Day four, day four. The number of the day is four. The letter is Dd, and the word of the day is dog. We started at 8:30 (the normal start time) with circle time and a cereal snack. We sang Roley-Poley and read a book.
The Cat Who Wouldn't Come Inside by Cynthia Von Buhler. It was fun, especially since C LOVES cats. The pictures are all made out of Sculpey modeling clay.
Today we went over 15 minute marks on the clock.
It was a cold morning so C wanted to wear a cape for Hour of Power.
We got into Hour of Power, and I started with Math right away.
We counted to 20 and I noticed S was having some problems in the teens so I wrote them out. We talked about how it is the same as 1 through 10, but with teen on the end (five-teen sounds like fifteen, etc), and how two, twelve, and twenty all start the same way. Then we started doing math to hammer home the similarities. All of a sudden...
Both of the bulbs in the dining room light went out. C ran to get his lantern while I grabbed two new bulbs.
Back to the learning! We talked about number places (ones place, tens place, hundreds place) and this helped with adding numbers to 10. We went all the way to 19 before moving to the next subject. Math took about 15-16 minutes. Oh, plus the stall time to change the light bulbs.
We went on to reading and writing next. I have them sign in every day (write their names while pledging to give me their attention and open minds), so I decided to focus this time on pre-reading. We pulled out The Dark by Limony Snicket. I had the boys tell me what the thought was happening on each page, using only the pictures as context. After they told me the whole story I then read it to them, and we talked about the differences between the pictures and the words. This subject took about 9-10 minutes total.
After reading and writing time we moved on to Social Studies & Civics. We talked about the distinctions between out country, state, and city, and who runs each, and their individual titles. I pointed out unique things about each location and person, and we talked a little about city jobs (teacher, garbage man, librarian). This was probably our shortest subject, taking about 6-7 minutes.
For Language and Culture I walked the boys through a brief conversation in Spanish. This image here is just to help me remember what we said, so that I can use it again later and build on it. At about 11 minutes Spanish brought us home at right about an hour for all 5 subjects (I guess there were a few minutes of transition time in there).
The kids were all worn out after the long hour of sit and listen (There was a lot of me saying, "May I please have your attention? Will you please lend me your open mind? I like it when you participate..."). The laid down on the couch for Daniel Tiger, which is kind of how I thought it would go.
All in all Hour of Power went well, better than I expected. Before when I tried it I used a timer on my phone, and gave each subject exactly 10 minutes. That was hard. This time I kind of let them and the content drive the length. We had a lot to talk about with math, and it had a clear ending point, so we went long. Social Studies went short since there are a few basic ideas I want them to get before expanding it. Each subject had its own flow, and nothing felt like we were dragging it out, trying too hard, or being rushed and hurting for time.
With Daniel Tiger over, we head outside after feeding the pigs. I got an okay picture of them. Finally!
The boys spied a rabbit jumping into some brush as we walked out into the backyard. They found its tunnel and pointed it out to me.
It has been so rainy the past week that we haven't been able to get out and mow. The weeds are knee deep (for the kids), and the ground is all soggy. D went stomping around in her cowgirl boots.
Queen of Slide Mountain.
Oh good, let's all get the wet sand all over ourselves! It was time to go back inside, and it was time for a quick change into clean clothes.
Center time!
Letter blocks to spell words. S did pretty well, spelling 'dog' and 'cat' all by himself.
Dominoes. For some reason they all LOVE the dominoes. Maybe because dominoes seem like a grown-up thing? I don't know, but I like the color matching, and number matching.
Shape center. They asked for it specifically, and no one went to it. (Sad face).
This is a book we got from the library that comes with a CD, so that they can follow along. I figure it will help them with reading to physically be in charge of the book, and to see the words as they are spoken. Oh, the book is Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems. We like Mo Willems. He is silly.
Lunch was a PB&J sandwich, peeled carrot, sliced tomatoes, and the last of the yellow peppers from yesterday.
Chapter 9 was read to them from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The book is getting exciting, and they didn't want me to stop.
For rest time I let them lay quietly on the couch and watch Signing Time, an ASL kids' show on pbs kids. I figure why fight them if they aren't going to nap anyway?
After rest time I got them all excited to mix together baking soda and vinegar. C was worried that it would be too much of a reaction. He didn't think we should do it.
Here they are, ready to do science! Don't they look excited?? Trust me, they were so excited. Really. I promise.
Here's the dumping! Aaaaaaand... not a whole lot happened. Yeah, it foamed up a bit. I guess it was neat. I was disappointed, and I think they were too.
So I remembered hearing that Hydrogen Peroxide is much more reactive. Let's do it! I was wanting to fill the room with foam! Let's get it everywhere! SCIENCE!!!
Oh my gosh! What is going to happen! S is SOOOO ready!!!
Nothing. Bowl of goo. (Sad face)
So the big science fun turn into just kind of stirring a bowl of goo. Better luck next time. I guess we got to learn about the scientific method, and hypotheses and all that. But it would have been nice to have had the foam get a little out of hand. I think we need to do Mentos in Diet Coke next. In the dining room.
I let them do chores and be kids now. Day over.
No comments:
Post a Comment