9.3.4.

Babe started Chapter 6 in Math today, and due to her previous reaction to fractions, we will be taking this chapter verrrryyyy slowwwwlllyyyy. However, when I introduced the topic and had her do some worksheets, she did them in a jiffy and even when I challenged her a bit more, she understood that like nothing! But still, I'm forcing myself to slow down for this concept. 


Next, she picked her Mother Goose rhyme of the day. I told her, though, that today we wouldn't have time to do an activity or a craft related to the poem. She understood, and when she picked "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" I was so relieved because I didn't have anything planned for that one anyway. I recited it to her, then when she was able to recite it back to me, I grabbed the iPad and searched for cockleshells for her.


"They looks like just regular shells."


haha


With the remaining time, I put out paper, stickers, and markers for all three kids to make thank-you cards for their library teacher. Today was the last library class of the school year before summer programming starts. They all got really into this, so it was cute.


After lunch, Babe did Reading Comprehension with "Feathers for Lunch" by Lois Ehlert. I then extended the discussion about different needs for different animals, and extended it even further to different needs for people versus animals. She did her corresponding Science and Reading worksheets, then I handed her "Worms for Lunch?" by Leonid Gore. It was a lucky find at the library today and Babe noticed the similarities in the titles right away. This book was so so cute. It went through various animals saying what they liked best to eat, but how the next animal didn't like it, they liked something else. The last page had an illustration of a monkey and a rabbit in a boat with fishing poles. The monkey had a banana tied to his pole and the rabbit had a carrot tied to his. The fish in the water had question marks above his head.


"Why do you think there are question marks above the fish's head?"
"Because he's saying, 'Why are they trying to feed me a banana and a carrot?!'"
"Why do you think the monkey thinks the fish likes bananas?"
"Because bananas are all the monkey eats!"
"Do fish like bananas?"
"No, they like worms...HEY! That's why the title of the book is 'Worms for Lunch!'"


It was really neat to see her revelation.


For the rest of the afternoon, she worked on the second half of her habitat project. For homework last night, I had her draw nine different animals that. Three that lived on land, three that lived in the water, and three that lived in the air. So today I had her color them and cut them out.

I then had her sort the animals into their habitats - the ones she painted yesterday.

I then had her attach each animal to a popsicle stick while I cut slits into random spots of her paintings. And voila!

Babe thought this was one of the coolest things and immediately wanted to do a puppet show for The Littles when I woke them up from nap. I told her that was a great idea and that I didn't even think of them being puppets!


So that's what she did. She performed puppet shows with each habitat, and Bubs liked it so much that she gave it a try too (after being told to be "VERY CAREFUL with it" by Babe, haha).


Oh, and sometime after lunch, Babe added her two sentences to her story. I wouldn't forget about that!


Tomorrow is a HUGE GINORMOUS DAY for Babe and I will try to recall as many details as I can in the blog tomorrow night. Stay tuned!

9.3.3.

Babe aced her Chapter 5 Math test today. While she was busy getting all the answers right, Bubs was getting all of her answers right on her little shape "quiz." I drew eight shapes on a sheet of paper and asked her to color each one a specific color.

 

 Then Babe picked Jack and Jill out of the tub, and after reciting it with no help at all, I had her pick another one. Yep, a two-poem day. She chose "Little Jack Horner" and I was excited for this one, too. After making sure she recited it correctly (although she kept saying "What a bad boy am I!", because "he's a bad boy for sticking his fingers in his pie!"), I got out the cookie dough recipes and had the girls join me in the kitchen.


We mixed up the ingredients, rolled out the dough, and cut out star and circle cookies. Once they were all cut out, I had each of them punch their thumb into the center of each cookie. Yum!

 

We cleaned up for lunch and enjoyed the cookies for dessert.


But today I'm going to actually share what we discussed at lunch today.


At how horrible of a Calvert learning guide I am!


A little back story:


When I write the lesson plans, I look through the Calvert books and use them as a foundation for what specifically I teach. Then I pretty much go with either what I learned in school or I do some research if I don't know the topic too well. With Geometry, I haven't been reading the lesson books much because, well, it seems self-explanatory.


When we were discussing the number of sides in polygons, I went with what I grew up learning. All self-explanatory, right?


WRONG.


Apparently, kids today are taught that circles have no sides.


Babe's mom agrees with this, while Babe's dad sees all the answers. And after doing some quick research at the lunch table, the correct answer to how many sides does a circle has is:


0 or 1 or 2 or 4 or infinity.


