Kindergarten, Bible, Week 22

This week we:

• Memorized Psalm 139:19
• On Tuesday I introduced Catechism #21: Of what were our first parents made? God made the body of Adam out of the dust of the ground and formed Eve from the body of Adam. Read Genesis 2:7, 21-22
• Read stories 123 - 135 in Picture Story Bible
• Other books, stories, videos:
• Sylvester
• Red Boots from Other Lands
• The Princess and the Kiss
• Prayer
• Song: America the Beautiful, stanzas 1 - 4

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 22

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

Small Muscle Development:

• Obstacle Course, see Writing, Week 8 for instructions.

Story Development:

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

Writing Practice:

• Activity: That's Good, That's Bad from Games for Writing
• You'll need: Writing Paper, Pencil, Spinner
• Cut a circle for the spinner from poster board, card stock, or an old manila folder.
• Divide the circle in fourths. In one section write "Lose a Turn", in one write "That's Bad", in one write "That's Good", in the last write, "That's Good, That's Bad".
• Rules: Players take turns flicking the spinner and writing the next sentence (or two) in the story, according to the spinner instructions. If a player lands on "Lose a Turn", then they don't write. If a player lands on "That's Good, That's Bad", they write two sentences. The "Good" sentence does not have to be first.
• Variation: If you want to add points, every line of good news gets 5 points; every line of bad news gets 3 points; lose a turn gets 0 points; of course, writing a good and bad line gets 8 points.
• Here is the story we ended up with:

My dog barked too loud. That's bad. The neighbors were not home. That's good. My dog jumped the fence. That's bad. My dog missed his food. That's bad. He got food. That's good. He came home to me. That's good.

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 22

Monday through Thursday we read from our textbook.

• Ask questions using the Four Levels of Questioning and Comprehension.
• The genres were:
• Fiction
• Biblical Account

Friday our activity was Picture Labels, see Reading, Week 7 for instructions.

Kindergarten, Math, Week 22

Monday we worked on Estimating Weight

• You'll Need: a More/Less Spinner, Computer Clip Art CD
• I started by copying a picture of a wedding cake and pasting it onto a blank sheet in a document.
• K. flicked the spinner. It landed on "More", so she had to find something in Clip Art that would weigh more than a cake and copy and paste it to the document. (She chose a cow.)
• Next I flicked the spinner. It landed on "Less", so I had to find something in Clip Art that would weigh less than a cow.
• We continued our tuns until the page was full. At one point K. needed something that weighed more than a house -- she found a picture of Earth.

Tuesday we played with Number Patterns

• Game: Three Pots, see Math, Week 19 for instructions

Wednesday we practiced Counting On

• I got out our bag of coins and we reviewed the worth of each coin
• Then I put out a nickle and 3 pennies and had her count the total: 5, 6, 7, 8
• I kept putting out different combinations of coins for her to count
• We did this about 10 times

Thursday we worked with Place Value

• Game: Bunch of Beans, see Math, Week 19 for instructions

Friday we reviewed Recognizing Numbers

• On our way to the park (about 10 miles away) we read all the numbers we could see on signs.
• It was a contest to see who could see them and read them off first.
• K. won as my first priority was driving and safety.

Kindergarten, History, Week 22

Monday

• I read chapter 20 of Child's History
• We found India on the globe
• Items to note:
• Early civilization started along the Indus River
• People from (around) Persia invaded
• Caste system -- could not eat with, play with, or marry someone from a different caste
• Gautama taught the people to be good, honest, and help the poor
• People started called him Buddha and started worshiping him as a god

Tuesday

• We looked at Ancient World pages 70 - 71
• Read more from Aesop for Children

Wednesday

• Read II Kings 5 and 11

Thursday

• I read chapter 21 from Child's History
• We located China on the globe
• Items to note:
• Confucius taught the people
• Early civilization located around the Huang River and Yangtze River
• Chinese had a written language, a different character for each word, not an alphabet
• Chinese made many inventions

Friday

• We worked on our time line

Kindergarten, Science, Week 22

Monday

• I read Genesis 1:14. This week we are going to learn about the seasons.
• Why Do The Seasons Change? pages 4 -17
• This is mostly review, but K. wanted to re-do some of the explorations we had done in previous weeks.

Tuesday

• Why Do The Seasons Change? pages 19 - 21
• Concept: the earth is tilted, causing the northern and southern hemispheres to get more or fewer hours of light
• Exploration:
• Darken a room, stand about 3 feet from a globe with the northern hemisphere tilted toward the you.
• Shine a flashlight (the sun) on the globe.
• Notice that the hemisphere tilted toward you (northern) gets more light and the hemisphere tilted away from you (southern) gets less sun. This is summer in the northern hemisphere.
• Make the earth orbit the sun 180°. Now the southern hemisphere should be tilted toward the sun. This is winter in the northern hemisphere.

Wednesday

• Why Do The Seasons Change? pages 22 - 27

Thursday

• I Can Read About Seasons
• This book has great illustrations. I wasn't planning on reading the entire book in one sitting, but K. was interested, so I kept reading.

