Unit 15

  It is hard to believe that next week we will be on Thanksgiving break. We will take the whole week off as daddy is home! We will still read and "learn" through all we do but we will not be using and HOD or "real school" as the girls call it. This week we also had fun at our last day of Co Op classes for the semester. Ian had a mini feast in his class and got to be a Pilgrim boy. We still have a few special party days to attend but are done with classes until the new term starts in February! Ian will be taking Playful Preschool and Beginning Spanish and both girls will be taking a class on World Cultures/Art, and Board Games Make Learning Fun! They are all three excited, even though I cut down their classes because our new little one will be born about a month after classes start. 

Here is the rundown for week 15 in BLHFHG and everything we covered. Daddy has seen some of our fun learning activities and I think he is looking forward to being the substitute when the new baby comes : ) 

Unit 15: Dutch Pioneers Settle New Amsterdam 

Verse: Our HOD verse for the week is Matthew 25:21...."His lord said to him, Well done good and faithful servant" 

Song: None this week so we had extra piano as well as extra choir time at church to prepare for the girls upcoming Christmas play. 

Poem: The Cow

Bible: We read Matthew 25:14- 30  the master who gave his three servants money. This weeks passage also had our verse for the week in it which we enjoyed and the girls caught on to. They had alot of fun acting out the parable and counting money as well as finally adding something new to our timeline.

Storytime: Charlotte's Web by E.B White
      We finished up our book this week because I didn't want a week break and then to start back and them forget. When we come back we will only have a week left in the fantasy genre so we will start on Christmas books : )
    We all cried at the end of the book but I was so happy that the girls caught on to the brotherly love theme throughout the story! As a final project the girls made a word search about the book and we also watched the movie! They wanted to know if all the books we will read will have a movie to go with them. 

Spelling: er  Phonics: none
    We had fun with out er words and liked making up silly sentences. Audrey and Ally both did very well on their weekly test and mastered all of the words! Ian and I worked on writing his name and reviewing letters we have worked on and started writing a few of them. We will pick back up with our phonics after break as I finally got their new workbooks! 

History/Geography: This week we studied how the Dutch came over and settled New Amsterdam and how the animals they brought over were such an assets. We have had such a fun week learning about the cows that the Dutch brought over to New Amsterdam and how that changed what they ate and how they lived.The girls were disgusted by what cud is but thought Trinka, the cow in our stories, was still cute. Our geography focus was over an island and they had fun catching cows and keep them off the island and learned how important it is to have a safe place for animals.

Science: Audrey and Ally both  enjoyed the experiments this week. Since we learned how the cows were important in coming over from Holland both lessons were on cows. We made homemade ice cream and we also made curds and whey. The ice cream was yummy but no one wanted to try the curds. I reallyl don't blame them, they were a bit stinky.

Writing: This week we wrote about what we are thankful for using a hand turkey as our brainstorming sheet. We filled that in, then wrote out a rough draft on the back, followed by a day of editing and revising, and finally we published in our journals. Even though they both forgot to add the great beginning sentences they had in their rough drafts, I am very proud of them!

Audrey's Journal ( I tried to type it how she wrote it) : " I am thankful for a hug familey named Emersyn, Ian, Belle, Mommy, Daddy, and Allyson. I am thankful for my frindis named Macey and Lily. I am thankful for God. I am thankful for Jesus Christ saving me. I am thankful for church. That is all I am thankful for."

Ally's Journal (also typed how it was written) " I am thankful for Jesus! I am thankful for my huge family. I am thankful for my best friends. I am thankful for Delishosh chocolate cake with creamy vinilla frosting. I am thankful for our giant church we go to. I am thankful for Jesus Christ that he died on the cross to take away are sins and to save people. That is what I am thankful for."

*On a side note the letters they wrote last week to their Aunt and their Nanny were very well received and the girls were so happy. They were impressed with their handwriting and how well they addressed the envelopes. In fact a few jealous family members asked for letters : )  They cannot wait until we write letters to Santa and to our favorite Disney character.

Reading: In our HOD reading both girls read Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express book and seemed to like it. In their reading journals I had them write a letter to Ma, pretending to be Bill. We studied letter writing last week. I did a running record to check for fluency and both girls read well over the average 40 wpm for their age! Ally also finished reading Charlotte's Web (4.4/R) on her own and Audrey started a Cam Jansen chapter book (3.2/N) , which she did not want to read but is now surprised that she can! She is doing well on the reading and the comprehension. I am trying to get her to pick harder books on her own but she is still reluctant so I have to gently push her towards them. She loves picture books and I am all for that but she also needs to be a bit more challenged to get better.

Math: We had another easy week in math with harder addition and subtraction. I love all the repetition and ways that Singapore uses to help with this very important skill. The girls have also been using the app Teach Me Second Grade to practice those skills and Audrey is excelling in it! She is on level two of hard subtraction and addition.

Art/PE/Computer/Music/Enrichment:  This week we made a cow for art and it is projects like this that I wish I had a pattern but we did an abstract :) We did alot of PE this week because it has been cold and with the holidays coming we will all eat too much so we have all done extra this week ; ) We also enjoyed the weather before it got to cold and windy to go. We played alot of how far can you jump into the leaves! For computer time the girls did word games and typing on the computer. They each had a good piano lesson and will have next week off for the holiday.  Ian had his Thanksgiving play at church and was the cutest little Indian Ian ever. Our enrichment this week will actually be on the weekend when we got Silver Dollar City to learn about and old fashioned Christmas and how it was like for the pioneers. I cannot wait to blog about that!

We will  be taking next week off and will then pick back up with unit 16 as well as starting on our Christmas writings and ornaments!! I found some really cute writing prompts and activities on Pinterest as well as Teachers pay Teachers to use.