Kindergarten, Bible, Week 26

This week we:

• Memorized Psalm 139:22
• On Friday I introduced Catechism #23: Do you have a soul as well as a body? Yes, I have a soul that can never die. Read Ecclesiastes 12:7, Mark 8:36, 1 Thessalonians 5:23
• Read stories 152 - 153 in Picture Story Bible
• Other books, stories, videos:
• You are Special
• Mrs. R-P and the Chocolate Cherry Treat
• They Were Not Afraid from Missionary...Millers
• Mrs. R-P and the Empty Nest
• Bossy Betty from Stories...Millers
• The Most Important Thing of All from Short and Sweet
• Prayer
• Song: God of Wonders

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 26

Monday I introduced the lower case letters g and j. K. practiced a line of each letter each day.

Small Muscle Development:

• Fingerpainting

Story Development:

• Game: Mixed-Up and Missing from Games for Writing -- this game helps your child develop an ear for sentence structure.
• How to Play: With your child not looking, write a simple sentence on a strip of paper. (A blue bird lives in my garden.) Cut each word apart and mix them up. Have your child put the words together in the right order to make the sentence.
• If your child needs help to start, you can give clues such as, sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a period.
• As your child gets more proficient, leave a word out. After assembling the sentence as much as possible, you give clues and your child guesses what word is missing.

Writing Practice:

• Game: Monster Cafe from Games for Writing
• You'll Need: pencil and paper
• How to Play: Pick an item (I gave K. a choice of bird, bus, or bunny). She chose bunny. Then write out a restaurant menu for things that item would eat (we ended up with lettuce, carrots, grass, flowers).
• For older students, make categories for appetizers, main courses, desserts, and beverages.
• Maybe your child wants to decorate the menu, making it into an art project, too.
• If your child wants to, they can add prices for each menu item.

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 26

Monday through Thursday we read from our textbook.

• Ask questions using the Four Levels of Questioning and Comprehension
• Genres:
• Historical Fiction
• Biblical Account

Friday our activity was Blindfold Drawing. See Reading, Week 16 for instructions.

Kindergarten, Math, Week 26

Each day we used our game (see Thursday of Math, Week 25) to review the addition facts we had already done, and then added the next set, up to 5+. On Thursday K. was getting pretty good with the 1+ and 2+ facts, so I made them into groups of six facts instead of three and four facts. As she gets better, I will mix make the groups even larger (but, no more than 10) and mix up the groups so all the 1+, etc. aren't together. If your child gets stuck, or starts guessing, have them use manipulatives to figure out the correct answer. Here is K. matching up a group of 1+ facts.

Monday

• We reviewed out 2+ facts and I introduced the 1+ facts

Tuesday

• We reviewed the 1+ and 2+ facts, I introduced the 3+ facts
• Game: What Did I Do? from Games for Math -- a math comprehension game
• You'll Need: 10 beans, paper clips, or pennies
• Rules: Put some beans in your hand and show them to your child. Have them count how many are there. Now have them close their eyes or look in another direction so they can't see what you are doing. Add some beans to your hand. Have your child look. Ask, "How many beans did I add?"
• You can also do this with subtraction, but right now we are only working on addition.
• The first times you do this, your child probably will not get it and you will need to re-enact what you did. Ask how many beans there were at first. Have them put that many in their hand. Ask how many beans you have now. Have them add as many beans as needed so they have the same amount. Counting each bean as they add them will show what you did.
• K. really enjoyed this and we took turns.

Wednesday

• We reviewed the 1+, 2+, and 3+ facts and introduced the 4+ facts
• Game: Number Stories from Games for Math -- this game helps with math comprehension
• You'll Need: a good imagination
• Rules: Storytelling time should be relaxed and playful. Keep most of the questions easy. Stories can be real or fantasy. Stories should be no longer than a few minutes.
• Here is the story I told K. while we were driving around doing our errands.
• There once was a little girl who liked to have picnics at the park. One day she was helping her mom pack the picnic basket. She put 2 apples in the basket, then put 1 more in. How many apples did she put in? (K. "3") She put 10 cheese crackers in a bag then added 4 more. How many cheese crackers were in the bag? (14) Then she put a lot more in. The girl put 1 water bottle in the basket and then 1 more. How many water bottles did she put in? (2) Her mother put sandwiches and cookies in the basket. When they got to the park the girl saw 2 of her friends playing in the sand and 4 of her friends playing on the slide. How many friends were at the park? (6) The girl went to play with her friends in the sand. They had 2 buckets and the girl brought 2 buckets. How many buckets did they have? (4) They played until their mothers called them to eat their lunch. After that they went home.

