"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6

Friday, October 4, 2013

Week #3-4 - ECC in MFW


Welcome back.....here you will see a breakdown of what we did for the 2 weeks we studied the United States.  

Bible:  

Our bible sessions for the last two weeks consisted of lessons on:  

*Missionary Kids - from our Window on the World
*Dwight L. Moody from our Hero Tales book
*Navajo Indians - from our Window on the World book
*Harriet Tubman - from our Hero Tales book
*Discussing the map of Israel and Egypt

The memory verse was Matthew 1:13.

While reading from the Hero Tales book, there are daily writings and discussion on character traits.  These are based on the behavior of the character we are reading about.



The one pictured here is about "Perseverance" and we discussed this after reading a chapter on Harriet Tubman.  The black woman who successfully found her way to freedom from slavery and then brought 300 others with her to freedom in the years that followed.  Very wonderful book.  We read the children's book last year in 2nd grade.  So, it was nice that it was already a familiar story that could be reinforced.

Bible Activity:


He created a bookmark with the name Matthew on it written in Greek.   He was quite intimidated. So, I wrote the letters in pencil and he copied over them with a marker.

Language Arts:

*Copying the memory verse and new vocabulary words, Butte and Badland.



Spelling:

We've moved on in spelling to daily words done via dictation.  I'm so pleased to watch Caleb write words he's not had a lot of exposure to.  Sometimes we write them on notebook paper and other times I let him use the dry erase board as he seem to prefer that.




English:  

We've continued with daily lessons in our Queens Language Lessons book.  Focusing on capitalization and a variety of copy work.

Math Drills:

Ten minutes of daily math drills consisting of either worksheets or flashcards.

Math:

We're working through a Singapore Math Review Book, completing 31 pages of math work these past two weeks.  Caleb is doing really well and I'm certain we can move onto book 1B very soon.


Geography:

Just being honest here.  The MEAT of ECC is geography.  These past two weeks we covered a lot of territory.

* We put flag stickers on a map of a variety of different countries.
* We labeled a map of North America
* We spent a lot of time reviewing the state names by looking at an empty map of the U.S.  
* Caleb plays a game on the iPad called, Stack the States.  He can place all 50 states on the map in record time, without mistakes 1/2 the time.  It's a 3 strikes and you start over, type of game.  Well, I quickly learned that he wasn't really reading the state names, but memorizing the shape of the state.  So, we had to start spending more time looking at an unlabeled US map.  I'd call out a state name and he would point where it would go.  
* We spent a lot of time in our Classroom Atlas book, looking at a lot of different maps, filled with a lot of information.
* We used our Classroom Atlas, A Trip Around the World, Illustrated World Atlas...
* We had a challenge where we colored all the states in the U.S. using only 4 different colors.  
* We read about Farming & Industry

We colored the US Flag....

Book Basket:  

Caleb does ten minutes daily reading books from our book basket.  I will say, he doesn't like this AT all.  But, we do it anyway.

Science:

In science we learned a lot about Forests via our Property of Ecosystems book and Living World Encyclopedia.  We completed some worksheets discussing all the basic information about Forests.  I think Caleb isn't enjoying science as much this year because it's basically all reading and learning about biomes and ecosystems, etc.  He really likes the hands on stuff, and there really hasn't been much of that so far.


Here Caleb drew a flying squirrel after we read about different animals in North America.  Considering he doesn't like to draw, I think it's rather cute.  :)

Music/Art:

We listened to our Wee Sing CD.  Caleb isn't a big fan of this either. It's children singing and well, he's just not much into singing.

Reading:

* When I Was Young in the Mountains
* Yes Let's
* Crinkeroots Guide to Walking in Wild Places
* A Tree is Growing
* Are the Dinosaurs Dead, Dad?
* Magic Carpet
* Forest
* O'Say Can You See
* Forest Food Chains
* The United States from A to Z
* Around the World in 80 Pages

Read-a-Loud:

We read several more stories from Kingdom Tales.  They are so heartwarming....I found myself crying through a couple. Caleb smiles and shakes his head....

The Complete Book of Animals:  

We did worksheets on the Bald Eagle, Beaver, Beaver Lodges, Gray Wolf, A Word Search on different animals, and the Grizzly Bear.



With weeks 3-4 finally blogged and posted I can officially call them a wrap.  We're knee deep in week 5 right now and I'm excited to say we're discussing Mexico.  I look forward to sharing what we learn as we move through that country in Weeks 5-6....

Educating in Christ,

Momma Pam