The month of November was great! We spent time following some interest-led studies and keeping up with our core subjects!
Math:
We’re up to the second assessment in Rightstart Math A (lesson 70). The kids and I are still in love with this approach to math, and Elizabeth, thanks to the many fun games, has her sum of 10 math facts memorized. We have also begun to learn about money.
Reading:
Elizabeth has completed Level 2 of All About Reading! She was so very excited and chose to go to dinner for steak and have a milkshake dessert for her accomplishment! We have been SO pleased with this program. Level 3 is on the shelf – I better get working on putting it all together! Not sure if we’re going to start it now or wait until after the holidays to start back up.
Learning Through Literature: FIAR Papa Piccolo
We spent the first three weeks in November rowing Papa Piccolo. The first week we stayed very close to the wonderful activities in the manual. The second week we dove deeper into the history of Italy through a short study of the Roman Empire in Ancient Rome. I had intended to move onto another unit study at that point but we read a book about Galileo which sparked interest in the solar system so we decided to take the week to follow that interest.
Social Studies – Adoption, Paternal Relationships, Italy, Ancient Rome
-We learned what adoption is, and different ways families can be formed
-We discussed the things we love about our dad
-Found Italy on our wall map, and read Look What Comes from Italy
-Visited a local Italian restaurant for some pizza and fresh made gelato
-We read about Ancient Rome in The Story of the World Ancients, You Wouldn’t Want to be a Roman Gladiator, and Usborne Beginners Romans.
Did you know pretzels were invented in Italy by a Monk? He gave them to children as rewards for memorizing their prayers. The twists represent folded arms praying.
Language Arts
-We completed an ‘All About Dad’ worksheet
-Vocabulary words: Glum, Sardine, Chime
Science – Cats, Eyes, Gravity, Solar System
My kids LOVE science, so we really spent some time covering several topics over the three weeks.
-We read Usborne Beginner Cats and made a Know, Want to Know, Learned chart
-Eyes: What is peripheral vision? What are the parts of the eye? We watched a BrainPOP video about our sight, and read from our Usborne First Encyclopedia of the Human Body. The kids decided to draw the parts of the eye for their notebook.
Galileo Study:
-We read a great book called I, Galileo and learned about the many contributions that Galileo made to science. We discussed what it means to be a scientist. He worked to make the microscope better, so we pulled our microscope out and looked at some slides. The kids drew what they saw.
-Elizabeth took it upon herself to test out Galileo’s gravity experiments that he did at the Tower of Pisa. We had watched a random YouTube video about them – I didn’t even think she was paying attention. However, the next day she was able to recreate them using sheets of paper and a book! I love seeing both kids get so excited and be motivated on their own to figure out how and why things work.
-We read MANY books about the solar system during this week. I just checked out several from the library and we read about 3-4 a day that the kids picked off the shelf. There is so much to learn about space but I focused on having the kids memorize the planets, the order, and the basics such as the Earth orbits the sun, the moon orbits the Earth, ect. They now know all 8 planets (plus Pluto which is a ‘dwarf planet’). We used the mnemonic My Very Excited Mother Just Served Us Noodles!
Followed the links from the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of Space
Melissa and Doug Puzzle
Astronaut Ice Cream!
Playdoh Solar System
Cake Pop Planets
Earth!
They made constellations from their snack one day! This is Libby’s Big Dipper I found left out on the kitchen table when I was cleaning up 🙂
Trip to a planetarium
Art
-We studied Michaelangelo’s The Creation of Adam art card from our Usborne Famous Paintings Cards Set. I didn’t think the kids would be too into this activity, but they love it! They love memorizing the facts about different artworks we are studying.
-Listened to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
-Moon art project with flour and white paint. After painting the moon with flour paint, add craters with bottle top. Did you know Galileo discovered that the moon was not smooth, as previously thought?
We spent the last week of November studying Thanksgiving, and of course, rowing Cranberry Thanksgiving! I hope to have that blog post up this week as we’re already well into holiday mode around here! Hope you and yours are well 🙂
Small Hands Inspired. 