Poetry Baskets

We started incorporating poetry baskets into our school week last year. I have always been a fan of poetry, my favorite poet being Robert Frost. Our two girls have memorized several of his poems, and his poem October was the topic for one of their poetry baskets this week.

My little first grader has done two poetry baskets so far this year: Autumn Leaves are Falling Down and Have You Ever Seen an Apple?

These poems were perfect for him because he could read them himself! We talked about the theme of the poem, the rhythm, and the different vocabulary words. I like to use hands-on manipulatives that relate to each poem, so for the ones pictured above, there were some artificial fall leaves as well as those cute little apples I told you about in another post.

Poetry baskets are a great addition to our school week, and the kids really seem to enjoy them!



Word Families

Today my little first grader worked on different word families during phonics time. We used Starfall last year for Kindergarten and I was very pleased with how he progressed, using that program.

This year, we are using a combination of different materials for reading/phonics, including Plaid Phonics, Starfall books, Scholastic readers, and lots of hands-on activities.

A local school supply store went out of business last year, and I was able to gather a TON of different manipulatives and bulletin board sets for dirt cheap! The one pictured above has lots of little pictures and several different word family cards.

We also do the above pictured activity several times a week and it really reinforces the different sounds within a word.



Keepers at Home

Today we had our Keepers at Home club meeting. It was so nice seeing all of our friends again!

We celebrated the birthday of one of the girls with some delicious cupcakes.

The girls continued working on Charity and we listened to a story called "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?" The girls also copied Matthew 6:20 into their notebooks. The Bible memory challenge right now is "The Good Samaritan" and one of the girls has already recited it! This is one of the more difficult Bible memory challenges, and so I was very impressed that she learned the whole passage already.

The girls also filled these cute little jars with stones that we brought back with us from our trip to Europe. Everytime we went to the beach, we would see these little tiny stones along the shore. The waves would be crashing and it was such an amazing sight. It constantly reminded me of God's awesome power and the beauty of all his creations. So, we decided to bring back enough stones for the girls in our Keepers Club.

It was really fun watching them all dig through the piles and pick the "perfect" stones for their own personal jars. They each received a copy of the Bible verse "He is the Rock, his works are perfect and all his ways are just."  Deuteronomy 32:4

We had a great meeting and it was so good to be back! We have many fun projects to work on in the next several months, as well as some projects that we will be continuing to work on such as cross stitch, snacks and drinks, and casserole making!



Apple Math

Since October is Apple Month as well as autumn, I thought it would be fun for our little guy to do some "hands-on" math using these little apples I found at Michael's Arts & Crafts Store. Aren't they just adorable??? I couldn't resist buying them and yes, I also bought the cute little green apples! It is so sad, the thrill us homeschooling moms get out of these sorts of things...

Our little guy has been practicing his addition skills, and so I printed some of these apple addition cards from www.makinglearningfun.com   and he went to work adding the apples up!

 

Autumn Nature Hunt

This week for science, we went on an autumn nature hunt. Where we live, the seasons do not show a very obvious change. But, we thought it would be still be fun, so out we went early one morning to see what we could find.

Each of the kids was given a science data journal to record any drawing or interesting things to remember. They also had a pencil, pen, some crayons for doing leaf rubbings, and small and large plastic bags. Last of all, they were given a check list of items to search for.

I was very impressed with how hard they worked and how much they enjoyed this activity. Our little guy particularly seemed to enjoy doing the drawing in his journal and labeling it. He chose to draw some leaves.

They also liked the leaf rubbings. They actually decided to do rubbings of other objects we found- not just leaves.

After we completed the entire check list, we headed over to the playground for some climbing fun!



First Day of School

Today was our first day of school! Here are our 2011-2012 class pictures:

Our little bean is in 8th grade this year. She loves language arts and is going to start French this year! In her free time, she enjoys writing stories and playing the piano.

Our little nut is in 4th grade this year. She enjoys science and reading. She has some new subjects this year, including geography and history. In her free time, she loves playing with her American Girl dolls and reading.

Finally, our little man is in 1st grade this year. He likes math and has several new subjects this year, including spelling and geography. He is also starting piano lessons tomorrow, as well as Contenders of the Faith.

We have made several changes to our homeschool this year. One of our favorites is our new reading corner! The kids really love it (and so do I!).

They especially like the shelves with all our themed books. This month's themes are fall, Halloween, plants and gardening, and ancient civilizations.

It is so nice to see them snuggling up with a nice book.

Another change for this year is the activity above. Last year, the kids did "Monday Mania Challenges" in which I gave them some sort of activity to accomplish within a specific period of time. I still plan on using those cards, but these cards pictured above are great conversation cards, and so we are using them for our "question of the day" during our Morning Meeting, which consists of Bible study, calendar/weather time, prayers, etc...

There are some scheduling issues that need to be tweeked a bit, but all in all, it was a really good day and I can not wait to see what fun we will have this year! The kids will definitely be busy with several extra curricular activities, homeschool groups, co-op, and more! Keep checking back to see all the excitment...

Thoughts for This Week

Out my window... I see signs of fall! The sky is a bright, beautiful blue with not a cloud in sight.

Places we've been... We traveled through three different airports this week in order to get back home from Europe. Once home, I have been to the grocery store, Target, to church, Panera Bread,  and Michael's Arts and Crafts.

People we saw... We saw my parents, friends at church, and several family members! The kids really missed their cousins and were so happy to see them again.

In our homeschool this week... I have been in planning mode since returning from our trip, as we start school tomorrow! I have also been laminating like crazy, sorting vocabulary word cards, and getting things ready for our first week. The kids seem pretty excited about starting a new school year, and we have lots of fun field trips and activities planned for this year.

I'm reading... The Story of the World- Volume 1.

Things I am working on... Well, the photo at the top of the page should tell you what I have been working on for the past several days- laundry, laundry, and MORE laundry! We had five large suitcases full of clothes, all needing a good cleaning.

I am grateful for...  I am really thankful for having such a wonderful trip with our family. I am also so grateful that none of us were hurt or became sick while there, and that our flights back were on-time and the security screenings went well.

I am praying for... A great school year!