Oct 21 - 25

MATH

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his math book this week.  He is learning to multiply 7's right now.  

Marissa:

Marissa completed four assignments in her math book this week.  She is working on two and three digit subtraction with borrowing.  

Caleb:

Caleb completed three assignments in his math book this week.  He is working on counting, number recognition and shapes.  He also attended his "Math through Music and Movement" class at ZigArts where he reviewed rhythm and practiced clapping, stomping and counting to songs like Oompa Loompa, Hakuna Matata and Yankee Doodle.  They also read "The Pie-Rits."  

LANGUAGE ARTS

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his language arts book this week.  He is reviewing commas in a series, apostrophes and homophones.  He also completed 30 minutes of reading every day.  

Marissa: 

Marissa completed four assignments in her language arts book this week.  She is reviewing nouns and verbs and working on adjectives.  She also completed 20 minutes of reading every day.  

Caleb:

Caleb completed three assignments in his language arts book this week.  He also attended his Sing, Read and Write class and his Storytelling class at ZigArts.  

AMERICAN HISTORY

Preston & Marissa:

Preston and Marissa attended their “Let’s Rock American Government” class at ZigArts this week.  They recited the Pledge of Allegiance.  They sang the Preamble to the Constitution and got their Smart treats from the Electoral College lesson the previous week.  

Caleb:

Caleb attended his “I Love America” class at ZigArts this week.  They talked about why we stand when we sing The Star Spangled Banner, and sang the Star Spangled Banner and Yankee Doodle.  

ENTREPRENUER (The Art of Business)

Preston & Marissa: 

Preston and Marissa attended their “Art of Business” class at ZigArts this week. They finished their final shading lesson with the lamps.  

They also had the opportunity to participate in Junior Achievement's BizTown this week.  It was our first year participating and it was AWESOME!  Marissa was assigned to work at KSL and ended up being chosen as the lead interview specialist.  She went to all the different businesses and spoke on camera to the CEO or manager to let others in the town know what services or products were offered at the business.  She shocked everyone with her natural charisma (her mom included) and was completely comfortable on camera.  She also had a talent for making others feel comfortable as well. She told me a story about the manager of Smiths who was very nervous.  He asked if he could get his script because he had taken notes.  She told him not to worry and to go get his notes and not to feel pressured at all.  Everyone loved her and she ended up being awarded "Citizen of the Day" by the Mayor of BizTown.  

Preston was one of the CFO's of Zion's Bank and had a very stressful day learning about cutting checks, making payroll, balancing spreadsheets and his checkbook.  It was a fun experience for him as well, but he learned that all jobs are not always easy and come with a lot of stress and need for expertise and experience.  The kids LOVED it and will definitely be participating again next year.  They learned so much about managing a business, buying and selling within a community.  

Caleb:

Caleb attended his “Art of Business class at ZigArts this week.  They practiced making art to sell using just dots.  They used Q-tips to make dot paintings.  

OPTIONAL (Karate, Tumbling, Musikgarten)

Preston:

Preston attended his karate class this week.  He's been going to the lower class to review some of the katas he will need to know for his next belt test.  

Marissa:

Marissa attended her tumbling class this week.  

Caleb:

Caleb attended his Musikgarten class this week.  He loves it! 

OTHER

Preston:

Preston had the opportunity to serve lunch to homeless people this week.  He was a little nervous, but it was a really good experience for him.  One man talked to him for over 30 minutes about making good life choices and staying on a good path.  

Caleb:

Caleb got to play at Discovery Gateway with mom this week while Preston and Marissa attended BizTown.  It wasn't very crowded so we got to do EVERYTHING we wanted and had such a great time!  

Oct 14 - 18

MATH

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his math book this week.  He worked on story problems using multiplication and did some review work for multi digit addition and subtraction.   

Marissa:

Marissa completed four assignments in her math book this week.  Marissa also did some graphing to figure out which pets were the most popular with her group of friends.  

Caleb:

Caleb completed three assignments in his math book this week.  He also watched "Math Circus" from LeapFrog.  He LOVED it!! 

LANGUAGE ARTS

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his language arts book this week.  He also completed 30 minutes of reading every day.  Preston has gotten really excited about learning to spell bigger words and has been practicing spelling them on the whiteboard just for fun.  

Marissa: 

Marissa completed four assignments in her language arts book this week.  She also completed 20 minutes of reading every day.  

Caleb:

Caleb completed three assignments in his language arts book this week.  He also watched "Talking Words Factory" from LeapFrog.  

