Start of a new school year photo shoot

We like to start the year off on a good start, and what better way to do that, than with great pictures?  Here is a glimpse of some of the great shots we got with Skylar to help get him into the school spirit of the year!

Classroom update

It's been a busy last few weeks here in the classroom, but we managed to squeeze in a bit of a short update here to keep everyone up to speed of what's been going on with the Red Snails.  

We got a new group of spelling words for the first week.  This week's words are:

1.  horse

2.  birds

3.  since

4.  ever

5.  heaven

6.  satin

7.  associative

8.  community

9.  organism

10.  ascend

11.  arrest

12.  problem

13.  complete

14.  piece

15.  told

16.  penguin

17.  commutative

18.    ecosystem

19.  reproduce

20.  arena

21.  room

22.  new

23.  listen

24.  children

25.  long

Trouble words from last week:

1.  early

2.  neutral

3.  abundant

4.  canopy

5.  nutrients

6.  resist

7.  curtain

New vocabulary words for this week are:

1.  Arrest:  To hold or capture.

2.  Ascend:  To go up or climb higher.

3.  Arena:  Center stage or platform.

For part of the science lesson this week, we learned about Venn Diagrams.  You can pick up a worksheet for Venn Diagrams HERE!

We read two more chapters in The Reptile Room this week.  Things are really getting interesting with the orphans now.  You can keep up with what book we are on from month to month HERE!

Another part of our science lesson this week was learning, observing, and recording how ants work and function within an ant farm.  There were will be more weeks of this, but placing them in their ant farm and observing them, and recording the data is this week's lesson.   (Worksheets we used this week)

You can pick this worksheet up HERE!

You can pick this worksheet up HERE!

For history, we covered facts about George Washington and learned some interesting things about him.  (Worksheets used this week)

Grab this worksheet HERE!

Grab this worksheet HERE!

For a nice change of pace from school work and activities, we decided to treat Skylar to a trip to the LEGO store to pick up a few LEGOs for his collection.  It was a nice break from work, and school for all of us.  You can read more about his LEGO adventures HERE!

This week we took a test on the trouble words from last week and then got a new list of spelling words.

After the test on the trouble words the new list was given and the missed words were added back in for another week.

The words for this week are:

1. associative
2. community
3. organism
4. neutral
5. nutrients
6. bridal
7. dental
8. gerbil
9. nasal
10. postal
11. longer
12. rain forest
13. population
14. inverse
15. climate
16. hemisphere
17. taiga
18. legos
19. top
20. ship
21. across
22. today
23. during
24. short
25. better
26. best 
27. however
28. low

We also worked on Homophones......(Words that sound the same, but have different meanings and spellings)

We also got three more new vocabulary words for this week.

• Assist:  To help.

• Attempt:  To try.

• Attentive:  Full focus, or alert.

We read two more chapters in The Reptile Room, only leaves two more to go before the book is finished.  You can follow along with our reading books HERE!

In science last week we observed the ants in the ant farm, also looked at the inside of the ant hill and how the ants operate.  We also learned the basic of an ant.  This week we dig a bit deeper into the ants and learned a bit more details with their habitat and their bodies.  (Worksheets used this week)

Grab this worksheet HERE!

Along with ants this week for science, we also covered the facts about Venus.

For math this week we went over rounding to certain place values.  We've been working with rounding larger numbers to the 100s place.

We also went to see the Easter bunny during this time as well.

We also colored some large Easter eggs just for fun.

Stay tuned for more updates from the Red Snail Classroom.

Classroom Update (February 10, 2013- February 21, 2013)

For the two weeks of January 27-February 7- We took two weeks off in the Red Snail Classroom.

Monday (February 10, 2013):

• Spelling:  This week we had the same spelling list as from the week of January 20.  Due to the snowy weather and a few missed days, I felt that covering these words again would be a good idea.

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

Vocabulary:  The vocabulary words for this week are:

1.  Appropriate:  Acceptable or suitable
2.  Apparent:  Clearly visible.
3.  Annual:  Every year.

Reading: We read another chapter in "The Reptile Room" of "A Series of Unfortunate Events."  We are not on Chapter six and will pick up and read onto Chapter seven next week.

Writing:  For wiring this week, seeing that Valentine's Day is on Friday, we decided to do some Valentine worksheets.  The worksheets we used are so themed based that it made it super fun to be able to work in a holiday theme this week.  The worksheets we used can be snagged HERE, HERE, and HERE!  You can also get all the worksheets in a booklet HERE!

Art:  For art this week, we decided to give a new coat of spray paint to Skylar's old nursery letters for his room.  They got a coat of red paint to cover up the blue paint that was given to them when he was younger.

Letters before.

Letters after.

Tuesday:  (February 11, 2013)

Today we decided to move a radio into the classroom.  This stereo-system is so old, but works well in the classroom for some background tunes when we are bored of silence.

Science:  We studied Venn Diagrams and learned about Earth facts to add to our study of the solar system.

For the Venn Diagrams we did this project HERE!

For the Earth booklet we downloaded an entire book geared around the Earth.  You can pick this booklet up HERE!

The planets that hang in our classroom window

Social Studies/Geography:

Our state we've been working on is Texas.  We have been on quite the travels around Texas.  A few of the resources we used to learn about this great state are:

1.  Which Way USA:  A monthly subscription that mails booklets for each state to your door.  You also can go online with your pass code key-chains and travel the state to a much greater extent.

2.  Education.com's endless supply of worksheets on the great state of Texas.

History:

For history we have been picking a president every week and learning just a bit more about them.  This week we picked George Washington (The first president of the United States).

We have done a few activities on our own, but have also utilized some great resources and worksheets online, as well.  You can pick up some learning tools for George Washington HERE, and HERE!

Wednesday (February 12, 2013)

Math:

Probability and Data:

Thursday (February 13, 2014):

Week Review

Friday (February 14, 2014):

End of Week Test

Monday  (February 17, 2014):

No School: President's Day.

Tuesday (February 18, 2014):

Spelling:

Vocabulary:

Reading:

Writing:  We practiced a bit of our penmanship today on a dry erase board.  The cursive writing of Skylar's name is getting better.

Science: Parts of the heart.

We also had some outside time where slug eggs were found.  http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pests/msg0417551926441.html

Social Studies/Geography

History

Wednesday (February 19, 2013)

Thursday (February 20, 2013)

Friday (February 21, 2013)