Learning Log 13 (Nov 14th - Nov 18th)

ALL TOGETHER

READ ALOUD:
After Thanksgiving we'll be picking up A Christmas Carol to read for our read aloud, but until then we're studying different poets.  We have some great books that have the biography of the author at the beginning, with lots of their poems in the book alongside pictures.  It also has explanations on the page of what certain words mean, and some background on some of the poems.  So, this week we learned about the life of Robert Frost, read some of his poems.  Later in the week we read up on Shel Silverstein and read some of his poems.

SCIENCE:
We did a lesson out of Mystery Science; Strength & Direction of Force.  They learned how they knock down buildings without knocking down other buildings around it.  To demonstrate, they built a crane and a row of cups that were suppose to act like the Berlin Wall, and they took turns trying to use the crane to knock down the wall, without hitting the houses behind it.  

ASL:
We learned or reviewed 20 signs this week.  Each day after learning the 5 signs for the day, the kids took turns coming up with sentences that they signed using the new words.  They are to the point where they know how to sign full sentences.  All four of the kids are doing great!  In their memory bank is probably close to 400 signs at this point.



HISTORY:
We've been missing our history lessons this year.  Now that we're in a better set up, we were able to add in our history lessons this week.  We continued where we left off last year, at the beginning of the Greek Empire.  We read stories about the Greek Gods, and did an activity identifying which Gods did what.



PE:
Keira, Garrett, and Libby all had horseback riding lessons this week.  Garrett and Libby worked on building trust with the horse, leading her around the pasture, brushing her the right way, putting on the harness, talking to her, etc.
Keira is a week ahead of the other two, so she was able to get on the horse this week, after leading her around the pasture.  She worked on balance without holding on to the reins or saddle, as well as putting the saddle on and off, and tying the correct quick-release knot needed when tying up a horse.

KEIRA

MATH:
Keira read out of Life of Fred and worked on her times tables this week.  She used multiplication.com, and reviewed with flash cards.



ELA:
Keira did more lessons on Reading Eggspress, and read books out of the Reading Rainbow library app.



TECH:
Keira completed more projects using her Snap Circuit set this week.  She's working on the Resistance lessons.



In addition to her regular subjects, she was able to complete her first sewing project, a pillowcase!  She's really enjoying learning how to sew with her grandma!

GARRETT

MATH:

For math this week, Garrrett continued to learn his times tables (he's up to 4x5), and he read out of Life of Fred, and did lessons on Math Seeds.  I think he's finding that he enjoys math, and it getting rather good at it.

ELA:
He did more lessons on Reading Eggs this week, in addition to reading time out of his book, The Jedi Academy.  

TECH:
Garrett had fun creating his own pulling robot this week with his Lego Robotics kit.  He created a chariot-type pulling robot, without instructions.



KEYBOARDING:
More lessons using BBC Dance Mat typing lessons.  He's cruising along, enjoying it and getting faster at typing.







LIBBY

MATH:
For math this week, Libby worked on forming numbers correctly (we discovered there were some she needed help with).  She also did some adding worksheets, and Life of Fred.



ELA:
Libby read me some books, and had some books read to her out of the Reading Rainbow library app.



KEYBOARDING:
She's making good progress on her BBC Dance Mat typing program.  She's getting faster at finding the right letters, and having a good time in the process.