Friday

• Read I Can Read About Seasons again
• Concepts:
• The earth is tilted this results in the northern and southern hemispheres to get different amounts of light causing the seasons.
• The hemispheres seasons are opposite.

Kindergarten, Bible, Week 21

This week we:

• Memorized Psalm 139:18 (even though I don't say it, we review all we have learned of Psalm 139 every day)
• Reviewed our Catechism
• Read stories 110 - 122 in Picture Story Bible
• Other books and stories or videos we read/watched:
• Sylvester
• Blister
• Ignoring the Bounty from Short and Sweet
• Who Holds the Brush from Short and Sweet
• Because I Love You
• Prayer
• Song: America the Beautiful, stanzas 1, 2, and 3

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 21

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

Small Muscle Development:

• Tuesday we played with playdoh.

Story Development:

• Wednesday we had a Story Map. See Writing, Week 8 for instructions.

Writing Practice:

• Friday we played Word by Word. See Writing, Week 17 for instructions.

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 21

Monday through Thursday we read from our textbook.

• Ask questions using the Four Levels of Questioning and Comprehension.
• The genres were:
• Fanciful Fiction
• Choral Reading
• Realistic Fiction

Friday our activity was Talk a Drawing, see Reading, Week 9 for instructions.

Kindergarten, Math, Week 21

Monday we worked on Estimating Length

• Game: Is It? from Games for Math -- this game will help your child learn to use a ruler and develop firm notion about centimeters and/or inches.
• You'll Need: a simple ruler, paper, pencil
• Make a simple ruler using a piece of card stock. Mark only the centimeters (or inches). It does not need to be long, 10 centimeters or 6 inches is good to start with. You can number the centimeters/inches, or leave the numbers off and let your child count the distances they are measuring.
• Rules: Take turns asking "Is It?" questions
• Ideas:
• Your child uses the ruler to draw a line, then puts the ruler in her lap and asks you, "How long is it?" You estimate then she measures it for you to see if you were right.
• "Without looking at the ruler, draw a line that is 6 cm long." "Is it 6cm?"
• "Find something in the room that is 15 cm long." "Is it 15 cm?"
• Being right in this game is almost impossible. Your child is doing terrific when they are almost right.

Tuesday we played with Number Patterns

• Game: Spin a Number from Games for Math -- in this game your child learns that a five in the ones place means 5 and a five in the tens place means 50.
• You'll Need: a spinner with spaces numbered 1 through 6, scorecards, pencil
• Make paper scorecards (scrap paper is fine) for you and your child with two dashes side by side. The dash on the left represents the tens place. The dash on the right is the ones place.
• Rules: The first player flicks the spinner and jots down the number (but not on one of the dashes) so it isn't forgotten. Then they flick the spinner again. Then the player decides which number to put in the tens place and which in the ones place to make the biggest number. Then the second player takes their turn. The person with the largest number wins.
• Variations:
• Players have to decide whether to put their first number in the ones or tens place before spinning the second number.
• Add a hundreds dash.
• The player with the smallest number wins.

Wednesday we worked on Place Value

• Game: Bag of Marbles from Games for Math -- this is another game that will teach your child that five in the ones place means 5 and five in the tens place means 50.
• You'll Need: paper lunch bag, 9 blue marbles, 9 red marbles, scorecards, pencil, bowl
• Make paper scorecards (scrap paper is fine) for you and your child with two dashes side by side. The dash on the left represents the tens place. The dash on the right is the ones place.
• You can use other colors of marbles, or you can use bingo markers, squares of construction paper, etc.
• Rules: Put the marbles in the paper bag. The blue marbles represent the tens, the red marbles represent the ones. Player #1, without looking, takes 10 marbles out of the bag and puts them in the bowl (to keep them from rolling around the table). Player #1 counts the blue marbles and writes that number in the tens place on his scorecard; then counts the red marbles and writes that number in the ones place on his scorecard. Return all the marbles to the bag. Then Player #2 takes his turn. The winner is the player with the largest number.
• Variation: Add another color and a hundreds dash.

Thursday we made a Pictograph

• I took a Nature Friend magazine that featured birds and butterflies.
• K. decided on a symbol for butterflies and another for birds.
• I wrote the key (1 butterfly = ) at the bottom of the sheet.
• We began looking through the magazine, page by page. Each time she saw a bird or butterfly she drew another symbol in the appropriate row.
• About the 4th page of the magazine, K. decided she wanted to count the caterpillars and bees, also. So we added those symbols to our key.
• When we finished looking through the magazine, I asked questions about the graph.
• Remember, your child will be working with graphs for many more years, and doesn't need to understand everything about them in kindergarten.

Friday we reviewed Counting

• Game: Fill the Spoon from Games for Math
• You'll Need: a spoon (we used a soup spoon -- the larger the spoon the higher you'll count), beans
• Rules: Take a spoon and fill it with beans. Don't scoop the beans, but carefully put them one at a time on the spoon. As soon as one falls off, you must stop and count the beans. Record the number. The player with the highest number wins.