Thursday

• We reviewed the 1+, 2+, 3+, 4+ facts and introduced the 5+ facts
• Game: Number Ladder from Games for Math -- this game helps with memorizing math facts
• You'll Need: 1 game board, 1 spinner
• Draw a ladder on a piece of paper or card stock. Write the numbers 1 - 10 on the rungs of the ladder. The numbers should be in no particular order.
• Make a spinner with the numbers 0 through 5.
• Rules: Player #1 flicks the spinner. Then adds that number to each number on the ladder, starting at the bottom rung. As they do the math facts correctly they continue to climb the ladder. If they falter, they tumble  down the ladder. Then it is Player #2's turn.
• Since the teacher probably knows all the math facts, you must make at least 1 mistake. If your child catches your mistake, then you tumble down the ladder.
• A variation of this would be to see how quickly each of you can climb the ladder.
• Since I have just introduced the math facts this week, we didn't use the spinner. I had K. do the 0+ facts, then I did the 5+ facts, then she did the 1+ facts, then I did the 4+ facts, then she did the 2+ facts, and I did the 3+ facts.

Friday

• We reviewed all our math facts.
• Game: Fifty Wins -- See Math, Week 20 for instructions.

Kindergarten, History, Week 26

This week:

• I read chapter 26 of Child's History (One Against a Thousand)
• The Greeks decided it was best to stop the Persians at Thermopylae
• A traitor told Xerxes of a secret path over the mountains
• The people of Athens left the city and all got on the ships they had built
• Themistocles tricked Xerxes into dividing his fleet
• The Persian fleet was completely beaten
• We looked at pages 50, 51, 54, and 55 in Ancient World
• I read chapter 27 of Child's History (The Golden Age)
• Xerxes had burned Athens, so the people built a much finer and more beautiful city
• The Greeks used three kinds of columns: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian
• Look for examples around town
• A plague is a terrible contagious disease
• I read chapter 28 of Child's History (When Greek Meets Greek)
• The Golden Age stopped because of a fight between Sparta and Athens
• Sparta was jealous of Athen's fleet
• This is called the Peloponnesian War.
• Socrates taught people by asking them questions
• We worked on our time line.

Kindergarten, Science, Week 26

If you can't get to an aquarium or the ocean, borrow videos of ocean life from your library.

This week we:

• read books about the sea
• added sea weed and creatures to our sea mural
• Free Clip Art -- this is a website for teachers and students. You can use up to 50 clip art items in a single, non-commercial project without further permission.
• K. helped me find the creatures she was interested in putting on the mural, then we printed, colored, cut them out, and glued them on the mural.
• The school of fish I cut from construction paper.
• The sea weed is green tissue paper.

Here are the books we read this week:

• The Ocean Alphabet Board Book by Jerry Pallotta (K. really liked this one)
• Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie by Peter and Connie Roop
• Starfish by Edith Thacher Hurd (lots of good information presented very simply)
• Nature Hide and Seek: Oceans by John Norris Wood
• Across the Big Blue Sea by Jakki Wood
• A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle

Kindergarten, Bible, Week 25

This week we:

• Memorized Psalm 139:21
• On Tuesday I introduced Catechism #22: What did God give Adam and Eve besides bodies? God gave them souls that could never die. Read Genesis 2:7
• Read stories 149 - 151 in Picture Story Bible
• Other books, stories, videos:
• Muffy
• Boys and Toys from Stories...Millers
• The Princess and the Kiss
• Going for a Visit from Stories...Millers
• Mrs. R-P and the Treasure Hunt
• The Dollar that Grew from Missionary...Millers
• It Has all Been Planned from Short and Sweet
• My Heart Christ's Home
• Just in Case you Ever Wonder
• Prayer
• Song: God of Wonders

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 25

Monday I introduced the lower case letters c and l. K. practiced a line of each letter each day.

Small Muscle Development:

• Biscuit Letters, see Writing, Week 11 for instructions.

Story Development:

• Halting Stories, see Writing, Week 17 for instructions.

