Kindergarten - First Grade: Week 6

Religion - we went over the questions & answers for Chapter 5, which tied in well with our CCM Timeline this week.

English - our Picture Study this week was of a ferrier working on a horse's shoe.  Most of you will find your child's copy in the front of their binders as we did not have them hole-punched ahead of time.

Poetry - many of the children have already memorized "Who Has Seen the Wind?" almost completely. Ask them to show you the motions we've been doing in class.  We said it together as a group, and the children were able to "fill in the blanks" left by my remaining silent for certain words or phrases.

History /Geography - We began by studying the world map and retracing our trip to Egypt, pointing out the Nile River and the Red Sea.  Then we read a book about maps, called Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney (a Reading Rainbow recommendation). Afterwards we divided the class into two groups that rotated through two separate "stations". In one station the children heard the story of the Israelites crossing of the Red Sed, and then did a coloring page on the story. In the other station we read a book about pyramids and the children had the opportunity to build a pyramid with two different building materials - large Legos or wooden blocks. This was a popular activity !   While my initial idea was for them to create three dimensional structures, they showed some creativity of their own:  some of the children chose to create a two-dimensional pyramid, complete with tunnels and rooms for Pharaoh's treasures.  One child built the Pharaoh's throne (see below)! There were also books on Egypt for them to study in this station.


* Presentation - we observed rock pieces that have enough iron in them that they can be picked up with a magnet. We also observed & touched (!) the 2nd-3rd graders' Hercules beetle.

Science - we read a little bit about spiders. We discussed some of the differences between spiders and insects. To continue this study at home, read more about spiders in the Nature Reader #1, p. 53-62.  We observed a single thread of spider web outside and the spider who possibly made it. Our plan was to sketch a spider for our binders,  but we ran out of time. Maybe you'd like to encourage them to do that as a follow up at home.