Morning Girl

Morning Girl is our next book.

Some teaching ideas to supplement our lesson plans:

Morning Girl
Literature Activities
Vocabulary
Reading Quiz

Spelling List #8

Spelling List #8 (list #3)

live
me
back
give
most
saw
law
raw
jar
straw
draw
country
ocean
title
motion
change

1.  Give me back the pencil so I can draw the ocean.
2.  Most kids like to drink with a straw.

Spelling City (List 8)
KidsSpell List 8

The goal for this week is to have our spelling test on Friday or Saturday...

Next Unit, we're beginning the book: Morning Girl by Michael Dorris. Today, we should be finishing up our Helen Keller and Sound Unit.  With Morning Girl, we will be studying the following topics: Christopher Columbus, Bahamas, Taino Indians, environment, archaeology...and more! Looks like another fun one.

The books we'll be reading:  Encounter by Jane Yolen, Morning Girl, and Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne.

Spelling List #7

Spelling List #7 (Week 14)

ask
went
men
read
need
short
core
sport
report
port
escort
solid
liquid
gas
size
texture

1. The men put on shorts and went to play sports.
2.  She will ask you if you need to read the book.

KidsSpell
Spelling City

Helen Keller Vocabulary Words

mishap
specialist
disappointment
passion
trial
accomplishment

Vacation's Over (Sad Face)

Time to get back to business.

We're continuing our unit on Sound & Helen Keller.

BrainPop Video to watch - Hearing & BrainPopJr - Sound

Spelling Words (Spelling Test on WEDNESDAY!)
List #6 & Helen Keller Vocabulary
Helen Keller Vocab
KidsSpell List 6

little
work
know
place
years
rain
mail
wait
paint
chant
paid
history
goods
services
pitch
volume

1. With a little work and a little paint, the place will look new.
2.  I had to wait in the rain, so the mail got wet.

Sound Word Wall Words

sound
volume
pitch
vibrate
eardrum

Ear Anatomy Words

outer ear (pinna)
ear canal
ear drum
hammer
anvil
stirrup
semicircular canals
eustachian tube
cochlea
nerves

Sound Travels
Brain Pop States of Matter (Movie and activities)

Going Back In Time

Literally, we're going to go back in time for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Literally, in the sense that our Pioneer Unit ended last week. And literally, in the sense that we're going to be Pioneers for Thanksgiving.

We're going to try to do as much of our dinner as though we were Pioneers (with some cheating, of course...)

We finished reading Sarah, Plain and Tall and Little House in the Big Woods.  Now we're reading Little House on the Prairie. The boys love the Little House books! (It's our bedtime book and they actually beg to go to bed early to listen to a chapter!)

**********************************************************************
Anyway, here's what we're going to make for dinner:

HOMEMADE BUTTER - Butter (link to a different recipe)
and yet another recipe:  Homemade Butter

1/2 cup whipping cream

1 tablespoon sour cream
pinch of salt, optional

Put both creams into a jar with a tight-fitting lid; shake vigorously. After a lump of butter forms (about 15 minutes), pour off the remaining liquid (whey - buttermilk). Place the butter on a plate and press it gently with a spoon to remove the remaining liquid. If desired, sprinkle with salt.

SUNDAY CORN PUDDINGMix together

2 tablespoons melted butter
1 beaten egg
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cups milk

To this mixture, add 2 cups corn. Pour into buttered baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees, about 30 minutes (until firm).

If only we had some snow...

SNOW CREAM Snow cream was a winter treat, enjoyed in many areas of America long before the recipe for Ice Cream was brought from France (about 1800).

1 cup cream (or milk)
1/2 cup sugar
1 beaten egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix well together in a large bowl. Stir in soft, fresh snow until you have an icy sherbet consistency.

JOHNNY CAKE (We just read about these in Little House in the Big Woods)

1 cup cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

1 cup milk

1/4 cup honey

1 tablespoon molasses

1 tablespoon butter or margarine, melted

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients. Blend this mixture into the dry ingredients, mixing just enough to combine. Put the batter into a greased 8 inch square pan. Bake at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Serve hot with Homemade Butter.