Writing Practice:

• Write a Letter
• I suggested writing a letter to her aunt, a friend, or an author of a book she likes.
• First, she dictated the body of the letter to me.
• Then I told her about the 4 basic parts of the letter
• The date
• The salutation
• The body
• The signature
• The she started writing. She didn't write it all in one sitting, but kept going back to it for a couple days. When she was all done, she drew a picture on the back of the paper and we mailed it.

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 25

Monday through Thursday we read from our textbook.

• Ask questions using the Four Levels of Questioning and Comprehension.
• The genres were:
• Folktale (a story passed orally from generation to generation)
• Fiction

Friday our activity was Label the House, see Reading, Week 13 for instructions. This time we did used the Living Room.

Kindergarten, Math, Week 25

This set of 5 weeks, we are working on Addition.

Monday

• We used manipulatives to help K. understand the concept of addition.
• I have Unifix Cubes (I bought them 16 or so years ago), but you can use beans or paper clips, etc.
• I wrote an equation (2 + 2=) on a paper
• K. illustrated it with the cubes and told me the answer
• I finished the equation (2+2=4)
• We did this with ten simple equations

Tuesday

• Game: Make Ten from Games for Math -- this game will help your child understand how addition (and subtraction) works
• You'll Need: 1 playing mat for each player, at least ten markers (paper clips or beans) for each player, a spinner
• Make the playing mat by drawing a long rectangle on a piece of paper (if you want it to last longer use tag board), then divide the rectangle into 10 sections, and number them, from left to right: 1, 2, 3, etc. to 10
• The spinner needs to be numbered 1 through 6
• Rules: The first person to fill all ten spaces on their playing mat wins. Player #1 flicks the spinners and puts that many markers on their playing card. Then the next player does the same. Continue play until there is a winner.
• While you are playing talk about "How many more do you need to fill your card?" and "I had 2 then I got 4 more, now I have 6. I need 4 more to fill my card."
• For Subtraction, start the game with the card full and remove the number you spin.

Wednesday

• We did manipulatives, just like on Monday, only this time K. and I took turns writing and illustrating the equations.
• K. had to make sure my math was right, and gave her practice writing numbers and equations.
• We did a total of 10 equations. It just so "happened" that we did all "2+" equations.

Thursday
I don't believe in flash cards. There were too many tears associated with them when I was in school and when I started using them with my oldest daughter. I made up this game after trying flash cards for a bit with her.

• Write equations in vertical form on a piece of paper (you can use index cards or whatever you have)
• I cut up old manila folders and used pieces that were 1-1/2" x 2-1/2" for the equation and 1-1/2" x 1" for the answer.
• I wrote an equation (2+1) and put it on the table for K. to illustrate and solve.
• When she told be the answer, I wrote it on a card and she put it under the equation.
• We did this for all the "2+" equations. 2 + 0 through 2 + 10
• Next, I divided the eleven equations into 3 groups (4, 4, and 3) I set out one group of equations and gave K. the answer cards separately.
• She had to match them correctly.
• Then I took those away and set out another group, etc.
• I folded a #10 envelope in thirds to keep the groups separate.

Friday

• We reviewed Location Words.
• I hid an object (could be big or little -- a piece of cereal works well) then gave K. directions to find it: right, left, up, down, under, over, in, etc.

Kindergarten, History, Week 25

This week:

• I read chapter 23 of Child's History (Rome Kicks Out Her Kings)
• There were poor people and wealthy people, and only the wealthy could vote
• At last the poor people were given the right to vote
• King Tarquin took that right away and the poor people drove him out of the city
• Then the Romans elected two meed each year to be the rulers
• We looked at pages 48, 49, 52, 53 in Ancient World
• I read chapter 24 of Child's History (Greece vs. Persia)
• vs. stands for verses, which means against
• vocabulary: fleet
• King Darius of Persia wanted each Greek city to send him some earth and water as a sign that they would give him their land
• Athens and Sparta said, "NO" and threw the messengers into wells.
• Persia came to attack Athens, Sparta wouldn't come because it wasn't a full moon.
• The Persians, who had many more soldiers, were beaten by Athens because the Athenians were better soldiers and were fighting for their homes.
• I read chapter 25 of Child's History (Fighting Mad)
• King Darius prepared to fight Greece again, but died.
• His son was Xerxes
• Themistocles wanted Athens to build a fleet of ships, which they did
• Xerxes and his army marched to Greece, but had to cross a straight (look at it on your globe or map)
• They built a bridge across the water with boats fastened together and a floor built on the boats.
• We worked on our time line.

