Country: Kenya
Science: Grasslands
Bible Verse:
Matthew 6:20-21
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destrop, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew: 6:24-25
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothers?
We are off again to a new continent- Africa. We will be spending three weeks in Africa. Our Read aloud is David Livingstone. Either we are reading a completely different book or I don’t remember him very well from when I read about him as a kid.
We are learning to play Mancala. This is a popular two-person game in Africa. It is fun and easy to learn but also a game where you can use more strategy as you become more proficient. Both of the girls like it.
We studied elephants the first week and learned how they do not have sweat glands and when they are hot, they spray water on themselves and then fan themselves with their huge ears. We also studies other animals found on the savannah – ostrich, rhinos, hippos, vultures, zebras, giraffes, chimps, gorillas, apes, monkeys, and lions.
We make Ukeleres (fly swatters), drums, and carved ivory (soap). The girls each made a church for their ivory creation.
In math, we are multiplying by 4 and 6. This is going well. They like to skip count to songs.
We are studying cursive handwriting this year. This has been quite a transition but they are doing well. In fact, I sometimes can read their writing better than their printing. Next year we will make the complete transition to writing.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Grade 3 - Weeks 17 and 18
Country: Germany
Science: Rivers and Lakes
Bible Verse:
Matthew 11:29-30
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Matthew 6:19
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
We have left France and traveled to Germany. We have been reading many of the German Fairy tales by the Grimm brothers. When the girls were little, I thought some of these were too scary but they are old enough now to understand them.
I also found some information on cuckoo clocks on the Internet and presented this to the girls and as a surprise, I brought out my cuckoo clock. We have the “hunter” version which a bird on top versus the “chateau” version. See I even learned something. I didn’t have the clock up when the girls were little because I thought they would pull on the chains. I had forgotten that you had to pull the chains up every day….
We have also been reading about Martin Luther and Luther Wesley as part of our Religion.
Since Germany is well known for it’s castles, we had to make a castle. The first one we made from cardboard. The second ones were little kits similar to our Eiffel towers. Anna did very good on hers again until the end where some parental assistance was needed. I ended up gluing the last few pieces to keep them in place.
We are studying more birds, frogs, and snakes in our animal book. We also did an experiment to see which would freeze first, salt water or fresh water. We were lucky to have subzero temperatures and just put the containers on the deck – and we didn’t have to wait too long. We also enjoyed the experiment of what happens to a cup of boiling water thrown up into the air in subzero temperatures. The girls always enjoy watching this from the house while mom gets to go outside and actually “do” the experiment.
We did an Newt/Salamander Experiment about how they hear even though they don’t have external ears. They feel the vibrations on the surfaced where they are standing. Closer sounds cause stronger vibrations. We put a cookie sheet on the table and sprinkled salt on it. We than hit it with a wooden spoon. The salt moves because the pan molecules vibrate. We also talked about how deaf people can feel the vibrations of sound.
They also suggested we build a model of a river outside with hills and valleys. Now how do you do this in MN in the winter???? Especially with one kid on crutches.
Science: Rivers and Lakes
Bible Verse:
Matthew 11:29-30
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Matthew 6:19
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
We have left France and traveled to Germany. We have been reading many of the German Fairy tales by the Grimm brothers. When the girls were little, I thought some of these were too scary but they are old enough now to understand them.
I also found some information on cuckoo clocks on the Internet and presented this to the girls and as a surprise, I brought out my cuckoo clock. We have the “hunter” version which a bird on top versus the “chateau” version. See I even learned something. I didn’t have the clock up when the girls were little because I thought they would pull on the chains. I had forgotten that you had to pull the chains up every day….
We have also been reading about Martin Luther and Luther Wesley as part of our Religion.
Since Germany is well known for it’s castles, we had to make a castle. The first one we made from cardboard. The second ones were little kits similar to our Eiffel towers. Anna did very good on hers again until the end where some parental assistance was needed. I ended up gluing the last few pieces to keep them in place.
We are studying more birds, frogs, and snakes in our animal book. We also did an experiment to see which would freeze first, salt water or fresh water. We were lucky to have subzero temperatures and just put the containers on the deck – and we didn’t have to wait too long. We also enjoyed the experiment of what happens to a cup of boiling water thrown up into the air in subzero temperatures. The girls always enjoy watching this from the house while mom gets to go outside and actually “do” the experiment.