0: There are no corners/angles to make a side
1: You draw one side to make a circle
2: There is an inside and an outside to the circle
4: There is an inside, an outside, a top side, and a bottom side to a circle
Infinity: You can pick any point on a circle's boundary and call it a side


My argument will always be one side, because the way I taught Babe was discussed in a previous blog. When you physically draw a square, how many sides do you draw? 4. When you physically draw a triangle, how many sides do you draw? 3. When you physically draw a circle, how many sides do you draw?


1.


To me, if there are no sides, then there is no shape at all. 


But all of this is kind of moot compared to what was happening during lunch. Do you know who was included in this discussion?


A six-year-old Kindergartner being home schooled. Without being told what the right answer is, Babe now knows that there are all kinds of answers and I'm pretty sure she'd never get that in a public school setting. But that's just me.


So after lunch, after enjoying the yummy thumbprint cookies, we continued with lessons.


She read the article at the end of "Splash!" about different things baby animals do. We had a discussion about baby animals compared to mommy animals and if they do different things or look different. She then did her related worksheet.


After writing her two sentences for the day, I grabbed three large pieces of paper and had her tell me the three different properties of Earth again, and described them as habitats. I then asked her to paint each habitat onto each sheet of paper. She did wonderfully, and I told her this was part one of her Science activity and tomorrow she would complete part two.

Look how cute! I made sure I emphasized how amazing her detail was, especially with the addition of leaves in the cave! Very creative.


And just as Babe's parents walked in the door, I was outlining the state of Alabama on a map of the USA, circling Pelham, Alabama, where Babe's grandparents sent her a postcard from on their road trip across the country!


And with that, we are headed into the last half of the week! WOOHOO!

9.3.2.

We reviewed Chapter 5 in Math today. Babe still stumbles a bit when I ask her the facts of a circle, but the shape is sort of an enigma so I can understand her hesitance. By the end of the lesson though, she was good to go.

We also played with tangrams and completed the “Change of Pace” worksheet where she had to make certain shapes. She was able to do all of these and only struggled with the last one. It kind of surprised me, actually. She’s pretty good at puzzles but these are a bit different. When her worksheet was done I let her free play a bit.

I then brought out the bucket o’ Mother Goose rhymes and she immediately packed up the tangrams. Ha! She got giddy again when she realized she was about to pick the next poem, but not before reciting all previous ones. Amazing!

She chose “Hey Diddle Diddle” and I asked her what the genre of the poem is, just to shake up the routine a bit.

“It’s kind of silly. I mean, the only thing that could happen in real life is a dog laughing at such fun.”

“You’ve heard a dog laugh before?!”

“Well no, but I think his laugh could sound like, ‘arf, arf.’”

Ha! I gave that one to her.

I then brought out the leftovers of the corresponding craft from Mother Goose Time. While there were only two left, I had Babe make a similar one that worked just as good.

First, each kid decorated their moon and cow. I suggested that maybe they add circles to their moon to act as craters. Then Babe piped up.

“Craters are like little holes on the moon.”

“That’s right!”

Once they finished decorating, I then had them sprinkle some “moon sand” onto their moons. They each seemed to enjoy this part a lot. Note to self: add more sensory stuff like that.

 

 

  

Then with a little brad and an extra piece of paper, their cows were soon jumping over moons.

 

 

Just in time for some outside play and lunch.

After lunch, Babe added her two sentences to her story and then we jumped into Reading Comprehension with “Splash!” by Flora McDonnell.

She read this very well and commented on how good the illustrator was. 


After reading the book, we went through the plot, genre, and characters. Then I asked her what the problem of the plot was and how it was resolved. Again, she comprehended this story very well.

“What was your favorite part of the book?”

“The tiger.”

“The tiger? Just the tiger? Why?”

“Because I like orange.”

ha! Proof she’s still just a little kid.

Once she completed her worksheet, we went over a little bit of Science.

“Do you remember what the three properties of Earth are?”

“Land, water, and air.”

“Yes! And just like we can transport in each one of those, different animals live in each one and they are called habitats, or homes.”

“So we are in a habitat right now? On land?”

“Yes! People live on land.”

“And sharks live in the water!”

“Exactly!”

So yeah, she picked up today’s lesson pretty quickly.

And with that, it was time to get ready for dance.

Onward to the middle of the week!