MFW 2nd Grade - Week #7

BIBLE:  We continued our study of John 6:35.... with our topic being Jesus the Bread of Life.

One of the projects this week was to make a napkin holder out of a box. Well, I didn't have the right size box, so after a quick look on the MFW message boards, I came up with a different way to use the bread template.  A "Salvation Sandwich."   Each page is a different color and has a short phrase with the steps leading to salvation.

Second bible project this week was to make bread.  Mmmmmmm, fun day that was!!

SPELLING:  Another week in spelling, same old, same old.  New list of words, write them, study them, test on Thursday or Friday.

ENGLISH:  We continued working on our memorization of the poem, "If I Knew."  And had some good old copy work.  Caleb hates copy-work, but it's so good for him.  Good handwriting practice.

HISTORY:  We read from our American Pioneers and Patriots book this week and learned about the Pioneers who came from France. We talked about the Great Lakes, H-O-M-E-S - Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior because this was the area that these Pioneers traveled.  

Activity:  Make a canoe.  The indians in this area made their canoes out of birch bark.  They shared them and gave them as gifts to the white men.

MUSIC:  Celebrate America CD was used this week and we listened to the song, America.  Caleb doesn't like to sing, so we're not to the singing phase yet.  We'll get there some day as I know these songs are important for him to learn and know.

SCIENCE:  Our topics in science this week were making playdough and making the bread (pictured above.)  Since we're learning that Jesus is the Bread of Life, these were great ways to get that point across.  Also, he learned that once you make dough, your flour cannot go back to flour.

MATH:  Nothing new to talk about here.  We're just continuing on with our daily math lessons.  

READING:  

I'm Fast, Kate McMullan

Squid & Octopus, Tao Nyeu

Stargazers, Gail Gibbons

Dirty Kurt, Mary Serfozo

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Clover, Lucille Colandro

Outside an Inside Alligators, Sandra Markle

I Won't Go to Bed!, Andrea Baruffi

Read-a-loud:    This week we read read and finished The Courage of Sarah Noble.  Loved this sweet story and even though it was about a little girl I think Caleb enjoyed it also.  

HEALTH/MANNERS:   This week's lesson was about the Care of School Property.  Interesting since we homeschool, but still important things to remember.  

RANDOMNESS:   I thought I'd share a few things that I didn't put in previous posts.

Here is a picture of some of Caleb's copy-work.  He's written more neatly before, but I was still impressed with how well he did.

Here's a picture out of his spelling book.  Words aren't overly hard.  He can read them, but the trick is, learning to SPELL them.  I'm proud of him.  The more we get into the year, the more he spells random things out of the blue....  

I thought I'd show you a copy of our weekly schedule, once I get through with it.  Lots of markings and notations.  Whew..... this is a very important piece of paper and I keep each week in a binder.  It's nice to have to go back for reference and to keep track of what we're doing.  I log the date we did school and the time we spent on school that day.  Important stuff.

So proud.  At the six week mark, Caleb had five weeks of spelling words to go back over and remember for a review test.  He did awesome!!!

Okay - behind as usual, but this post gets me a little more caught up.  I hope you've enjoy a peek at one of our school weeks....

Educating in Christ,

Pam

MFW 2nd Grade - Week #6

BIBLE:   Our new memory verse is John 6:35 - 'I am the Bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.'

Scriptures read:  Exodus 16:2-4, 13-16; John 6:5-13; and John 6:26-35.

We added another picture to our Names of Jesus poster - 'Jesus the Bread of Life.'

SPELLING:   The usual this week with spelling.  Only Johnny had me add in some homework for Caleb.  He had to write his spelling words three times a couple of times this week.

ENGLISH:   A neat lesson this week for English was memorizing a poem.  This isn't something that will happen overnight, but I am really excited at the progress Caleb is making.  There are 4 short paragraphs and he has the first one memorized.

Dictation activity did not go over well this week.  We've not done a lot of this were Caleb has to just write on his own.  It was like he went into shut-down mode.  But, it's not unusual for him to get that way when it's the first time we do something.  It will get better.  I kept the sentences very easy this time around and we'll work on longer and harder one's as the year progresses.

