Grade 3 - Week 4

Week 4 - United States
We continued our tour of the United States this week. The girls are working hard at learning all 50 states. The little ones on the East coast are the hardest. We have several puzzles of the United States and these have been very helpful. We are also focusing on learning the major physical characteristics of North America: Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, Hudson Bay, Appalachian Mountain, Rocky Mountains, Florida Peninsula, Mississippi River, etc. They actually had to research some of these in one of our map books to find them. I have created a file folder that is laminated that has a map and the characteristics all have a letter assigned. Than, I have another page that has the features listed and they use a dry erase marker to match them up. This way they can do it many times and aren't wasting a lot of paper, plus they like this a lot more.



In Science we continued our study of forests and the difference between deciduous forests and coniferous forests. We also learned about the chaparral ecosystem.

We did a couple of art projects this week. We did a "paper" quilt. They really enjoyed this and worked on it for a very long time, a couple of days. Today, we read about Alexander Calder, an American artist, who designed the first mobiles. We created small mobiles. This was also a lot of fun.

Here are some pictures:

For the first four weeks, we have been reviewing addition and subtraction math facts. I have a number of file folder games for this as well and they enjoy these so much more than worksheets. Plus, now that I have them created, they can do them anytime. It is an easy filler if I need them to be doing something.

For Bible, this year we will be focusing on the book of Matthew. They will have a bible verse every week to learn. This week was Matthew 1:23: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."

We are also reading a book called "Hero Tales". This week we read about Harriet Tubman. Our read alouds for this week were from a book called "Kingdom Tales". This book uses allegory to reveal truths about the Kingdom of God. I am not sure how well I like this book and am glad next week we will have different read aloud.

We are continuing the Magic Treehouse series for readers. This week our book was "Pirates Past Noon". All of these books have the same basic plot. Annie and Jack go to the treehouse, pick up a book and say "I wish I was here" and magically they are transported to that location. They have an adventure and return to the treehouse and open the book that has "Frog Creek" (where they live) and say "I wish I was here" and they return home. But the stories are quite interesting and both Anna and Emma really like them.

This week was American music so pretty much anything goes. They did learn a Native American song, actually Anna did. Rest of us just listened to it. Anna has also been on this kick about doing Hawaiian dances.

Phonics, language arts, spelling, vocabulary, handwriting, and reading comprehension are also on our list but not too exciting to write about. Emma is a great speller and Anna has exceptional comprehension abilities. They are enjoying crossword puzzles now. Although they often need help with them yet.

The girls also have an animal book for science. They enjoy reading about one or two animals each day and answering a few questions. We have learned about dogs, cats, horses, frogs, etc. Anna especially likes animals and has a wonderful Animal Encyclopedia (thanks to Scott and Marilyn Clark!) that she can find tons of information on a given animal.

We are doing a leaf collection this year too. We have a tree guide book for MN and we identify one tree per week and put a leaf in our book and to a crayon rubbing of the bark and label it. We started with our one American Elm. We were going to do another one today but the rain.....

I have to say I am learning more this year than other years. Sometimes I wonder how much they will remember but they are doing amazingly well.

Grade 3 - Week 3

Week 3 - The United States

This week we started our studies of countries. We are studying the United States for 2 weeks. Since we spent the entire year studying the United States this is kind of a review. We are working hard at learning the names of all fifty states and other major landmarks, such as the Mississippi River, Mountain Ranges, Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, etc. We are also looking at the animals in the United States.

In Science we are studying Forests. We learned the different layers of the forests (emergent, canopy, understory, shrub, herb, floor) and which animals live where. No science experiment this week but we are doing a nature walk tomorrow and will be starting our leaf collection.

We were supposed to make a cake the first week and frost it blue for the oceans and use green frosting to make the continents. We skipped this project as Emma is the only one in the house that will eat cake. And yes she may eat all of it, but I don't think it would be great idea. So this week I came up with the idea of making blue jello and putting it in a large bar pan. We than use whipped cream in a can to make the continents and sprinkled them with green sugar. Now the shapes weren't very accurate - pretty hard to do with whipped cream in a can and we forgot Antarctica until we were eating it.

We are doing a couple of Native American crafts tomorrow (sand art). So hopefully I can post some more pictures of that.

For reading we are reading the Magic Treehouse book called Mummies in the Morning. There are a lot of great activities on the Internet for these books which is one of the reason I chose this series. The girls like word searches and crossword puzzles.

