What We Studied

Literature and Poetry

Our read aloud this week was Home Price by Robert McCloskey. I had never read it, but the collection of stories appeared on many a First Grade reading list. Overall we really liked the six stories of Homer’s adventures in and around Centerburg, Ohio. I liked the story about doughnuts the best.

For poetry, we read I am Someone Else: Poems About Pretending

• Homer Price by Robert McCloskey

• I am Someone Else: Poems About Pretending collected by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Math

Arthur officially finished Singapore Math 1A this week. It was mostly a big review for him, but review is always a good idea before moving forward. We are going to do some math projects next week before starting 1B. I also bought 2A and 2B as I imagine that 1B will not last for the rest of the year. On Friday we read a fun measuring book and made a poster.

• Me and the Measure of Things by Joan Sweeney

Social Studies

I rearranged our schedule a bit and we covered History Quest Ch. 3 Civilizations Begin and Ch. 4 Sumer this week instead of breaking it into two different weeks. So we covered Mesopotamia and Sumer including cuneiform, King Sargon, ziggurats, and the Epic of Gilgamesh. For our night reading, we read Lugalbanda retold by Kathy Henderson which is a translated and retold version of an ancient story. Arthur loved making a cuneiform tablet and a ziggurat out of Legos.

• Technology of the Ancients: The Mesopotamians by Wil Mara

• Picturing the Past Mesopotamia Iraq in Ancient Times by Peter Chrisp

• Ancients in Their Own Words Mesopotamians by Michael Kerrigan

• Lugalbanda retold by Kathy Henderson

• Hands-on History Mesopotamia by Lorna Oakes

• Lost Cities by Neil Morris

• Sunset of the Sabertooth by Mary Pope Osborne (Magic Tree House night reading selection)

Science

We did some free exploration early in the week. We also did a bit of review of animal classifications. On Friday, we did a mini unit on growing food in the cities using Heroes of the Environment Ch. 1 . Arthur is now convinced that we need to create an entire backyard garden. First we need to replace the deck and re-landscape the backyard. Maybe in two years…

• Watch Me Grow by Deborah Hodge

• Grow! Raise! Catch! How We Get Our Food by Shelley Rotner

• The Children’s Garden by Carole Lexa Schaefer

Art

Beyond doing some projects relating to our nature play, we did a mini study of Leonardo da Vinci on Friday. We read some books about him, looked at his works, modernized the Mona Lisa, and watched a few NOVA episodes about his works (S39E4 and S46E21 in case you were wondering). Arthur decided to recreate the painting in question from the NOVA episode. He drew and colored then cut it out, pasted to a cream piece of cardstock, and then added it to a yellow paper “frame.” Very inventive!

• Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci by Gene Barretta

• Leonardo da Vinci biography by Mike Venezia

• Steal Back the Mona Lisa by Meghan McCarthy

• If da Vinci Painted a Dinosaur by Amy Newbold

• Fly Kite Fly: A Story of Leonardo and a Bird Catcher by John Winch

Music

Our Classics for Kids composer for the week was Johannes Brahms. Arthur liked his music, but prefers Beethoven. There were only four Brahms episodes, so on Friday we read a book about musical instruments and the orchestra.

• The Story of the Incredibly Orchestra by Bruce Koscielniak

Nature Play Day

We had another fun nature play day with our friends. We made some cotton swab paintings, baking soda and vinegar creations, a large collaborative drawing, and sun prints outdoors. We also created some animals tracks in the play sand and read a few books about animal tracks. We wrapped up our morning with a few Doreen Cronin books and an epic snack lunch!

• Step by Step by Loreen Leedy

Unit Theme

We picked author Doreen Cronin for our weekly theme. We checked out almost all of her books and read them throughout the day. I found some fun little puzzle pages to go with some and some ELA pages to go with others. Arthur’s favorite was Diary of a Worm.

• Duck for President

• Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type

• Click, Clack, Moo: I Love You!

• Click, Clack, Ho, Ho, Ho

• Click, Clack, Surprise!

• Click, Clack, Quack to School

• Giggle, Giggle, Quack

• Dooby Dooby Moo

• Duck Stays in the Truck

• Pool Party

• Click, Clack, Boo!

• Diary of a Worm

• Diary of a Spider

• Diary of a Fly

• Boom Snot Twitty

• Click, Clack, Peep!

• Click, Clack, ABC

• Smick!

• Rescue Bunnies

• Bloom

• Bounce

• Stretch

• Wiggle

Misc. - Random picture books read

• P is for Pterodactyl by Raji Haldar and Christ Carpenter

• Maybe Something Beautiful by F. Isabel Campoy

• Finding Shortest and Longest by Amy Rauen

• Bug in a Vacuum by Melanie Watt

• Ol’ Mama Squirrel by David Ezra Stein

• Over and Under the Pond by Kate Messner

Highs

• Finished The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd S1 podcast and started S2. Arthur is really enjoying this old-style radio play.

• Arthur requested multiple NOVA episodes to watch throughout this week. We watched one on the Secrets of Stonehenge, one about an Ice Age Death Trap, one about the last extinction (ice age), and two about Leonardo Da Vinci and his works.

Lows

• Grocery store weeks really throw off our schedule. Because of COVID, I don’t take the kids to the store with me. Which means that I need to leave with J and he needs to be somewhat available to monitor the kids. So mornings are my only real option. I rush out and hit multiple stores to stock up for two weeks. Add in that we don’t get takeout that often and I make three meals a day plus snacks, I’m buying a lot of food each trip. This takes up the entire morning, meaning no real school work is done. Arthur is not independent enough to do things without me monitoring…

Next Week

We are going to read Encyclopedia Brown next week (the first volume). I’m certain Arthur is going to love the mysteries. We are going to spend a week doing math projects instead of starting the next textbook. For history, we are going to switch gears and start A River of Voices (U.S. History) and then do a continent study for Africa. Our science unit includes starting the Blossom and Root Book Seed: Mary Anning. I foresee some dinosaur and fossil related activities for the next two weeks. Our weekly theme will be apples. I can’t wait!

Next up on the TBR pile: