Third Grade, Bible, Set Six

Hymns:

• Give of Your Best to the Master
• Now I Belong to Jesus
• Tell Me the Story of Jesus

Bible Memory

• we used the Verse Strips to review a passage each day during this set of weeks

Games

• I found the book, Games for Bible Discovery, by Monte Corley and Roy Nichols. I made some of the games to help us review facts about Moses, Abraham, and other Bible stories.
• We played Bible Order, which is like Rack-O, but with the books of the Bible. This is a very old game, and I don't think it is available anywhere, but if you have Rack-O stands, you can make cards with the names of the books of the Bible on them.

Catechism

• Learned #44, 45, 46
• Reviewed catechism each week

Prayer:

• Countries/Peoples
• Garifuna
• Gonds
• Greece
• Greenland
• Guinea-Bissau

Read-Aloud

• Short and Sweet by Katherine Loop
• Other books from our "Bible Shelf"

The Princess and The Kiss

• Lesson 21 in Life Lessons -- God wants you to pass on a godly heritage.
• The activity we did was to trace around one of our feet and then to write names of people we know who follow Jesus. People we can look to as good examples to follow. (1 Corinthians 11:1)

Third Grade, Math, Set Six

We worked through the book, Safari Adventure, by Deborah Underwood. This book takes you on a safari in Africa to make graphs from the data they give you. It was a fun way to do more work with graphing. The last two graphs are made on the computer, using Create a Graph.

I printed out some work pages to practice:

• reading time
• drawing time
• calculating elapsed time
• using a calendar

We completed more pages in Map Skills Made Fun: Neighborhoods and Communities.

We started practicing our skip count sheets out of order.

In geometry:

• we made flat and solid shapes of clay
• we reviewed what a polygon is, and made a poster
• we reviewed edge, vertex, and face, using signs and counting them on our clay shapes

 

• we cut a shape out of the clay with a cookie cutter and practiced: slide, flip, and turn

Third Grade, Reading, Set Six

We read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. We had one book, but I thought it would be nice if we each had our own to read from, so I picked one up from the library. It had larger type and some of the original pictures in it, and K. enjoyed using it. I had a study guide for the book, put out by World for Learning. I picked a few things from it for us to do:

• Vocabulary
• Comprehension
• Recipes - Poppyseed Muffins and a Rainbow Cookie (below)
• Cinquain Poem
• Venn Diagram comparing the book and the movie
• L. Frank Baum: Author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Carol Greene -- this is a Rookie Biography and was very interesting and added to our reading the book.

We have decided to use The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for our Book Day on October 31. We already had a Scarecrow and have made a Tin Man. I'm not sure if we will try to make a Lion or not. I'm working on a Dorothy costume for K. We are going to cut flowers out of tissue paper to make our dining room into poppy fields. We are still working on our menu. Book Days are lots of fun!

Third Grade, Grammar, Set Six

Since we completed the work I had planned for this school year in Set Five, I did not schedule anything for Grammar in this set. This also allowed us more time for Writing.

Third Grade, Writing, Set Six

We continued learning the upper case cursive letters.

We started the Young Novelist Workbook. This is the third year we have done this program, and I am getting better at allotting the time needed and in presenting the work. K. is getting better at coming up with ideas and answering the questions.

This year I decided to print out the entire workbook in sections, but have K. write in a spiral notebook so I don't have to print the workbook again.

We started with the "Create Awesome Characters" section. We spent two weeks developing the main character, supporting character, and villain.

The next two weeks we worked on the "Make Up Your Story" and "Outline Your Plot" sections.

When K. was bogged down with the plot, we took a couple days to complete the "How to Write Really Good Dialogue" section.

The last we we worked on the "Map Your Setting" section.

Third Grade, Spelling, Set Six

We finished the last five units of the spelling book, making sure K. knew how to spell the words, was familiar with the spelling generalizations, and completing the skills activities.

Third Grade, Science, Set Six

Along with reading Nature Friend Magazines, we completed about five work pages from the Long Beach Aquarium. We went there on their homeschooler's day. I had printed out these papers to do while we were there, but we were too busy enjoying ourselves to do them then. I decided we could do them as well after our visit, using the Internet to find answers to questions we didn't know. It was actually fun, and made the experience last longer and we learned more.

K. was sick during our week off, so I decided not to insist on her doing a project.

Third Grade, History, Set Six

From Abraham Lincoln's World, we read pages 210 - 283.

We added presidents Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan, along with the states of California, Minnesota, Oregon, and Kansas to our American History notebooks.

We completed two more lessons of California History, learning about the desert plants, animals, and the Chemehuevi Indians.

We read chapter six in Industrial Revolution.

Here are other books we enjoyed:

Women's Suffrage

• The Ballot Box Battle by Emily Arnold McCully -- a picture book story about Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
• If You Lived When Women Won Their Rights by Anne Kamma -- this book is mostly about the years 1848 to 1920.

The West

• Wagon Trains and Settlers by Ellen H. Todras -- we did not read all of this book. Each page is stuffed with information. It will be a good book to get again. Some topics it covers are: Manifest Destiny, outfitting a wagon, daily routines on the trail, major trails, and settling in the West.
• Projects About Westward Expansion by Marian Broida -- this book lets you travel to Kentucky in 1788, along the Oregon Trail around 1850, and visit homesteads in Nebraska in 1885. This is a fun quick book to read because it has so many projects.

California Gold Rush

• The Legend of Freedom Hill by Linda Jacobs Altman -- a picture book about two girls, Rosabel and Sophie, who find gold to buy the freedom of Rosabel's mother after the slave catcher finds her.
• The California Gold Rush by Mel Friedman -- this is part of the "A TRUE Book" series. It has lots of illustrations and is well written and understandable for children.
• Life During the Gold Rush by Janey Levy -- this book covered a few things that the previous book didn't, so I just read those pages to K.
• Treasure in the Stream by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler -- a story about a farming family whose daughter finds gold in a stream on their property.
• Bronco Charlie and the Pony Express by Marlene Brill -- this book is in the On My Own History series. Relates how, in 1861, a boy named Charlie Miller became the youngest rider for the Pony Express.

Pony Express

• They're Off! The Story of the Pony Express by Cheryl Harness -- tells the why and how of the Pony Express, with great illustrations, including maps. It even has a list of all the Pony Express riders. It gives details of the first rides east and west along with other highlights, such as Bob Haslam's 380 mile ride during the Paiute war. Ends with the end of the Pony Express, just two days after the telegraph line was completed to the west coast.
• Off Like the Wind! The First Ride of the Pony Express by Michael P. Spradlin -- this book has a day by day account of the first ride east and west.
• Hoofbeats of Danger by Holly Hughes -- this is in the American Girl History Mysteries series. This was a fun book to read as a family. It was very exciting and educational.

People:

• Who Was Abraham Lincoln? by Janet B. Pascal -- this is a well written chapter book for children. I read it, then had K. read it on her own. It tells about his entire life, but over half the book in on his presidency and the Civil War.
• The Brontes: Scenes from the childhood of Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne by Catherine Brighton -- delightful picture book with good information about their childhood
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte -- the one we read was in the Treasury of Illustrated Classis series. It was adapted by Sara Thomson and Illustrated by Richard Lauter.
• John Charles Fremont: Western Pathfinder by Barbara Witteman -- interesting biography written for fourth grade and up.
• How to Draw the Life and Times of Zachary Taylor by Roderic Schmidt -- interesting information about our twelfth president.
• John Brown by Tom Streissguth -- this is an On My Own Biography book. It contains lots of illustrations and presents the facts of John Brown clearly, without condemning or condoning.
• Florence Nightingale by Shannon Zemlicka -- this is from the On My Own Biography series. It is well written, covering her life in good detail, with lots of illustrations.
• Florence Nightingale . . . and a new age of nursing by Sarah Ridley -- we read this book first. It is for younger children and gives the basic facts of Florence's life in an interesting manner. The other book fills in more details. This book has a timeline throughout, showing events in her life and the world.
• My Tour of Europe by Theodore Roosevelt -- this is a picture book about Teddy Roosevelt's tour of Europe when he was 10 years old (1869).

Books for Older Children:

• Annie Quinn in America by Mical Schneider -- this is a really good book. I read it and enjoyed it tremendously! It is about a family in Ireland, who are poor and hungry due to the potato famine; how they get to America and their adventures (sometimes sad) on the journey and in America.
• Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun by Rhoda Blumberg -- this book has lots of illustrations, and looks interesting for a high school student.
• Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre by Stewart Ross -- although it has many illustrations, it also has lots of text.
• Young Man in a Hurry: The Story of Cyrus W. Field by Jean Lee  Latham -- this book is the story of the man who "... was just the man that -- well -- held things together." and after thirteen years, the transatlantic cable was successfully laid.

Books we didn't have time to get to:

• 1848: Year of Revolution by R.G. Grant
• The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson
• You Wouldn't want to sail on an Irish Famine Ship! by Jim Pipe
• Gold! Gold from the American River! by Don Brown

Third Grade, Fine Arts, Set Six

Here are a couple birthday cards we made.

We are also continuing to creep forward in piano.

Third Grade, Bible, Set Five

Hymns:

• Reach Out to Jesus
• Crown Him With Many Crowns
• The Wonder of it All
• Glory for Me
• Have You Room for Jesus?

Bible Memory:

• Psalm 91:5 - 16
• Reviewed passges with Verse Strips

Project:

• Fort Faithful -- based on Psalm 91

Catechism:

• Learned #41, 42, 43
• Reviewed previously learned

Prayer:

• Countries/Peoples
• Druzes
• Egypt
• Ethiopia
• Falashas
• Fiji

Read-Aloud:

• Swiss Family Robinson in Words of one Syllable
• Picks from our Bible shelf

The Princess and the Kiss

• Lesson 20 in Life Lessons -- purity is not just a gift a woman can give to her husband; it is a way to honor the Lord. We are to be pure in body, heart, and mind.

Third Grade, Math, Set Five

• We did Addition and Subtractions sheets like in Set Four
• We played multiplication games on the computer and practiced our skip count sheets
• I taught decimals - tenths and hundredths places
• We played Fraction Games
• We completed miscellaneous worksheets to review things like
• even/odd
• counting by 10's
• measuring units
• perimeter
• symmetry
• word problems
• We did more work with Maps Skills

Third Grade, Reading, Set Five

We continued with More Tell and Draw Stories. Each of us did a couple each week.

We read pages 91 - 118 in Long-Ago Stories of California, then completed a story organizer about it.

We read Out of Darkness: The Story of Louis Braille by Russell Freedman together.

Third Grade, Grammar, Set Five

We completed the book, Painless Jr. Grammar, reviewing periods, commas, and capitalization. We learned about colons, semi colons, indenting, and abbreviations. I found worksheets on-line to give more practice than the book had.

We also did worksheets on singular possessives, abstract nouns, irregular verbs, and comparative/superlative.

This is our last set of Grammar this year. In the next two sets we will be using our grammar time to work on our writing project.

Third Grade, Writing, Set Five

Along with continuing to learn the capital letters in cursive, we worked on writing a compare/contrast essay.

I picked up The Bossy Gallito at the library and noticed its similarity to The Old Woman and the Pig. We used these two stories for our essay.

• (week 1) After reading both stories
• (week 2) we made a Venn diagram to show how they were alike and different.
• (week 3) Then we wrote a topic sentence for the compare paragraph and another for the contrast paragraph.
• (week 4) Then we wrote the body of the paragraphs.
• (week 5) We wrote the closing sentences.

Now I've put it away, but I will bring it back out in fourth grade so we can add opening and closing paragraphs.

Third Grade, Spelling, Set Five

Because we were really busy with other subjects, I did not add any climbers to her spelling lists.

Third Grade, Science, Set Five

This time K.'s project was to create a bug and tell about it. I had her go through boxes of saved stuff -- soap bottles, tubes, cartons, cans, foam trays, etc. -- and pull out something to use for a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. I helped her attach them together. We made legs and wings and attached antenna. Then (because she doesn't like messy fingers) I covered it all with newspaper dipped in starch. Then she painted it. Her bug is called a Colton. I gave her eight questions to answer about the bug. Such as: where does it live, what does it eat, how does it defend itself, what is it's life cycle. She made a poster to answer these questions. She never really got excited about making the bug, but she liked making the poster.

Third Grade, History, Set Five

We read chapter 79 from Child's History. I had planned for us to listen to one piece of music from each composer, but we have not done that yet.

We read pages 143 - 210 in Abraham Lincoln's World.

We added Arkansas, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin to our notebooks, along with presidents Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, and Polk.

We completed two more lessons in California History and went to the Irvine Museum to view a special exhibit of California scenery.

We read chapter 5 in Industrial Revolution and completed the paddle wheel boat from chapter 4.

Here are other books we read:

• If You Grew Up With Abraham Lincoln by Ann McGovern -- I made a list of about eight questions for K. to find the answers to in this book. One question, What are two different kinds of bees?, gave her a lot of trouble. She even had Dad looking for the answer, but, they were looking for insects instead of parties.
• The Supreme Court by Christine Taylor-Butler -- we read portions of the book that dealt with how the Supreme Court was established and John Marshall.
• Rachel's Journal by Marissa Moss -- fictional story, based on actual experiences of overland emigrants between 1846 and 1868. K. read this book on her own.
• Honest Abe Lincoln: Easy-to-Read Stories about Abraham Lincoln by David A. Adler -- I had K. read this on her own.
• Kit Carson by Jan Gleiter -- this book has great illustrations and easy-to-understand text while telling the story of Kit Carson's life.

Slavery

• A Picture Book of Harriet Beecher Stowe by David A. Adler -- the story of Harriet Beecher Stowe written for younger students with great illustrations.
• A Picture Book of Frederick Douglass by David A. Adler -- the story of Frederick Douglass' life written for younger students with great illustrations.
• Seminole Diary: Remembrances of a Slave by Dolores Johnson -- story of a slave family that flees to Florida and becomes part of a Seminole village. This book has wonderful illustrations and easy to understand text. 
• Slavery and the Underground Railroad by Carin T. Ford -- we didn't read this book. I asked my husband to read some of it, and we decided that, although it is written in a manner that K. would understand it, she might not be ready for some of the realities it puts forth. However, I do want to get it the next time we visit this era of history.

The Alamo

• The Battle of the Alamo by Janey Levy -- lots of illustrations and just enough information for younger students.
• Battle at the Alamo by Teri and Bob Temple -- we just looked at the illustrations and read short excerpts from this book. It will be a good book when K. is older.
• The Battle of the Alamo by Amie Jane Leavitt -- this is an interactive history adventure, good for older students.
• We also read The Boxcar Children's book about The Alamo. Although totally fiction, it presented how it would be to visit it today.

For Older Students

• All is Well by Kristin Emery Litchman -- this book is about Mormons and the practice of polygamy. I read it because I wasn't sure how it would present the subject. This will be a book K. reads when she is older. There is nothing wrong with the book, and it presents well this subject and some history of the Mormon church. However, it presents Mormonism as truth, so since we aren't ready to delve into the teachings of the Mormon church, this book will wait.
• Suez Canal by Valerie Bodden -- we just looked at the pictures, but the next time we visit this time period, it will be a good book for K. to read
• Mapmakers of the Western Trails, Adventures with John Charles Fremont by Natalie Nelson -Hernandez -- this is a fictionalized account based on the facts of the life of General Fremont, written for young people.
• Enemies of Slavery by David A. Adler -- this book gives short (2 - 3 paragraphs) biographies about 13 people who fought against slavery.
• The Journey to Amazing Grace: Out of Slavery by Linda Granfield -- this is the story of John Newton
• Desperate Journey by Jim Murphy -- I read this book and really liked it. It is about a family that makes their living on the Erie Canal.

Third Grade, Fine Arts, Set Five

We continued making birthday and anniversary cards. We did some with stenciling and some with paper pricking.

K. asked to do piano again, so we did a few pages.

We painted a plaque with a fortress and wrote our favorite verse from Psalm 91 on it.

Third Grade, Bible, Set Four

Hymns:

• Living for Jesus
• The Star-Spangled Banner
• American the Beautiful
• My Country 'Tis of Thee

Bible Memory:

• Romans 12:19b - 21
• Psalm 91:1 - 4
• Review a previous passage each week with Verse Strips

Catechism:

• Learned #38, 39, 40
• Reviewed previous

Prayer:

• Countries/Peoples
• Cuba
• Dailu
• Dayak
• Djibouti
• Dogon

Read-Aloud:

• Catching Their Talk in a Box by Betty M. Hockett -- the story of Joy Ridderhof, who went around the world recording the gospel in native languages.
• K.picked a book each Friday

The Princess and the Kiss

• Lesson 19 in Life Lessons -- trust God, wait patiently, and pray for your future husband

Third Grade, Math, Set Four

• Addition and Subtraction Sheets
• I printed out a sheet of each with 16 problems in them
• The first four weeks K. solved 4 problems
• The fifth week we used the sums and differences to
• compare with < and >
• show the expanded form (3,547 = 3,000 + 500 + 40 + 7)
• identify even and odd numbers
• round to nearest 10, 100, 1,000, and 10,000
• give the number that is 10 more and 10 less
• Map Skills
• We continued with the book we started in week five of Set Three
• Counting
• by 2 to 50
• by 5 to 100
• by 10 to 500
• by 100 to 1,000
• by 1,000 to 10,000
• by 10,000 to 100,000
• Math Games on the Computer (multiplication.com)
• Fraction Games (Fabulous Fractions)
• Skip Count Sheets (from Set Three)
• Addition and Subtraction Bingo
• Bedtime Math

Third Grade, Reading, Set Four

I got the book, More Tell and Draw Stories, from the library. Each week we practiced a couple. At our support group's promotion program, K. presented one of the stories from Tell and Draw Stories.

We read The Mystery of Morgan Castle and started reading Long-Ago Stories of California.

Thrid Grade, Grammar, Set Four

We started out this set of weeks by completing her essay on the water slide she invented. K. completed a senses word web and used the thesaurus. This is the final copy:

     The big Silly Slippery Slide is the most thrilling water ride in the world! You will go flying down the 20 foot slide, and water splashes on your face as you zoom over the 6 foot hill round two curves, and float, bob, and splash in the pool you land in.
     If you ride the Silly Slippery Slide, you will find it so thrilling, it's the only water ride you will want to ride!

We completed chapter 4 in Painless Jr. Grammar -- prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

Writing Project: Persuasive Letter

• I wrote a letter to K. from a pretend girl telling her that the book club I was in was going to read A Bear Called Paddington. I told her I thought the book silly and wondered if she thought I should read it.
• I had K. write three reasons she likes the book.
• Then she did word webs on two of the ideas.
• She used them to write a persuasive letter back to the girl.

Third Grade, Writing, Set Four

We are working on learning the upper case cursive letters now. I have found a book of tongue twisters that is fun to copy.

K. wrote business letters to San Diego and Santa Barbara asking for information on places to visit that had to do with California History. On our vacation we spent a few days in San Diego and visited Cabrillo National Monument, the San Diego Mission, and Old Town.

Third Grade, Spelling, Set Four

I am continuing to choose words from her misspells and vocabulary (including her Bible verses) for K. to learn to spell. Sometimes we can find neat vowel/consonant patterns in these words. For instance, sentence has a repeating CVC CVC CV pattern.

Third Grade, Science, Set Four

Here is the poster about the platypus.

We are continuing to read one Nature Friend magazine each week, getting more books from the library to learn more about some animals or subjects. K.'s project after set four was identifying birds on our vacation.

Third Grade, History, Set Four

We read Child's History chapter 78 and Abe Lincoln's World pages 69 - 142.

We added Indiana #19, Mississippi #20, Illinois #21, Alabama #22, Maine #23, Missouri #24 to our notebook.

Two more lessons in California History.

Industrial Revolution chapter 4

Other books we read:

Explorers:

• On Expedition with Lewis and Clark by Anita Ganeri -- this book has a lot of information. I read the topic paragraph of each page to K., then scanned the rest of the page for information that would be interesting to her.
• The Lewis and Clark Expedition by John Perritano -- I had K. read this book on her own. It is in the series "A True Book".
• Zebulon Pike: Soldier and Explorer by Barbara Witteman -- we looked at the route Pike took and compared it to Lewis and Clark's route. I read little bits from the book to K.

War of 1812:

• Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library by Barb Rosenstock -- this is a picture book that tells how much Jefferson loved to read. The book ends with him sending his books to Washington D.C. to replace the Library of Congress that was burned during the War of 1812.
• The Invasion of Sandy Bay by Anita Sanchez -- this is a historical fiction book, based on a true event. I read it and enjoyed it.
• A Picture Book of Dolley and James Madison by David A. Adler -- tells about both of their lives and about the War of 1812

People of Special Interest:

• Beethoven: (he died in 1827, so fits into this time period)
  • Ludwig Van Beethoven by Mike Venezia -- I had K. read this by herself. The French revolution and Napoleon are even mentioned in this book.
  • Beethoven Lives Upstairs by Barbara Nichol -- fiction letters written between a boy and his uncle about Beethoven living at the boy's house.
  • Ludwig Van Beethoven: Musical Pioneer by Carol Greene -- this is a Rookie Biography, if you can't get the first book, this is a good option
• Washington Irving
• Rip Van Winkle retold and illustrated by Will Moses -- this book has wonderful illustrations and is great reading for children
• If you want to read a Rip Van Winkle that is not retold, there is one which is illustrated by Arthur Rackham that you can try. However, glancing through it, the one above stays very true to the original.
• Sarah Josepha Hale
• Sarah Gives Thanks by Mike Allegra -- there were only two books in the library system about Mrs. Hale. We have a copy of the other one, and its emphasis is on Thanksgiving, so we got this one from the library. This book is more about her life with a few pages devoted to her campaign to have Thanksgiving as a national holiday.
• Queen Victoria
• Queen Victoria's Diamond by Gerry Bailey -- when I first picked up this book I didn't think it would be very interesting, but it was the only children's book I could find about her. It turned out to be very interesting to me and to K. The format keeps your interest by alternating between kids telling about QV with silly illustrations and more serious short articles with photos and realistic illustrations.
• Robert E. Lee
• A Picture Book of Robert E. Lee by David A. Adler -- interesting and informational, it follows his life from birth to death, spending 13 of the 28 pages on the Civil War.
• Andrew Jackson
• Andrew Jackson by Megan M. Gunderson -- informative and short with lots of illustrations
• Simon Bolivar
• A Picture Book of Simon Bolivar by David A. Adler -- another good book in this series

Railroad

• The Iron Dragon Never Sleeps by Stephen Krensky -- story of a friendship between a daughter of a mining engineer and a Chinese boy. This is a very good book. K. and I each read it and then we talked about it.
• The Last Rail by Darice Bailer -- story of the transcontinental railroad. A girl go back in time to the day the golden spike is driven in.
• Ten Mile Day and the Building of the Transcontinental Railroad by Mary Ann Fraser -- tells how the Central Pacific laid ten miles of track in one day and gives information of the transcontinental railroad and its completion.
• Building the Transcontinental Railroad by Linda Thompson -- not nearly as many illustrations as the previous two books. Good book for older students.
• Whistle for the Crossing by Marguerite de Angeli -- I read this one. It is a story about a boy whose father drove the first engine from Philadelphia to Pittsburg.

Erie Canal

• Erie Canal by Julie Murray -- an easy reader with good information, although it does not explain how locks work

Third Grade, Fine Arts, Set Four

Fairy Tales:

• Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Germany retold from the Brothers Grimm by Virginia Haviland
• The Cat and Mouse in Partnership
• Hansel and Gretel
• Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale retold by Carmen Agra Deedy
• The Bossy Gallito retold by Lucia M. Gonzalez
• Rabbit Wishes by Linda Shute -- why rabbits have long ears

Birthday and Anniversary Cards:
We mixed equal amounts of water, dish soap, and paint in a glass, then used a straw to blow bubbles. Touching the paper to the bubbles made neat designs on the cards. After they dried, we could add decorations. Here are a couple we made.

Third Grade, Bible, Set Three

Hymns:

• Pearly Gates
• Dare to be a Daniel
• Jesus Loves Even Me
• Wonderful Words of Life
• Higher Ground

Bible Memory:

• Romans 12:14 - 19a
• We reviewed one previously learned passage each week with Verse Strips.

Bible Study/Hearing God's Voice:

• Proverbs 17 - 22 -- usually K. asked a lot of questions about verses we were reading, so I decided not to try to do a chapter each day. Refer to Set One for more information.

Catechism:

• Learned #35, 36, 37
• Reviewed previous

Friend:

• I found an article in a Focus on the Family magazine that gave ideas for how to teach your child to be a friend. On days when we were going to the park or kids were coming over, we talked about them and made plans for her to implement some.

Prayer:

• We had a great answer to prayer! One of our prayer requests was for missionary friends whose car was hit while it was parked. Their insurance company was able to find the person who hit it and their car is getting fixed for free.
• Countries / Peoples:
• Buryat
• Chad
• Children of the Streets
• China
• Colombia

Read-Aloud:

• Jan Ken Pon: Stories of Children in Japan by Patricia Finrow Clark
• Each Friday K. got to pick a book from our Bible shelf for me to read to her.

The Princess and the Kiss

• Lesson 18 in Life Lessons -- God puts dreams in your heart. It is okay to have dreams about marriage and family, but be sure you please and obey God with all of your thoughts. Be content, don't worry about finding a husband, practice giving your whole life to God, and don't miss all the wonderful things God wants to do in your life right now.

Third Grade, Math, Set Three

We are continuing with Bedtime Math. K. really likes doing it.

We spent the first week on lesson five of Professor Pig and playing the games from previous lessons. Lesson five is about the "9 Trick". When adding a number to 9, take one from the other number and add it to the 9 to make 10, then add.

In the second week we worked on more of the fraction workbook: Comparing Fractions, Adding Fractions, and Subtracting Fractions. We also played some games from Fabulous Fractions.

• Fraction Math -- played like a memory game, but the matches are equivalent fractions, so 2/4 and 1/2 would be a match. Each card has the fraction with an illustration of the fraction, which makes it easy to tell if they are equivalent.
• Combination Pizza -- we didn't actually play this the way it is in the book (we probably will later), but I had K. make the pizzas and I cut them up. I used it to help her understand that 12/8 is the same a 1 4/8 or 1 1/2.

The third week we practiced with multiplication and skip counting. Some was review from last year and some was new. Some were ideas from Marvelous Multiplication and some I thought up.

• 1's -- you need 10 napkins and 10 jelly beans, also write out the times tables (1 x 1, 2 x 1, 3 x 1,etc.). Put out one napkin with one jelly bean. This illustrates 1 x 1 (1 set of 1 jelly bean). Have your child write the answer on their times table chart. Continue with two napkins with 1 jelly bean on each (2 x 1), etc.
• 2's -- use pairs of socks; I also printed out a sheet with 10 pairs of socks (easy to use for skip counting)
• 3's -- I printed out a sheet with 10 tricycles on it
• 4's -- we used the Counting Corners game from last year; I also printed out a sheet with 10 buttons that each have four holes.
• 5's -- use nickles; I printed out a sheet with pictures of 10 nickles
• 6's -- I printed a sheet with 10 insects (make sure the six legs of each insect shows)
• 7's -- I had 70 toothpicks. K. put them in groups of 7 and I put rubber bands around them; I also printed out a sheet with 10 sets of 7 toothpicks
• 8's -- I pulled 10 Lego blocks from her room that had 8 bumps; I also printed out a sheet with pictures of the Lego blocks
• 9's -- I taught her the hand/finger method
• 10's -- I printed out a sheet with 10 sets of hands (last year we made a big sheet with 10 sets of her hands)
• 0's -- played with 1, 2, or more sets of 0 and 0 sets of 3, 4, 5 or more; either way, there is still zero
• Cover-Up! -- The instructions for this game are in Second Grade, Math, Set Four. We decided that any dominoes with a zero are also wild.
• Fingers! -- Two players each hind one hand; one player calls, "Ready, set, fingers!" When "fingers" is called, both players bring out their hidden hand, showing either 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 fingers. Both players multiply the number of fingers shown on each players hands. (Example: player one shows 3 fingers, player two shows 5 fingers; 3 x 5 = 15) The first player to call out the correct answer wins an F (the first letter in FINGERS). The first player to spell the word FINGERS is the winner.

In the fourth week we worked on angles, playing these games from Groovy Geometry.

• Measure Up -- Use a protractor to measure six angles around the room. What size angle do you find the most? Cut two strips of card stock about 1 inch by 8 inches. Draw a line down the middle of each. Attach them together at one end with a brad. Use it to make different size angles to measure.
• Draw It -- Cut two sheets of paper into eight pieces. On each piece write the degree of an angle, starting at 10 degrees and ending at 170 degrees. Fold the papers and put them in a bowl. Player 1 picks out a paper and tries to draw an angle that is that degree (or you can use the angle maker you made in Measure Up). In the book there is more to the game, including how to score points.
• Name Game -- Write one angle degree on each of 16 index cards (from 10 degrees to 160 degrees). Deal eight cards to each player. Both players turn over their top card at the same time and call whether the angle is acute, right, or obtuse. An obtuse angle beats right and acute; right beats acute. Winner gets to keep both cards. If both angles are obtuse or acute, player with the larger angle wins. When all cards have been played, the player with the most cards wins.
• Shape Lotto -- see Kindergarten, Math, Week 19 for instructions

We worked on map skills in week five. I have the book Map Skills Made Fun: Neighborhoods and Communities by Catherine M. Tamblyn. K. also did some addition and subtraction problems each day.

Third Grade, Reading, Set Three

We are continuing to practice the story from Read for the Fun of It. One day each week we each take a turn telling the story.

We read The Enormous Egg by Oliver Butterworth. I had hoped to find a lapbook or something similar to accompany it, but I didn't. Therefore, I picked something from each chapter that we could learn more about. I'm making that its own post.

Activities for The Enormous Egg by Oliver Butterworth

The Enormous Egg is a fun book to read, and is a favorite at our house. I decided to use it in third grade and since I couldn't find a lapbook or other types of activities to go with the book I made up my own.

Chapter 1

• We looked in the atlas and found Freedom, New Hampshire.
• I printed out a map of New England and K. marked Freedom on it.
• We found a picture of a New Hampshire Red rooster and printed it.

Chapter 2

• Added Laconia and Boston to our map
• Started writing out the plot of the story. This was a sheet I printed out from the Young Novelist Workbook. It has a drawing of a roller coaster with nine blocks of space to write the plot -- beginning, as the action build, the climax, the falling action, and the conclusion.

Chapter 3

• Printed out a labeled diagram of a rowboat so we could find out what the gunwale and oarlocks were.

Chapter 4

• Added to the plot work sheet.

Chapter 5

• Found definitions of archaeology and paleontology and completed a Venn diagram about them.

Chapter 6

• Learned more about what animals have gizzards.
• Printed out a picture of a skeleton of a triceratops.
• K. wrote some sentences on the paper about gizzards.
• Made a chart comparing K.'s size and my size. We used ribbon to measure our nose, hand, ear, foot, etc. and taped them on a poster to see how big K. is and how much she has to grow.

Chapter 7

• Added to plot work sheet.
• Added Washington D.C. / National Museum to map

Chapter 8

• Vocabulary word: dubious
• Gladiolus; we printed out a picture and found out that some words' plural form ends in 'i' because they are Latin words.

Chapter 9

• Added to plot work sheet

Chapter 10

• Added to plot work sheet

Chapter 11

• Found a diagram of a window with sash weights.
• Set up an experiment with two buckets - one representing the window and the other the sash weight. I tied them together with string and hung it over the back of a chair. K. discovered that if the weight was heavier than the window, the window wouldn't stay closed, and if the window was heavier than the weight, the window wouldn't stay open.
• Added to plot work sheet

Chapter 12

• We traced their trip from Freedom to Washington D.C. in the atlas.

Chapter 13

• Used a map of Washington D.C. to follow the story.

Chapter 14

• Added to plot work sheet
• Found the National Zoological Park on the map.

Chapter 15

• Found fallacies in Senator Granderson's speech.
• Added to plot work sheet

Chapter 16

• Added to plot work sheet

Chapter 17

• Finished plot work sheet

There are lots of other things you could do, such as find out how a bill becomes a law or how a senator is elected, depending on what you are interested in.

Third Grade, Grammar, Set Three

During the first week, we proofed and re-wrote K.'s roller coaster essay. She didn't have the roller coasters in chronological order, so we used a time-order chart to fix that. She also had problems with it's and its, so I found a work sheet to practice which one to use. Then we used the thesaurus to change find some more exciting words.

We completed chapter three in Painless Junior Grammar. It was about verbs and adverbs. Now she is working on an essay about a water ride she had to invent. Once she had it drawn, I could see that it wasn't realistic, so we got out a couple rulers, a long, clear plastic tube, tape, clay, and a ball bearing. Then we were able to experiment and see how high the hill she had could be and the ball bearing have enough energy to get over it. To get to the scale she wanted, we changed inches to feet and multiplied by two.

Third Grade, Writing, Set Three

We have completed all the lower case letters in cursive.

Writing Project
This Set K. wrote a sound poem.

 

Whirr, whirr,

Whirr, Whirr!

The noises are in a blur.

 

Whirr, whirr,

Pop, pop,

Helicopter noises never stop!

Third Grade, Spelling, Set Three

Spelling is  going very well. For climbers I am using two words she has misspelled in her "on my own" writing and one word from her new vocabulary words (we find a lot in the Nature Friend magazines).

In the spelling lessons, K. is learning to add suffixes correctly. She was having a difficulty in being able to explain to me when to add 'er' and 'est'. To work on this I made a board game. On the board there are 30 scenes (from clip art). I also printed out 40 cards with words that can be made comparative and superlative. To play, on each person's turn, they flick the spinner and move that many spaces (scenes). Then they take the card from the top of the stack and make up a sentence with that word about the scene they landed on. Some of the scenes have one person or animal, some two, and others three or more, so you have to use the correct suffix. We have played it once and it was a lot of fun! If you use the wrong suffix, you have to go back two spaces. The first one to the end wins.

Example: Scene is two people roasting hot dogs; word is cold; sentence might be: The man's hot dog is colder than the boy's.

I included words that don't get the 'er' or 'est' added -- you use 'more' or 'most' -- and some irregular ones, such as good and bad.

Third Grade, Science, Set Three

We are continuing to enjoy reading the Nature Friend magazines. K's project  is a poster about the platypus. I'll put a picture up when she finishes.

Third Grade, History, Set Three

We read chapter 77 of Child's History and started Abraham Lincoln's World (pages ix - 48).

Louisiana Purchase:

• The Louisiana Purchase: Would You Close the Deal? by Elaine Landau -- this book covers the subject thoroughly at an elementary level. It has "Words to Know" bolded and the definitions are in the back of the book. Every two to four pages, it puts forth a dilemma and give two or more options, asking the student, "What would you do?" There are plenty of illustrations and this was an interesting book that took us about 35 minutes to go through.
• The Louisiana Purchase by Elizabeth D. Jaffe -- we did not read this book because I felt the previous one covered the subject so completely. However, if you can't get that book, this one looks like it covers the subject in an interesting manner and it may have more details, making it better for an older student.

Lewis and Clark:

• Lewis and Clark: A Prairie Dog for the President by Shirley Redmond -- I had K. read this book on her own. It is written on a lower elementary reading level. K. enjoyed reading the book and finished it in one day.
• Sacagawea: Bird Girl by Flora Warren Seymour -- this book covers Sacagawea's childhood and traveling with Lewis and Clark.

Sir Walter Scott:

• Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe adapted by Marianna Mayer -- Sir Walter Scott's first book was published in the early 1800's and Ivanhoe was published in 1820. This book is perfect for elementary students. (I would have older students listen to the audio book if they weren't ready to read it.)

John Adams:

• A Picture Book of John and Abigail Adams by David Adler and Michael Adler -- lots of information with good illustrations on each page, written in a manner great for elementary students.
• How to Draw the Life and Times of John Adams by Ryan P. Randolph -- we discovered this series and really like it. K. enjoys drawing and each book gives instructions for about ten different drawings. From houses to portraits, step by step instructions are given that make the drawing fun and pretty easy. Most of the pages have information on one topic (such as, Childhood and Family or Peace with France) and on the facing page there are instructions (words and illustrations) for drawing something that pertains to the topic. We don't try to do all the drawings, just one or two. An older student would probably enjoy doing all of them on their own.

Westward Expansion:

• How to Draw the Life and Times of William Henry Harrison by Hilary Barton Billman -- we read the whole book, but paid special attention to the parts about Tecumseh and the Battle of Tippecanoe.
• Tecumseh by Don McLeese -- well written for children with lots of illustrations. If this book isn't available, Chief Tecumseh by Anne M. Todd is a good choice.

Alexander Hamilton:

• Soldier and Founder: Alexander Hamilton by Michael Burgan -- until we got to the duel, then we switched to the next book.
• Duel! Burr and Hamilton's Deadly War of Words by Dennis Brindell Fradin -- this is a really good book. The book begins with them getting ready for the duel, then goes back and gives a history of both men and their disagreements and ends with the completion of the duel.

