Letters Q and R

We are slowly but surely working our way through the alphabet.  Our language curriculum choice (Sing Spell Read & Write) has been a perfect fit for us.  Because Cruz spent his preschool years in Spanish school I did not work on letter sounds much with him in English.  Having this time to really focus on the letters and sounds has been great for him.  We are on track to finish the alphabet by Christmas and then begin more phonics and reading next semester. 

We began the week by learning that Q is for Quilt.  The crafts that we do each week are not a part of our core curriculum.  I supplement them for fun.  I like crafts and my boys love them too so I add them in each week as extra activities.  It is a lot of work for me but I enjoy it.  I follow a letter of the week blog and also get ideas from google.  I have kept each of their letter pages and plan to make a scrapbook with them at the end of the school year.

Cruz gluing "hair" on his queen

Q is for Queen

We learned about Quails

and we painted with Q-tips

more fun painting

The second half of the week we studied letter R.  We learned a lot about rain and rainbows.

They loved learning about rabbits.

Letter R pancake breakfast with red mini M&M's.

Learning about Rhinos was fun!

and what little boy doesn't LOVE rockets!

Our rocket themed lunch one day

Robot was a fun theme
I played the Robocop song on youtube and we did a little robot dancing.  That was fun!

and so was raccoon.  (or as Ben says racooooooon.  He drags the o sound way out, ha)

We ended the week by making these fun race cars and then they were done with learning and off to play.  They loved these!

In science we began a month long study on weather.  This week we focused on the sun and shadows.  It was a fun theme for the boys.

One day we did a shadow experiment.  We went outside at different times throughout the day and drew Cruz's shadow with chalk.  He stood in the same place and was amazed to see how his shadow moved from in front, beside, and then behind him.  It was a really cool experiment for him.

He had to log into his workbook his assignment.

On another day he did a "things I like" collage.  He had to cut photos out of magazines of things he likes and glue them onto a sheet of construction paper.  We then did a shadow silhouette of his face and glued it on top.  In addition to these projects we spent a lot of time with flashlights making shadows on the wall.  Our nightly bedtime routine included making shapes and animals with our hands and bodies on their wall.  It was a lot of fun for the boys.

In Bible we are still studying the life of Joseph.  This week our lessons focused on his time in Egypt in Pharaoh's house, prison, interpreting Pharaoh's dreams, and becoming second in command.  We ended the week with the story of his brothers coming to buy food and him revealing himself to them.  It was a great time to talk about suffering, God being with us in hard times, and forgiveness.  I am loving our Abeka Bible curriculum!

The memory verse of the week was 1 John 4:8 God is Love.

In our read aloud time we finished The Mouse and the Motorcycle and began a book called The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by Daniel Pinkwater.   

And because we began a new month we also put out new decorations in our school room.  Here is our door for November.  Each day I write on a leaf something for which the boys are thankful.  I plan on spending the next few weeks teaching them the history of Thanksgiving and why we celebrate it.  In the process I also hope to teach them the importance of having thankful hearts.   Character training is just as important to me as math and language training.  It's something that I try to model and teach everyday.