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!

Classroom update (November 25-December 6 )

Monday (November 25):  

We started our week off with the new schedule.  Of course with Thanksgiving later in the week, we took Thursday and Friday off, so on Monday we packed in as much as we could.  Who can't use a four day weekend?

We got a new list of spelling words for the month.  We are a bit delayed on the spelling list because of getting into a new routine, with what subjects we do, on what days now.  You can find our full schedule under the "Our Classroom Schedule" tab at the top of the page.

Notice our new board light?  We love it!

Our spelling words for the rest of November:

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

Trouble Words from October:

1.  height

2.  tongue

3.  straight

We also covered more on money counting and counting back change.  We did board work for this and will set up a mock grocery store next week to have some fun with it even more.

My diagram is of a grocery store purchase and how much change will come back from a purchase of a soda.  We went over how simple subtraction is all that's needed to give change back.  

Tuesday (November 26):

On Tuesday we covered a bit of history.  We talked about the history of Thanksgiving and why we celebrate in giving thanks.  I let Skylar write down 10 things he is thankful for and we talked about each one.

We also covered a bit more on our continent and animals from that continent in Social Studies.  Skylar has already completed three continents of the seven we are covering.  His animal of continent and animal of choice this time is the panda in Asia.

Wednesday (November 27):

On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, we did some reading and did a Thanksgiving craft.  For our reading we started in on Book 2 of "A Series of Unfortunate Events."  We finished Book 1 a few weeks back and to celebrate we prepared a dish of Puttanesca Sauce. 

For the Thanksgiving craft, we made tee pees to add to our table for Thanksgiving dinner.We ended up using felt sheets instead of foam, and we love how cozy they look.  Skylar went on a hunt for the sticks to use, and we also added these Indian-themed additions to add to the table along with the tee pees.

Thursday (November 28):  Happy Thanksgiving (No class held)

Friday (November 29):  Thanksgiving Break (No class held)

Monday (December 2): 

On Monday, we got back to class with a little bit of math work.  We set up a mock grocery store and had Skylar be the checker that had to give back change to the rest of us.  We had grocery purchases that were made and change was worked into the learning.  We then talked about how hard, or easy the change was and what we could get better at.  Skylar did a fantastic job with this, and we all had a blast!

We also worked in a worksheet for Probability and Data.  We talked about graphs and how they can go from a pie chart to a graph depending on how we wanted to look at the data.

Tuesday (December 3):  

Science:  We talked a lot about the difference between rocks and minerals.  I sent Skylar on a scavenger hunt to find as many rocks and minerals as he could.

History:  We covered a few more things about Thanksgiving and touched a little on Native American Indians.  I let him draw and color his own version of how he saw the first Thanksgiving dinner with the pilgrims and the Indians.

Social Studies:  We worked more on our animal and continent books.  We are currently on pandas and Asia.

Wednesday:  (December 4):  

Spelling:  We took a mock spelling test to determine what words we need to work on.  I have started a new lesson with spelling words:  Writing them three times, then use them in a sentence that he thinks they work best in.  This seems to be a good teaching lesson on working on handwriting as well.

Reading:  We read another chapter in the "Series of Unfortunate Events" book 2 (The Reptile Room) and talked about what we had just read.  The story is getting very interesting.

Writing:  Skylar has been adding to his journal entries that we keep.  He has to draw a picture and then come up with a story line to go with the picture.

Thursday (December 5):

On Thursday, we reviewed everything we had talked about and covered in the days before since Monday.  We also studied over the spelling words to prepare for the test that will come later in the month.  From everything else we go over and learn, the spelling test will come on the last Friday of the month now.  

Music:  I've decided to add in a bit of music lessons into our weekly schedule.  On Thursday, we played with spoons and how to make music using spoons.  Skylar had a blast with this, and it will be something we do again, for sure.

P.E.:  Currently our P.E. time consists of indoor activities due to the rain, and the cold.  Hopefully there will be more to add to this once we get out of the cold spells here in the Willamette Valley area of Oregon.

Art:  For art this week we made snowflakes from coffee filters.  We are going to be working on these in the next few weeks and reveal our creations the last Thursday before Christmas, so stay tuned for that.

Cooking:  We have been working in some cooking learning with this homeschool time.  It's going very well, and it also gives us some great time to spend together in the kitchen too.  This week me made some cupcake brownies that were part of a Valentine's Day gift box that came in February.  

This little kit came with everything we needed to make these cupcakes, so it was a perfect tool to follow in a step-by-step cooking instruction.

First, we melted the butter.

Then, measured and added the water.

Then mixed the batter and added them to the prepared muffin tin.

We baked them up and they were perfect.  We then talked about the small things we had learned from the cooking lesson.  Skylar said that he learned how to read a measuring cup during that lesson, so that is a big plus.  

Friday (December 6):  

On Friday we took our end of the week test on everything we covered in the past four days.  I like to do an end of the week test to determine if we should move on from a lesson or not.  It's also a great way to gauge where we stand on what we are learning too. 

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and look for a classroom update in two weeks.  

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