Classroom Update (January 13-January 24)

Here is another two -week update from the Red Snail Classroom!


Monday (January 13, 2014)

• Spelling: New Spelling list was given.  This week's spelling words were:

1. taller
2. tallest
3. smarter
4. smartest
5. fresher
6. freshest
7. smaller
8. smallest
9. happier
10. happiest
11. paragraph
12. lion
13. oil
14. men
15. biggest
16. funniest
17. longest
18. largest
19. brightest
20. widest
21. bigger
22. big
23. alert
24. analyze
25. ancestor
26. compensation (trouble word from last week)

• Vocabulary:  We got three new words for the vocabulary this week, which are:

1.  Alert:  Warning
2.  Analyze:  Look something over
3.  Ancestor:  Family from the past.

• Reading:

We read another chapter in "The Reptile Room" from "A Series of Unfortunate Events."  You can snag your own copy of the book HERE, to keep up with the Red Snail Reading List.  You can also see what books we are on in the classroom by visiting the top tab under "Red Snail Reading List."

• Writing:  For writing this week we worked on our cursive handwriting and also story prompts.
We also worked on the usage of have, has, and had.  We also touched a little on silent consonants with the words either ending, starting, or have the letters (gh, k, w, n, g, b, and p) in them.

• Art:  For art this week we colored our paddles to use in P.E.  Skylar's favorite color is red, so of course the paddles are now red.  Look for this later in the week to be used with P.E.

Tuesday (January 14, 2014):

• Science:  In Science we are starting to break down the planets.  We are currently on Mercury and learned a lot of fun facts about the planet as well as the phases of the moon.

• Social Studies/Geography:  We are currently learning about South American animals and Skylar chose the Toucan to do his research on.  More on this next week.

• History:  We studied a lot about Richard Nixon this week.  We started on him last week and have now finished up with everything we need to learn about him.  He was a very interesting man, that's for sure.

• Music:  For music this week, we learned about Kazoos and how infamous they are.  Skylar played a few notes on his gold Kazoo and we had a lot of fun with it.

You can snag a worksheet on how to play the kazoo HERE!

Wednesday (January 15, 2014)

• Math:  In Math we went over more multiplication and division problems up to 12.  Here are the ones we had this week:

• 9x6
• 4x9
• 7x4
• 11x4
• 8x3
• 4x5
• 6x8
• 5x6
• 8x4
• 6x3

For division the problems we had this week are:

• 6 ÷ 12
• 9 ÷ 99
• 7 ÷ 56
• 7 ÷ 77
• 7 ÷ 42

• Probability and Data:

Since we've had quite a foggy time here in the Valley, I possed a question to Skylar of:  What is the probability of it being foggy tomorrow?  He answered with 100% probability, and boy was he right on the money.

Source

• P.E.:  For P.E. we used the painted paddles and played badminton a little with them.  It was fun for Skylar to use something he was able to paint in class for fun with the P.E. time.

*(Library Day)*

Thursday (January 16, 2014)

*Week Review*

We did some more review on the trouble math problems and rounding for the test on Friday.

• Cooking:  Skylar opted to get pizza for cooking class and that went over with everyone just fine!

Friday (January 17, 2014)

*TEST DAY*

• Gardening:  We have started adding gardening to our plans for Friday.  This will have more added to this category as the season moves forward.

Monday (January 20, 2014)

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday-No School

We took the time on Monday to talk about Martin Luther King, Jr. and we did some fun projects to celebrate him and understand him.

You can snag the worksheets we used HERE, HERE, HERE, and the color sheet HERE!

And snag the paper-doll printable HERE!






Tuesday (January 21, 2014)

• Spelling: Since Monday was a holiday, we gained new spelling words on Tuesday.  This week's spelling words were:

1. usually
2. didn't
3. friends
4. easy
5. heard
6. order
7. red
8. door
9. sure
10. become
11. muffin
12. pumpkin
13. apron
14. cannon
15. poison
16. landform
17. prime
18. composite
19. wildfire
20. tropical
21. deposit
22. bully
23. annual
24. apparent
25. appropriate
26. compensation

• Vocabulary:  This week's vocabulary words were:

• Annual (yearly)
• Apparent (clearly understood)
• Appropriate (what is acceptable)

• Reading:  We are on chapter six of "The Reptile Room" in the book "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

• Writing:  In writing this week we practiced handwriting skills with cursive letters.  We also did more writing prompts.  Week after week Skylar seems to be getting a bit more creative with these.  It's always fun to read the stories he comes up with each week.

