What We Studied

This ended up being a very strange week. I had an emergency dentist appointment on Tuesday and the office could fit Arthur in for a regular cleaning on Thursday. And I had promised the kids a trip to the zoo, so we went on Wednesday (along with a library visit). All in all, I felt very discombobulated this week…

Literature and Poetry

We continued reading Sideways Stories and finally got to my favorite story: Sammy! Arthur didn’t seem to love the absurdist humor of that story, but I loved sharing it with him.

• Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

• The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog selected by Paul B. Janecko

• Space Cows by Eric Seltzer (Arthur read)

Math

We worked through Unit 4 from Singapore 2A. We did a concept review of multiplication and division. Arthur grasped it very easily again and so we added in some challenge pages throughout the week.

Social Studies

We went back to A River of Voices United States History and did lessons on the Salem Witch Trials, the Triangular Trade, and Fort Mose. Definitely not the happiest week for history class, but I found some good sources for videos and readings.

• A Young People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn and Rebecca Stefoff

• Making Thirteen Colonies by Joy Hakim

• The Salem Witch Trials by Sarah Gilman

• A Child’s Introduction to African American History by Jabari Asim

• If You Lived When There was Slavery in America by Anne Kamma

• Fort Mose by Glennette Tilley Turner

• A Kid’s Guide to African American History by Nancy I. Sanders

Science

Wrapped into our Unit Theme

Art

Nothing Formal

Music

Continuing with our jazz study. We finished the 1940s and 1950s and started the 1960s.

• Jazz ABZ by Wynford Marsalis

• Jazz Day by Roxane Orgill

• Birth of the Cool by Kathleen Cornell Berman

• Before John was a Jazz Giant by Carole Boston Weatherford

• Spirit Seeker by Gary Golio

• Sonny’s Bridge by Barry Wittenstein

Unit Theme

We started a 2-3 week unit on Space and the Planets! We started with the big picture and then started to narrow down to our own solar system. We started a great series of episodes from NOVA focusing on space. This particular selection was all about the Hubble Telescope. I learned so much about the history of the program and what we have learned. We also watched an episode from the series The Planets about the Inner Worlds. I learned a ton about Mercury and Saturn’s moon, Titan.

• G is for Galaxy by Janis Campbell and Cathy Collision

• Me and My Place in Space by Joan Sweeney

• Boy We Were Wrong About the Solar System by Kathleen Kudlinski

• Galaxies Galaxies by Gail Gibbons

• Looking Beyond by Steve Parker

• The Stellar Story of Space Travel by Patricia Lakin

• 70 Thousand, Million, Million, Million Stars in Space by Paul Rockett

• Galaxies by Howard K. Tramnel

• The Solar System Through Infographics by Nadia Higgins

• DK Space

• Space Visual Catalog by Sean Callery and Miranda Smith

• The Dinosaur that Pooped a Planet by Tom Fletcher & Douglas Poynter

• In the Sky at Nighttime by Laura Deal

• The Darkest Dark by Chris Hadfield

• There was an Old Astronaut Who Swallowed the Moon by Lucille Colandro

• Space: Planets, Moons, Stars, and More! by Joe Rhatigan

• Journey Through Our Solar System by Mae Jemison

• Planet Earth by Christine Taylor-Butler

• If Pluto was a Pea by Gabrielle Prendergast

• Life on Mars by Jon Agee

• The Space Walk by Brian Biggs

• Earth Space Moon Base by Ben Joel Price

• Space Mice by Lori Haskins Houran

• Planet Mercy by Ann O. Squire

• 11 Planets by David A. Aguilar

• Planet Venus by Christine Taylor-Butler

• Planet Mars by Ann O. Squire

• Letters from Space by Clayton Anderson

• Mousetronaut Goes to Mars by Mark Kelly

• Space Dog by Mini Grey

• Lego Man in Space by Mara Shaughnessy

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Froggy’s First Kiss by Jonathan London

• A Scent-sational Valentine by Mary Man-Kong

• Love, Z by Jessie Sima

• Snuggle Down Deep by Diane Ohanesian

• Worm Loves Worm by J.J. Austrian

• This is NOT a Valentine by Carter Higgins

• 10 Fascinating Facts About Dinosaurs by Rachel Grack

Highs

• The zoo visit was much needed.

Lows

• Emergency dental visit made me lose all momentum.

Next Week

We will be finishing Jazz, Sideways Stories, and Singapore Math 2A,. We continuing over our Space Theme and U.S. History.

Next up on the TBR pile: