Religion - we discussed Lesson 3 in Our Holy Faith, which focuses on the Our Father prayer. We attempted to understand a little more about what the words of that prayer mean, line by line. We talked about to whom it is addressed and who gave us this all-important prayer (it took a while to get to the correct answer when this question was posed to the class; all other members of the Holy Trinity and the Blessed Mother were mentioned before someone guessed "Jesus" :)
English - our Picture Study this week was titled "The Escaped Cow" and we tried to guess what story the picture was telling. We also talked at length about cows and what products - food and otherwise - we glean from this animal.
Poetry - several students performed "The Swing" in its entirety, including some children who you might not guess to be brave enough to stand before the whole class and speak out loud on their own. Bravo! Good public speaking practice. We began the next poem in CCM, titled "Who Has Seen the Wind?" This one is relatively easy to memorize and fun to act out as well.
History - This week we took a break from our Old Testament stories, remembering from last week that at this point in history Joseph and Israelites are living in Egypt. Looking at the world map, we reviewed our continents song, and took an imaginary trip from North America to Africa, and specifically Egypt. We spent some time learning about the Nile River and major contributions the ancient Egyptians made in history. We read a little from the RC History recommended core text, Founders of Freedom, particularly about mummies. We then used our History Pocket sheets to learn about their diet, their homes, and their clothing. These sheets were sent home to finish coloring if the students wish, and they can also cut out the Egyptian puppets, glue them on a popsicle stick and pretend they live along the flooding Nile.
Project idea - easy to do at home: Mummify a Vegetable!
all you need are: green beans, salt, and a glass jar
-cover bottom of jar with salt
-add one layer of beans
-layer with more salt
-repeat bean layer and more salt
Reveal your mummified green beans up to three months later, soak in 1/2 hour to wash away the salt, and you'll find they are still fresh!
Science - we read about another arthropod, the grasshopper. The children should have a grasshopper anatomy worksheet in their binders you can use at home to discuss its different parts and how it is similar to other arthropods (like the wasp we studied last week). I like studying this insect since they are so readily available for direct observation at home, and easy to catch; low on the gross factor as well, for moms who care:) We also read about the mosquito and studied its life cycle. There was a hand-out for that as well, which you might like to review. Speaking of bugs with interesting life cycles, our beetles - currently lovely mealworms - are eating through their wheat germ bed in the hopes that we might observe some of their life changes in a few weeks.
* student presentations: we observed a large praying mantis, a stick bug, a "screaming bug" (the only bug in the world that vocalizes!), and a box turtle. A great zoology day.
Great project idea!
ReplyDelete