Math Caileigh- Adding tens and ones, using picture cards to create numbers over one thousand. Practice addition.

Aiden-Quarters and values of coins, counting money, dollars and cents, adding money with a calculator. An example of a problem was "Jo had $2.31 and earned $5.67 more. Then Jo spent $1.98. How much money does he have now?" The neat thing was after Aiden had added to first two numbers together he was able to subtract the third number in his head and recite the answer. Another question was, "Jess bought ten balloons. Each balloon cost twenty-nine cents. How much did all the balloons cost?" Aiden solved this by writing the multiplication equation.

Bible "God blesses those who obey Him, happy the man who puts his trust in the Lord." Proverbs 16:20

Bible reading, Leading little ones to God.

Language Arts-Journal, Write About Me, copywork.

Spelling review

Read-aloud, The Box Car Children #18.

In Because of Winn-Dixie, the main character lists 10 things she knows about her mother and near the end of the story lists 10 things about her dog. We took this idea and each child wrote 10 words to describe themselves. Most of their ideas had to do with their likes. eg. lego, bike riding etc.

Grammar-poem review. Learning a new poem.

In creative writing, we discussed similes and the kids wrote out a dozen each. At first they recited common ones they have heard before like, "as happy as a clam" etc. but after we brainstormed a little they could come up with some of their own. I liked Caileigh's, "A hippo is as big as a boulder." or, "Anna is as good as ice cream." Aiden shared, "Jonathan is as fearless as a lion" and "As dark as a tree in the dark."

Because the kids go through so many books each week, I am trying to have them fill out "book reports." The format is simple and includes things like author, illustrator, number of pages, best thing about the book, setting, etc. I am hoping that it keeps me more up to date with what they are reading about, as well as introduces them to the idea of book reports, so when the time comes to formally write them, it won't feel so intimidating. At this point I am allowing them to dictate to me and I write in the answers. I don't want this task to become tedious at this point, and rather something they enjoy doing. We are also going through our read-alouds as an oral book report through discussion.

Science We had a reptile scavenger hunt. There were 18 fact sheets hidden around the room and the kids had to find each one and answer the questions on their question sheet. They are fascinated by reptiles and really enjoyed learning fun facts.

The animals of the week were cheetahs and tigers. We read library books on them. We watched a video on cheetahs.

In Aiden's reading comprehension this week it was an article about wolverines which fit in with Aiden's choice animal from last week.

Social Studies

We completed a map page on the provinces. Aiden took incredible care in the coloring of his. The instructions asked them to color in their own province, but Aiden asked if he could go ahead and color the entire country.

We covered two chapters in The Story of the World on Ancient Romans. The kids narrated some of the learning points on their coloring pages. Aiden especially enjoyed learning about the Gladiators.

PE

I went through the suggested PE questions with the kids. We had discussions about the questions as I wrote down their answers. {Clarice, If you would like their answers, I can send this in an email to you}

We bought the kids real snowboards much to their delight. All we need is some more snow!