Homeschool Week 20: Words, Wigs, Winter, and Water

We start our school days with Bible class.  We begin by saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag and the Christian flag.  We then sing a patriotic song.  This week we learned The Star Spangled Banner and sang it each morning.  Another new song we learned was Tell Me The Stories of Jesus.  Our lessons covered the stories of The Boy Jesus, The Baptism of Jesus, and The Temptation of Jesus.  Our doctrinal drill was on salvation.  Cruz began learning two new memory verses Proverbs 3: 5-6 and Romans 10:9.  He will have to recite them by the end of the month.  I love our Bible class.  It is my favorite part of the day!

In Language Cruz's lessons focused on frequently used words and two vowel words.  He has a daily spelling test.  He began Storybook Reader #7 The Sailboat Book.  His grammar lessons were on compound words and subjects.  We begin our lesson by singing a few phonics songs that go with our lesson and end our time with a phonics game.  This week we played Word- O Bingo to help him read and recognize some of the most frequently used words.

working a language lesson in his workbook

Word- O Bingo

playing Bingo

studying his spelling words before a test

Ben's language lessons were on the letter J. 

learning to write letter Jj

His memory verse for letter J was John 14:6.  Here he is trying to recite it. 

playing an alphabet game

Cruz spent the week reviewing in Math.  He had his second unit test on Friday that covered lessons 11-17.    

Ben's math lessons focused on numbers 1-12 and counting to 40.  Most days he doesn't stop and goes all the way to 100.  He is also learning to count by 10's, 5's, and 2's. 

doing a math worksheet

One day I gave him a clothes hanger and some clothespins.  I would show him a number flashcard and he would have to clip that many pins to the hanger.   He really loved doing that!  Another day he had to feed coins in a piggy bank based on the number flashcard I would show him.  Both were great for motor skills as well as counting.

Our History lessons were called "We the People" and "President George Washington".  We learned about the Founding Fathers, the writing of the Constitution, and the first President of the United States. 

Our activity was to make a powdered wig using cotton balls. The instructions said to use a white paper bag but we tried that and it didn't work too well.  Instead we used a white plastic grocery bag and cut it to form a wig shape.  We put a balloon inside to make a temporary head while we decorated it with cotton.  It turned into a family effort.  One would hold the balloon, one glued, one pulled the cotton balls apart, and the other stuck them on.  At one point Cruz said, "be still and let me take your picture".  I think he has heard that just a few times in his life, ha.

David and I helping make our powdered wig.

We let it dry overnight and then tried it on the next day.   In the meantime Cruz drew a face on the balloon to look like a person.  When it was ready we popped the balloon and the wig worked perfect.

Cruz wearing our powdered wig like the Founding Fathers. 

Ben wearing our powdered wig.

We learned about the State of Florida.  Cruz now says he doesn't know which State is his favorite Florida or New Hampshire.  Those have been the two that have fascinated him so far.   He talks about wanting to visit New Hampshire all the time!

Our Science lessons were on water vapor and the water cycle.  We had a fun time learning about both of those topics. Our first experiment was called "Let's Dew It".  We put ice cubes and water in a dry jar and after a few minutes felt how the jar had become wet. 

When asked if he thought the outside would become wet he said no.

He was a little surprised when it did.

We also boiled water on the stove to look for the vapors. 

Is it boiling yet?

Once it began to boil we put a dry lid on it and watched as the water began to form on the top.  Cruz thought it was really cool.

We read these two stories about rain and clouds.  

Our last activity/ experiment was to make "clouds" aka meringue cookies.  Any time the boys get to help me cook they are happy.  Cruz especially enjoyed getting to make this snack.

He had never seen me separate an egg before and he was fascinated.

He loves getting to use the mixer.  Here he is beating the egg yolks and cream of tarter.

dropping the meringue to form cookies

ready for the oven

our "clouds" all done and ready to eat

Ben was the first to try one

In Health we began a unit called My Safety.  This week we learned about safety in our home.  We talked about some good habits to keep our homes safe and accident free (ex. picking up toys, wiping up spills).   We also talked about fire safety and they learned to stop, drop, and roll.  We watched several YouTube videos on fire safety.  It was a good study this week.

Our Art lesson was drawing a baby sea turtle.

I added something new to our second semester and that is doing journal entries.  I picked up a notebook while in the States last summer and Cruz will use it a few times a week to record in.  I googled 1st Grade Journal Writing Prompts and printed off a few pages of great ideas.  He has only done it twice so far but loves it!  This should make for a fun keepsake one day.

His first day was "I'm happy when...".  He wrote: I'm happy when I'm at the children's museum.  It is fun to spend with my family".   He drew the four of us in the ball pit room of the Guatemala Children's Museum.  That is one of his favorite places to visit.

His next entry was titled "The biggest thing I ever saw was".  He wrote:  The biggest thing I ever saw was a temple.  It was so big I could not believe my eyes.  He drew the four of us climbing a Mayan temple at Tikal, Guatemala.  We visited there last fall on a field trip.

Lastly we did a few winter crafts and coloring sheets. 

Ben making a Penny Penguin from his Abeka Art book.

some of our winter artwork displayed on our schoolroom door