Rising Star Week 3 In Review

I can hardly believe that week three has come and gone.  What a great week it was!  We started the week with an impromptu trip to Dallas (which we turned into a field trip)!  We had to run to Dallas to pick up a load of bricks and decided to make a stop at the downtown branch of the Dallas library.  We were so excited!  The boys and I checked out all eight floors, via the stairs, so I got in some workout time too!  LOL I had an armload of books before we even made it off the first floor!  Love it! 

We also got to see the Shakespeare display while we were there.  It has the First Folio in a case with dimmed lights and everything.  Very mysterious!  

They have a used book store inside the library - how cool is that!  Oh my goodness I was in Heaven!  I found a old copy of 20,000 leagues under the sea to buy!  Cool! 

I also checked out a copy of How to draw Texas's sights and symbols.  What a great addition to our Texas History Study!  Woo-Hoo! 

So that was our first day of school this week...Sunday...field trip!  

Which we followed up with a day off!  LOL - Can't beat that, huh?  Since it was Labor Day and the neighbor's grandson was visiting, we decided to take the day off school and have some fun!  

We worked hard this week and I have to say we got quite a bit accomplished.  Our first day of Co-op classes was Friday, so we only worked in the "classroom" for three days.

This weeks work:

Bug worked on Teaching Textbooks and completed two lessons and quiz 3.  He scored 100% on each!

He also shaved several seconds off his addition fact test and worked on his fours times tables.  

He began Unit 18 in his spelling curriculum.  This unit works on compound words.  It introduced hyphenated words as well.  We will continue working on this unit next week as well. 

Bug neatly writing sentences with his spelling words.

Bug completed the next story in his reading curriculum.  For English he worked on explode the code, daily grams and we also did a punctuation lesson from Easy Grammar.  I have to say that I did not remember their being so many rules about abbreviations and their punctuation!  

We added some more contractions to our list that we are working on.  Bug is really doing well with these.  He remembers them so easily.  I am so excited about that!

Bug's Cozy spot

Red worked on counting backward, adding one, time of day (morning, afternoon, evening, night), some some more stories and some some went away stories.  

He also used pattern blocks to cover various shapes and practiced the doubles facts - which he knows!

See the top of Red's work - he was doing a some some more story and decided to make people in a pool.  Complete with ladders so that they could get out and the one on the left with the circle is in a floater!  LOL

Red also completed the next story and workbook pages in his reading curriculum.  He also started unit three in his spelling book, worked on word study, and explode the code.  I introduced suffix -ed this week as well.  He understands what it is, but figuring out which of the three sounds it is making is  little tough.  We will be working on this concept more next week.

Reading a book

Red working on the computer...odd and even is tough stuff, but he got it!

Some some went away with the bear family.

Red wrote about breakfast in his journal and drew his favorite cereal - Captain Crunch!  ;)

Subjects we do together...

Art - for art this week we did some sand art.  I wanted to try out my ideas before we got to Co-op class on Friday!  We tried out q-tips and paintbrushes to see which worked better for spreading the glue.  Well the paintbrushes definitely worked better - less "stringiness"!

We did our sanding using spoons because I hadn't been to wal-mart yet to pick up the shakers. I new right away that the shakers were going to be important for class!  LOL

The boys really enjoyed trying out the sand and did a few different pictures.

Bug created our house on a hot sunny day!

Red sanding his pirate ship.

Red made Bug's birthday party - the yellow things are balloons and the blue is his cake.

Bug's pirate ship out in the ocean.

Red's completed pirate ship.

Nature Study - this week I sent the boys on a scavenger hunt.  I gave them each five different colors, and sent them outside to find items for each color.  They were so excited, it was fun to watch!

Bug's scavenger hunt.  I had him write out each item that he found as well.

We started our science curriculum last week - we are using Apologia Exploring Flying Creatures of the 5th Day.  I am very excited about this.  Last week we did some reading about classification, so we began by reviewing what we remembered and talked about the mnemonic for remembering the kingdom to species breakdown.

After we read about how birds fly, the boys narrated what they had learned.  Then we added the information to our nature journals.  Bug drew a picture of a birds wing and talked about how the air pressure affects the lift of the bird.

Red drew a bird as well and you can see the air coming off his back.  ;)

We did an experiment to help us understand how the air pressure helps the air to lift.  Plus we got to spray water all over each other!  LOL

Then we made gliders.

Each of the boys made two gliders.  One with a short wide wing and one with a long narrow wing.

Then we took them out to the yard to conduct an experiment.

Smokey decided to come be a part of our testing process.  

Red throwing his plane.

Bug marking the distance with a tape measure.

Bug throwing his plane.

Each plane was thrown three times and we recorded the distance each time so we could compare the distance.  We started the project by coming up with a hypothesis.  Bug thought his long narrow winged plane would go farther and Red thought his wide narrow winged plane would go farther.  Each of them ended up being right.  

And here was the table at the end of our experiment.  LOL  Messy!  And I was so tired by the end of our day that I left it until dinner and then I cleaned it up.  

Friday was our first day of Co-op classes and the boys (and I) had an absolute ball!  I am teaching three classes this semester, so I was certainly busy getting everything together and packed up this week.  I actually used a large suitcase to pack up all my stuff for my classes.  LOL  It worked well!  

The boys are taking all the same classes this semester.

1st period - Lego (they loved, loved, loved this class!!!)

2nd period - Fun With Sand Art (I am teaching this class)

3rd period - Jr. Astronaut Training (They were very excited about this class too!)

4th period - P.E. (This was also a big hit!)

I am teaching Cutting Skills for 4-5 year olds 1st period (so precious).  2nd period I am teaching Fun with Sand Art - so fun!!!  3rd period I am not teaching, so I get to go to Jr. Astronaut training with the Bubbas.  4th period I am doing a Cards for Soldiers class - the kids are writing letters and making cards for soldiers.  It was so cool to see their thoughts and imaginations come to life in their letters.  

Well that was our week...fun, busy and exciting!  

And now I am tired just reviewing it, so until next time...we-