MFW Adventures Week 11

Bible: We learned more about Jesus as the Living Water… We read Exodus 17:1-6, when Moses struck the rock to get water for the Israelites when they were in the desert. We talked a lot about why Moses took the elders with him to find water. I don't think the kids have heard this story in bible class before. They had a lot of questions which allowed for much discussion about this time with Moses. 

History: We learned more about George Washington. Two weeks ago, we learned about his youth and his participation in the Revolutionary War. This week we learned he was our first president of the United States of America. The kids have already written their notebook page, so we used the time to read more books. We used American Pioneer and Patriots, our favorite history book to read a story about a young man that rode his horse to see George Washington be sworn in. The kids loved the story and wanted to read more.

Since we have spent time this week trying to memorized the 13 colonies and where they are located on the map. I found a great little resource on-line for the kids to play.  Check it out: http://www.softschools.com/social_studies/13_colonies_map/. By the end of the week, Emily was getting pretty good at this.  This will also give the kids a head start for the next few weeks of learning the states on the map.

Read-Aloud: We completed our book Sarah Whitcher’s Story.  This wasn't a favorite for our family, but we made it through.  I'm hoping the next book will keep their attention more.

Science: This weeks studied was the water cycle. The kids performed a few experiments to understand evaporation this week.  Our first experiments included bath time.  The kids took a nice warm bath. They played with all their toys, and we made different hair styles with the bubbles of shampoo.  We made sure to shut the bathroom door for this experiment.  We kept  watch to see how the mirror would change. We discussed how we could not see the water move from the tub to the mirror, but the water was transferred from the bathtub to the mirror through the evaporation cycle.  They then had fun making pictures on the mirror.

The next experiment was making sugar crystals with this process. Jake mixed 2 spoons of sugar into 10 spoons of water.   We added food coloring to 4 different bowls that were lined with foil.  We then left the bowls in a sunny spot in the house for four days to see if the water would evaporate. Well, it sure did.  The kids really enjoyed eating this experiment after the four days.

Our final experiment was making a rainbow. We had no idea you can make your own rainbow. All you need is a sunny window, a bowl of water, and a mirror. We took a tray of water and placed in in a sunny windowsill. Then we stood a mirror in the tray so the sun could shine through the water onto the mirror. To view the rainbow, we held a piece of white paper above the tray of water and tilted it until was saw it.  Here is what we made. This was super fun for the kids.  I highly recommend trying it at home.

Music: We used Tchaikovsky: The Masterpiece Collection to listen to the  Overture and the March for the Nutcracker ballet.  The Overture is the musical introduction to the ballet. The second piece of music was the March.  You can hear boys at the party marching around like soldiers. Jake loved marching around while the music was on. As the girls listened to the music, they colored a picture of the Nutcracker ballet.

Ashley's Writing Class
In school this week, Ashley's writing class learned about different kinds of apples that grow in the fall.  They worked on their descriptive writing. 

Writing and Puppetry
Jake enjoyed his puppetry class this week.  First the teacher read them a cute story about a scarecrow. Then they make puppets and acted out the story.  To end the class, they wrote about the scarecrow.

Spanish: Both kids attended their Spanish class this week. The theme was weather, which was perfect since we were studying the water cycle.

Pathway Readers: I am so proud to report that Emily has finally make it to the fourth book in our Pathway Readers (second grade). This was a huge success for Emily and she feels so proud of herself.  Ashley has also moved on to the next book. We are still using the workbooks along side the readers, but mostly for the vocabulary. I am now using the 5-10 new words in each chapter for a spelling words.  We have started a pre-test at the beginning of the week.  Then place them on notecards.  I hide them each day for the kids to find.  Then then rainbow write them in their spelling books.  They are really enjoying this and looking forward to it each day. 

Sight Words: I am super excited to report that I have found a wonderful little program for Jake to learn some sight words.  Head over to 1+1+1=1, the You Can Read program is amazing and free.  Jake is truly enjoying every minute of it.  There are enough worksheets to last the week and give him enough practice to actually remember them.  He completed week 2 using the words I, can, me, you.  He is using these as his spelling words for the week, as he did not want to be left our of the spelling games. I can't wait to spend more time looking around the blog in was to help Jake with school.

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