 

Another Johnny Cake recipe:

JOHNNYCAKE

3 cups cornmeal

1 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons molasses

3 cups buttermilk

2 well-beaten eggs

 

Sift together dry ingredients. Slowly stir in molasses and buttermilk and mix well. Add beaten eggs and beat hard for two minutes. Pour into shallow, well-greased pans and bake at 400° for 30 minutes.

 

NAVOO GINGER COOKIES

 

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1/3 cup oil

1/3 cup water

1 egg

3-1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, molasses, oil, and water. Beat in the egg. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add the dry mixture in three parts to the wet mixture, stirring well after each addition. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls and place them on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes.

 

We'll maybe add to this. But for today, this is the goal for tomorrow!

 

Sound & Helen Keller

Learning about the ear and sound -

Colin started to put together a 3D diagram of the ear today. Now we just have to make sure we know what all those parts mean!

Ear Anatomy (to help with labeling and putting together the 3D diagram)
More Practice (labeling the diagram)

Fun stuff here for learning about Sound - BrainPopJr

More Spelling Practice (We're on List #6) AND Helen Keller Vocabulary

Spelling City

And lastly - Little Passports (Japan)

Helen Keller & Sound

We'll be starting Concept 3 over the weekend or on Monday. (Yes, you read that correctly. My poor son does school on the weekends! But that's only to make up for days off and his mother's insane schedule during the week)

Concept 3 is "Who Was Helen Keller?"

We will read:

Who Was Helen Keller by Gare Thompson
Alexander Graham Bell by Wil Mara

And coinciding with our Language Arts unit on Helen Keller's Biography, we will do a unit on Sound.

This should be a fun unit - including biography/autobiography, timeline of Helen Keller's life, sign language, our senses, music, inventors and inventions, braille, timeline of Colin Hand's life, more work on the United States and maps, poetry, and our final project: scrapbook or an interview.

Spelling List #6

Spelling List #6 (List 2)

little
work
know
place
years
rain
mail
wait
paint
chant
paid
history
goods
services
pitch
volume

Dictation Sentences:

1. With a little work and a little paint, the place will look new.
2. I had to wait in the rain, so the mail got wet.

Web practice:

Spelling City
KidsSpell
 

Election Day!

Tomorrow is Election Day in the United States. We will elected our 45th President.

Here are some resources to help learn about all of this 'stuff':

PBS Democracy Project
TIME for Kids (This site also has a lot of headline news that can be investigated)
Election Terms Wordsearch
Scholastic News (Another site with more news information to read)

Farming Today & Yesterday

Farming today and yesterday are certainly different!  Here's a great site to explore Pioneer Farming and more:  http://www.campsilos.org/index.htm

Another great site for exploring: Virtual Farm Walk

Math Stuff  here

And of course, there's always Spelling & Vocabulary work to be done!  Spelling City

Spelling List #5 (List 6)

say
great
where
help
through
gold
colt
fold
mold
sold
told
limited
resource
offspring
parent
stages

1. Gold is a limited resource.2. Where can a parent get help?

United States & Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura Ingalls Wilder - wonderful addition to our Sarah, Plain and Tall/Pioneers Unit.  Here's a great website for research:  Laura Ingalls Wilder


And now we're learning about the United States - its regions, its states, the capitals and oh, so much more.

One site for fun:

USA Capitals Game

And back to that 50 Nifty United States song!

Another helpful tool:  50states.com

State Name                    Abbreviation                     Capital                                    Region

 

1. Alabama                             AL                                Montgomery                          Southeast

2. Alaska                                  AK                               Juneau

3. Arizona                               AZ                               Phoenix                                   Southwest

4. Arkansas                              AR                               Little Rock                               Southeast

5. California                            CA                               Sacramento                             West

6. Colorado                             CO                               Denver                                    West

7. Connecticut                         CT                           Hartford                                  Northeast

8. Delaware                             DE                               Dover                                      Northeast

9. Florida                                 FL                                 Tallahassee                             Southeast

10. Georgia                             GA                               Atlanta                                     Southeast

