Math

Both- made December calendar.

Caileigh- Addition facts. World problems. Reviewing pennies and nickels. Finding the missing number for addition and subtraction. Recognizing odds and evens up to 100. Games to practice addition facts totaling 10. Reviewing place value for 1's, 10's and 100's.

Aiden- Reviewing the various strategies for solving 2 digit addition mentally. Practice finding multiples and skip counting. We reviewed skip counting for 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's and 10's. We practiced skip counting for 6's, 7's, 8's, and 9's.

Daily addition and subtraction drill worksheets to work on focus.

Continuing with temperature chart.

Bible- The Lords Prayer Matthew 6:9-13

Learning about Advent. Praying for the people on our prayer chains. Talking about finding ways to show each other love. eg. giving a sister their dessert, helping a sibling, offering to help Mom. By showing love to others we can be giving our hearts to God.

Bible reading.

Language Arts- Journal writing. Letter writing. Email writing. "Write about Me".

Spelling unit.

Explode the Code online.

Worksheets on pronouns.

Daily reading comprehension and questions. One morning I asked each child to read their article and then share with me three things that they learned.

Here was what Caileigh narrated to me about Hibernation:

"Hedgehogs, ground squirrels and woodchucks all hibernate. Many people think that bears hibernate but they don't. They actually go into a deep sleep. Animals hibernate because it's hard to find food in the winter"

Here was what Aiden narrated to me about Octopus:

"Octopuses can shoot off one of their arms to distract their predators but can grow it back again. Octopuses have three hearts and one huge brain. Octopuses can shoot ink and fit into small places because they don't have a back bone. (I had to look up if more than one Octopus is called Octopuses or Octopi and apparently both are correct!)

Both kids have started a project on a topic of their choice. Caileigh has chosen horses, and Aiden has chosen ancient wars. They have been reading books, watching videos (brain pop, discovery, you tube etc.) and trying to learn all they can so they can be an "expert" on their subjects. The next step will be to put our findings down on paper through simple sentences and illustrations. Each child is going to have a chance to teach the rest of the family what they learned.

Social Studies- We completed a lesson from The Story of the World on the early Greeks.

We completed a page from our map book about the areas of the world: hemispheres, equator, poles etc.

Health and Career- We completed two lessons from our Rod and Staff Health book about manners and proper meal time behavior! The latter is becoming a family challenge.

Fine Arts-Using both paints and pastels we drew pictures of trees. We went back and tried different techniques(sponging, dabbing , etc.) to add snow to the scene.

We worked with Draw Write Now.

{Caileigh's first attempt at a dolpin}