AMERICAN HISTORY

Preston, Marissa & Caleb:

There was no class at ZigArts this week so we went to the Treehouse Museum for a field trip.  The kids love it!  We spent a little time in the Oval Office and then explored other fun exhibits.  

Cowboy Caleb

 Rodeo

Puppet show 

Building his own car

Nature scavenger hunt

ENTREPRENUER (The Art of Business)

Preston, Marissa & Caleb:

There were no classes at ZigArts this week so we spent some time painting for fun to keep practicing our artistic skills.  The kids also watched an episode of BizKids to learn more about how to run a successful business.  

OPTIONAL (Karate, Tumbling, Musikgarten)

Preston:

Preston attended his karate class this week.  

Marissa:

Marissa attended her tumbling class this week.  Marissa also got to practice her back handsprings with Waldo, the mascot from Weber State University.  

Caleb:

Caleb did not have Musikgarten class this week.  Instead, we practiced singing songs from his CD and went on a nature walk.  

OTHER

Preston, Marissa & Caleb:

The kids attended a WSU football game with their dad.  They had so much fun!  

Oct 7 - 11

MATH

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his math book this week.  He is working on learning his multiplication facts for the number 4.   

Marissa:

Marissa completed four assignments in her math book this week.  She learned how to borrow with multi-digit subtraction and is catching on really well.   

Caleb:

Caleb completed three assignments in his math book this week.  He also attended his "Math through Music and Movement" class at ZigArts.  In his class, the kids learned a new games from the story of Tally O'Malley.  They practiced singing "Tomorrow" and banged rhythm like a drum on the table. 

LANGUAGE ARTS

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his language arts book this week.  He is learning about prepositions so we read a book called "Over and Under the Snow" that was really cute.  He also completed 30 minutes of reading every day and three modules in TTRS.   

Marissa: 

Marissa completed four assignments in her language arts book this week. She is working on words that end in "ed" and learned that some make the /d/ sound, some made the /ed/ sound and some make the /t/ sound.  

Caleb:

Caleb completed three assignments his language arts book this week.  He also attended his "Sing, Read and Write" class and "Storytelling" class at ZigArts.  In Sing, Read and Write, they learned about limericks.  They read some limericks together and noticed rhyming and rhythm patterns, defined words and enjoyed their comedy.   

AMERICAN HISTORY

Preston & Marissa:

Preston and Marissa attended their "Let's Rock American Government" class at ZigArts.  They recited the Pledge of Allegiance, sang the Preamble to the Constitution.  They talked a little bit more about the Electoral College with a TED talk.  Then they got to vote on having smarties or dum dump next week imitating the Electoral College.  Texas was the deciding factor.  

Caleb:

Caleb attended his "I Love America" class at ZigArts this week.  They learned about the habit of not procrastinating through the story of the hedgehog and the spelling test.  They read a Native American Tale about the Grand Canyon and talked about Native Americans living in the West, some of their customs, and similarities and differences between their beliefs/stories and some of our own.  They practiced the song "America" in rounds.   

ENTREPRENUER (The Art of Business)

Preston & Marissa: 

Preston and Marissa attended their "Art of Business" class at ZigArts.  They continued learning about shading with lamps/lights out.  They're working on their projects to sell starting in December.  

Caleb:

Caleb attended his "Art of Business class at ZigArts.  They painted with leaves today and then painted nature scenes.  Then the kids did their own projects and played with play dough.   

OPTIONAL (Karate, Tumbling, Musikgarten)

Preston:

Preston attended his karate class three times this week.  He loves it and is hoping to be ready for his belt test at the end of November.   

Marissa:

Marissa attended her tumbling class this week.  She is getting better at landing her whip and tuck more consistently.  

Caleb:

Caleb attended his Musikgarten class this week.  They made leaf drawings and a bird feeder to hang outside for the fall.  They sang and danced to lots of fun songs about autumn and nature.  

OTHER

Preston, Marissa & Caleb:

We all went on a field trip to Black Island Farm this week.  It was so much fun riding the tractor, picking out a pumpkin and playing lots of fall games!  

Marissa:

Marissa attended her class at Paul Mitchell School of Beauty.  They learned about taking care of their nails and got to choose how to have their nails done by one of the students.  Marissa had so much fun!  

Sep 30 - Oct 4

MATH

Preston:

Preston completed three assignments in his math book this week.  He also practiced his math facts using wrap-ups.   

He also used his math skills in counting and figuring out tax for the Lego set he has been saving up for.  He has been saving his money for over a year and finally purchased the Apocalypseburg set from Lego Movie 2.  It arrived and he spent several days assembling it as part of math and building and engineering skills.  It's a set made for age 16+ so we thought it would take him a long time, but he assembled over 3,000 pieces in 4 days.  It was so much fun to watch him from the time he started saving his money until the last piece was in place!  

