Third Month. Third and Fourth Week.

I know I know. I'm a little late. Sue me. I'm enjoying life (and the new Fall TV season!!!) a little too much to sit and write. But Babe has been doing awesome in First Grade and believe it or not, we are finishing up Math and should be starting Second Grade Math in a few weeks!!! Crazy. Speaking of Math...

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Math:
Babe completed her subtraction chapter and this past week alone we fit in a two-week lesson into one week. I knew I'd be able to do this with confidence because the chapter was on money. Babe has been counting and playing with money since she could talk. haha. So yeah, we finished up that chapter pretty quickly, ending the week with taking real money to the local fruit stand and buying apples with exact change. 

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Reading:
Babe is averaging about one chapter book per week, and completes one story web and mini report about every book she reads. It's awesome. Her comprehension is off the charts and I'm just so proud of her. She just finished up a Scooby Doo chapter book and picked another one up from the library. They'd scare me at six years old but she seems OK with them! Every time we go to the library, though, she asks if she can check out Harry Potter yet. I really don't think she's ready, but maybe the first book will be a good 7th birthday gift... :)

We have also been immersed in learning the differences between contractions, possessive nouns, and plural nouns. She is struggling a bit every day with this, but she is getting there. When she finished her Scooby Doo book, I made a chart for her and had her look at the first page of every chapter. Then I had her find all the contractions, possessive nouns, and plural nouns on that page and sort them. She grew very frustrated, but when I stepped in to help, she finished strong. I asked her to do the last chapter by herself and she was able to. I think we will continue to do this with every book. It seems like good practice!

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Social Studies:

The past two weeks have been a more in-depth review of reading a globe and learning the names of each continent and ocean, and their locations on Earth. We've also been discussing the cultures of each continent. It was cool to learn that though no one actually lives in Antarctica, people can visit and others have extended stays for scientific research! They stay in igloos and/or brightly colored, one-room shelters. 

When I had two Google searches on a split screen on my laptop, I looked up "South American food" and "North American food" for Babe to compare each.

"What do you see here that South Americans eat a lot of?"

"Whoa! Lots of vegetables! And all their food is colorful!"

"Good! What do you see that North Americans eat a lot of?"

"Meat. And desserts."

haaaahahaha. That's all she said. It was hilarious. 

We discussed reasons for why there are such big differences between what we eat and it was cool to know that Babe is understanding that everyone in the world is different. 

We finish this up next week and I will introduce her to Christopher Columbus the week after!

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Science:

The past two weeks have been all about animals in Science - what they need to live, how their body parts help them get what they need, and how there are all different kinds of animals. It stopped Babe's heart for about two minutes when she realized that humans are mammals.

"I'm an animal?!"

haha

So we've been doing various things to learn about how animals live. We made bird feeders to learn how birds can reach food if it's off the ground.

  

 

 

We discussed how birds can reach food high in the trees because of their wings, and when we went and checked on our feeders the next day, both had some peanut butter/seeds missing! Bubs's feeder location was prime, though. Check out her big hole in the feeder!

Pretty neato. We ended the week by heading to our local rookery, a hangout of sorts for birds to nest and mate! While it was still a little too early in the year to see the huge amount of birds that are usually there, we didn't leave without the pleasure of watching a mother white egret feed her two babies!

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As far as other activities, I've been keeping up with the Fall theme and we've been discussing/reading about scarecrows and apples. 

One week, the girls even got to make their own scarecrows!

 

 

The next week we did some apple activities, including using their fingers to paint apples onto a big apple tree! :)

We read Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons and they learned that apples are ready to be picked from the tree when the leaves are very yelllow and ready to fall!

 

 

We then ended September by making our favorite Fall treat...BAKED APPLES! Babe remembers making them last year so I knew we had to do it again. They truly are delicious and it's a great food that both girls could easily helped with.

So I gathered up the apples that Babe bought at the local produce stand and halved them while the girls made the mix for the center of the apples.

 

Then they each helped me core out the apples!