Last week we got a little behind (more my issues than the girls). So we had a rough day or two catching up. But yesterday and today were two of the best school days we have ever had! I am very thankful for this. The curriculum is fun and even I am learning things, especially in science.

Grade 3 - Week 2

Week 2 of school has come and gone. We continued our overview of the continents and learned the oceans. We also did a couple of science experiments. We created our earthworm niche that we didn't get done the first week and also did an experiment to demonstrate the water cycle. The girls love getting outside and working on this kind of project.

For arts we made a people paper chain using different colors to demonstrate that Jesus loves all the children of the world. The girls gave them all faces and hair, some got clothes. Dad got underwear on the back of his! I have no idea why they thought this was funny to do. Grandpa got glasses.

We are reading the Magic Treehouse series for reading. They are a fairly quick read and the girls really like them. We are reading one each week. This week we read the one about castles - okay I forgot the title already.... The girl, Annie, is 7 and her brother, Jack, is 8. They go on adventures. Annie's personality is alot like Anna's and Jack's is much more like Emma so I think they relate really well to the books.

The girls also have learned a new song - Hello to all the children of the world. They really like singing. And will sing all the time. They also really like the Spanish and Typing so these activities really don't need to be scheduled because they will do them just because they want to.

I read a book this summer that basically said a homeschool mom needs to make school fun for her kids. So, I have been really working on this, especially for Anna. Emma loves school and is happy with the little things but Anna would prefer to just play (wouldn't we all). So I spent a lot of time this summer working on file folder games. I will take some pictures soon. I have some for adding where there are problems and they need to match the answer. Or, one is for language arts and they have to categorize nouns by person, place, or thing. They both enjoy these and it is a nice break from the regular school work. I am also really working hard on doing at least one art project a week.

Grade 3 - Week 1

We started 3rd grade last week! I started a week earlier than most people, but I have found that in May my kids are ready to be done with school. So we are off.

This year we are using My Father's World for history/geography, science, bible, music, art, and the read alouds. Our theme is: A Trip Around the World. Of course we are doing math, phonics, language arts too but they are not near as exciting so most of my blogs with be on the other subjects.

The first two weeks of the year are an introduction. We are learning all about maps and globes. We did a cool experiment where you draw the continents on an orange and than quarter the orange and peel of each section. Than you try to lay it down on a flat surface. This really demonstrates how different maps look versus a globe and how distorted maps really are. Try it sometime - it was fun.

The girls have also learned a new song, which has helped them learn the different continents. We point at the continents as we sing it. It is sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle:

North America, South America,
Europe, Africa, Asia,
Kangaroos hop in Australia and
Penguins waddle in Antarctica.

My girls love to sing so this is a hit! We have also been singing Jesus loves the little children (all the children of the world) and are doing a poster of children from around the world. The girls have a lot of friends that are adopted as well so we are adding pictures of themselves and their friends.

We went to the Arboretum on Friday with Aunt Bonnie and so we picked up a map of the Arboretum so we can practice our mapping skills.

In Science we learned about Ecosystems, ecozones, habitats, and niches. We will be creating our earthworm niche tomorrow.

As we will be going "around the world", the girls completed a passport application, complete with a picture. They will be getting a pretend passport in a few weeks (created by mom) and as we travel through the different countries, we will put a flag sticker in their passport.

We are also using the "workbox system" to organize our school day this year. This allows me to put everything we need for each subject/activity in a box. The boxes are numbered and we do them in order. When they are done with the boxes, they are done for the day. This takes a little more time on my part ahead of time, but there is less "wasted" time in school. I don't have to go find a glue stick, or a pencil. It is all in the box. Some boxes we do together or I do with one of them and others they do independantly.

We are also doing Spanish this year using a CD and book. The girls love it and asked if they could do it outside of school time. We all got to listen to it on the way to church today. The CD says the words in English, than Spanish, and than the kids repeat it. They also have a book to follow along. This gives them the visual spelling of the words and a picture.  "Choco" is our puppet that we use for Spanish.  The girls love him. 

Something else we started this year is learning to type. I bought a computer typing game for kids. They play it far more than I expected and really enjoy it.

For reading, they are doing the Magic Treehouse series. We read about Dinosaurs this week and made Dinosaur Dioramas.

All in all it was a good week. I love the curriculum and the girls are excited too.