Ocean Unit Study

We had fun doing a unit study on oceans!

We read Nim's Island by Wendy Orr, then watched the movie based on the book--many differences, but both very good in their own ways.

Nim has a pet iguana named Fred... so when David found a salamander in our backyard, Aden named him Fred.

We read about sea turtles, sea lions, whales, sharks, and other ocean creatures. 

We painted sea pictures... blue/purple water with glitter for the sparkle... then the kids created their own sea creatures.

Kendyl created her own crazy creatures on the left... Aden had some help tracing his stuffed tiger and made a 'tiger fish'.

We also wrote stories and journal entries about ocean animals. 

We may revisit this theme again later in the year, as it was a lot of fun! 

mummies...

Studying Ancient Egypt.... It's kind of a given that you have to make toilet paper mummies :)

More Egyptian activities to come... :)

trip to John Ball Zoo

We surprised the kids with a trip to the zoo this summer.  We didn't tell them where we were going until we were already in the parking lot. 

It was so funny because the second we got out of the car (and the kids still didn't know where we were) a squirrel ran across the parking lot... Kendyl yells, "Look, a squirrel!" with a ridiculous amount of excitement.  Hehehe, a squirrel is cool, but we were at the zoo. :)

Riding the Camel.

Petting the Sting Rays.

The bears were pretty cool.

Playing on the John Ball statue.

We happened to go on the day they were releasing hundreds of monarch butterflies!  And there was a news reporter to capture the event.  The kids entered their name, along with about a hundred other kids, to 'win' a chance to release a butterfly or get to take home a caterpillar.

Aden was called to release a butterfly!  Awesome!

Then Kendyl was called -- she got to take 3 little caterpillars home!! She was SO excited!!!

John Ball Zoo is not that exciting of a zoo, but the kids enjoyed it, and we did too.

     Our favorite thing was the        

Budgie cage!        

    

                                                        All in all, it was a great family day! 

(side note... all 3 caterpillars died... and another one we found on some milkweed plants in the backyard... lots of tears...)  maybe next year we'll try that again! 

Our classroom and basic schedule 2011-2012

Here is peek into our classroom and a look at our basic daily schedule.

We always start the school day with our calendar and morning board time.  This time usually takes 15 - 20 minutes, but is packed full of learning and fun. 

Here is our calendar...

Here is our 'morning board'.... Most of the ideas are from 2 amazing homeschool blogs, http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/ and http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/Calendar.html

Basic run-down of our morning board:
We write and say the date 2 different ways and usually sing some calendar songs.  We also 'make the date' with change (ex. 26th would be 1 quarter and 1 penny)  We record the temperature on our weekly chart.  We then write and mark off how many days of school we've had, bringing in some math/place value.  We have a Bible verse for each letter of the alphabet, and since Aden has his basic phonics down, we are switching letters everyday or every other (we are on K already this year).  We learn the sign for each letter, as well as a verse and sight word with the verse.  Then we use the 'Judy clock' to practice telling time (Aden has an identical clock that he matches to this clock each morning and tells me what time it is).  Every couple weeks we practice different types of skip counting.  The first 2 weeks of school was counting by 2's (Aden LOVES this one).  Right now we are counting by 5's (we incorporate games to make this fun).  We will sometimes use the hundred chart to count and we also practice our address and phone number frequently.  We also practice 'left' and 'right' by moving the Cat in the Hat from one side of the board to the other.  And once in awhile we practice ordinal numbers, using our ordinal number train.

When we switch to a new letter, we learn a new poem and talk about words that start with that letter.  We also just started learning the States (there is the Michigan card on the right).  We are also adding in historical facts, monuments, etc. each week (there is Stonehenge).  And we will frequently add an animal or insect to the board (here is a grasshopper).

When we're done with this board, the kids check their picture schedules for what they will do next (they have different schedules). 

Here is Aden, proudly pointing to his schedule. :)

During the day, after calendar time, and in addition to family Bible study, we usually have a math 'lesson' and reading 'lesson' with Aden. 

 He also has 'Workboxes' (thank you, http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/index.html)!  He LOVES workboxes -  SERIOUSLY.  LOVES.  THEM.

He goes through them in order.  He looks at the picture to see if it is an 'independant', 'with mom', 'with dad', or 'with kendyl', box.  I usually put mazes/small motor activity sheets in one or two boxes, a cut & paste activity to go with the letter of the day, playdough or other fine motor activity, matching/rhyming/counting and the like activities, other 'math' and 'science' games, etc.  The final box is a 'star' box and contains a more open-ended/'fun' activity or game. 

One of his favorite (and my favorite) reading activities, for the work boxes, is the sight word dice... Everytime we add new sight words to learn, I add them to a set of 4 blocks I purchased (I'll find the website and add it later).  He rolls the dice, reads the word, traces the word, and writes it on his own. 

When we introduce a sight word, it also goes on our Word Wall... the difficult words on here are the ones from the Bible verse, which I don't expect him to actually 'learn' this year--it's more of a memory trigger when learning the verses and working with alphabatizing. :)

Once he masters a sight word, we will add it to our sight word caterpillar... I am in the process of making this, as I just found this great idea!  We will display the caterpillar on our classroom door and see how long it gets by the end of Kindergarten! 

While Aden is doing his workboxes, I will do Kendyl's Math & English lessons with her.  We usually do Bible and History, right after lunch, as a family.  They always get some 'fun with daddy' time before he goes to work.  In the afternoon we will either do science, social studies, art, or music together.  We are still trying to get a 'regular' physical education time scheduled.  Aden is in soccer right now, so that is good, we just need to get more scheduled in the 'regular' physical training with the kids... we'll get there :) 

phew.... okay... I know I missed a lot of things in the schedule... and I don't have any cute pics of Kendyl's scheduled activities, but those will come. 

So far, we're off to a great start this year, and I'm hoping and praying that God will give us strength and wisdom throughout the rest of the school year!