Kindergarten, Science, Week 25

Over the weekend we went to the local aquarium to look and touch the sea creatures.

This week we

• read about day 5 from The Creation
• read books about the sea and
• looked at our collection of sea shells. K. really enjoyed this, so we did it a few days.
• We talked about which shell we would like to live in if we were Hermit Crab, then when we outgrew it which would we like, etc.
• We also played store, selling the shells to each other for 1¢ each, even having to figure out how much change to give from a nickle or dime.
• If you don't have shells, you can usually find baskets of them at craft supply stores (that is where most of ours came from).
• painted the background of our sea mural
• I cut a 4 - 5 foot section of 18-inch high poster paper
• We painted brown along the bottom for the sand (I only had white, red, and green tempera paint, so I mixed some red and green, but it was too dark, so I added some white, and it turned out pretty well). I had some burnt sienna acrylic paint and put streaks of it on the brown tempera. While the paint was still wet, we sprinkled silver glitter on it.
• After the "sand" was dry, we used blue finger paint to make the water, leaving some white at the top of the page for those mammals that will need air.
• When it was all dry I stapled the mural in K.'s room.

Here are the books we read this week:

• Oozey Octopus: A Tale of a Clever Critter by Suzanne Tate
• Great Sharky Shark: A Tale of a Big Hunter by Suzanne Tate
• Danny & Daisy: A Tale of a Dolphin Duo by Suzanne Tate
• Sandy Seal: A Tale of Sea Dogs by Suzanne Tate
• Katie K. Whale: A Whale of a Tale by Suzanne Tate
• Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle
• Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean by Arthur Dorros
• What Lives in a Shell? by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
• A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle
• Across the Big Blue Sea by Jakki Wood
• Nature Hide & Seek: Oceans by John Norris Wood

For older children, Pagoo by Holling Clancy Holling would be good.

If you want ideas for projects, The Ocean Book: Aquarium and Seaside Activities and Ideas for All Ages by the Center for Marine Conservation has a lot of good stuff.

You will also find some good things in Oceans by Teacher Created Materials, Inc. (TCM 284). It is based on the story "The Crab that Played with the Sea" a Just-So Story by Rudyard Kipling and the book The Cay by Theodore Taylor. It is for intermediate grades, and when K. is older we will probably use it.

Kindergarten, Book Study, Week 24

Our Book Study was Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. Since this is a shorter book, we read it each day. One day, let your child "read" the book just from the pictures. Here are a few activities that go with the book. Most of them are from Games with Books.

• Discussions
• Talk about how alike both Mothers are
• Collecting food for winter
• Reactions to wrong child
• Talk about how alike Sal and the bear cub are
• sit down to eat blueberries because they are tired
• drift off and find the wrong mother
• not yet learned to be afraid
• Kuplink, Kuplank, Kuplunk -- this is a counting activity, to learn to assign 1 number to 1 item
• You'll Need: a bowl (I think metal works best) and 10 paper clips (or similar item)
• How to Play: Player #1 closes her eyes while Player #2 drops some of the paper clips, one at a time, into the bowl. Player #1 counts the number of clips dropped into the bowl by listening to the "Kaplinks" the paper clips make. When Player #2 has dropped in as many as she wants, she asks Player #1 how many she dropped in. Player #1 gives her answer and then counts the paper clips to see if she was correct.
• You can have Player #1 say "Kuplink" each time a paper clip is dropped and use her fingers to keep track of the number or just say the number each time a clip is dropped.
• Make sure Player #2 waits a moment or two between dropping each clip, so if it bounces Player #1 won't be confused.
• Picking Blueberries
• I made sure we read this book when blueberries would be in season. I bought an 18 oz. container of fresh blueberries. I kept telling K. that sometime this week we were going to pick blueberries.
• While K. was busy in her room, I moved our coffee table in the living room and spread an old clean sheet over the floor and 1 couch.
• Then I sprinkled fresh, washed blueberries on the sheet, making sure there was a path for us to walk on without stepping on blueberries.
• Next, I called her into my bedroom and we sat on my bed and read the book.
• When we were through I handed her a pail and led her into the living room and said, "Let's pick blueberries."
• We acted out the story while we were picking.
• I picked enough blueberries for our pancakes and let her eat the rest. She ate a lot while picking, but saved some for lunch.
• Here are pictures:

