Second Grade, History, Set Five

I read chapter 70 from Child's History. It covered:

• James I
• Parliament
• Divine Right of Kings
• King James Bible
• Jamestown
• Captain John Smith
• Slavery
• Mayflower/Plymouth

In addition we read:

• Explorers of North America by Brendan January -- pages 29 - 41; this covered Cartier and Hudson and French exploration of North America
• A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla -- about the journey to Jamestown on the Sea Adventure. Being stranded in the Bermudas, and finally getting to Jamestown by building two small ships. They arrived after the "starving time".
• Pocahontas and the Strangers by Clyde Robert Bulla -- the story of Pocahontas' life. This book mentioned the "starving time" and the ships that came from Bermuda, so we were able hook the two books together.
• If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 by Ann McGovern -- this book presents the information about the Mayflower and the first year of life in America in an interesting, conversational manner.
• The Pilgrims at Plymouth by Lucille Recht Penner -- this book covers a lot of the same information that If You Sailed. . . has, but it has more and better illustrations.
• Samuel Eaton's Day by Kate Waters -- takes you through a day with a colonial boy from getting dressed in the morning to bedtime at night.
• Sarah Morton's Day by Kate Waters -- both these book have more photographs than text, making it an ejoyable book to look at.
• Squanto: Friend of the White Men by Clyde Robert Bulla -- Squanto's biography told as a story.
• John Billington: Friend of Squanto by Clyde Robert Bulla -- this was a book I'd never read before. It was very interesting -- in fact we read it in one day.

Activity Book -- American Kids in History: Colonial Days by David C. King
This book talks about a fictional family in 1732, and has games, crafts, etc. that they would have played or made.

• We used a sea gull feather to make a quill pen and bluing and water to make blue ink.
• Make Cranberry Ice, on page 46
• Pomander Ball, page 105

I read chapter 71from Child's History. It covered:

• King Charles I
• Oliver Cromwell
• Charles II
• Plague and Great Fire (1666)
• William and Mary Stuart
• Bill of Rights (1688) and the Glorious Revolution

I could not find books in the library at K.'s age level on these subjects, so we looked at Tudor Theater by Gillian Glements.

Evaluation of Second Grade, Set Four

• Bible -- we have had lots of good discussions. I'm very pleased with K.'s growth in character and understanding.
• Math -- K. is doing very well with knowing the addition and subtraction math facts. When adding she renames with ease, but sometimes forgets to add the number she carried. She can add problems with three addends up to the ten thousands place. Subtraction is coming along well.
• Reading -- K. has started reading longer books on her own, and not just ones that I've already read to her. We did our own reading program this summer. She earned 25¢ for every book she read that she hadn't read before, and that I had not read to her. She caught on to the idea of propaganda, and will bring up the subject sometimes when she sees an ad or commercial.
• Grammar -- I'm pleased with her knowledge of the parts of speech we have studied. We finished reading all the books she has on penguins during our week off.
• Writing -- K. starts the writing projects well, but doesn't usually want to spend more than one day on a project. This is something to work on.
• Spelling -- she is doing well in spelling, and is learning to complete the work page on her own.
• Fine Arts -- K. has lost interest in crocheting, so we have put that on the back shelf, but we are really enjoying doing art projects.
• Science -- K. really enjoys science when she can complete the experiments. Sometimes in my enthusiasm I include some that are too difficult for her -- but I'm learning to keep it simple!
• History -- we covered a lot of topics in these weeks, but she is understanding it and enjoys me reading to her.

Second Grade, Bible, Set Four

Week One:

• Hymn: When He Cometh
• Memory Verse: John 1:15
• Searching for Treasure: Review section 2; Study 11, Introduction; One of the days of review was about the wise man and the foolish man building their houses on the rock or sand. We read the verses and noticed that the difference between the wise and the foolish was not that the did or didn't hear God's Word, but that they did or didn't do what God said. That led to a story from another book about the verse "be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves". We also had a discussion about good fruit and bad fruit stemming from Proverbs 1:31, "eating the fruit of their ways".
• Reviewed catechism
• Prayed daily, focusing on praising God
• Finished reading Abandoned on the Wild Frontier
• Reviewed Bible passages

Week Two:

• Hymn: Onward Christian Soldiers
• Memory Verses: John 1:16-17
• Searching for Treasure: Study 11
• Bible Reading: Exodus 19 - 24
• Reviewed this year's catechism
• Prayed daily
• Began reading Attack in the Rye Grass about Marcus and Narcissa Whitman
• Reviewed Bible Passages

Week Three:

• Hymn: I Would Be True
• Memory Verse: John 1:18
• Searching for Treasure: Study 12, Intro - lesson 3
• Princess and the Kiss: Lesson 12; for an activity, we took an old umbrella and some glitter paint. K. decorated the umbrella and I wrote at the top "Authority, Umbrella of Protection". She is really enjoying playing with the umbrella.
• Prayed daily
• Continued reading Attack in the Rye Grass
• Reviewed Bible Passages

Week Four:

• Hymn: Battle Hymn of the Republic
• Memory Verses: John 3:1- 2; now that we have finished John 1:1-18, when K. could say it perfectly, she earned her $2
• Searching for Treasure: Study 12, lesson 4 - Study 13, lesson 1
• Catechism: 91, 93, 94
• Review this year's catechism
• Prayed daily
• Continued reading Attack in the Rye Grass

Week Five:

• Hymn/Patriotic Song: This is My Country
• Memory Verse: John 3:3
• Searching for Treasure: Study 13, lesson 2 - summary
• Reviews this year's catechism on three days
• Prayed daily
• Finished reading Attack in the Rye Grass

Second Grade, Math, Set Four

• Numeration
• We took turns using the decahedron to make four-digit numbers, then we secretly wrote the number down. We said the number aloud to the other player and they wrote the number. Then we compared to see if what we had written was the same.
• Number Theory
• We played games on-line to review ordinals. Here is a website that has a list of games to practice ordinals.
• Rounding - at the grocery store (we just bought seven items) we rounded the cost of each item to the nearest dollar and then added them up. We got an estimate of $15. The actual amount was $16.08.
• Another day we played a game on-line for practice rounding to the nearest 10.
• Comparing - we each drew four UNO cards and made the largest number we could. Then K. put in the appropriate sign < or >.
• Counting
• We counted to 1,000 by 100's
• We counted to 500 by 10's
• We counted from 1 to 500 by 1's -- using the UNO cards like we did in Set Two
• Addition / Subtraction
• Fact Families - we practice 1/3 of them three times a week
• I printed out an addition and a subtraction worksheet from WorksheetWorks.com. I chose options that would challenge K., without frustrating her. We took the worksheet and sidewalk chalk outside and worked the first six problems on the driveway. The rest of the problems we will save for other times. One day we did addition, and another day subtraction.
• I printed an addition and a subtraction worksheet of word problems. Choosing options that would challenge K., but not frustrate her. There were six problems on each page. We worked one sheet a day. We drew pictures and/or wrote out the equations as needed, but mostly she wanted to solve them in her head.
• We read the book Lights Out by Lucille Recht Penner -- this is a story of a girl who wants to be the last one in her neighborhood to turn her light out. Across the street is an apartment building with 30 windows. She has to subtract numbers as people turn their lights out. K. really liked this book, and has read it to herself a few times. This book is part of the Math Matters series.
• Multiplication with Marvelous Multiplication
• We reviewed that 1 is the identity element
• We worked out the 2 times tables using ten pairs of socks
• We played Cover-Up! on page 49
• Materials: two playing cards with the numbers 1 - 36 in order (6 rows of 6), dominoes (sixes), pennies
• We took turns turning over a domino and solving the problem. A domino that had the dots for 2 and 4 would be the equation 2 x 4 and that player would solve and cover the 8 on their card.
• If you turn over a double, that is a wild, and you can cover any number. It is necessary to play this way or some numbers (like 7, 11, 21, etc) wouldn't be able to be covered.
• The first person to get 6 in a row wins.
• We played Don't Skip This Activity on page 13 (well, a variation of it)
• I set out three cans and thirty beads.
• I asked K. to put an equal number of beads in each can. (They make a great noise when you drop them in, so that was fun for her.)
• Then we counted how many beads were in each can and wrote the equation 3 x 10 = 30 (3 sets of 10 is 30).
• We dumped out all the beads. I took away three and had her separate the beads into the cans, etc.
• Division with Dazzling Division
• We used 30 paper clips and divided them by 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
• K wanted to play with a magnet, so I counted out the 30 clips and then asked her, "If you had 3 magnets, how many clips would each magnet get?" We separated the clips into groups to find the answer.
• We played Fun One! on page 17
• I had K. get out a stack of 10 books.
• I put one of the books on the table. I said, "Here is one book, if there is one student, how many books would he get?" Answer: One
• Then I wrote the equation 1 ÷ 1 = 1
• We continued through all 10 books this way. Two books and one student, three books and one student . . .
• Statistics
• We read and talked about pages 10 - 13 of the book Statistics by Jane Jonas Srivastava, ending with the pictograph
• The following two days we read and did the activities in the book, Pictograph by Vijaya Khisty Bodach. I had made the forms for the pictographs ahead of time.
• The fourth day we looked at the pie graph on page 14 of Statistics.
• The fourth and fifth days we read and did the activities in the book, Pie Graphs by Vijaya Khisty Bodach. I had made the pie graph forms ahead of time.
• Fractions, Geometry, Estimation, Measurement
• One day we completed a worksheet that asked for the best estimate. Example: The amount to water the lawn: 32 gallons or 32 fluid ounces
• One day we compared fractions with common denominators and the next day we compared fractions with common numerators.
• We played Shape Lotto.
• To practice area and perimeter, I found a website that had house floor plans, and I printed one on graph paper. Then we figured out the area and/or perimeter of a few rooms.
• I also read the book, Sam's Sneaker Squares by Nat Gabriel from the Math Matters series.