War of 1812:

• The Army of Two by Polly Curren -- I had K. read this on her own. It is the story of how two girls frightened the British away from their town.
• The Open Gate by Wilma Pitchford Hays -- I had K. read this on her own. It is the story a French family in New Orleans and how the mother's attitude changed toward their American neighbors.
• Francis Scott Key and The Star-Spangled Banner
• Our National Anthem by Norman Pearl -- written for younger children, this is a picture book with good basic information. This book has all four stanzas of the poem.
• The National Anthem by M.C. Hall -- good book for children; it covers the subject quite thoroughly in a simple manner with full page illustrations.
• The Star-Spangled Banner in Translation: What It Really Means by Elizabeth Raum -- we mostly just read the translation. This book is written in a busy manner that is for older children.
• Francis Scott Key's Star-Spangled Banner by Monica Kulling -- I had K. read this on her own. This is a Step into Reading book, so it is written simply with lots of illustrations.
• Here are a couple more books that looked good, but we didn't read
• The Star-Spangled Banner by Liz Sonneborn -- I'd say this is better for 7th grade and up
• What's So Great About Francis Scott Key by Marylou Morano Kjelle -- good for upper elementary

50 States Notebook:

• President Thomas Jefferson, in office 1801 - 1809
• Ohio, #17
• President James Madison, in office 1809 - 1817
• Louisiana, #18

Third Grade, Fine Arts, Set Three

We made birthday and anniversary cards. I had purchased Ed Emberley's Picture Pie: A Cut and Paste Drawing Book. Making the cards this way was time consuming, but fun.

Third Grade, Bible, Set Two

Hymns:

• O, Joyous Easter Morning
• The Easter Song
• Tell Me the Stories of Jesus
• At Calvary
• Christ Returneth

Bible Memory:

• Psalm 121 -- I have set this up the same way as in Set One, only the shape is mountains
• We reviewed one previously learned passage each week with Verse Strips.

Bible Study:

• I was able to download for free part of The Resurrection from  Grapevine Studies. This takes you from the Passover to the Ascension reading Bible passages and drawing stick figures to illustrate about 70 scenes. I bought K. a nice sketch book to do the drawings in.

Catechism:

• Learned #32, 33, 34
• Reviewed previous

Easter Activities:

• Another free download I have is "49 Activities and Practices for Lent". We tried to do three each week.

Prayer:

• Countries/Peoples
• Bangladesh
• Beja
• Bhutan
• Bijago
• Bulgaria

Read-Aloud

• God and a Boy Named Joe by Ethel Barrett

The Princess and the Kiss

• Lesson 17 in Life Lessons -- love comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith; we want to make friends that we can serve the Lord with so we can "stir up love and good works" in each other.

Third Grade, Math, Set Two

We continued with Bedtime Math (almost) everyday.

We spent four days on lesson four of Professor Pig. This lesson teaches how to break numbers into 5's for adding and to find 10's when adding. We played the games from this lesson, and from the previous lessons.

We started playing the games in Family Math by Stenmark, Thompson, and Cossey. Each Friday we played a different game. The game we have enjoyed most is Target Addition. This game consists of a grid 5 squares by 5 squares. The bottom row of squares all have the number 1 in them. The next row up is 2, the next row is 3, then 4, then 5. One player picks a number between 25 and 55. Then players take turns putting a token on numbers until the "picked number" is reached. The person who puts the last token on is the winner. The first day we played this three times -- K. won all three games. I have only won twice in all the games we've played. This game is good for addition practice and strategy.

I purchased the book, Teaching Math with Favorite Picture Books by Hechtman and Ellermeyer. It has 28 books and hands-on activities to use to teach math. The four books we did during this set are listed here:

• The Quilt Story by Tony Johnston
• Billy's Button by William Accorsi
• Caps for Sale  by Esphyr Slobodkina
• The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns
• Ed Emberley's Picture Pie by Ed Emberley

To go along with The Greedy Triangle, I found some work sheets on-line that dealt with angles -- right, acute, or obtuse.

I used Picture Pie to introduce our week of fractions. Then we started working through a workbook on fractions. This is just a part of a book that I was able to download for free. It is from www.aplustutorsoft.com. We did four lessons of review, then introduced equivalent fractions, along with some games from Fabulous Fractions (Fraction Strips and Fraction Match).

For the last week of Set Two, I wrote five addition problems and five subtraction problems on 3 x 5 cards. The addition were 3 numbers up to 10,000 place. The subtraction were also up to 10,000 place. After K. solved the problems, I cut the answers off and we:

• put them in numerical order
• told what the number would be if it was 10 more/10 less, etc.
• place value; told what numeral was in the ______ place
• compared the numbers using < and >
• grouped them by even and odd
• rounded to the nearest ten, hundred, and thousand
• introduced the expanded form; 382 = 300 + 80 + 2

Third Grade, Reading, Set Two

We read the book, The Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbitt. There were a some activities in Games with Books that went along with the story.

I picked a short story from Read for the Fun of It and made some of the props for it. We worked on learning to tell the story and completing the props.

Third Grade, Grammar, Set Two

We completed the second chapter of Painless Junior Grammar, on nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. At the end of the chapter there was a project -- to learn about the history of roller coasters and write a report. The report was to include the names of roller coasters (proper nouns) and descriptions of them (adjectives). Below is a list of books we got from the library.

Roller Coasters:

• Roller Coasters by Dana Meachen Rau
• Roller Coasters by Lynn M. Stone
• Roller Coasters by Gil Chandler
• Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee -- story about a girl's first ride
• Incredible Inventions Poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins -- I like to add poetry whenever I can

Third Grade, Writing, Set Two

We are continuing with learning the lower case cursive letters. In Set One, cursive seemed to be really hard for K., but now she is doing much better and really enjoying it. We did an activity all but one week.

Writing Project
The goal of the writing project during this set was for K. to write the ending of a fairy tale. Below is the process we went through to get to that point. We took two weeks to accomplish step 1 and two weeks for step 2. We only worked on this one day a week.

1. I read an entire fairy tale to K. (The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood) and we filled out a work page with the
• Protagonist
• Antagonist
• Setting
• Problem
• Events
• Solution
• Supporting Characters
2. I read most of a fairy tale to K. (A Gift from the Heart) -- enough so she could fill out everything except the "solution".
3. K. wrote her ending to the fairy tale.
4. I read the ending from the book.

Third Grade, Spelling, Set Two

I discovered the activities I was creating for K.'s climbers, although fun, were not really helping her learn to spell the word and were taking a lot of time to make. So, I have changed tactics. When I give her the pretest, I write her climbers on the page for her to copy. Then I have her put dots between the syllables and we talk about what the word means. On another day, I write the word in large letters on a scrap sheet of paper. We observe things about the word, such as:

• patterns of letters; did you know that "imitate" has a VCVCVCV pattern, and the first two vowels are "i" and the last two consonants are "t"?
• find smaller words in the word; "use" in "amusement"
• see if we can make at least 10 words (with 3+ letters) from the letters of a word; "resurrection" -- sure, rest, ties, cure, etc.

She will also trace the word with her finger and write it in cursive. This method seems to be helping K. learn to spell the words.

Third Grade, Science, Set Two

We are enjoying reading the Nature Friend magazines. K. really enjoys finding books at the library about animals. Here are pictures of her first two projects.

 

This is a poster she did about dolphins. She wrote a report, drew a picture, and found some pictures to print.

 

One week during Set Two, K. picked up a book about the difference between lizards and salamanders. On her own, she began writing a report, so I suggested she use this subject for her second project. She completed the report, did a Venn diagram, made this diorama of their habitats, and labeled a diagram of a lizard's body.

