Week beginning 2/14/10

For the week of 2/14/10 to 2/20/10

Language Arts and Foreign Languages:
*I read aloud Mummies in the Morning - vocabulary: oasis, mirage, pyramid, sarcophagus
*Sarah learned Spanish words for body parts
*Sarah read Yo! Yes?
*Sarah did Three Little Plays and Chinese Fables in the I'm Reading section on starfall.com
*Mia did Silly Turkey (short U sound) on starfall.com
*Adam independently counted to five in Spanish.
*Adam and Aaden repeated numbers in Spanish to ten
*Adam and Aaden did Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in ASL
*Adam and Aaden copied the ASL fingerspelling alphabet


Math:
*I read One Hundred Hungry Ants to Mia, Adam, and Aaden
*Sarah was introduced to Roman numerals I, II, III, IV, IIV, IIIV, V, VI, VII, VIII, X, C, and M
*Mia and Adam learned "whole" and "half" (review for Mia)

Social Studies:
*Sarah, Mia, and I read the Usborne IL Encyclopedia of Ancient History chapter on Egypt
*Sarah and Mia looked at photos of "What the World Eats" showing weekly groceries in some different families in different countries around the world
*Sarah and Mia watched a detailed but child-friendly online video with Dad about the mummification process of Ancient Egypt
*Sarah and Mia learned about Ancient Egypt

Science:
*Sarah, Mia and Adam learned about some different dinosaurs (including a new one: ornithomimus), new word: paleontologist
*Sarah and Mia, (and Adam) learned about the scientific method - hypothesis, test, observe
*Sarah and Mia looked at the timeline from formation of the Earth, through life appearing, to dinosaurs, to current.
*Sarah explored insect camouflage
*Sarah learned about electricity; watched Electricity For Kids 1 (electric circuits, conventional current flow, electrons, voltage, switch, conducting) and Electricity for Kids 2 (magnets, attract/repel, polarity, compass)
*Mia watched an electricity for kids video

Physical Education:
*Sarah and Mia learned about relay races.
*Sarah, Mia, and Adam attended their gymnastics classes on Thursday (the last class of this session) and then afterward we stayed for open gym time where Aaden was able to explore the gym and equipment as well. At home, the children worked on forward rolls, backward rolls, cartwheels, handstands, bridges, backbends, and back walkovers (at their level.)

Art:
*Mia blended primary colors to make secondary colors.


There was a special treat this week! After church at the beginning of the week (an intergenerational service, so there were no RE classes) there was a Kids' Valentine's Day Dance. The kids had a lot of fun dancing and getting to play with children they don't get to spend a lot of purely social time with, and then afterwards the girls were awesome and helped fold up and put away some of the chairs.

Tuesday we went to an "after Valentine's Valentine party" with our friends - the children exchanged Valentines and had lots of fun playing dress up and with Play Dough together. A snowstorm brought lots of opportunities on Wednesday for outside snow play with snowball fights, fort building, snowmen, and sledding with neighborhood friends. Saturday, Sarah and Mia went with two of their friends to Chuck E Cheese's for an afternoon of fun, and a quick trip to see the train station (where the photo at right was taken.)