Marissa:

Marissa completed three assignments in her math book this week.  She also practiced math facts using wrap-ups.   

Caleb:

Caleb completed two assignments in his math book this week.  He also attended his "Math Through Music and Movement" class at ZigArts.  They did a story mat about the circus to practice circles, adding and subtracting, sequencing events and following directions.  They also learned the next part of "Tomorrow" from Annie.  

LANGUAGE ARTS

Preston:

Preston completed three assignments in his language arts book this week.  He also attended his Storytelling class at ZigArts and read for 30 minutes each day.   

Marissa: 

Marissa completed three assignments in her language arts book this week.  She also attended her Storytelling class at ZigArts and read for 20 minutes each day.  

Caleb:

Caleb completed two assignments in his language arts book this week.  He also attended his Sing, Read and Write and Storytelling classes at ZigArts.  In "Sing, Read and Write" they reviewed nouns and verbs and learned about adverbs.  They illustrated the importance of adverbs in storytelling with the Mad Libs game.  He also worked on phonetics.  

AMERICAN HISTORY

Preston & Marissa:

Preston and Marissa attended their "Let's Rock American Government" class at ZigArts this week.  They begin each week with the Pledge of Allegiance.  Then they sing the Preamble to the Constitution.  After that, they talked more about the three branches of government and how the people are more powerful than the President because the President can't vote.   

Caleb:

Caleb attended his "I Love America" class at ZigArts this week.  They learned about the habit of being proactive with setting goals, writing things down, and using time and money wisely.  They also learned about the first two American Flags - the Betsy Ross and the Star Spangled Banner.  They listened to the song "I Love America" and talked about ways America is unique.    

ENTREPRENUER (The Art of Business)

Preston & Marissa: 

Preston and Marissa attended their "Art of Business" class at ZigArts this week.  They finished their shading lesson and then worked on other projects until the end of class.  

Caleb:

Caleb attended his "Art of Business class at ZigArt this week.  They continued working with stamps. As kids finished their standing project, they did water color and created sculptures with their play dough.  

OPTIONAL (Karate, Tumbling, Musikgarten)

Preston:

Preston attended karate once this week (because they were closed for belt testing the rest of the week).  He attended the self defense night and learned new skills for using martial arts to defend himself.  

Marissa:

Marissa attended her tumbling class this week.  She also practiced tumbling after her older brother's volleyball game, showing off her skills to everyone she could.  

Caleb:

Caleb attended his Musikgarten class this week.  They made cards depicting musical signs (like f and p) and the patterns that go up and down to get softer and louder.  

OTHER

Preston:

Preston found out he will be playing Humpty Dumpty in "Wonderland" at ZigArts in the spring.  He was so excited!   

Marissa:

Marissa found out she will be playing the "Ump" for one of the scenes in "Wonderland at ZigArts in the spring.  She's not sure what that means exactly, but she's excited to have a part and start working on her lines.   

Sep 23 - 27

MATH

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his math book this week.  He is working on multiplying 3's and is also starting to learn fractions.   

Marissa:

Marissa completed four assignments in her math book this week.  She is working on double digit addition and subtraction.  She is also very eager to learn fractions and multiplication with Preston.  

Caleb:

Caleb completed three assignments in his math book this week.  He is working on counting and adding.  He also attended his "Math through Music and Movement" class this week.  They read a story about ants and learned how solving mysteries is math.  They got to follow clues to solve a mystery.  They also started learning "Tomorrow" from Annie.  

LANGUAGE ARTS

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his language arts book this week.  He is learning about plural nouns and also learning about possessive nouns and using apostrophes.  He also reads at least 30 minutes every day.  He is LOVING the Nate the Great series and has checked out 20 books so far form the library.  

Marissa: 

Marissa completed four assignments in her language arts book this week.  She is learning "ar" words right now.  She also reads every day out loud for 20 minutes.  She is excited to be reading Junie B. Jones books now and has several on hold at the library to pick up.   

Caleb:

Caleb completed three assignments in his language arts book this week.  He also attended "Sing, Read and Write" and "Storytelling" at ZigArts this week.  In Sing, Read and Write they learned what nouns and verbs are  through discussion, song and a game and wrote a poem together as a class.  In Storytelling they looked at folk tales and how the same basic story can be told throughout the world with different cultural nuances.  They explored Cinderella and took turns relating it to their own lives.   