We did an Newt/Salamander Experiment about how they hear even though they don’t have external ears. They feel the vibrations on the surfaced where they are standing. Closer sounds cause stronger vibrations. We put a cookie sheet on the table and sprinkled salt on it. We than hit it with a wooden spoon. The salt moves because the pan molecules vibrate. We also talked about how deaf people can feel the vibrations of sound.
They also suggested we build a model of a river outside with hills and valleys. Now how do you do this in MN in the winter???? Especially with one kid on crutches.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Grade 3 - Weeks 15 and 16
Country: France
Science: Generals
Bible Verse:
Matthew 9:37b-38
The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
Matthew 11:28
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened; and I will give you rest.
Our second stop in Europe is France. Our main project was making an Eiffel tower. I had found some kits last summer and this was a lot easier than doing on our own. However, it was tricky to get all the pieces in place and required a little parental assistance towards the top.
We also made homemade soap. Since we used play-doh cookie cutters it was a lot like doing sugar cookies. Pour the soap, let the girls cut them out, put on pan to dry, pick up scraps and re-melt and start over. By the end the girls had lost interest and I just wanted to be done.
The Geography game is harder for Europe than North or South America. Maybe we just need to play more often.
In science we learned the three main ways that animals defend themselves: flight, trickery, and fight. We sorted animals based on their defense mechanism. We also studies caves. We also learned about animals classifications and turtles and snakes.
We are multiplying by 9 now. Multiplication seems so much easier than addition or subtraction for our girls. Does anyone know why this is?
Since it is Christmas time, we have been doing a lot of Christmas baking. So we talked about how the French like fancy little cookies and cakes and truffles.
Science: Generals
Bible Verse:
Matthew 9:37b-38
The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
Matthew 11:28
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened; and I will give you rest.
Our second stop in Europe is France. Our main project was making an Eiffel tower. I had found some kits last summer and this was a lot easier than doing on our own. However, it was tricky to get all the pieces in place and required a little parental assistance towards the top.
We also made homemade soap. Since we used play-doh cookie cutters it was a lot like doing sugar cookies. Pour the soap, let the girls cut them out, put on pan to dry, pick up scraps and re-melt and start over. By the end the girls had lost interest and I just wanted to be done.
The Geography game is harder for Europe than North or South America. Maybe we just need to play more often.
In science we learned the three main ways that animals defend themselves: flight, trickery, and fight. We sorted animals based on their defense mechanism. We also studies caves. We also learned about animals classifications and turtles and snakes.
We are multiplying by 9 now. Multiplication seems so much easier than addition or subtraction for our girls. Does anyone know why this is?
Since it is Christmas time, we have been doing a lot of Christmas baking. So we talked about how the French like fancy little cookies and cakes and truffles.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Grade 3 – Week 14
Country: Norway
Science: Forests
Bible Verse:
Matthew 5:45
That you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the eveil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
We have moved on to Europe and our first stop is in Norway. For our craft we made a Lapland Felt Square. I didn’t have quite the exact colors of felt so it is not quite “authentic”.
The girls have had lefsa before so we tried a different food – Fruit Soup. Basically you take dried fruit and cook it in sugar and water with tapioca until it becomes more of a pudding texture. Now if we had made about 1/8 of this recipe, it would have been okay. But there was enough to feed a crowd and while everyone tasted it, no one was demanding seconds, adults included. But the girls had fun selecting which dried fruit to include (I let them taste different kinds) and weighing it to get the correct amount.
Since there are no exciting animals unique to Europe, we are studying grasshoppers, mosquitoes, moths, tuataras, crocodiles, alligators, and other insects.
We also did an experiment that we had skipped earlier. Did you know that the shape of an egg is one of the sturdiest and strongest shapes in architecture? We cut the top off of four eggs – trying to get them close to the same size. Next we placed the eggs cut-side down in a rectangular pattern. We than placed books on top to see how much weight these four egg shells could hold. It was quite fun to guess. We started out with paperbacks and ended up taking them off and using heavier books. At 14 lbs, our’s started to crack. Had they been the exact same height, I think we would have gotten more weight on as the shortest one cracked first.
We are also studying northern forests. The MN forestry organization sent me some cool free stuff available upon request. We have some posters, samples of woods, some lesson plans, as well as a paper making kit. We incorporated most of these extra lessons into our program.
Science: Forests
Bible Verse:
Matthew 5:45
That you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the eveil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
We have moved on to Europe and our first stop is in Norway. For our craft we made a Lapland Felt Square. I didn’t have quite the exact colors of felt so it is not quite “authentic”.