• Art:  For art this week we did a Dixie Cup light string.  I've been seeing these all over Pinterest lately and I finally had a reason to make one.  Skylar had a blast helping me do it and it brought a bit more character to our little classroom.  What do you think?

• Science:  In Science we moved on to the next planet in line, Venus this week.  We also talked about Reference books and the information they supply in researching a certain topic.

• Social Studies/Geography:  For social studies we talked about South American and the toucan.  We also talked about the foods that come from South America.

We also covered some facts about Texas for our geography place of interest.

• History:  In history, we started on George Washington this week.

• Music: - Skylar learned to play the Kazoo this week.

You can snag this printout HERE!

Wednesday (January 22, 2014)

• Math:  For math this week, we are still going over long subtraction and rounding with different place values.  We will cover this a bit more in the weeks to come, as well.

• Probability and Data:  -

• P.E.: -

*(Library Day)*

Thursday (January 23, 2014)

*Week Review*

• Cooking: -

Friday (January 24, 2014)

*TEST DAY*

• Gardening: -

Stay tuned for another two week update in the following weeks to come.

Classroom Update (December 30-January 10)

First of all, Happy New Year!  Hope your 2014 came in with happiness and lots and lots of love!

Here is two week update in the Red Snail Classroom.

Monday (December 30): (Math and Probability & Data)

Math: We covered a few passed lessons that Skylar was having some issues grasping.  One of the major ones was rounding numbers when the place value is different than the number value.  For example:

23,985 rounded to the nearest one thousand.  Grab the worksheet HERE!

We also covered a few lessons on decimal points and where the fall in certain numbers.  This was a minor lesson that will be taught further next week.  Here is a quick worksheet of what we did.

Grab this worksheet HERE!

We also fit in a few multiplication problems just for fun.

Probability & Data:

For Probability and Data we did a cool probability game using a deck of cards.  I really enjoy how Education.com goes into detail with helping educate on certain aspects of teaching.  You can learn how to play this game HERE.

We also did a bit of board work with a bar graph.

Who doesn't love ice cream?  :)

Tuesday (December 31):  (Social Studies, Science, and History)

Social Studies:  We learned more about Antarctica and the Emperor Penguin.  We have been making books for each continent and working with a certain animal that lives on that continent.  It's a great way to learn facts about that area and also help with researching information.

Loads of information on emperor penguins right at our fingertips on the internet.

Science:  We are covering the solar system again.  There is so much to learn from the solar system and it can be so much fun to learn while having a blast (pun intended) while doing it.  We also touched a little on minerals and rocks too.  And took a dive into how fire is made as well.

You can snag this entire workbook HERE!

History:  We are covering a bit of information on the presidents and started with Richard Nixon.  (More on this later)

Wednesday (January 1):  (Spelling, Vocabulary, Reading, and Writing)

Spelling:  For Spelling we covered new spelling words.  Of course, I have decided to move Spelling word review to Mondays, so that enough time is given for Skylar to learn them before the test on Fridays.  Our spelling words this week were:

1. body
2. music
3. color
4. stand
5. sun
6. questions
7. fish
8. area
9. mark
10. dog
11. bargain
12. certain
13. orphan
14. fountain
15. oxen
16. latitude
17. longitude
18. compass
19. absolute
20. equator
21. compensation
22. address
23. afford
24. bully
25. curtain

Vocabulary:  We reviewed our vocabulary words for the week.  Our words this week were:

1. absolute-To the point, to truth.
2. address-Postal code or house number, or to address someone directly.
3. afford-Not enough money, or time to do something.

Reading:  We are still reading "The Reptile Room" from book the two of "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

Writing:  Today we took the time to use New Year's as a good writing prompt for a story.  But instead of a story, we wrote down our New Year's resolutions we would like to see happen in the Red Snail Classroom before the end of spring break.  You can grab this worksheet HERE!

Thursday (January 2):  (Test Review, P.E., Art, Music, and Cooking)

Test Review:  We spent most of the morning reviewing for the Friday test on everything we have learned for the week.

P.E.:  For P.E., since it's been raining here lately, we decided to finish the classroom rearranging.  We decided the classroom needed to be a bigger space than it was, so the entire back dining room is now our classroom.  I love how it all came together and looks lovely.  Still a bit more to go through and get organized, but it definitely looks like a classroom now.

Art: We felt a Red Snail banner would look lovely in the classroom, so we started slowly painting a small one to hang above the board.  More on this next week when we put it all together after the paint drys.