HISTORY:  More readings from our American Pioneers and Patriots book.  This weeks reading is focusing on the pioneers that came over from Holland and settled in New Amsterdam, which is now called New York.  Very fun reading and so interesting!  This one is about a little boy named Peter and his cow Trinka.  ;)

Activity:   We made BUTTER!  What fun!!  You start with a jar of some sort and heavy whipping cream.

Fill the jar half way, or less.  We went about half way.

Put on the lid.

Then shake it.....

And shake it....

And shake it.....until Caleb gets tired and I take over.

I was grateful we used a small jar.  We shook our jar for a total of 10 minutes and finally ended up with butter.  We put it on crackers and Caleb actually ate two of them!

History Read-a-Loud:  We have a new chapter book we are reading this week, 'The Courage of Sarah Noble' by Alice Dalgliesh.  So far it is a very sweet story.  This one is about a girl, so Caleb isn't so gung-ho as he was reading Squanto.  But, he is enjoying it.

MUSIC:  More listening to the song 'America.'

SCIENCE:  This week we did a couple of experiments with yeast.  Caleb learned that sugar is essential to yeast being able to create carbon dioxide.

Activity #1:

Glass bottle, yeast, sugar and balloon.  I must admit I repeatedly forgot to purchase a glass bottle at the store.  I didn't really have anything at home with a long neck.  So, the day we are to do this experiment I am saying, "uh-oh."  Well, we fixed the problem.  We drove a mile or so from the house and yes, we found a bottle on the side of the road.  Gross?  Definitely.  I picked it up with wet-wipes.  But, that is what hot, soapy water is for and it wasn't like we wanted to drink out of it. 

He mixed yeast and sugar, together in some warm water.

Poured it into the bottle.

And attached the balloon on top.

Set the yeast bottle in a warm, dry place.

And the balloon grew........

And over the course of an hour it grew this large.....

Then quickly fizzled out...

Activity #2:   Same process but Caleb was to use salt instead of sugar.

Sadly, we (I) forgot to take a picture at the one hour mark.  But, take my word for it.  As floppy as the balloon looks in this picture was how it looked an hour later.  The salt did nothing for the yeast and no carbon dioxide was made.

MATH:  This week we're working on the addition and subtraction facts.  Caleb can do them and has been doing them, but the new concept Singapore Math wants us to learn is a bit, well.....on the confusing side.  We decided to stop and work on our facts for a bit to get them more concrete in his mind.  We're doing various activities to reinforce them.  Part of that was Johnny's idea to have Caleb write them out a couple of times this week.  For example, all the 1+'s and 2+'s, etc.  all the way through 9+'s....

READING:

Somehow this week got away from me and we didn't do much library book reading.  Looking back, I can't even really understand why except that we read a lot during school and didn't make time for it.   I have to do so much talking that some days my voice starts getting tired by the end of school.  Next week will be a better week in regards to this, because this is SO important.  No excuse is a good excuse when it comes to making time to read.

Super Swimmers, Caroline Arnold

The Rough-Face Girl, Rafe Martin

On the Mayflower, Kate Waters

Another very full and successful week in MFW!

Educating in Christ,

Pam

MFW 2nd Grade - Week #5

We continue to start our day reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.  On the occasion I jump right in and want to get started, Caleb reminds me.  I love that!

BIBLE:   Our memory verse was the same as last weeks, John 8:12.   It appears that we take two weeks to focus on the verse and have some activities to reinforce the meaning.

Activity:   Caleb make a very pretty wall-hanging.  It looks especially pretty when there is sunlight shining through it.  We used crayon shavings, wax paper and paper plates.  Very fun.

At the time of this post it's dark.  So, the next best thing was to put it in front of our computer screen.  See?  Isn't it pretty?

We also looked up and read a lot of scripture from Caleb's bible this week.  Matthew 5:14-16, John 1:9, John 3:19-21, 1 John 1:5-10, Revelation 21:1-7, 22-23 to name a few.   I help him find the book and then he looks up the chapter and verse.  He's doing a great job!