• Blueberry Count -- an estimating game
• You'll Need: blueberries (or blue beads you pretend are blueberries), spoon, knife, lids, etc.
• How to Play: Have your child guess (estimate) how many blueberries he can fit on a spoon, then have him fill the spoon and then count the berries to see how close he was. Do the same thing for the length of a knife, how many blueberries can fit in a lid, how many blueberries are needed to go around a napkin, etc.
• Blueberry Treats -- learning about measuring
• Make a something with the blueberries. There are some recipes in the book, but we are going to make Blueberry Pancakes for Sunday breakfast.

We also reviewed our memory verses and catechism this week.

Kindergarten, Bible, Week 23

This week we:

• Memorized Psalm 139:20
• Reviewed our Catechism
• Read stories 136 - 148 in Picture Story Bible
• Other books, stories, videos:
• Muffy
• Sylvester
• A Chocolate Bar from Other Lands
• Just in Case You Ever Wonder
• Prayer
• Song: American the Beautiful

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 23

Monday I introduced the lower case letters k and x. K. practiced a line of each letter each day.

Small Muscle Development:

• Say It With Pictures, see Writing, Week 9 for instructions.
• Our theme was Independence Day.

Story Development:

• Write It For Me, see Writing, Week 10 for instructions

Writing Practice:

• Word By Word, see Writing, Week 17 for instructions
• I came up with two story titles and let K. choose the one she liked best: Hunting for Teddy

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 23

Monday through Thursday we read from our textbook.

• Ask questions using the Four Levels of Questioning and Comprehension.
• The genres were:
• Fiction
• Poem
• Missionary Story
• The poem was A.A. Milne's The End, after reading it we re-wrote the second line of stanzas 1 through 5

Friday our activity was Set the Table. See Reading, Week 17 for instructions.

Kindergarten, Math, Week 23

Monday we played with Estimating Capacity

• Over the weekend we had purchased one of those "milk cartons" of Whoppers, so I decided it would be fun to use them.
• I poured the Whoppers into a bowl, then I pulled different sizes of empty containers out of the cupboards: Will the Whoppers fit into this container?
• I let K. guess, then we poured the Whoppers into the container to see if her estimate was right.
• After doing that 5 - 10 times and she was estimating correctly, I told K. to find 1 container that the Whoppers would NOT all fit in and one container they would all fit in.
• I had planned on stopping with that, but she wanted me to find 2 also, and to do it a couple more times. Then she was tired of it and we quit.

Tuesday we were on Number Patterns

• Game: Spin a Number, see Math, Week 21 for instructions

Wednesday we practiced Counting On

• Game: Grasshopper, see Math, Week 19 for instructions

Thursday we worked with Graphs

• This time we were making a bar graph to compare two things.
• My original plan had been to count things at two different grocery stores, such as, kinds of apples, blue cars in the parking lot, flavors of jam, brands of margarine, kinds of cheese, brands of crispy riced cereal. However, K. wasn't able to go to the grocery store with me, so I came up with plan B.
• I took two patriotic Ideals magazines and we looked for the
• flags
• statues
• fireworks
• liberty bells
• K. used one color for the first magazine and another color for the second magazine.
• We ended up with this chart:

Friday we worked on Place Value

• Game: Fifty Wins, see Math, Week 20 for instructions

Kindergarten, History, Week 23

Monday

• we looked at Ancient World pages 60 -61

Tuesday

• I read chapter 22 of Child's History
• Items to note:
• Draco's punishments were severe: death
• Solon's laws were just and good
• Pisistratus made himself ruler and ruled according to Solon's laws
• Cleisthenes gave every man a vote

Wednesday

• I read selections from II Kings 18 and 19

Thursday

• I read Aesop for Children

Friday

• We worked on our time line

Kindergarten, Science, Week 23

This week we

• looked at books that had pictures of seasonal changes
• found pictures of the sun, moon, and stars to glue on the '4'
• we couldn't find but a couple pictures in magazines, so we had to turn to other sources, such as the internet and the picture section of our clip art
• reviewed books and videos about seasons and stars