Friday (January 3):  (End of Week Test)

Friday Test: On Friday we had a test on all that was learned from the week.  Skylar did great on most everything, but a few trouble areas will carry over until next week.

Cooking: For Cooking, which is going quite well, I decided to do a basic chocolate cookies.  We decided to spice them up a bit by adding some peppermint chips to the recipe.

YUM!

Music:  We are still working on the best way to work this into our day.  We talked a bit about certain music aspects, but stay tuned to see how this all comes together eventually.

Week Two:

Monday (January 6):  (Math and Probability & Data):

Math:  We practiced a bit more on rounding.  I think we are getting the concept of how to round large numbers to random place values.  I think we will stay on this again next week.

Notice the date on the board?  2013.....took me a few days to write 2014.  The years are flying by so fast!

We also took a minute to hang some quick money coins to the classroom walls.  Skylar is still learning a little on how to count back money, so these will be good reference for him to glance at from time to time.

Probability & Data:  We played the card game again, but this time there was another player.  It made it a lot more fun and the probability of certain cards was either spot on, or totally off.

Tuesday (January 7):  (Social Studies, Science, and History):

Social Studies:  We worked more with the emperor penguin and the continent of Antarctica.  We identified parts of the emperor penguin and will finish the rest of our animal books next Tuesday.  (pictures on that to come in the next two weeks update.)

Science: For Science this week, we incorporated Science and Art together and created a solar system mobile and a large poster of the planets.

History:  Still working on Richard Nixon.  So we just did a few facts about him and a color sheet.  Skylar thinks it's interesting how he was asked to resign.  (More on this later)  Grab this color sheet HERE!

Wednesday (January 8):  (Spelling, Vocabulary, Reading, and Writing):

Spelling:  We worked more on the week's spelling words.  Today I had him write the words down on his own notebook paper that he cut into flash cards.  This really helps with relating the word to how they sound.

Vocabulary:  We talked more about the vocabulary words from last week.  I think it works best for us when the vocabulary words are part of the spelling list as well.  Next week I will make them part of the spelling word list too.

Reading:  We read another chapter in "The Reptile Room" of Book the two in "A Series of Unfortunate Events."  You can grab your own copy HERE!

Writing:  Writing prompts are always fun!  We had a bit of a fun time coming up with random prompts to writing a story.  Skylar has such a great imagination too, so it really helped him focus on what he should write about.

Thursday (January 9):  (Test Review, P.E., Cooking, Art, and Music):

Test Review:  We reviewed the week's learning and went over a few back lessons.  This one was with math and reviewed even and odd numbers and how to go from largest to smallest.  You can grab the worksheets for this lesson HERE and HERE!

Notice the date again.....wrong year once more.  I will eventually get to where 2014 is first in my mind over 2013.  ha!

P.E.:  For P.E. this week, we worked on organization of Skylar's room.  It really came together for us and worked out great for an indoor activity because of the rain.

Cooking:  For cooking this week we did a quick worksheet on Herbed Popcorn. You can snag this worksheet HERE!

Art:  We finished our Red Snail Banner and stung it on some baker's twine.  We decided to hang it over the board so we can look at it everyday.  I love how it looks!

Music:  We studied a bit about the guitar and will continue to make this a better lesson over time.  This is something I am looking into for next week.


Friday  (January 10) End of Week Test!

Look for more updates in two weeks.

Classroom Holiday Update

These last four weeks have been a bit chaotic, but we fit in a bit of homeschooling time when we could.  Of course, with Christmas and New Year's, we had to do as much as we could to try to fit in the rest of the lessons.  Here is a quick recap of some of the things we did in the Red Snail Classroom in the last few weeks.

We practiced a bit more on counting change back.  We did a little more with the mock grocery store and it has really help Skylar grasp the concept of home much change should be given back from bigger bills too.

Skylar learned that subtracting and adding money is just the same as with regular numbers.  He was pretty excited that he caught on.  I let him use scratch paper to help out when he needed it.

We even let his dad help out with being the customer and buying items in the grocery store.  We all had a lot of fun with it, and Skylar was counting back change so quick that he wanted to keep doing it all night.  So proud!

We did a bit of grammar practice with nouns and adjectives.  We used some worksheets with this practice.

You can snag these worksheets here:

Worksheet One

Worksheet Two

Worksheet Three

Worksheet Four

Worksheet Five

Worksheet Six

We made a few fun things for Christmas.

Like this paper snowman.  You can search so many wonderful ideas to make winter crafts like this.  

We also made a huge paper stocking to hang from our classroom clothes line. 

Look for more updates coming soon, from the Red Snail Classroom!