Week Eleven

This week we wrapped up our study of South America and are ready to head into next week as we do a book study on The Trumpet of the Swan. Here is a little of what we learned and did this week.

Bible

We finished reading through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and continued to memorize Matthew 5:14-16.

Geography

As I mentioned above, we finished our study of South America this week and I am proud to tell you that Isaac and Julia can name and locate all of the countries in North and South America. We all had fun finishing the Carnival costumes they started last week. They also got to make and decorate Carnival masks. Each one turned out very unique and true to that child's personality. We celebrated our study of South America by making brigaderiros, a chocolate treat. We didn't get around to watching Rio. One of the kids' didn't earn enough points to get TV time and the other kids didn't mention watching the movie so I left well enough alone.

Making Brigaderiros

This little cooking project was SUPER messy! (and the kids loved every minute of it)

Science

We learned about birds of the rain forest this week and did two fun activities. With the first we learned about how strong egg shells are. I took four empty egg shells and cut off the bottom half of each to make dome shapes. Then we predicted how many books we thought the egg shells would hold up before cracking. The kids both guessed 2 or 3. We had a stack of 17 books on the egg shells before they cracked. This totally amazed the kids! Then we talked about how water birds have a gland near their tail that produces oil and the birds spread that over their feathers. I cut out two construction paper feathers and coated one with cooking oil. Then I dropped water on both feathers. Obviously, the water beaded up on the one with oil.

Music/Art

We learned a song from Peru called Los Pollitos. And for art this week the kids made their masks and finished their costumes.

Read Aloud

We finished reading Nate Saint: On a Wing and a Prayer. I knew the end of this story before we even started reading this book,but it was still hard to get through the last couple of chapters. So sad yet such a testimony of fully giving your life for the Lord's work. And to read about how the door was opened to this tribe after the death of these men was awesome. We read that now 1 out of every 10 tribe members are Christians. Amazing! The kids made these airplanes just like the one Nate flew.

Poetry

We learned about limericks this week. We read three limericks by Edward Lear the same author that wrote The Quangle Wangle's Hat, which we studied last week.  Isaac and Julia both wrote their own limericks and they turned out pretty cute. We also learned about hyperbole, extreme exaggeration. They had fun the rest of the week giving examples of hyperbole.

Isaac

*multiplying by 3
*learning to organize his writing
*exclamation points
*story writing

Julia

*doubles addition
*learning to write an interview (dialogue)
*story writing
*dictation

Caleb

*I didn't have any formal lessons with Caleb this week. Just a lot of playing, reading, and plain 'ol fun! Of course he had his own idea of what would be fun. One day he was playing in the backyard. I looked up to check on him and saw him walking around the backyard half naked. Silly, silly boy!

Next week we will do a book study of Trumpet of the Swan. The following week we will spend a week doing fall/Thanksgiving activities. Then we will take some time off from school. Our baby boy is due to arrive sometime around the 24th!!