 Then about 45 minutes later, we got to enjoy the deliciousness! 

"Tat2? I think you made these TOO good this time!"

hehe

So that's it! That's September! What a great month! 

October will see lots of pumpkins, Christopher Columbus, and other spoooooooky things to ring in Halloween at the end of the month!

6th Month. 4th Week. 2nd Day.

Well, Babe turned around real quick from yesterday and made today a great learning day. She sat down for Math and listened like a champ at my new method of showing her how to start at a number other than 10 to count by 10s to 100. I used the connecting blocks She was a little bummed at how easy it was to understand once she knew it, and actually apologized for yesterday.

"This is pretty easy. Sorry I was mean yesterday..."

Aww. So cute. We hugged it out and by the time we were done hugging, she was done with Math and able to tell me if she had enough money in her pocket to buy something at a certain cost.

For Reading Comp., I brought out the assigned book "Vroom, Chugga Vroom-Vroom" by Anne Miranda. Bubs and Z were doing their work but as soon as Babe said the title, Z ran over and saw what the commotion was about. It was so cute! So Bubs and Z sat and listened to Babe read her book.

At one point she showed them a punctuation mark.

"See, this is an exclamation point so that means we have to say it really loud. Say it with me. VROOOOOOM!!!!!!"

haha

She read this book very well, and even summarized it when I asked her the five Ws of the story! She is getting really good at that.

Next was our discussion on what else we've learned these past 100 days, and today we reviewed the alphabet - both capital and lowercase letters. I at first had Babe fishing for the letters, but that was taking too long because I also had Z doing one alphabet puzzle and Bubs doing another, while Babe was calling out each letter for them to find and put in their respective puzzles.

So I changed the fishing real quick to a system where I was picking out a letter card, showing Z the card along with three different letter puzzle pieces and having him pick the letter on the card.

Believe it or not, he completed the WHOLE puzzle doing this activity!!! I was very impressed!

For Bubs, I did the same thing with her, except I left out the letter card. I would put a few of the letters out and have her pick out the letter I called to her. She was able to do this with every letter, too!

As for Babe, she's known her alphabet for years and learned all of her lowercase letters last year in VPK, so this task was a breeze. As you can see, she matched every one!

After she lined them all up, I gave her a sheet of manuscript paper and had her write each letter, both capital and lowercase. She wrote a couple of letters backwards, but no big deal. I had her correct them and write them five times each.

And with that, lessons were done for the day. We continue reviewing all work tomorrow!

Sixth Month. 3rd Week. 4th Day.

Today I had all intentions of teaching Babe about Franklin Roosevelt, but I realized she is still digesting the new information about Thomas Jefferson from yesterday, so I gave her mind a break. We will cover FDR a bit tomorrow.

In Math, we again practiced counting change. She is relatively good at this, but needs constant practice at scenarios like having a quarter and two dimes and being able to count by tens from twenty-five. She gets a little stuck until I push her in the right direction, but I'm hoping that by the end of next week she'll have it all down pat.

We concentrated on the quarter today and I had her use different coins to make 25 cents.

After Math, we jumped in the car and headed to the library for Z and Bubs' class. However, I didn't look at the calendar and didn't realize that today was a special event - children's author Suzanne Bloom was heading up the class today signing books and reading one of her own to the class. Babe was mesmerized. I told her that she was a real author and illustrator and she was so infatuated. She went up and talked to the author after the class and told her that she was an author and illustrator too! It was so cute. Ms. Bloom then let Babe color one of the illustrations she drew on a sheet of paper! Babe felt honored. She usually lays low during Thursday classes because I tell her that the teacher knows she knows all the answers, and she wants Bubs and Z to answer them, but with this event, it was a little too old for Bubs and Z so Babe ate it all up. It was cool.

We then headed to the park for a picnic lunch and playtime, where we met a surprise guest hanging out on the picnic table!

Bubs said, "It looks like a giraffe!"