11. Hawaii                               HI                                Honolulu                   

12. Idaho                                 ID                                Boise                                       West

13. Illinois                               IL                                 Springfield                               Midwest

14. Indiana                              IN                                Indianapolis                             Midwest

15. Iowa                                  IA                                 Des Moines                             Midwest

16. Kansas                               KS                                Topeka                                    Midwest

17. Kentucky                           KY                                Frankfurt                                 Southeast

18. Louisiana                          LA                                Baton Rouge                           Southeast

19. Maine                                ME                               Augusta                                  Northeast

20. Maryland                          MD                              Annapolis                                Northeast

21. Massachusetts                  MA                              Boston                                     Northeast

22. Michigan                          MI                                Lansing                                   Midwest

23. Minnesota                         MN                              St. Paul                                    Midwest

24. Mississippi                         MS                               Jackson                                   Southeast

25. Missouri                            MO                              Jefferson                                 Midwest

26. Montana                           MT                               Helena                                     West

27. Nebraska                           NE                               Lincoln                                     Midwest

28. Nevada                              NV                               Carson City                             West

29. New Hampshire                NH                               Concord                                  Northeast

30. New Jersey                        NJ                                Trenton                                  Northeast

31. New Mexico                      NM                              Santa Fe                                  Southwest

32. New York                           NY                               Albany                                     Northeast

33. North Carolina                  NC                               Raleigh                                     Southeast

34. North Dakota                    ND                               Bismarck                                 Midwest

35. Ohio                                  OH                               Columbus                               Midwest

36. Oklahoma                         OK                               Oklahoma City                        Southwest

37. Oregon                              OR                               Salem                                      West

38. Pennsylvania                     PE                                Harrisburg                              Northeast

39. Rhode Island                    RI                                 Providence                              Northeast

40. South Carolina                 SC                                Columbia                                Southeast

41. South Dakota                   SD                               Pierre                                       Midwest

42. Tennessee                         TN                               Nashville                                 Southeast

43. Texas                                 TX                                Austin                                     Southwest

44. Utah                                  UT                                Salt Lake City                          West

45. Vermont                            VT                                Montpelier                             Northeast

46. Virginia                             VA                               Richmond                               Southeast

47. Washington                      WA                              Olympia                                  West

48. West Virginia                    WV                              Raleigh                                    Southeast

49. Wisconsin                         WI                                Madison                                 Midwest
 

50. Wyoming                          WY                           Cheyenne                               West

Busy-work for both boys

Some days, especially since taking on my new job as Town Clerk, the boys have to keep themselves busy. But I don't mean entertaining themselves by making messes, watching TV, sitting on the computer or playing! I mean LEARNING!

Some good sites: (for the boys to work on)

ABC Mouse
PBS Kids

Clever Dragons
Math Blaster
JumpStart

Websites that I'm using to make worksheets, etc. for them:

Kids Learning Station
All Kids Network

Brazil, Pioneers & Flowers!

We've got a couple things going right now. Since we're reading Sarah, Plain and Tall, we are also studying pioneers. At bedtime, we're reading a chapter of Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The boys love it!

Wildflowers

We're doing wildflowers right now (because Sarah and Caleb picked wildflowers together)  Sites to use:

Wildflower Color pages  & Kansas Wildflowers

With the wildflower links, we will investigate different wildflowers. Then he will make a 'Guidebook of Wildflowers' where we will write the names, draw pictures, and write where it grows and interesting facts about each wildflower.  (The pages are in his workbook and can be torn out, and the edges trimmed.)

Little Passports

We've started receiving our Little Passports!  We are now travelling to Brazil.  Here is where Colin can play games:  Little Passports

Spelling & Vocabulary

Of course, we must continue to study our spelling words and vocabulary words:

Spelling City  Where we can work on List #4 & Vocabulary for Sarah, Plain & Tall

Natural Resources & National Parks

We are also studying Natural Resources.  We will be discussing the difference between a renewable and nonrenewable resource.  Colin should soon be able to describe ways natural resources can be conserved.