Second Grade, Reading, Set Four

This week we finish Story Train. We started the book, Animals do the Strangest Things. It is not stories, but it is interesting. We read the entire book during this set of weeks.

Comprehension Skills: Critical Reading, Reading Corner:

• I read K. a tall tale and an article from Nature Friend magazine. We talked about which was true and how she knew.
• We talked about two types of propaganda: bandwagon and appeal (someone famous). We looked for examples in commercials and billboards.
• We talked about the difference between fact and opinion. I had printed out a paper with sentences, some of which were fact and others were opinion. K. had to decided if each sentence was fact or opinion. Another day, I wrote down six topics (music, flowers, games, etc.). I let her pick three and I took the other three. We each said two sentences about our topics. One sentence to be fact and the other to be opinion.
• I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff -- we read this book. It provides good discussion for what is fact and what is opinion.
• I taught K. that words have connotations as well as denotations. I had a print out with words on it and she was to draw a smiling face if she had good feelings toward the word, as frowning face if she had yuck feeling, and a straight face if she had no real feelings one way or the other. You can find some words used in I Wanna Iguana for their connotations.
• We looked at advertisements in magazines to find words that have good or bad connotations, and discussed why they used those words.
• We looked at advertisements in magazines to see if they used testimonials, slogans, bandwagon, or appeals to status.

From Games for Reading:

• Problems and Solutions page 167 -- you present a problem (such as being stranded on an island with no people and no food, but you know a ship will pass that way in the next few days) to your child and ask them what they would do. It is usually necessary to ask them more questions about their initial solution to get them to really think things through.
• Taking Turns page 148 -- One person gives the beginning of a sentence (The monkey climbed the tree) and the other person finishes it (because a snake was on the ground.) The sentence must make sense. As you get better, the first person can give the end of the sentence and the second person give the beginning of the sentence.
• Interview with an Alligator page 170 -- in this game one person decides to be an object or pretend character. The other person interviews them. Questions can be about where they live, what they like to do, etc. Then switch roles.

