Away Went the Balloons

This book, by Carolyn Haywood, is somewhat different from the others we have read. It is the story of an elementary school (particularly a few first graders) that has a Balloon Day, at which time each child releases two balloons with their name attached. Each chapter tells the story of a balloon and who finds it and how or where they find it.

K. really enjoyed this book, and I'm being asked to re-read some of her favorite chapters. This was a fun read since each chapter was so different.

Oodles of Noodles

Math this week was oodles of fun! We picked the number 6 and glued sets of 6 noodles onto a piece of construction paper. The only rule was that each set had to have a different shape. The goal of this activity is for the student to learn that a number of items can look large or small, but still be the same amount.

Digraph Sounds

I printed a sheet of paper with pictures of 32 objects. Each object began with either sh, ch, th, or wh. K. cut the objects out and then glued each piece of paper onto the correct sheet.

Fill in the Letters

I printed out the outlines of some of the letters we are learning. K. used a paint brush to paint them with glue and then she used buttons, sequins, wood shapes, and yarn to fill them in.

Can You Make it Wet?

Science was a quick and easy lesson this week. I let K. pick four items (pebble, paper, sock, cloth napkin). She dipped them in a bowl of water. We noted how they look and feel differently when wet. Then we hung them (except the pebble) up to dry -- to see which would dry first. The paper dried first, then the napkin, then the sock.

Storytime with the Millers

We also finished Storytime with the Millers by Mildren A. Martin this week. This is the book I picked up at the CHEA Convention for K. She has really enjoyed it and requests that we read most of the stories over and over. Because each story is based on a Bible verse and character trait, we are keeping this book at the dining table to read and talk about.

Here Comes the Bus!

This week we read Here Comes the Bus! by Carolyn Haywood. It is a great book about Jonathan moving to the country and his year in first grade. It has some really fun parts, like when Jonathan forgot his birthday cake and when all the children brought their pets to school -- on the bus, of course!

In this book you meet Melissa Molasses and Taffy, which are the main characters in the later book, Taffy and Melissa Molasses.

Our Address

This week in Social Studies I took a picture of our house, printed it, cut it out and let K. glue it on a large piece of construction paper. I then wrote our address and phone number on it. It makes a nice placemat for her and reinforces our address and phone number.

Adding Heat

In science this week we saw how properties change when you add heat. We mixed up a batch of gingerbread cookie dough and cut out girls and boys of differing thicknesses. Of course, the thinner the cookies, the crispier they were and the thicker the cookies the softer they were.

We also added heat to a chocolate candy bar. I let the bowl cool a minute so Kimmi could hold it and pour the chocolate into a small pan. We then put the pan in the refridgerator for the chocolate to cool and harden.

By Stirring

This week our science lesson was: Can you stir it?

• We mixed a little bit of milk with corn starch . . . that's really fun to play with
• We shook cream and made butter, we used the butter for the crust of a batch of lemon squares and used the butter milk in our waffles the next morning.
• I had an 8 oz container of heavy whipping cream that I had used about 2 tablespoons out of. It made 1/3 cup of butter.
• We stirred (with the electric mixer) an egg white, then I didn't want to throw it away, so we made meringue kisses.
• Once the egg white is stiff, add 4 tablespoons of sugar, 1 T at a time, then add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Preheat the oven to 250°. Place meringue in large dollips on parchment. Bake for 1 hour, then turn heat off and let meringues sit in the oven for 6 hours -- do not open the door.

Math Literature

One of the workshops we went to at the CHEA Convention was entitled 'Math Games'. It was about not using a curriculum for early elementary math. One of the handouts had a list of books that integrate math and literature. Right now we are using Math Fables by Greg Tang. Using stories it goes through numbers 1 through 10 showing all the addition combinations that make each number (1+6, 2+5, 3+4 all equal 7).

I have red and blue buttons that I hot glued together so turned one way they are blue and turned over they are red. I made a set of ten. As we read the book I have K. put out the right number of buttons, then turn over the number mentioned to show the addition equations. Here's an example:

Salt Crystals

This week in science we were doing a lesson called 'Does It Change In Water?' We added flour, oil, sugar, salt, pasta, butter, ice . . . all sorts of things to water -- some cold, some warm -- to see if and how they changed.

The last part of the lesson was to add enough salt to warm water so that the water was cloudy, then to pour some on a saucer and let it sit in a warm place until the water evaporated. Of course, salt crystals formed, but I've never had such nice crystals form. Some were almost 1/4" square and about 1/16" thick. They were really neat to look at with the magnifying glass.

Treasury for Children

In reading Educating the WholeHearted Child, the Clarksons recommend James Herriot's Treasury for Children so highly that I thought I'd see if it was in our library system. I was a bit trepidatious (I don't think that's a real word) about the book because I've read his other books so I know how much swearing and drinking are in them. I started to read them to our older girls when they were jr. high and high school age, but quit after the first couple chapters because I just wasn't comfortable saying, "don't do this and don't say this" then reading a book where both are done liberally. The only objectionable thing in Treasury for Children is one "What the devil?"

I not only found the book, but also the audio book. I requested both. We got the audio book before we had our vacation and enjoyed listening to the stories. K.'s favorite is 'Moses the Kitten'.

Last week the book came in and now we are working our way through it and all the wonderful illustrations. It is neat to hear K. recognize the stories from the audio book when I'm reading it.

Farm Tales

We found this book at the library. It is a compilation of unabridged Little Golden Books. It has a couple we already had -- The Shy Little Kitten and The Little Red Hen, but it has introduced us to Mrs. Mooley (who jumped over the moon) and Two Little Gardeners and many others. All the illustrations are wonderful (I enjoy just looking at the pictures) and some have so many details to discover that we spend more time talking about the picture than reading the text. If I was just starting my family, I would definitely invest in purchasing a used copy of this book instead of all the little ones.

Penmanship

Now that K. is 4-1/2 we are starting to officially learn how to write the alphabet. She has taught herself how to draw all the uppercase letters, but now she needs to learn how to correctly write them. I found an activity book at Staples that has a little saying that goes with each letter. For instance, for the letter H it goes: Draw two Stick Kids side by side. They're shaking hands! Draw a line between them. I'm hoping that these sayings will help override any bad habits she has taught herself.

She doesn't have all the small muscle control I would like before writing on paper, so I put a couple pounds of uncooked rice in a tub and she is practicing writing the letters with her finger in the rice.