Here are some links to many protected National Parks.  They are protected because of their natural resources.  Investigate & explore these places to find out why they are protected.  The information he finds can be put in his journal.

Glacier National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Grand Canyon National Park
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Everglades National Park
White Sands National Monument

*Extra! See if Colin can find a National Park on the NPS website that WE just recently stayed at!

Sarah, Plain & Tall

We are starting the next unit: Sarah, Plain and Tall and Maps and Mapping.  (Kind of nice to have a surveyor in the house for that one...)

Additional Sarah, Plain and Tall lesson plans:

Literature Learning Ladders
Student Study Guide
Easy Fun School

Spelling and vocabulary words:

journal
classified ad
dusk
familiar
murmur
pungent
eerie
collapse
horrid
stern

Practice here:  SpellingCity

I think this is going to be a fun unit!  Ironically, they are studying the Oregon Trail and other pioneer/frontier lessons at the charter school.

Here is one site for Pioneer Days - Thinkquest & Kid Info

Spelling List #4

Spelling List #4

very
after
things
our
just
girl
dirt
shirt
third
thirst
birth
system
produce
consume
life
cycle

KidsSpell
Spelling City

Reading, Spelling, Dictation - Spelling List #3

We found a great site for spelling words: k12reader.com

I'm bouncing around, however, because the spelling words and dictation sentences also have reading comprehension worksheets for some cross-categorical work that, ironically, seem to coincide with what we're working on in Moving Beyond the Page's language arts/science/social studies.

Week 3 Spelling Words (actually list 7)

much
before
line
right
too
loud
sound
found
shout
count
mouth
urban
suburban
rural
magnet
touch

Dictation Sentences:

1. It can be too loud in an urban area.
2. When you shout your mouth is open wide.

List 7 Reading Comprehension

Spelling Practice Sites

KidsSpell
Spelling City

Precipitation

Types of Precipitation

More info on precipitation at Geography for Kids

Severe Weather Primer

Turtles

Chapter 4 of "Tornado" is about a turtle. So of course, we've had to do some turtle research!

Great site for turtle info (and more)  National Geographic, Turtle Puddle, and Turtles (with links to like every single turtle ever)

Tomorrow, however, we're going to look at mythology (and the turtle in mythology and cultural depictions of the turtle)

A great list of additional books to read:  Turtle Tales

Do you know the difference between myths and fables?  I do now.

Constitution Day

Today is Constitution Day. In addition to coloring and watching a Brain Pop Video, we'll be doing some worksheets. Here's a good link:

Constitution Day Activities
Patriotic Printables

Of course, everyday (or as many as we can) should be Pledge of Allegiance day!  We try to incorporate as much on our country as we can.

Spelling List #2

Spelling List #2 (actually, Spelling List #10 because of the vocabulary words and activities that coincide with our Tornado Science/Social Studies lessons)

Links to spelling sites:

KidsSpell
Spelling City

Words:

also
around
form
three
small
mean
clean
peak
dream
beach
team
length
weight
height
temperature
distance

Dictation Sentences:

1. In my dream, the beach was clean.

2. The team is small, but they have big dreams.

Teaching the Months

C is working on his math and doing great - until he got to the months of the year. Seems we need some review. Heck, maybe even an extra lesson. (Thought this had already been covered in school?) He must just need some help with the order of things. I found this great site to help with that:

Teaching Months of the Year

50 Nifty United States & Patriot Day

While learning about Tornado Alley, I realized it might be a good time to teach C the state abbreviations. So, while learning the 50 states and their abbreviations, I remembered the way I learned the states (in alpha order):  "50 Nifty United States" song!  So I found it on YouTube and the boys have been learning it here.

Ironically, the timing couldn't be better - tomorrow is Patriot Day.

The boys are coloring a flag and singing our "50 Nifty United States" song.  We've also begun to teach G the Pledge of Allegiance.

Spelling List #1

Spelling List #1

over
new
sound
take
only
car
park
hard
barn
card
shark
family
compare
contrast
timeline
map

Spelling Games:

KidsSpell
Spelling City

Dictation Sentences:

1. Park the new car over by the barn.
2. The family saw a shark at the water park.