Second Grade, Grammar, Set Four

• Parts of Speech
• I printed out a couple sheets of people doing things (biking, calling, jumping, etc.) we talked about what the first one was doing. Then we talked about how we would say it if we were talking about the person doing it yesterday (biked, called, jumped). If they are doing it now, we call that present tense. If they did it, we call that past tense. We went through one sheet of activities writing the present and past tense of each activity. We completed one sheet on two different days.
• Another worksheet had a crossword puzzle of present tense verbs
• I wrote out a handful of sentences and had K. change them from present to past tense.
• We took turns changing the verb tense in a poem.
• Books we read:
• Kites Sail High by Ruth Heller
• To Root, to Toot, to Parachute by Brian P. Cleary
• We used the book Winter Days in the Big Woods (My First Little House Book series) to review proper and common nouns, plural and singular nouns, present and past tense verbs. I read a page then asked K. to find (for example) three plural nouns.
• We used an Amelia Bedelia book to review in the same way.
• We reviewed pronouns by using pictures to make sentences, then exchanging pronouns for the nouns in the sentence. Below is the sentence: Henry shot an arrow at the rabbit and the deer. Which gets changed to: He shot at them. (Looking at it now, it should have been, He shot it at them.)
• We played the Bag Game to review nouns, adjectives, verbs, and prepositions. We played it differently. First we spread out the word cards and then we each made a sentence (of course, every words of the sentence isn't there), but each sentence had to include at least one noun, verb, adjective, and preposition. After reading our sentence, we told what parts of speech each word was and put them in their appropriate bag.

• Writing Projects
• Research report -- K. decided to learn and write about penguins. We looked on the computer card catalog to find out where to look for books about penguins. Then we went to the library and were able to find five books that were interesting to her.
• I wrote each of these categories on a sticky note and put each on a different envelope.
• My home
• What I eat
• What I look like
• How I am born
• What eats me
• How I protect myself
• Fun facts
• Then K. wanted to add
• What I do
• I had her pick one of the books. We take turns reading a page or paragraph and then she decides if there is anything important to remember. We write it (not in complete sentences) on a 3 x 5 card and put it in the appropriate envelope.
• With the rest of the books, I'm letting K. just read them (or we read them together) and when she is all done, think of two new things she learned and make cards on them. We have been doing one book a week. She will finish up any unread books during this week of vacation.
• I decided to have K. write the report in the next set of weeks because we want to take her to the aquarium to see penguins before she writes her report.
• We have started reading the book The Secrets of the Rock by Phyllis Perry. Through a story, the author teaches basic research skills. We are reading two chapters each week and then duplicating the research done in the book. The author has written two other books for younger elementary students to learn research skills (Fribble Mouse Library Mystery), and two books for older elementary students (WHAM Agency Library Mysteries).

Second Grade, Writing, Set Four

From Writing Hangups:

• Cup Composition page 21 -- I made covers out of paper for yogurt cups. K. wrote a message for each of us on the paper, then we taped them onto the cups.
• Posted Poetry page 43 -- K. wrote a four line poem about flowers. She is in the process of putting sticky letters on construction paper. I picked up four paint stirrers for the sticks and we will put the signs in our garden.
• Flagged Facts page 28 -- K. wrote five facts about Sir Walter Raleigh (who we are studying in history) on flags and glued them on a string, which we hung on the bulletin board.

• Lively Labels page 32 -- we made blank labels for three cans and then K. made labels for foods she made up.
• Banner Banter page 6 -- my sister is visiting next week, so we made a banner to welcome her.

We worked on a poster to advertise a book, using some of the propaganda techniques we've been learning about in Reading.

From Cursive Writing made Easy and Fun:

• Continuous Line Doodles -- K.'s control has improved since the last time we did this and she enjoyed it more.