Third Grade, History, Set Two

We finished reading George Washington's World. Here are books we read to learn more:

• Eli Whitney: Great Inventor by Jean Lee Latham -- this is a Discovery Biography and is written in a manner that is interesting to children and adults. I would consider this a "living book".
• The Inventions of Eli Whitney by Holly Cefrey -- I had K. read this on her own. It does not cover his life in the detail of the book by Ms. Latham, but just has snippets accompanying illustrations.
• Aunt Clara Brown: Official Pioneer by Linda Lowery -- the time period of this book is 1859 - 1885, so technically we should not have read it yet. This is an "On My Own Biography", so it was written for children. In it you learn about pioneers and how black people were treated.
• Has a Cow Saved Your Life? by Deborah Underwood -- about Edward Jenner and how he developed the smallpox vaccine. This book is interesting and informative with lots of illustrations. It also discusses the scientific method.
• Robert Fulton by Lola M. Schaefer -- this is a very simple book. It has black and white illustrations and basic information presented in simple terms. We read this book first, then read other books to learn more details.
• Watt Got You Started, Mr. Fulton? by Robert Quackenbush -- from the illustrations this looks like a very interesting book, but after reading a few pages, we put it away because, to me, it was boring.
• What's So Great About...? Robert Fulton by Jim Whiting -- this book is written in an interesting way with many illustrations and it filled in a lot of details.
• Documents of Freedom by Gwenyth Swain -- we read the portion about the Bill of Rights.
• Understanding the U.S. Constitution by Sally Senzell Isaacs -- we didn't actually use this book because we had read a few books about the constitution and it didn't have detailed information about the Bill of Rights like the above book did.
• Almost to Freedom by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson -- a story told by a doll about the Underground Railroad.
• The Cherokee by Emilie U. Lepthien -- this is in the "True Book" series. It is well written for children and covers a wide variety of topics, including The Cherokee Nation, Sequoyah, Broken Treaties, and The Trail of Tears.
• Sequoyah by James Rumford -- a children's book about why and how Sequoyah developed a written language for the Cherokee.
• My Easy-to-Read True Book of Pioneers by Mabel Harmer -- covers pioneers from Daniel Boone to the completion of the transcontinental railroad (about 100 years). It includes subjects such as, How They Traveled, Dangers on the Way, Pioneer Homes, and Pioneer Children.

Books we didn't get to:

• If you Lived with the Cherokee by Peter and Connie Roop
• Robert Fulton: The Steamboat Man by Carin T. Ford
• The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone by James Cross Giblin
• Native American Migration by Tracee Sioux

In our notebook of 50 States, we completed through state #16, Tennessee, which joined the Union in 1796. We are adding pages about the presidents to this book. Inserting them at the correct time when they first became president. We will probably add other things, like the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition, etc.

Third Grade, Fine Arts, Set Two

Fairy Tales from other countries:

• The Wooden Sword by Ann Redisch Stampler -- a Jewish folktale from Afghanistan
• What's So Funny, Ketu? by Verna Aardema -- a folktale from Africa
• Wisdom Stories by Mary Joslin -- stories from various countries that show the strength and frailty of human nature and consequences of foolish choices.

We started working on drawing a picture of whales. This is a drawing project in a Nature Friend. We didn't finish, so we will continue working on it in Set Three.

We made the birthday and anniversary cards. I picked up Ed Emberley's Great Thumbprint Drawing Book at the library. It is great fun, very creative, and allowed both K. and I to make very cute cards!

Third Grade, Geography

I believe it is important to know where countries are, but right now I prefer to learn them as off shoots of our other subjects. We keep a large map of the world on our dining room table and find many ways to use it.

• In Bible this year we are praying for the peoples of the world, so each week we find the country where the people we are praying for live.
• I'm also trying to pick up age appropriate books about these countries.
• In Nature Friend there are pictures of other countries, stories about animals, plants, or places in other countries. We find all these places on the map.
• In any book we read, if another location is mentioned, we look for it on the map. Sometimes it is a city that isn't on the map, so we pull out our world atlas and look for it.

Here is a list of books we have enjoyed about other countries/peoples:

• Water Buffalo Days by Quang Nhuong Huynh -- Vietnam
• Afghanistan
• Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams -- refugee camp
• Bhutan
• Kings and Queens by Sally Lee -- this book has a color picture of Bhutan's King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck
• Bhutan by Leila Merrell Foster -- we looked at pictures in this book
• Bangladesh
• Yasmin's Hammer by Ann Malaspina -- story of a family that moves to Dhaka, and the desire of Yasmin to learn to read
• A Basket of Bangles by Ginger Howard -- a story of how five women begin their businesses
• Bangladesh: In the Children's Own Words by Chrysalis Education
• B is for Bangladesh
• Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins -- this is a story of how a girl manages to help her family financially in a culture where it is not culturally accepted
• Beja (Sudan)
• My Great-Grandmother's Gourd by Cristina Kessler -- a story about a well and the old ways
• Booryat (Mongolia)
• Suho and the White Horse retold by Yuzo Otsuka -- a legend of Mongolia
• My Little Round House by Bolormaa Baasansuren
• Vanishing Cultures: Mongolia by Jan Reynolds -- lots of pictures, along with a story of life in Mongolia
• Bulgaria
• Looking at Bulgaria by Bronja Prazdny
• A Gift From the Heart told by Radost Pridham -- folk tales from Bulgaria
• Colombia
• Senor Cat's Romance and Other Favorite Stories from Latin America retold by Lucia Gonzalez
• Biblioburro by Jeanette Winter
• China
• No Year of the Cat retold by Mary Dodson Wade -- picture book story about why there is not a year of the cat and why rat and cat are enemies
• China in Colors by Marla Gamze-Pendergrast
• Chad
• Rain School by James Rumford -- the children's school year starts with building their school because each year the rains wash it away
• Cuba
• Rabbit Wishes by Linda Shute -- why rabbits have long ears
• The Bossy Gallito retold by Lucia M. Gonzalez

Third Grade, Bible, Set One

• Hymns
• Can a Little Child Like Me?
• There Shall Be Showers of Blessing
• I Will Serve Thee
• All Things Bright and Beautiful
• Jesus is Coming Again
• Bible Memory
• Romans 12:9 - 13
• I cut large heart shapes out of scrapbooking paper, and white paper (a little smaller heart) and glued them together.
• By drawing lines on the white paper, K. can write the verse we are working on each week.
• I have written out each verse on 1/2" tall strips of cardstock, then I cut the strips up so each has two - four words on it. On Fridays we put these word strips in order. (Verse Strips)
• Hearing God's Voice
• Proverbs 1 - 16 -- we were supposed get up through chapter 25, but there were some days when we had discussions that were too important to just stop and do what was on the schedule, just so I could mark it off.
• We take turns reading the verses aloud, sometimes I will stop and explain a verse or ask K. what she thinks it means.
• Then we each write in our notebook
• The Big Idea (from the chapter)
• A Verse
• God wants me to be (complete sentence)
• I can do that today by (complete sentence)
• Memory Verse Review
• Each week we are pulling out the word strips from a passage we previously memorized and putting them in order.
• Catechism
• Each week we review some catechism that we previously memorized.
• We learned Catechisms #29 - 31 during this set
• Prayer
• This year we are using the book, Window on the World to pray for the peoples of the world. The book tells about the people, where the live, how they live, and tells things to thank God for and to ask God for.
• We are also keeping a prayer journal. I want K. to be able to see God answering prayer, so we have been praying for rain (this is the dryest winter in a very long time). We have had a few showers, but right now we are having a wonderful storm!
• Bible Reading
• I remembered that we had a chronological Bible, so I got that out (after searching high and low for it, then my husband found it on my closet shelf) this year. We started up at the ordination of the Priests. It seemed about the right place to start since we read Genesis in first grade and Exodus in second grade. However, K. wants to hear stories, so we may go back to her Bible and start reading in Joshua.
• The Princess and the Kiss
• We were ready for lesson 16 in the Life Lessons book. It was about being the right person -- whether you marry or not, the most important thing is to become everything God wants you to be and live a life that pleases Him.
• Read-Aloud
• We read The Hidden Jewel by Dave and Neta Jackson. This book is about Amy Carmichael and is the last of our Trailblazer Books.

