grade 4, block II: math (week 1)

monday, october 5th
(read on own, sea of trolls, 45 min)


main lesson:


copy work:

"Harvest", by Maria de Havas (first verse)


"Fields of wheat, oats and barley
bending in the summer breeze
sun and shadow, wave and ripple
chase across the golden seas"

*math & grammar practice book, with riddle

*nature study challenge, outdoor hour...
we ventured a bit out of sync from the website this week & gathered what wildflowers we could find & spent the afternoon mounting & id'ing them. orin loved hunting them down in our many guide books & aydin was our mounting expert. they turned out great! the boys are already asking to gather more next week...

lesson b:

form drawing, this month we will begin learning to tie (& draw) real knots from the pocket guide to knots.

today, though we began our exploration with just the rope itself...looping, figure eights, coils, etc...we then chose our favorite(s) to draw in our main lessons book. orin decided that it is much easier to draw "real" knots made with real rope, than the celtic knot designs that we have been working on, from the page.

tuesday, october 6th
(read on own, sea of trolls, 45 min)

main lesson:

*copywork: "Actions speak louder than words."

*math & grammar practice book, with riddle

*math review,
review basic math facts via "math concentration" game. try for pairs as with regular concentration, but each player adds the two cards together that they turn over, whether a match or not.

*introduction to fractions,

visualize with an apple story. "we have one apple, one whole...and there are two of us, so i cit it into 2 equal pieces. so, we each get 1/2. oh, but wait...her come aydin & ehren & they each want a piece of our apple...so i cut each half in half again to make four equal pieces, so now we each get 1/4 of the apple...etc...cutting the apple as you go along and up to 8ths.

then show on chalk board how this would all be written, compete with pictures...

*practice problems, om grade 4 math book, p. 88-89

*project: draw 12 circles on poster board (we traced saucers) & color, these will become our fraction manipulates.

lesson b:
handwork, we were to continue on with our picture transfer, but a neighbor gave us a few hoodies for the boys. they are really nice (lined & everything), but covered in skulls! so, today's handwork b/came revamp the hoodies...:)

orin wanted to cover his, as it is sewn into the sweatshirt itself, with twin dragons, so he did a bit of searching online for the right dragon. we will then trace these onto one of lance's old tees & practice our embroidery stitches that way. perhaps we'll use a bit of fabric marker as well...

wednesday, october 7th

(read on own, sea of trolls, 45 min)

*copywork: "All good things come to those who wait."

*math & grammar practice, with riddle

*math review,

continue to review basic addition facts via "math war". just like regular war, but with a math twist. whichever player turns over the highest card must correctly add the facts together, if correct, keeps the trick, if incorrect, cards are moved to bottom of deck.

(orin is loving the math games!!)

*more work with fractions,introduce terms, numerator, denominator

*practice problems, om grade 4 math book, p. 92-93

lesson b:
baking, cheese & chive scones

thursday, october 8th
(read on own, sea of trolls, 45 min)main lesson:

*copywork: "A picture is worth a thousand words."

*math & grammar practice book, with riddle

*math practice, number concentration, take 2, subtraction...

*continue work with fractions,

practice basic addition & subtraction, with like denominators

*practice problems,

om grade 4 math book, p. 95-97

the om grade 4 math book has some wonderful fraction story problems, where the child is asked to translate each problem into a picture. orin had a ball with this, he has really been into drawing lately.

but it took up quite a bit of our lesson time, so i opted to do the math practice problems orally.
he absolutely loves math, and is a very logical thinker...so, this is an easy block for him.

we also cut out our circles & labeled them. we did doubles of some, but triples of most. these will come in handy when we stat adding & subtracting mixed fractions.

he began using them as soon as we had them all laid out, and look at what was discovered, all on his own! (i love homeschooling! :)

*painting, we were to plan out & paint a garden, divided up into parts (1/4 flowers, 1/4 grains, 1/4 vegetables, and each section divided further into 1/5s, 1/3rds, etc), but our neighbor invited the boys over to help her & her children gather pears.

so, we opted for the gathering...i actually let orin & aydin go over to her house on their own, which is big. although not too big, as she lives only 3 houses down from us. but we live in the mountains, and in a rural area at that, so there are fields between each house.

they got to climb in the trees and pick the pears, but also got to use the long reaching "pickers" where you pull the sting. they even got to bring a few pears home with them, so we had those with our lunch.

eyvn & ehren and i enjoyed some special time together...it was a beautiful autumn day!

lesson b: (again, the pear picking)

handwork, trace dragons onto tshirt, begin embroidery (to be continued at next week's lesson)

friday, october 9th

orin at Dancing Springs Learning Cooperative, hs enrichment program