Friday!!!

Good Morning and Happy Friday Everyone!!

It was STILL raining here this morning (third day in a row!) so Ari and I were unable to go on our daily walk.  I LOVE the rain but cannot wait for it to be clear enough to be able to head outside again!

Today we have a more focused and schedule day planned which will be helpful to get everyone back on track after our day of fun yesterday!

After everyone's morning routines were completed we started with our journaling prompt - What do you love most about the Fall and why?

Bringing nature into our classroom!

These are absolutely the hardest words they've had so far and it's proving challenging.  We are still working on corrections and they still have another week until their test next Friday!  I know they'll be ready!

We moved onto our spelling words, dictionary copy work and then more writing for our research projects.

His handwriting is coming along SO nicely!!

Handwriting via dictionary copy work

Research paper writing time!

She's LOVING writing information about her subject!

Very rough outlines

For science we continued our discussions about the origin of life and more specifically focused our attention on Charles Darwin.  I had the children use "who was" worksheets to learn some basic facts about Darwin.

Perhaps I'm biased but her drawing is INCREDIBLE!!!

Ty likes to draw from memory whereas Kendall likes to have an image in front of her.  I absolutely marvel at how distinctly different and amazing their abilities are!

We continued our reading and discussions about the American flag and then I introduced them to my concept of "smart cards".  Smart cards are nothing more than laminated flash cards on a ring.  I've cut index cards down to 4"x 3".  I can fit two cards into a laminating pocket and zip it through the machine.  I then trim them down, punch a hole in the corner and voila!  (pictures to come once I have a bunch assembled)

The children are always asking how to spell certain words, we're often discussing math concepts, science theories, etc.  Every time they ask how to spell a word, I write it on a card.  I write the word on the blank side of the card and then I put the part of speech and it's definition on the lined side.  Once the card is laminated it will go on the ring so that the kids can use these as a quick reference for frequently misspelled words.  I've started doing this for math concepts and science theories.  I plan on creating divider cards out of colored cardstock to separate the sections within the ring.  I don't want to use a separate ring for each subject just yet.  If need be we can do that in the future but we'll start small for now.  The kids were very excited about our "Smartcards".  I'm happy to do anything to get them excited about learning!!

While we were reading about the American Flag, we started talking about the "rules" about how to care for, treat and properly handle the flag.  We read about the proper folding techniques for the flag and then I had them practice using a dish towel.  It was great fun and they folded the dish towel again and again!

We wrapped up our day at this point as we'd covered all I planned to that day.  Kendall used some of her birthday money to buy a clip on chair for her AG dolls and it came in the mail just as we finished up the day.  YAY!!  This chair is from Target's line of "Next Generation" dolls which is their version of American Girls.  I was a little suspect of the quality as I did not know what to expect having never purchased anything from this line in the past.  We've always purchased AG accessories as the quality is amazing - expensive for sure, but the quality is wonderful.  Well, let me tell you that the quality of the Target brand, at least on this item, is just as good as American Girl AND the chair only cost $19.99!!!  There's literally nothing at AG that costs $19.99!  HA!  Kendall does not care about the brand name, only that it functions as she likes which makes me oh so happy!!  Thumbs up here!!

She and Ty went to play at this point for a couple of hours and then they each had their respective afternoon activities - Kendall to Acro then later Ty to dance.

Drawing together before evening dance class!

Saige was placed to draw right along with them!

We have a busy and fun weekend planned!!  Hope you have a great one!  See you next week!