And it totally did when it stood up! It was the weirdest worm/caterpillar I've ever seen. Even one of the ladies from the community garden came over and took a look at it, saying she's never seen anything like it. It had legs only on it's head and rear, so it actually walked like Slimey from Sesame Street, like an inch worm! It was so cute.

"It looks like a stick!"

Babe was right, too! I told her that it looks like a stick so birds and other animals can't see it when he's on a tree or table.

"Oh! Like the lizard from Curious George that he had to watch that one time for his friend! Remember, he changed color?"

Yep.

After we finished our lunch and said farewell to our new friend, I had a surprise trip for dessert planned. We pulled into the bakery we visited last month and the girls were so excited. I told them they'd be able to pick one thing to eat. We walked in and the baker welcomed us with open arms! She was just as excited to see us again.

"Thank you for your letter! I have it hanging up here so everyone can see!"

Babe thought that was so cool! The baker hung up her thank-you letter in the front of the store! Bubs recognized it too and ran over to show Z. It was cute. Such a cool experience.

So after we all enjoyed our treat, we headed home where Z and Bubs went down for their nap.

"I wish I could take a nap too."

haha. So I let Babe take a nap, too, but told her that when she woke up she'd have to be ready to do some more school since today kind of got away from us. She agreed.

While she slept, I hid 50 of 100 Hershey Kisses around the house for our fun day tomorrow, and when Babe woke up, she watched a bit of PBS Kids before I handed her a book to read.

"The 100th Day of School?"

I explained to her that tomorrow is her 100th day of Kindergarten. Her eyes got real big.

"100!? I am having so much fun!"

ha! So cute. So I explained to her that tomorrow we are going to have a lot of fun with the number 100. She read the book without a hitch (actually, she stumbled only on the word "special"), added it to her reading log, and we all headed outside for the rest of the day.

I have lots of things planned for tomorrow. I hope I'm able to get to them all!

Sixth Month. 3rd Week. 2nd Day.

Today was another review day, this time on Abraham Lincoln. But first in Math, we went over telling/writing time, and counting money. Babe did well with both, though she needed a quick reminder of how to count by fives starting at a number other than 0. But once she had that figured out, she was good to go. By the end of Math, I was giving her random amounts and she was able to figure out all the ways to use coins to get to that amount. It was cool watching her mind work.

I then had her tell me everything she remembered about Abraham Lincoln, and she still has all the important details down pat - he freed the slaves, the North won the Civil War, and he was the 16th president. Perfect. By then, it was time to go outside for some much needed outside play. Bubs and Z were chomping at the bit to go outside. The weather has been perfect!

After lunch, it was time for an Abraham Lincoln craft, and I was excited about this one. I handed Babe two paper plates and an empty canister of dry oats and told her all of this stuff needed to be covered in black.

"You can color it, you can cover it in black paper, you can do whatever. But it has to be all black."

"OK, that's easy!"

haha

She did great covering the canister with black paper. When she rolled the paper around it, she marked with a pencil where the paper needed to be cut! I was impressed.

When she got to the paper plates, she started cutting out paper and gluing it on, but then she resorted to the black crayon.

While she was creating this part of the craft, I was warming up a glue gun. When she was done, I told her to put the oat canister on top of the paper plate. I then asked her what it looked like.

"It looks like a hat! Like the hat Abraham Lincoln is wearing in that book I read!"

She was exactly right!

As soon as she put it on, she started repeating, "NO MORE SLAVES!" and then told me she was going to go write some rules (laws). So I put on PBS Kids for her to digest the day, but she kept the hat on and grabbed a pen and a notepad.

ha!

She came to me about 20 minutes later with her list of rules.

"No hittin. No slavs. No smackin butt.

Too. Stinking. Cute.

I asked her where she was going to keep her list of laws and she had a great idea.

"Since I'm Abraham Lincoln I'll keep it in my hat!"

And she did. She opened the top of the canister (all planned as part of the craft), and put the sheet of paper in it (along with a calculator).

And with that, she ended the day and started getting ready for dance.

Thus concludes Tuesday!