Third Grade, Math, Set One

• Bedtime Math -- because I've been saving these for a while, we do three a day; Bedtime Math e-mails a math problem each day. There is a paragraph about a topic, then word problems that have something to do with the topic. There are three or four different levels of math problems.
• The first day we completed a project called Agriculture Counts. In this we sorted and counted the number of different animals in a bag of animal crackers, made tally marks, which we turned into a chart.
• We have done the first three lessons of Professor Pig. Each lesson has a few games to re-enforce the concept, and we have been playing them a lot. The chapters deal with:
• Magic Numbers -- numbers that add up to 10
• Magic Numbers plus one -- numbers that add up to 11
• Magic Numbers plus two -- numbers that add up to 12
• I found the book, Right In Your Own Backyard: Nature Math at the thrift store. It is part of the I Love Math series by Time-Life, published in the early 1990's. This book was a good review for starting our school year, and covered many topics, such as
• even/odd numbers
• patterns
• shapes
• addition
• subtraction
• categorizing
• estimating
• reading charts
• temperature
• measuring

Third Grade, Reading, Set One

• K. read Treasure Under the Sea (published in 1959) aloud to me and answered the comprehension questions.
• We had a lot of fun with the book, Tell and Draw Stories by Margaret J. Olsen. We completed the book, but may work on memorizing some of the stories in Set Two.

Third Grade, Grammar, Set One

We have completed chapter 1 in Painless Junior Grammar. Learning about sentences. Most of this was review, but that is a good place to start.

We read Grammar Land: Grammar In Fun for Children by M. L. Nesbitt, published in 1878. This was very fun to read and I'm quite sure we will use it as a reference in the future.

Third Grade, Writing, Set One

My main goal right now is for K. to learn cursive in a fun, unhurried manner. I have a sheet of paper that I am having her write her name on at the end of each month. At the end of January it was all printed, but at the end of February, she was able to do about half her name in cursive.

The first section in the book introduces the letters: i, t, u, w, e, l, b. I am trying to do one activity each week, but wasn't too successful during this set because I didn't have it all planned out before the Set started.

 

We have also reviewed the parts of a friendly letter (heading, greeting, body, closing, signature) and she wrote a letter to a friend.

Third Grade, Spelling, Set One

We are completing one unit in the BJU Spelling Book each week, however, I am making changes to better meet K.'s needs.

• On the first day, I give the pretest. If she spells all the words correctly, and I believe she really knows how to spell them, the only other thing we do is the work page, which reinforces the spelling generalization (such as: the 'ch' sound after a consonant is spelled ch, but after a short vowel it is spelled tch; examples: stitch and branch)
• We are working more on the Climbers, words that she uses when she writes, but misspells -- such as spaghetti, orchestra, or curious. I am trying to think up activities to do that will reinforce the spelling.
• For spaghetti, we wrote the word using yarn, then I had K. draw a plate of spaghetti and hide the letters in the drawn noodles for me to find.
• For orchestra and curious, I wrote the word and then incorporated each letter into an image and had K. find the letters.
• For sketch, I drew (sketched) a picture and hid the letters in the drawing.

Third Grade, Fine Arts, Set One

• We went to see The Nutcracker in December.
• We made cards for the February and March birthdays (slow months with only three birthdays each!).
• We made valentines.
• We have done five pages in piano books.
• I read various fairy tales to K.
• Beauty and the Beast Retold by Philippa Pearce (we are going to see the ballet in April)
• William Tell by Leonard Everett Fisher
• The Magpie's Nest by Retold by Joanna Foster
• Favorite Fairy Tales Told in France Retold by Virginia Haviland (we just started this one)
• We are also baking. We've made:
• Cookies
• Cranberry bread
• Pumpkin bread
• We made a Wire Button Tree.

Third Grade, Science, Set One

We are reading one Nature Friend magazine each week. I read most of the articles to K., but on Monday I have her look through the magazine and place sticky notes on the three articles she wants to read. Two of them she reads aloud. On Friday she reads the last one silently and then I ask her four or five questions about it.

 

Also on Friday she chooses a topic to learn more about. After the first week, I learned to be more general. For instance, we aren't going to find books about harlequin ducks at the library, but we will find books about ducks. I show her the list of general subjects and have her number her first, second, and third choices. Then we go to the library website and find the catalog numbers for them. That way when we go to the library we are ready to find the books and don't have to mess with their computers, which sometimes aren't working. K. is learning how to find books using the Dewey Decimal System.

 

The first week she wanted to read more about comets.

 

The second week she chose owls.

The third week she chose whales.

The fourth week she chose birds.

 

Each magazine has a few activities (word search, crossword, etc.) that we do as we come to them. I put a plastic transparent sheet over the page (hold it still with sticky notes) and use a water base marker to write our answers. This way we can pass the magazines on to friends and they can do the activities, too.

Over the planning week she will do a project. I had planned on her doing one of the subjects she had chosen, but she wanted to do dolphins, so I decided that her being excited about learning was more important than my plan. This project will be a poster. After reading some books about dolphins, she will write things she learned on the poster and add pictures. (This is actually an assignment in our grammar book.)

Third Grade, History, Set One

We read Child's History of the World chapter 75 to review the American Revolution.

• The Story of The Surrender at Yorktown by Zachary Kent -- we didn't read the entire book, just parts about the battle at Yorktown and the surrender. Then we found a video on YouTube so we would know what "The World Turned Upside Down" sounded like (that is what the British played at the surrender).
• There is a graphic (page 31) from A Visual History of the United States by Harold Faulkner, 1953 (pdf download) that shows how the Revolution changed American life.

We read Child's History chapter 76, which is about the French Revolution.

We are reading George Washington's World. We started at page 234, Washington Refuses Absolute Power. We have read through page 285, and are now going to take a break to read more books about the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. I want to catch up to the French Revolution in this book before reading other books about it.

• Understanding the Articles of Confederation by Sally Isaacs -- well written for children; lots of pictures and illustrations
• Shh! We're Writing the Constution by Jean Fritz -- I got the dvd of this book and we watched it
• The Constution of the United States by Christine Taylor-Butler -- I'm having K. read this book on her own.
• A More Perfect Union: The Story of our Constitution by Betsy and Giulio Maestro -- good information, presented in a child-friendly format with lots of illustrations
• We the People: The Story of Our Constitution by Lynne Cheney -- another good book for children
• You Wouldn't want to be an Aristocrat in he French Revolution! by Jim Pipe -- this was the only book in our library system that dealth with the French Revolution in a format interesting to younger children.
• The Industrial Revolution by Carla Mooney -- this book has 8 chapters with a few projects at the end of each chapter. We read the intro and chapter one, which talks about textiles and the changes to spinning and weaving. The project K. chose was making a water wheel (before using steam, factories were built by rivers to use the river's current to run the machines). My goal is to do one chapter each Set.

If you have an older child, The French Revolution by Adrian Gilbert looks like a really good book.

We have started California History. I am using a publication called "California Weekly Explorer". It is in a newspaper format with 32 four-page issues. The ones I am using are twenty-plus years old, and California Weekly Explorer no longer has them, but I believe I found them, now called My California.

We are also making a notebook of our 50 states in the order in which they joined the union. We have one page for each state. The information on it is:

• Name
• Postal abbreviation
• State capital
• Date it became a state and its ordinal number
• State nickname
• State flag (printed from www.statesymbolsusa.org)
• State bird with picture
• State flower with picture
• State tree with picture
• Interesting fact
• Important places or people

We are working on getting the first thirteen states done, and then will do each state as it joins the union.