Day note: We found another Adam Rubin book. It was awesome. Esme read most of it herself and said it is her new favorite book - 'The Squirrels Fly South for the Winter'. I found two extra copies of the Nat.Geo with the extinct species article at the library booksale for 25 cents each...after already ordering one for 5 dollars shipped. I found THREE, actually, but left one for the next person. What kind of odds are those - there were only 15 or so on the shelf and 1/5 of them is what I was looking for to order?
Planning:
Some more of the same ... School Day process ideas: breakdown...
Plus she is asking so many more questions already... We also played mancala tonight...she didn't do very bad...I still won both when she went first and I went first. Now she wants to figure out why/how.
Science :
Chemistry - hands on experiments, talking about elements a little again from last year's cards. Cooking is chemistry, too. Geology relation between elements and rocks.
Biology study - 'aquarium' find a specimen in a National Geographic and look up information online, write our info in a file card. Identify where on the world map the creature lives. Draw a picture of the 'specimen', cut it out and pin it on our board. Put the file card in the pocket. Might start a bug file, too - if we feel like it. We have several free DVDs (I hope) coming to use for down days... // How did they find the first dinosaur? How did they name it? // Genetics - she is asking a lot of these quetions but it is hard to explain to her. Our 'extinct species' discussion is venturing into discussion of cloning, so we should find a good youtube about DNA and see she understands what the Jurassic Park 'blood sample' really holds and why it is important.
Geology: and the microscope - tie that with maps, discover why people want that mineral/gem and what it looks like, where it is found, how it was originally made, how it is obtained and what it is used for.
Astronomy - night talks, book, online program and perhaps a trip to the planetarium - astronaut and space talks.
Body Chart - talk about a specific system (bone, nervous, digestion, senses), organ or etc. and locate it on the body chart. Write it out on a card and place it up on the chart. Talk about what that system does and how we keep it healthy. Tie in with nutrition etc.
Math Spies: Go out into the world, forest, store, park ... and find the numbers in things. Do calculations on our calculators, write down notes - play! Put the 'spy notes' away - and when we get home (or the next day) we will go through what we saw and wrote down and decide what it means, what it relates to etc. Expand our actual math study and Khan activities to relate to what we saw in the world.
Social Studies: Cities and neighborhoods, systems, monuments and landmarks, maps and symbols. Groups of people, families, family tree tie-in. Tying our maps of the world with places we are planning to go to (day trips). Geography studying of countries using the Passport system - have her ask questions and try to answer them, find Youtube videos etc...French language again (we did a tiny bit last year) when we do France first, then she wants to study China and/or Japan next. There is a new Japanese restaurant in town (2 now!) and she was very interested in the billboard. Time for Kids Day in the Life
History: Make notes of different historical places we see - monuments, plaques etc. - lay them out on the map, talk about how things change over time. Family tree tie-in. Some of our extinct species talk can count as history - and we will talk about the idea of reviving dead species, which she asked about with Jurassic Park. Timeline of EARTH geology events and extinction....after we watch the Mesozoic dvd and maybe while we watch the Transitions evolution dvd. Photo essays of amazing places and things - Statue of Liberty, National Parks etc. // Question: When have they read the heiroglyphics, can they even?...told her briefly that yes- someone did figure it out, and we'll touch on it somewhere there, discussing early writing systems and maybe do a 'code' exercise where we write symbols and decipher them. Forgot to tell her it was the 'Rosetta stone'... She has asked more questions about Stonehenge, too, the circle rocks in the circle etc...got a Nat;Geo by luck that talks about it.
Spelling/writing/alphabetization (dictionary use), journal entries on writing prompts. Cursive writing her signature. Working on punctuation again. Spelling words pinned up next to aquarium board that I do a 'pop quiz' on her when we aren't in sight of it. Remind her to study those words when she passes by so she gets them into her visual memory. Sentences with rearranging pinned words and discuss tense changes, punctuation, capitalization in those terms as well.
Reading Comprehension : workbook... reading several novels together over the year as before - graphic novels online, reading news site for kids and telling me what she read. Poetry reading in printed book. 'levelled' school discard books, picked up a new one that has longer but good level stories for her about kids caring about their neighbors and community.
Time fillers with learning involved - because every day doesn't have to climb a mountain: Minecraft, Dragon City (reading and math) and Here Be Monsters (maps and 'encyclopedia' lookup for recipes plus some ingredients are regionally-based, so she has to find out where, devise supplies to get there, and perform the right actions (harvesting or fishing) to get the required object), drawing, painting, Sewing, Cooking, cleaning up, animal care, crafts, P.E., rollerskating, biking, walking/hiking, soccer
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