Letters Y and Z

Finally reaching letters Y and Z means two things- 1) we have finished the alphabet and 2) we have completed the first half of our kindergarten year.  Hooray!!!  I am proud that we were able to stay on track and finish by my set goals.  It has not always been easy but overall it has been a lot of fun.  Here is a look at our last week of school for the first semester-

We began the week learning letter Y.  Here is Ben gluing yellow yarn on a Y.

Y is for Yarn and Yellow

We learned about yaks

Y is for yo-yo. 

Things that begin with Y and Z

We love zebras!

After doing our zebra craft and watching some zebra videos I painted their faces like a zebra.

We learned about the Zebu. 

Z is for zoo

In math we did addition of tens.  Here are a few of his worksheets from the week.

Here is a test I made him on Friday.  He did great!

In science we continued our theme on plants.  This week we focused on leaves.   We started the week by watching an episode of Magic Schoolbus about plants.  We then went on a nature walk and collected several leaves to use on our projects.

When we returned with our leaves I had Cruz put them in order from largest to smallest.

I also had him put them in order from darkest to lightest color.  We also sorted them by shape and by the pattern of their edges.

We did a sun print experiment.  We picked a few of our leaves to put on black paper and set out in the sun.  After a few hours we checked it and loved seeing the leaf shape left behind from the sun fading the paper around it.

We painted one side of the leaves and made leaf prints in our notebook.

We also made leaf prints in his workbook by rubbing over them with crayons. 

Bible was a lot of fun this week.  We continued talking about and reviewing the Christmas story.  I used a fun book that a member of our last team brought down for the boys.  It is a sticker and activity book that talks about the birth of Jesus.  It is a really fun little book.  I spread it out over the five days and each day we would do activities for a different part of the story.  My boys loved the stickers and have already asked if we can do this again next year.  That is a good sign.

a great little resource for teaching the Christmas story

Here are my boys working in their books one morning.  They got to put stickers of Joseph's tools in his workshop.  What little boy doesn't love tools!

A page from Ben's book and a page from Cruz's book.

Another thing our team brought down was this cool magnetic nativity set.  My boys had a blast putting all of the pieces on the board as we read through the Christmas story. 

fun times!

Our Bible verse for the week was Isaiah 9:6-  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  Here is Cruz saying it-

And here is Cruz giving two thumbs up on Friday for reaching the end of the first semester of kindergarten.

Hooray for surviving half a year of homeschool!!!  It has been quite an adventure and I am learning as we go.  If you know Cruz's personality then you know what I mean when I say that I feel like I have accomplished a lot. ha  It's a journey and one that I am thankful that I am getting to take with my boys.  I treasure this time with them! 

I am looking forward to the next few weeks of being on Christmas break.  I am excited about having some carefree days and hopefully getting some extra rest.   January will roll back around before we know it!