Week 18 - Back into the swing of things

We hit the ground running last week, combining some review with our Barton work. We reviewed some sight words and parts of speech with our popsicle stick nouns,verbs, and adjectives. We also went over the features of non-fiction text, with Oscar seemed really comfortable with.

We also started working on some friendly letters, and Oscar wrote his first letter to Gigi, content inspired by our furry friend Leo.

One goal I have is to have the kids work on an art project every monday afternoon, when we don't have any other activity going on. This week we did watercolor pictures for our Thank You cards from Christmas!

In math, I've started adding a new topic each week, while reserving one day for app work (which he loves) and one day for multiplication/division facts. This seems to keep both of us interested in what we're covering. This week our new topic was lines and angles. He also took his second math quiz from the books we've been working on and got 100%! He even read the word problem all by himself. :)

In science we talked about renewable and non-renewable resources, pulling from my favorite pinterest resources… Oscar had fun trying to find toothpicks (coal) and straws (wind) that I scattered throughout the house to represent both types of resources. Here he is categorizing renewable and non-renewable energy after the lesson.

To end the unit, we watched a Reading Rainbow video on recycling and talked about the importance of reducing our energy use. A good way to get rid of the cardboard I've been hoarding for projects was to create some toys/ramps out of cardboard and then recycle them!

We also did a mini review of the scientific method with some experiments that I've had filed away that just looked fun. Oil and water is always a neat one, with the added fun of adding salt to create a lava-lamp-type effect!

watching how dye spreads differently on different surfaces

We spent another week talking about Famous Americans talking about Abraham Lincoln, Sacajawea, and Lewis and Clark. The highlight for him was definitely watching the lego rendition of Lincoln's life, complete with his lego head being blown off…I had to explain the video makers took a little creative license, but it definitely made his assassination memorable! My favorite was reading about Lewis' dog Seaman, the Newfoundland that accompanied them on their exploration west. Oscar decided there is no way he would've wanted to be an explorer. It was just too hard :)