The girls have had lefsa before so we tried a different food – Fruit Soup. Basically you take dried fruit and cook it in sugar and water with tapioca until it becomes more of a pudding texture. Now if we had made about 1/8 of this recipe, it would have been okay. But there was enough to feed a crowd and while everyone tasted it, no one was demanding seconds, adults included. But the girls had fun selecting which dried fruit to include (I let them taste different kinds) and weighing it to get the correct amount.
Since there are no exciting animals unique to Europe, we are studying grasshoppers, mosquitoes, moths, tuataras, crocodiles, alligators, and other insects.
We also did an experiment that we had skipped earlier. Did you know that the shape of an egg is one of the sturdiest and strongest shapes in architecture? We cut the top off of four eggs – trying to get them close to the same size. Next we placed the eggs cut-side down in a rectangular pattern. We than placed books on top to see how much weight these four egg shells could hold. It was quite fun to guess. We started out with paperbacks and ended up taking them off and using heavier books. At 14 lbs, our’s started to crack. Had they been the exact same height, I think we would have gotten more weight on as the shortest one cracked first.
We are also studying northern forests. The MN forestry organization sent me some cool free stuff available upon request. We have some posters, samples of woods, some lesson plans, as well as a paper making kit. We incorporated most of these extra lessons into our program.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Grade 3 - Week 13
Week 13 - Moving on...
This was to be our Thanksgiving week with minimal work planned but since we spent an extra week in South America, we are traveling to Norway this week.
We are back to the "Kingdom Tales" book for our read alouds. I am still not quite sure what I think of these. I know they have a point to all of the stories but sometimes, I think they are a little deep for third graders. Some days they seem to understand and other days, I am not so sure. I do reword some things that could be a little scary for them. I wouldn't read these to younger kids.
We decorated our Turkey Pumpkin again this year. The girls really like doing that. We also made some Pilgrim hat decorations. Anything with paint is always a hit.
On a side note, the girls started basket ball last week and had their first game this week. It is a recreational league and they don't officially keep score (and the score was pretty low). But, Anna got a basket (only a few kids on each team did) and she was very excited. This was the first time I have seen Anna run as fast as she could from one end of the court to the other on a consistent basis. She really wanted to be where the action was. She was pretty aggressive and "stole" the ball too. She is so short so that is a disadvantage but she seems to really like. Emma always wants to do the "sports" but I think it is more the social aspect that she likes. She was able to catch a pass in and dribble the ball down the court a few times. She took a couple of shots but missed. It will be interesting to see how they do.
This was to be our Thanksgiving week with minimal work planned but since we spent an extra week in South America, we are traveling to Norway this week.
We are back to the "Kingdom Tales" book for our read alouds. I am still not quite sure what I think of these. I know they have a point to all of the stories but sometimes, I think they are a little deep for third graders. Some days they seem to understand and other days, I am not so sure. I do reword some things that could be a little scary for them. I wouldn't read these to younger kids.
We decorated our Turkey Pumpkin again this year. The girls really like doing that. We also made some Pilgrim hat decorations. Anything with paint is always a hit.
On a side note, the girls started basket ball last week and had their first game this week. It is a recreational league and they don't officially keep score (and the score was pretty low). But, Anna got a basket (only a few kids on each team did) and she was very excited. This was the first time I have seen Anna run as fast as she could from one end of the court to the other on a consistent basis. She really wanted to be where the action was. She was pretty aggressive and "stole" the ball too. She is so short so that is a disadvantage but she seems to really like. Emma always wants to do the "sports" but I think it is more the social aspect that she likes. She was able to catch a pass in and dribble the ball down the court a few times. She took a couple of shots but missed. It will be interesting to see how they do.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Grade 3 - Week 12
Week 12 - Catchup time
We are supposed to moving onto Europe this week but we still had some stuff to do so I decided to spend some additional time in Brazil. We also made a couple of side trips to Venezuela and Argentina. We did a couple of cooking projects: Chocolates from Brazil - they tasted a lot like truflles. Steak and beans and potatoes for our Argentina meal. I was glad Scott took care of this one. I just gave him the recipes.
We have been busy catching up on the phonics, vocabulary, language arts, spelling, etc from last week. Luckily this was a review week for spelling so that helped. It does feel good to catch up!
Our Magic Treehouse book is Dolphins at Daybreak. Another good reader for the kids and not boring even for an adult. Predictable but not totally boring.
