Tuesday, October 6, 2009

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

felted dryer balls??...i LOVE it!


this is a GREAT find, as i have some insanely bulky yarn that i was trying to figure our what to do with.

check it out...it's cheap & eco-friendly...

Friday, October 2, 2009

grade 4, block I, norse myths (wk 5)

monday, september 28th
(read on own, sea of trolls by nancy farmer, 45 min)

main lesson:
*math/grammar/spelling practice

*copy work:

“I know an Ash standing,
A high tree sprinkled
with snow white clay;
Thence come the dews
in the dall that fall--
It stands ever green
above Urd's wall"

*nature study challenge, #4
http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/2008/03/green-hour-4-it-is-coming-into-focus.html

lesson b:
form drawing, p. 20, fig 32 b. (trillium knot 2)http://www.millennialchild.com/Slideshows/Resources/Grade04FormDrawing.html



we finished our "michaelmas star balls", the boys wanted brighter colors, so we used kool-aid






and it was a gorgeous & blustery day in western north carolina...so we flew kites.
it is a bit frustrating to do here. there are so many trees that the winds come from all directions. but the boys kept at it and we had a few good runs. i had to forgo the picture taking to help out though. :)









tuesday, september 29th (michaelmas)
*we started the day off with a longer than usual walk, relishing the first signs of autumn






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


main lesson:
*math/spelling/grammar practice

*tell of idunn (D’Aulaire’s, p. 87-90)
(cb): variation of D’Aulaire’s, p. 67



*project:

needle felt idunn bendy doll w/basket of apples

lesson b:

baking, dragon bread!

wednesday, september 30th

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

main lesson:
*math/spelling/grammar practice
(recall idunn)
*tell of skade (D’Aulaire’s, p. 91-95)
(cb): D’Aulaire’s, p. 94-95

*draw portrait of skade, write a brief bio, name in both runes & eng*project: make peg people from story

lesson b:

handwork, begin working on embroidery transfer. draw picture on upcycled fabric w/markers.

inspired by herbst (eva maria ott-heidmann)
orin's, inspired by "avatar: the last air bender"


thursday, october 1st

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

main lesson:
*math/spelling/grammar practice
(recall skade)
*last day of lesson block, read back through main lesson book. recall stories, favorite characters

painting: michaelmas (st. michael/george & the dragon, of course)

lesson b: transfer picture to hoop & begin embroidery

grade 1, block I: letter introduction (wk 3)

monday, september 28th
main lesson:
*form drawing, "running wave form", introduce with a short story.
*we actually sang "the ants go marching one by one (horrah, horrah!)" and marched around the yard, pretending that we were marching up & back down hills


lesson b:
nature study #4,
*it was a beautiful & blustery autumn day here in western north carolina, so we had a go at flying kites...


tuesday, september 29th (michaelmas)

*we started the day with an extended morning walk, hunting for the first signs of autumn & gathering wildflowers...






main lesson:
*tell story, part #3
introducing mountain, door, and 'e' (eeeeeehhh)

project:
*make a picture of misty mountains with a door that actually opens

lesson b:
handwork, we opted to do besswax modeling for michaelmas, aydin made a dragon...



we also made a delicious dragon bread...


wednesday, september 30th

main lesson:
(recall story part #3, together)

*our picture for this week's lesson was testerday's project, so we dyed out 'michaelmas star balls'. the boys wanted bright colors, so we dyed them with kool-aid...they turbned out awesome! aqnd the boys love them! (mental note...christmas gift poetential..;)



thursday, october 1st

main lesson:
(recall story part #3, aydin on own)
*write short summary together, copy into lesson book
lesson b:
painting, st. goerge & the dragon
a butterfly came to visit aydin's painting...
*aydin has become quite the lego builder recently, really expanding both what he builds & the detail involved...