Second Grade, Spelling, Set Four

This week we have a review lesson. K. didn't what to do review. After I gave her each word for the pretest, she would ask, "Is this a new word?" I got a bit silly on some of the words and we laughed and laughed. For instance, the word 'we'. I replied, "No, we have been around a long time."

I've printed a list of words that are commonly misspelled in elementary school. I will used words from this list for her climbers on weeks when I don't have any from her writing.

Second Grade, Fine Arts, Set Four

Piano

• we did one page each week during this set of weeks!!

Art

• My Art Book -- Town page 54 -- we haven't quite finished our paintings, but we are continuing to work on them in the evenings. K. had her own idea of what a town looks like, but she still used shapes. This top picture is K.'s and the bottom is mine. If I had made K. do the project exactly how the book said to, it would have turned into a craft rather than art. Art calls for being creative, so when you are doing art, don't insist that your child follow the instructions to the letter. (my opinion)

 

• We did the chalk picture during our week off.

 

Sewing

• I found a cute pattern for little felt dolls. We have cut them out and have started sewing them together.

Second Grade, Science, Set Four

Now we are learning about light.

In the book What Happens If . . ? there are a few pages of experiments with shadows. You will learn that when your hand is close to the light source your shadow is larger because it blocks a lot of light, but when your hand is farther away from the light source your shadow is small because it blocks less and less light. We used different items to make shadows, seeing that some shadows are black and some are 'gray' because the material lets some light through. We cut an egg shape out of butter muslin and a chick out of paper. We taped the chick in the middle of the egg. The shadow looked like a chick inside an egg.

 

Here is the fabric egg and cloth chick.

Here is the shadow.

Science: Understanding Your Environment also has a chapter on light. We read about light and heat energy. We learned that where there is heat there may be light and where there is light, there is almost always heat. We used a thermometer to find out the temperature of ice water and tap water. We looked around the house for light sources, heat sources, and items that gave off both light and heat. We read about light being reflected and found things in pictures and around the house that reflected light. We used two small mirrors and a penny to see how many reflections we could make of the penny. We put five colorful blocks in a paper bag, then I had K. stand in a dark closet and look in the bag to see what colors she could see. So we discovered that there must be light to see colors. We found items around the house that light could go through and items that light could not go through.

We did a couple experiments from the book 365 More Science Experiments.

• We used a glass of water to magnify the small writing on a box of pudding. page 53
• We made a movie screen by putting a small hole (about 1" x 1-1/2") in opposite sides of a box. Then I gave K. a clear transparency with the size of the hole marked and markers. I asked her to draw a picture in the box. We put a piece of white paper on the wall, held the box close to the wall and shone a flashlight through the two holes. We could see the picture. Then we moved the box farther from the wall. The picture became larger, fuzzy, and unclear. As the light source moves farther from the wall the light same amount of light spreads out to fill a larger area. page 53

In Let's Experiment:

• We made a kaleidoscope with some colored beads and 3 small mirrors. Arrange two stacks of books to be about 10 inches tall. Put a piece of glass across the stacks and put some colorful beads on the glass. Take three small mirrors and arrange them into a triangle. You can hold them together with tape or rubber bands. Hold the mirrors about two inches above the beads and discover how a kaleidoscope works. page 110
• We have a periscope, so we didn't make one. Instead we played "Hide and Seek" with it. One of us chose a location in a bedroom (must be in plain sight). The other person stood outside the room and used the periscope to locate the person in the room.
• Bending light (putting a straw in a glass of water) takes place every time the light waves pass from one medium to the next.
• We proved that air bends sunlight. Place a stack of books on the table. The stack should be almost as tall as a large glass jar. Put a short (2 inch) candle about 2 feet from the stack of books and light the candle. When you look straight across the top of the books you should not be able to see the candle. (If you can make the candle shorter.) Then fill the jar to the brim with water and screw the lid on. Lay it down next to the stack of books and look across the books, through the jar. You should be able to see the candle.

 

You can't see the candle.