At last we have finished our dioramas. I will post pictures soon. We still may add more animals some day.
We are supposed to moving onto Europe this week but we still had some stuff to do so I decided to spend some additional time in Brazil. We also made a couple of side trips to Venezuela and Argentina. We did a couple of cooking projects: Chocolates from Brazil - they tasted a lot like truflles. Steak and beans and potatoes for our Argentina meal. I was glad Scott took care of this one. I just gave him the recipes.
We have been busy catching up on the phonics, vocabulary, language arts, spelling, etc from last week. Luckily this was a review week for spelling so that helped. It does feel good to catch up!
Our Magic Treehouse book is Dolphins at Daybreak. Another good reader for the kids and not boring even for an adult. Predictable but not totally boring.
At last we have finished our dioramas. I will post pictures soon. We still may add more animals some day.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Grade 3 - Week 11
Week 11 - Our last week in Brazil!
This week got off to a bad start as we took Monday off to watch a friend's kids. By Monday night, her kids were sick and by Thursday, our girls were sick. So we only got in two good days of school (Tuesday and Wednesday). Thankfully the girls recovered quickly and Scott and I did not get it. The downside is we missed dad's 90th birthday party. We all were very disappointed.
We continued to work on our dioramas. This is a slow process for the girls. But it is fun and they like the finished product. Our Animals this week in Science are the Toucan, Wooley Monkey, and the Sloth.
We made a little yellow airplane to go with our Read aloud - Nate Saint. He was a missionary and pilot for Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). This week we reached the end where he is killed. But his death as well as the three other missionaries with him were instrumentatal in eventually teaching the people who killed him about Jesus. So this is what we focused on.
So we finished most of our math, science, bible, and geography this week but are behind in the not so fun things: phonics, reading comprehension, language arts, spelling, and vocabulary. Oh well, next week can be catch-up.
On a side note, the girls had their swimming evaluations this week. They swam 48 laps (down and back) within an hour. Each lap is about 40 yards. Altogether this was over a mile. They did really well but were starving when they were done. They can to the free style, butterfly, breast stroke, and backstroke. They are cointinuing to work on improving technique and speed. Foss Swim school is excellent, al beit a bit pricey. But, they have been swimming about 3 and 1/2 years and are far more advanced than I am. They will be repeating this level again but will also be swimming on the swim team one day a week, starting in January. They are in the top level now with the exception of the swim team. While you can swim competitively with the swim team, you can also just go to the practices. We have decided that we do not want our children to be on competitive teams at this age. If they want to compete in a sport, when they are older, that will be fine but we just don't want to push it. Just let them play and have fun is our philosophy. Swimming twice a week for an hour is great exercise for them.
This week got off to a bad start as we took Monday off to watch a friend's kids. By Monday night, her kids were sick and by Thursday, our girls were sick. So we only got in two good days of school (Tuesday and Wednesday). Thankfully the girls recovered quickly and Scott and I did not get it. The downside is we missed dad's 90th birthday party. We all were very disappointed.
We continued to work on our dioramas. This is a slow process for the girls. But it is fun and they like the finished product. Our Animals this week in Science are the Toucan, Wooley Monkey, and the Sloth.
We made a little yellow airplane to go with our Read aloud - Nate Saint. He was a missionary and pilot for Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). This week we reached the end where he is killed. But his death as well as the three other missionaries with him were instrumentatal in eventually teaching the people who killed him about Jesus. So this is what we focused on.
So we finished most of our math, science, bible, and geography this week but are behind in the not so fun things: phonics, reading comprehension, language arts, spelling, and vocabulary. Oh well, next week can be catch-up.
On a side note, the girls had their swimming evaluations this week. They swam 48 laps (down and back) within an hour. Each lap is about 40 yards. Altogether this was over a mile. They did really well but were starving when they were done. They can to the free style, butterfly, breast stroke, and backstroke. They are cointinuing to work on improving technique and speed. Foss Swim school is excellent, al beit a bit pricey. But, they have been swimming about 3 and 1/2 years and are far more advanced than I am. They will be repeating this level again but will also be swimming on the swim team one day a week, starting in January. They are in the top level now with the exception of the swim team. While you can swim competitively with the swim team, you can also just go to the practices. We have decided that we do not want our children to be on competitive teams at this age. If they want to compete in a sport, when they are older, that will be fine but we just don't want to push it. Just let them play and have fun is our philosophy. Swimming twice a week for an hour is great exercise for them.
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