Bible 

 "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples."  John 13:35
Brainstorming ways that we can show others that we are His disciples.
Reading in The Jesus Storybook Bible about the last supper.  We discussed how we have communion at church to remember Jesus.  We talked about the sacrificial lamb of passover and how Jesus became like this for us.
We read about Jesus washing His disciple's feet.  Jesus was a humble servant to others and put others before Himself.  We brainstormed some ways that we could treat others better than ourselves.  We challenged each other to do something for someone else that put our needs second.
We read about the missionary Robert Evans as well as the missionary Ralph Palmer.

Math

Caileigh-Right Start B
review of patterns AB, AABB, etc.
Practicing 4 digit addition with carrying.
Reviewing place value of ones, tens, hundred and thousands.
Learning various adding strategies and understanding as well as applying them!!  A big breakthrough!
 9's stratgey  ( 9+3= 10+2)
8's strategy (8+5=10+3)
 and 2 5's strategy. (6+7=5+5+1+2)

Aiden-IXL math on various subjects
Singapore 3B- fractions.  Finding the simplest form of fractions, finding equal fractions, adding and subtracting fractions.

Language Arts

Read aloud-  The Hobbit  Chapters 1-5

Learning to read what we've written out loud to listen for mistakes.


We reviewed syllables and learned about Haiku poetry.  They each wrote and illustrated one.  We found the easiest way to write them was to have them narrate a sentence to me.  We would then count the number of syllables and add or subtract them to make them the correct number.

Aiden wrote one on Star Wars

Star fighters are fast

speeding through the galaxy

hyper speed engine.

Caileigh wrote one on horses

Horses are grazing

in a sunny field nearby

with lot's of flowers

Creative writing on, "My Christmas".
Spelling review unit on past 5 spelling units.  100% on spelling test!
Grammar-Finding adjectives and adverbs in a written passage.  Learning the three articles, "a" "an" and "the" and when each is used.

Science

One a cold morning (-27) we took a glass of boiling water and threw it into the air.  We watched as it instantly turned to steam.  It was amazing to watch!  Hopefully it cools down even more and we can watch it turn instantly into snow.

Aiden has showed a real interest in Astronomy since his newest Chickadee magazine arrived with articles about NASA and space.  We read articles about each of the planets.
We visited NASA kids website.
Aiden is working on a creative writing assignment where he is inventing a new planet and writing about it's facts.
 We watched a Bill Nye the science guy about planets.

Preparing for our study on river life we watched an Eyewitness DVD about pond and river life.
Looking at books from the library on pond and river life.

Social Studies

Economy and Technology-
We talked about how things would be different if we didn't have money as a means of exchange and relied on the barter system.
We discussed why it is important to save money and what sorts of things we can save for, eg. wanted items, school, emergency funds.
For Christmas, the kids each received new piggy banks.  Now that they have two, one is going to be for savings, and another one for spending.  From the spending, also comes money they use to support charities, sponsor kids etc.
The kids have also been receiving money for the "school funds" so we are opening each child a bank account to help with this saving.

From The Story of the World, we learned about India and the Moghul dynasty.
We learned about the discovery of North America by Colombus.  We also learned about other explorers such as Amerigo Vespucci, who actually discovered that North America was a new continent.  Colombus had thought that he had found India.  We read about the explorer, who made his way around the world and discovered a way through South America, The Strait of Magellan.

Health and Career

A visit to the dentist.  A review of good dental health.
Using Abeka 2 Health/Safety and Manners, we read about eye and ear health/safety.  We read about communicable diseases.  We reviewed all the ways to keep a healthy body.......rest, exercise, good food, hand washing, positive attitude, etc.

Fine Arts

Caileigh-Learning facts about Tchiakovsky, Hyden and Beethoven.
Working on her C scale, both broken and solid.  She finds this to be a challenge but is making progress each week.

Aiden-finding V1 and V5 chords
Finishing up his Faber Level 1 and preparing to start Level 2 next week.

PE

Caileigh practicing for her gymnastics testing at the end of the month.

Daily outside fun!