In math, we've been working on identifying items that are the same/different and that have common characteristics. On the whole, this is incredibly easy for all of the kiddos, and we're moving through it pretty quickly.
We worked with how to make the lower case form and the correct sound for letters Q, R, S, and T in our pre-reading program.
And as usual, we had the most fun (and took the most pictures) during Five in a Row. This week we spent two final days on Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car, and then began our new book, Madeline. Here's how it looked, in pictures:
Monday we did the art lesson from Mr. Gumpy. The author/illustrator used cross-hatching to shade his illustrations, so we looked at his technique in the book and then tried to do it using scratch paper. The kids LOVED the scratch paper. They thought it was super fun to scratch off the black layer with the little wooden pencil and see the colors underneath. Hazel was the only one who attempted much actual cross-hatching, though. The boys just drew. Good enough.
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| a boat! |
Then we went to the kitchen and did a water cycle simulation. The kids were so excited to see it rain, right in our kitchen! I don't have the best pictures because my hands were full and my helpers are not great photographers. ;)
Below you can see our "lake" (the saucepan filled with water), being heated by the "sun" (the burner).
Waiting (somewhat) patiently to see if the warm lake water would evaporate and then condense and form a cloud when it met the "cold air" (plate of ice).
It did! Our "cloud" (the underside of the plate) "rained" when we held it up!
The little experiment worked well! If you want to try it, here are the instructions we followed. We followed up our discussion of the water cycle by watching Magic School Bus Catches a Wave. The first episode on that DVD is on the water cycle, and became an instant favorite. We've watched it several times since then. I foresee more Magic School Bus DVDs from the library in our science future!
On Wednesday, Ziggy brought a friend to school! Madeline! On our first day with Madeline, we found Paris on the map and talked about how we might get there from our house, if we were so inclined. Charlie was convinced that a submarine would be the best choice. :D
We talked about the Seine River, and tried to figure out why many cities are built on rivers. I thought we'd have a picnic near our river and watch some boats, to maybe help us think through that question. We had a lovely picnic at a riverside park, but not a single boat passed by. I hear the Mississippi is really low upriver. Maybe that's why? Go figure.
In the absence of boats to watch, we shot off stomp rockets and generally ran around.
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| Heading to the hill that Jono and I rolled down. Ouch. |
We had MOPs on Thursday, so we took a break from Madeline. Friday, we looked in a large picture book of Paris and found all of the landmarks that are in the illustrations of Madeline. The kids had a fun trying to match up the real photos to the illustrations. Then I got out Paper City Paris and let them play.
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| Charlie with the Paper City Notre Dame and Eiffel Tower |
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| Jono, using the Eiffel Tower as a parking garage |
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| Paper City play, with Madeline and our Paris picture book in the foreground. Yes, Madeline even has her scar! |
A couple of other pictures, just for fun:
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| We borrowed this book from a friend to see if it's something we might like. Hazel thought it was super fun, and drew quite the nice chicken! |
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| Jonathan and our beloved pal, Ziggy |
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