AMERICAN HISTORY

Preston & Marissa:

Preston and Marissa attended their "Let's Rock American Government" class this week. They learned about the three branches of government.  They sand the song and talked about how they are all equal and are set up to be checks and balances.   

Caleb:

Caleb attended his "I Love America" class this week.  They talked bout flag etiquette and started to learn "Take Your Hat Off."  They also learned about the leadership habit of being proactive.  They read about a squirrel who was bored, bored, bored, and followed his journey through visiting others who weren't.  Then they learned that it was in his control if he was bored or not and watched him turn and incredible idea into a service for someone else.  

ENTREPRENUER (The Art of Business)

Preston & Marissa: 

Preston and Marissa attended their "Art of Business" class this week.  They did shading with lamps and passed out art tools to use.  They drew cups with foam blocks and foam balls.  I can't wait to see what they are creating to sell! 

Caleb:

Caleb attended his "Art of Business" class this week.  They painted with sponges this week and talked about how everything around us is basically made of sales.  They used shapes to create their own picture.  Next week, they will practice some more and make a picture to sell.   

OPTIONAL (Karate, Tumbling, Musikgarten)

Preston:

Preston attended his karate class twice last week (after that they had belt testing that he did not participate in) 

Marissa:

Marissa attended her tumbling class and also had a private tumbling lesson.  She is improving so much!   

Caleb:

Caleb attended his Musikgarten class this week.  He loves it!  They made paintings of flowers in nature and talked about leaves in autumn.   

OTHER

Marissa:

Marissa attended World of Dance at BYU and got to meet one of the cloggers.  She was so excited since she is taking clogging at ZigArts this year!!  

Sep 16 - 20

MATH

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his math book this week.  He is working on multiplication tables, specifically on his 3's while reviewing 2, 5 and 10.   He practiced reviewing multiplication using gems to see what it actually looked like to multiply by bigger numbers.  It really helps Preston to learn visually and kinesthetically so we rely on manipulatives quite a bit in math.  

Marissa:

Marissa completed four assignments in her math book this week.  She is working on double digit subtraction and trying to work on multiplication alongside Preston (she loves math and wants to catch up to her brother).  She also loves to randomly review things like adding doubles, which is what I found her doing on our white board one day.  

  

Caleb:

Caleb completed two assignments in his math book this week.  He is working on counting and adding up to 10.  

LANGUAGE ARTS

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his language arts book.  He's also finished with his level and we will need to purchase a new one soon.  He's learning so much!  He completed 10 modules in Touch Type Read and Spell (TTRS), which is helping so much with his spelling.   He also completed six pages in his handwriting book.  He is learning cursive this year and doing great!

Marissa: 

Marissa completed four assignments in her language arts book.  She completed 10 modules in TTRS, which is so exciting.  She's decided it's not her favorite because it's getting more difficult now that it's words and not just letters, but that is the part I love.  It is teaching her reading and spelling while she learns to type.  She also completed four pages in her handwriting book.  

Caleb:

Caleb completed three assignments in his language arts book.  He was having a difficult time remembering all the sounds the letters make (I'm not sure why) so he also watched Letter Factory as a review.  The older kids have taken Caleb under their wing (since they are both feeling much more confident at reading).  I walked down the stairs one day to see Marissa and Preston "teaching" Caleb to read different words using the white board.  It was so sweet!   

AMERICAN HISTORY

Preston, Marissa & Caleb

We attended Freedom's Light Festival in Bountiful this week for American History.  It was so much fun to see characters in costume teaching us about their lives through story.  Benjamin Franklin was my kids' favorite!  He had such a gift for storytelling!!  We were there quite awhile and the kids were captivated by every word.  They were surprised to learn he was originally on the side of the King and that over time he became a supporter of freedom, but in the process his relationship with his son suffered.  

ENTREPRENUER (The Art of Business)

Preston, Marissa & Caleb:

Preston and Marissa did not have class this week because of the field trip, but they both worked on some art to practice for class.  We also discussed business plans for other businesses they may want to have this year.  Preston, in particular, is eager to sell cookies again.  As the head baker, we're currently discussing it.  

Preston practicing drawing a neighbor's house

OPTIONAL (Karate, Tumbling, Musikgarten)

Preston:

Preston attended karate class four times last week.  He got to spar for the first time.  It was tough and he didn't love it, but he talked about how much he learned even though he got hurt and doesn't like the fighting part of karate.  

Marissa:

Marissa attended her tumbling class last week.  Her ankle was feeling much better and she was able to practice at full capacity.   

Caleb:

Caleb attended his Musikgarten class.  They painted with items from nature and talked about fall.  He loves it!