 

Here you can (we held a dark paper behind it so the camera would get a better picture).

• Experiment showing that when you add water to a bowl, the light refracts (bends) so that while looking across the top edge of the bowl, you can see the penny on the bottom of the bowl.
• We made a pin-hole camera. It only works well if you are looking at something really bright and are in standing in a dark room. It worked well while we were standing in my parent's kitchen and looking at the open blinds where the sun was shining in brightly.
• Putting light back together. Take a 4 inch diameter cardboard circle. Divide it into sixths. Color each sixth a different color: red, violet, blue, green, yellow, and orange. Poke a small hole in the center, insert a toothpick and glue it in place. When the glue is dry, stick the toothpick in the chuck of a drill. Hold the drill so you can watch the disk and turn it on. At a certain speed, all the colors will blend and you should see a white disk. Ours didn't get white, but it did get pink. Maybe our red was too dark.

In Why Does Light Cast Shadows? by Jacqui Bailey

• We learned about our eyes, and watched our pupils get smaller when we went from a dark room to a brightly lit room.
• Sun and Shadow. We went outside and I traced K.'s shadow with sidewalk chalk. Then a couple hours later we did the same thing to see how our shadows change. We talked about why.

In Experiments with Colors by Salvatore Tocci

• Separating the colors in black. Flatten a coffee filter and draw a line across it with a black water base marker (not permanent). Put water in a glass. The water should be about 3/4-inch below the black line of the filter. Roll the filter up and put it in the water. Watch the water flow up the filter. When the water reaches the top of the filter, take the filter out and let it dry. How many colors do you see? Black ink is made of a mixture of colors.
• Turning black and white into color. There is a black and white circle on the page to photocopy. Cut it out and glue it on cardboard. Make a small hole in the center. Stick a toothpick through and glue it in place. Spin the circle like a top (the circle should spin between five and ten turns per second). You should see colors. We sorta did.
• Turning Blue. We learned why the sky is blue. In the experiment, K. dropped milk into a glass of water until the water looked blue. The sunlight hit the milk particles and reflected blue to our eyes, just like the sunlight hits the dust particles in the air, which reflects blue to our eyes.

From Mirrors: Finding out about the Properties of Light by Bernie Zubrowski

• We played a game of hide and seek using four small mirrors on the table. We each put our chins on the edge of the table and then "It" tried to find the other person using all four mirrors.

 

Here you can see the mirrors taped onto boxes to make them stand up.

It was very difficult to get a picture in the mirrors.

Here you just see K. with two mirrors, but we did get it with all four!

• We played another game with the four mirrors. We taped eyes on one, ears on another, a nose on the third, and the mouth on the fourth. Then tried to line up the mirrors so we could see the face correctly in a mirror. We succeeded, but the nose and ears aren't quite right in the picture.

 

Books we read:

• Light: Shadows, Mirrors, and Rainbows by Natalie M. Rosinsky -- this is an easy reading book with large, colorful illustrations.
• Shadow-Play by Paul Fleischman -- this is a picture book about two children who see a play at the fair, but at the end you find out that the people in the play were just shadows.
• The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson -- a picture book naming night time things
• Eli-s Night Light by Liz Rosenberg -- a picture book about a boy's night light burning out and all the things he discovers that bring light into his room
• Sun Up, Sun Down: The Story of Day and Night by Jacqui Bailey -- a picture book about the sun and the rotation of the earth. At the end of the book it shows how to make a sun dial
• Lights for the Night: A First Look at Illumination by Solveig Paulson Russell -- I skipped over some of the stuff at the beginning of the book, but I have divided the book into sections and we are reading some each week.
• Sisters of Scituate Light by Stephen Krensky -- a picture book story about two sisters that are left to take care of the lighthouse, and how they scare the British away during the War of 1812. This is a true story.
• Fireflies in the Night by Judy Hawes -- this is a Stage 1 Read-and-Find-Out Science book
• How Do You Know It's Summer? by Ruth Owen -- a picture book about summer, and the longest day of the year