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Kindergarten Week 13
Dec. 4th, 2010 10:36 pmAlthough the week wasn't without challenges, we did a lot of good work and got mostly back into the groove after Thanksgiving. Erika made a leap in her German reading this week, and did a lot of math.
Math
Erika did huge quantities of math this week. She made progress in Math Mammoth Subtraction 1 and Place Value 1, as well as some other miscellaneous stuff. She also did some pretty fast addition drills. ( Picture of Erika working on some math )
English
Erika worked on reading Nate the Great Talks Turkey this week, but isn't finished yet. It's at least twice as long as the other Nate the Great books we've read. She also wrote a thank-you note.
On a playdate this week, Erika's friend had something called Cinderella: The Play by Nora Gaydos. It included a book with the Cinderella story, and individual scripts for each of the characters. The girls read the book together, alternating pages, and then put on the play. They actually did the play twice, so they could take turns being Cinderella and the prince. Her father and I read the other parts, with a bit of help from our younger kids. I thought the whole thing was a lot of fun. ( Picture of the girls reading their parts )
Social Studies
Our main social studies activity this week was at our Kindergarten co-op, where a mom who lived in Cameroon for 10 years told African folk tales and taught the girls how to wrap a rectangle of fabric to make a skirt. They also danced to African music.
Other than that, we did some reading in the book, Wow! Canada, and Erika studied countries and continents in Anki.
Science
We started off the week by building another project in our Lego WeDo robotics set, a bird that can be tilted up and down and has wings that flap. There's a motion sensor in the tail, so you can program the WeDo software to do things in response to the sensor input. We got as far as having it make noise when the wings flap, but will be returning to the project next week. ( Picture of bird )
Erika and I also went on a nature hike this week, read a sweet book about seeds (A Seed is Sleepy), and watched yet another part of the Life series.
Art
I tend to count any kind of drama as an art activity, so the Cinderella play I mentioned under English counts here, too. Erika also went to the first meeting of a new homeschool Shakespeare group -- the plan is to put on a heavily modified version of the Tempest. The kids did some acting exercises and listened to a reading of a Tempest adaptation during the meeting. I think Erika is feeling too shy to have a speaking role in the play, but hopefully she'll have fun with it anyway.
We also visited the Smithsonian American Art museum, where we saw the Norman Rockwell exhibit. Erika was interested in the pictures, and I think we might go back again before the exhibit closes. We also took a look at some Paul Manship sculptures while we were there.
Erika also found time to do a lot of drawing this week, and made paper snowflakes.
Music
We listened to two of the Classics for Kids episodes on Prokofiev, and Erika plans to do a piano lesson with John tomorrow.
Physical Education
Nothing special here. Swimming, a nature hike, general running around outside.
Health
We found a tick on Karl this week, so we got to learn about ticks and Lyme disease. We also had a tour of the new fire station and talked about firefighting and fire safety. ( Picture of Erika at fire station )
German
Erika did her usual work in the Einsterns Schwester workbook this week, but the more interesting thing was when we were reading Conni sucht Kater Mau. This category of German books has all the nouns replaced by pictures. The way we usually read these kinds of books is that I read the text, and Erika fills in the words for the pictures. Only this time, she accidentally read one of the words after a picture. And then she started doing it on purpose, reading one or two words after each of the pictures, until she read the entire last page. Go Erika!
Math
Erika did huge quantities of math this week. She made progress in Math Mammoth Subtraction 1 and Place Value 1, as well as some other miscellaneous stuff. She also did some pretty fast addition drills. ( Picture of Erika working on some math )
English
Erika worked on reading Nate the Great Talks Turkey this week, but isn't finished yet. It's at least twice as long as the other Nate the Great books we've read. She also wrote a thank-you note.
On a playdate this week, Erika's friend had something called Cinderella: The Play by Nora Gaydos. It included a book with the Cinderella story, and individual scripts for each of the characters. The girls read the book together, alternating pages, and then put on the play. They actually did the play twice, so they could take turns being Cinderella and the prince. Her father and I read the other parts, with a bit of help from our younger kids. I thought the whole thing was a lot of fun. ( Picture of the girls reading their parts )
Social Studies
Our main social studies activity this week was at our Kindergarten co-op, where a mom who lived in Cameroon for 10 years told African folk tales and taught the girls how to wrap a rectangle of fabric to make a skirt. They also danced to African music.
Other than that, we did some reading in the book, Wow! Canada, and Erika studied countries and continents in Anki.
Science
We started off the week by building another project in our Lego WeDo robotics set, a bird that can be tilted up and down and has wings that flap. There's a motion sensor in the tail, so you can program the WeDo software to do things in response to the sensor input. We got as far as having it make noise when the wings flap, but will be returning to the project next week. ( Picture of bird )
Erika and I also went on a nature hike this week, read a sweet book about seeds (A Seed is Sleepy), and watched yet another part of the Life series.
Art
I tend to count any kind of drama as an art activity, so the Cinderella play I mentioned under English counts here, too. Erika also went to the first meeting of a new homeschool Shakespeare group -- the plan is to put on a heavily modified version of the Tempest. The kids did some acting exercises and listened to a reading of a Tempest adaptation during the meeting. I think Erika is feeling too shy to have a speaking role in the play, but hopefully she'll have fun with it anyway.
We also visited the Smithsonian American Art museum, where we saw the Norman Rockwell exhibit. Erika was interested in the pictures, and I think we might go back again before the exhibit closes. We also took a look at some Paul Manship sculptures while we were there.
Erika also found time to do a lot of drawing this week, and made paper snowflakes.
Music
We listened to two of the Classics for Kids episodes on Prokofiev, and Erika plans to do a piano lesson with John tomorrow.
Physical Education
Nothing special here. Swimming, a nature hike, general running around outside.
Health
We found a tick on Karl this week, so we got to learn about ticks and Lyme disease. We also had a tour of the new fire station and talked about firefighting and fire safety. ( Picture of Erika at fire station )
German
Erika did her usual work in the Einsterns Schwester workbook this week, but the more interesting thing was when we were reading Conni sucht Kater Mau. This category of German books has all the nouns replaced by pictures. The way we usually read these kinds of books is that I read the text, and Erika fills in the words for the pictures. Only this time, she accidentally read one of the words after a picture. And then she started doing it on purpose, reading one or two words after each of the pictures, until she read the entire last page. Go Erika!