investigates Ancient Africa by Victoria Sherrow

• Arts of Ancient Nubia by Denise M. Doxey

• North America by Libby Koponen

• North America by Mary Lindeen

Science

Part of our Unit Theme This Week

Art

Nothing Formal This Week

Music

Our composer this week was Scott Joplin. Arthur was amazed at how many of his compositions that he had heard in cartoons and movies. Definitely one of those composers that we don’t know the name but know the music. By the end of the week, I made a big change to our music curriculum. Instead of doing week-long composers for February, I’m creating an almost month-long unit on Jazz for February! Joplin was a great starting point to head into next month’s lessons.

• Scott Joplin by Russell Roberts

Unit Theme

We covered Penguins this week. Arthur definitely gets into animal science and this was perfect.

• A Rookery of Penguins and Other Bird Groups by Jilly Hunt

• Penguin Day by Nic Bishop

• A Penguin Story by Antoinette Portis

• A Small Blue Whale by Beth Ferry

• If You were a Penguin by Wendell and Florence Minor

• Little Penguin Stays Awake by Tadgh Bentley

• The Frozen March of Emperor Penguins by Beth Bence Reinke

• I am Pangoo the Penguin by Satome Ichikawa

• Little Penguins by Cynthia Rylant

• Penguinaut by Marcie Colleen

• Five Flying Penguins by Barbara Barbieri McGrath

• Penguins Don’t Wear Sweaters by Marikka Tamura

• Pip the Little Penguin by Roger Priddy

• Chilly Da Vinci by J. Rutland

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Winter is Here by Kevin Henkes

• Bedtime for Yeti by Vin Vogel

• The Thing About Yetis by Vin Vogel

• Now What? by Robie H. Harris

• Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Mechenmoser

• Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming

• Max and Marla by Alexandra Boiger

• Hibernation Station by Michelle Meadows

• Baby Bear’s Not Hibernating by Lynn Plourde

• Sizing Up Winter by Lizann Flatt

• The Most Perfect Snowman by Chris Britt

• Polar Opposites by Erik Brooks

• Two Wool Gloves by Bo Jin

• Pip and Squeak by Ian Schoenherr

• Winter is for Snow by Robert Neubecker

• Snow by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

• Best in Snow by April Pulley Sayre

• Sam the Snowman by Susan Winget

• Where's Walrus? And Penguin? by Stephen Savage

• Dear Yeti by James Kwan

• A Really Good Snowman by Daniel J. Mahoney

• The Wish Tree by Kyo Maclear

Highs

• The snowfall was a great event for the week. The boys have been outside playing every day. Glad to be able to get some fresh air this week.

• I’ve been loving all the winter themed picture books I got from the library.

• Speaking of, really loving that our library is open right now. The boys and I did our usual visit on Friday get our multiple bags of books.

Lows

• We didn’t finish our Penguin Unit by the weekend. I don’t want to just scrap up, so I had to rework this coming week to finish penguins on Monday.

• Cooking just didn’t really happen this week and we didn’t get to the recipes I wanted to make with Arthur.

Next Week

We’re going to finish up our Penguin unit and finish off our big overall winter theme with Ice and Snow for our unit theme. I have a mini lesson for Groundhog Day incorporating some picture books, geography, and weather science. We are also going to start our 3 week Jazz Unit for music. I’m really looking forward to this one! We’ll continue our usual read alouds and pictures for literature and continue with Duane’s adventures in Just Beyond the Very Very Far North. For social studies, we are starting a 2-3 week unit on Rome. So many good things coming up in February!

Next up on the TBR pile: