March 18 - 22

MATH

Preston:

Preston completed four math assignments in his math book this week.  He is also working on reviewing addition and subtraction and learning new multiplication facts using math wrap-ups.  

Marissa:

Marissa completed four math assignments in her math book this week.  She is also working on reviewing addition and subtraction facts to increase her time calculating in her head using math wrap-ups.  She loves them!   

Caleb:

Caleb completed two assignments in his math book this week.  He LOVES counting, playing math games and doing anything that has to do with numbers.  

LANGUAGE ARTS

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his language arts book this week.  He learned and reviewed the soft c and soft g sounds for phonics and did quite a bit of dictation work.  His timed reading speed is increasing quickly and he is getting more and more confident in his reading.  He is starting to read more and more for fun instead of just when it's an assignment, which is so exciting for both of us! 

Marissa: 

Marissa completed two assignments in her language arts book this week.  She is spending most of her time practicing easy readers and Bob books to increase her confidence and fluency with reading.  Marissa and Preston both wrote and illustrated compound words that fold together to show how two separate words come together to make a third word.  It was a lot of fun! 

Caleb:

Caleb completed two assignments in his language arts book this week.  He also played a letter game with his flash cards saying the sounds of each letter and coming up with new words that starts with that letter to move ahead in the game.   

HISTORY (WORLD GEOGRAPHY)

Preston, Marissa & Caleb:

We learned about Ireland this week for World Geography.  It was fun to learn about since St. Patrick's Day had just passed so we could talk about it.  I found a really good website with lots of fun facts about Ireland and we also watched an educational video on YouTube that talked about Ireland.  We read old folk tales from Ireland as well, which were fun for the kids because some of them were similar to fairy tales they have read.  One in particular reminded them of Cinderella.  

After our reading and discussion, we had a delicious shepherd's pie for lunch.  We talked about how authentic shepherd's pie would have been made with lamb, but ours was made with beef.  In England, they call it shepherd's pie if it's made with lamb and cottage pie if it's made with beef.  

TECH (BUILDING & ENGINEERING)

Preston:

The kids decided to build with brain flakes this week for building and engineering.  Preston made a tree and a lizard.  It was so cute!   

Marissa:

Marissa made a horse and carriage out of brain flakes this week.  I am always so surprised at how creative they can be with such simple construction materials.   

Caleb:

Caleb made a dragon with brain flakes this week.  He played with his dragon for two days straight! 

OPTIONAL (PE)

Preston:

Preston attended his karate class three times this week.   

Marissa:

Marissa attended her tumbling class this week.   

Caleb:

Caleb attended his karate class two times this week.   

OTHER

Preston:

Preston received his recital piece in piano which he will be practicing a lot in the next coming weeks.  He was practicing one day and Marissa leaned over to me and whispered, "Hey!  He's playing lagato.  We learned about that last week in class.  We were kangaroos for stacatto and swans for legato" (stated matter-of-factly while hopping and then gently gliding around the room.  I LOVE Musikgarten and the way it teaches kids music and piano in a way that they understand and is natural and non-threatening!!

Caleb:

Caleb and I spent some one-on-one time at the Tree House Museum while the older two kids were attending their science and art co-op class.  We had so much fun playing together and read SO MANY BOOKS.  Caleb especially liked reading in the eagle's nest and bear cave.  We also had a birthday party for our friend, "Bear-y," complete with cake, candles and creature friends!  ;)

March 11 - 15

MATH

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his math book.  He also watched Odd Squad for extra math practice this week.   

Marissa:

Marissa completed four assignments her math book this week.  She also watched Odd Squad for extra math practice this week.  

Caleb:

Caleb completed two assignments in his math book this week.  He also played math games from his travel book.  

LANGUAGE ARTS

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his language arts book this week.  He read some really cool short stories and poems as part of his curriculum.  

Marissa:

Marissa completed two assignments in her language arts book this week.  She is working on rereading all of the mini books in her language arts book to review.  

Caleb:

Caleb completed two assignments in his language arts book.  He is still reviewing letters and their sounds and practicing putting them together to make simple words.  He also reads a lot with his siblings and his parents to get exposure to literature of all levels.  

HISTORY (WORLD GEOGRAPHY)

Preston, Marissa & Caleb:

We learned about Italy this week in World Geography.  We watched a YouTube video about Italy and also learned a little bit about Ancient Rome.  We read a really cute book called Gabriella's Song that was set in the city of Venice.  We had a lot of fun practicing our Italian words and had a delicious spaghetti lunch.  

TECH (BUILDING & ENGINEERING)

Preston:

Preston's birthday was Friday.  He received several Lego sets from friends and family for his birthday.  He completed one of these for building and engineering this week and can't wait to build more.  

Marissa:

Marissa decided to build with blocks this week.  She created an entire city for her small dolls.  Apparently I never took a picture of the final creation with Marissa, but I did manage to snap a picture of the creation as it was being assembled (as Caleb slid into the background for an impressive photobombing moment). ;P

Caleb:

Caleb built his own Lego set this week as well.  It was the first time he completed a set following the instructions and he did it without help.  We stood over him to make sure he understood, but he was a pro and completed it without any problem.  

OPTIONAL (PE)

Preston:

Preston had his belt test for karate this week and did awesome.  He also had his belt ceremony, which was so cool!  He is now officially a yellow belt.   

Marissa:

Marissa attended her tumbling class this week.  She also got to practice tumbling moves with her favorite cheerleader at Weber State University.  Her friend, Katie, picked her up to snap a picture with her at the game and Waldo snuck up behind them and picked them both up.  She had a blast! 

  

Caleb:

Caleb had his belt test for karate this week.  He did great and is now a yellow belt (in the mini ninja class - it's a yellow belt with a white stripe).  

March 4 - 8

MATH

Preston:

Preston completed two assignments in his math book this week.  He also worked on wrap-ups and some math fact reviewing with our Dr. Seuss celebration using One Fish, Two Fish to work on adding and subtracting.  

Marissa:

Marissa completed two assignments in her math book this week.  She completed One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish math fact drills during our fun Dr. Seuss celebration (we were a little late to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday, but decided to have a week focusing on some of our favorite books anyway).  We used One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish as a focus for some extra math fun.   

Caleb:

Caleb got to count a lot of fish and practice adding with our One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish math fun.  He loved it and even talked me into buying Sweedish fish for a treat afterwards.  

LANGUAGE ARTS

Preston:

Preston completed two assignments in his language arts book this week.  We did extra reading and activities to celebrate Dr. Seuss.   

Marissa: 

Marissa worked on reading this week.  She worked on reading Bob books and also practicing reading with Dr. Seuss books.  She is really good at "Green Egg and Ham," "The Cat in the Hat," and "Hop on Pop."   

Caleb:

Caleb loved learning with games this week.  His favorite was "Hop on Pop" hopscotch.  It was more of a hopping game than hopscotch, but was a fun way for the kids to practice their reading in time with jumping from word to word.  Caleb wasn't quite able to read all the words so Preston was his helper and played the game right along side Caleb.  It was so much fun!  

HISTORY (WORLD GEOGRAPHY)

Preston, Marissa & Caleb:

We studied Spain again for world geography this week.  My books finally came in at the library so we spent most of the class reading fun books about Spain.  Our favorite was "Ferdinand the Bull."  The kids also loved reading "Don Quixote and the Windmills" and could not stop laughing thinking about Don Quixote and Sancho Panza fighting the big bad windmills with their weapons.  

TECH (BUILDING & ENGINEERING)

Preston:

Preston is on a Lego kick right now so we've been doing most of our building and engineering around Lego's lately.  Caleb loves to imitate his big brother so he has been building with Lego's a lot as well.  Last week, Preston built the structure for a spaceship.  He got so excited about it that he spent time building onto it this week.  

Marissa:

Marissa loved learning about Picasso and how his paintings were the origins of collages.  She made her very own collage this week, and it turned out AWESOME!

Caleb:

Caleb wanted to be like his big brother and built his own spaceship out of Lego's all by himself!  

OPTIONAL (PE)

Preston:

Preston attended karate three times last week.  One more week until his belt test!  

Marissa:

Marissa attended her tumbling class this week.  She has her whip and tuck on the trampoline and is now working on landing them on the tumbling track.

Caleb:

Caleb attended karate twice last week.  He will be belt testing next week.  

OTHER

We attended Weber High School's production of Wiley and the Hairy Man for a field trip this week.  It was so much fun!