SPELLING:   It was a usual week with spelling.  A word list of twelve words with specific activities each day used to help reinforce the spelling of them.  And then we conclude the week with a spelling test.  Caleb gets so nervous, but he really does well.

ENGLISH:  With week five came our first English lesson.  We studied a picture and answered lessons.  Caleb also had some pretty heavy copy work to do.  I see why MFW had us wait until week 5 to add in English.  These are the books we are using.  The small one is the recommended book by MFW.  I found the Teacher's Guide to help ME, and a student workbook that a mom created for purchase.  It is so worth it.  Gives us the perfect place to keep his work.  Some times it involves studying a picture, sometimes copy work, and sometimes memorization.  You never know what's coming, but we just jump right in.

HISTORY:   This weeks history topics was the Pilgrims.   We read out of our Story of the U.S. book and also from the American Pioneers and Patriots book.   Caleb especially love the stories out of the American Pioneers and Patriots book.  So far they have been about children and their lives during that time.  He never wants me to stop reading.  A lot of the time they keep you on the edge of your seat until the next day.  Even I enjoy the stories!

Timeline:  We added the Pilgrims to our timeline

Activity:  We made an oiled window.  Rather interesting really.  The Pilgrims did not have windows and so they would oil paper and use them for windows.  Basically we took a sheet of paper and using vegetable oil on a paper towel, Caleb rubbed the sheet of paper until it was completely coated.  It was interesting to see how it repelled water.

Caleb also had some notebooking to do writing his summary sentences about the Pilgrims.  He hates to write, but when he quits whining long enough to do it, his writing is so neat.

Reading:  We finished up our book on Squanto this week.  It was so good and we couldn't help ourselves but to read ahead.  We finished it three days early!!

MUSIC:  We listened to the Celebrate America CD and specifically to the song "America."  Caleb was NOT into singing, so we have not tried to learn the words to this song yet.  We will definitely keep listening and eventually the words will start to sink in.

SCIENCE:  Caleb's favorite subject and we studied the constellations this week.  Our topics were, The Closest Star, Constellations, and The Big Dipper.

Reading:
The Sky is Full of Stars, Franklyn Branley
The Big Dipper

Activity:  Discussing the largest star that can be seen without a teleschope, Betelgeuse, brought about a fun activity.  If the sun is 1", then Betelgeuse is 600".  So we measured that off out in the yard.

HEALTH:   Our health/manners lesson this week was all about "Respecting the Privacy of Others."  One of the comments made was about listening in on other peoples conversations.  I turned and looked at Caleb and he shrugged his shoulders and said, "I have big ears."  Haha!!

MATH:  We're cruising along in our Singapore Math book....

READING:   Here are a few of the books we read this week...

Scooter in the Outside, Anne Bowen
Salt Hands, Jane Chelsea Aragon
A giraffe Did One, Jerry Pallotta
No Two Alike, Keith Baker

ART:   So, I thought Caleb didn't like the art and what does he say, "I love art!"  Go figure.  So, he did an art lesson this week and he did a great job.  I figure with him, less is more.  So, we won't do a lesson every day, but just every few days so that it 'doesn't wear out it's welcome.'

POSTCARD COLLECTION:  We managed to add a few postcards to our collection.  Caleb loves to get them in the mail!

FIELD TRIPS:   With our recent study of Columbus and his travels aboard the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, I thought it would be perfect if we had a field trip day.  I would love for you to pop on over to this post and check out all the awesome pictures I took on that day.  Well, I say they are awesome, but really, I was having trouble with my good camera and had to use my cell phone all day.  So, some of them aren't the best if you are judging quality, but you can see Caleb took in a lot of information.

Our first stop was the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History.

Then we went to the Robert Wollman Planetarium at King High School

To watch the Tales of the Maya Skies....

I was a little worried about the information that would be said during this show.  It had a lot of mystical type stuff that the Mayan's believed in.  At one point I leaned over and asked Caleb, "son, who really make the sun, moon, and the stars?"  He said, "God did, mom.  They are just telling silly story."   So, I was relieved that he wasn't adversely influenced!!

Another blessed week in Adventures in MFW!!

Educating in Christ,

Pam