Sonlight K - Week 9

This week we started having chores for both of the boys.  Munchkin has had a chore for a while now (clearing the silverware out of the dishwasher) but this weekend, it was decided that Ditto would also begin to help around the house.

So now, Ditto clears the silverware...

and Munchkin wipes off the guest bathroom counter daily and sweeps the front walkway regularly.  Since we have been discussing "service" this week in our family scripture study, this was a great way to put it into action - serving our families.

Math
Among other things, we used linking cubes to measure the length and width of our office desk...

 Munchkin enjoyed this so much that he wanted to measure our kitchen table...

 We ran out of linking cubes (we only have 100)...

...but we just determined that our table was more than 100 linking cubes long and 56 linking cubes wide.

Although I feel pretty confident in Munchkin having learned his double facts (1+1, 2+2, etc.) I wanted to do one more "fun" activity to cement his understanding and confirm my confidence.  So, this week I read Two of Everything by Lily Toy Hong.  The boys LOVED this book! They requested I re-read it multiple times (at lunch, before naps, at dinner). To make it an active reading, I had Ditto count the pictures and I had Munchkin figure out the doubles.  We also read Double the Ducks by Stuart J. Murphy. I had the boys do the same thing (Ditto - count, Munchkin - double) and then Munchkin completed a few pages from this Double the Ducks Activity Pack.

We also continued working on graphing and graphed a handful of a pattern blocks a few times...

Science
We have been discussing a great deal about our planet this week. To enhance the reading assigned by Sonlight, we read some very enjoyable books.

On Monday, after reading about the destruction of the rainforest, we read The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry. After reading about pollution we read The Berenstain Bears Don't Pollute Anymore. And after we read about the extinction of animals, we read The Hunter and the Animals by Tomie dePaola.  Munchkin really enjoyed each of these books and even though it was a lot of reading it provided a great opportunity for further discussion and understanding of each of these subjects. 

On Tuesday, after reading about global warming (Sonlight assignment), we made these fun earth crafts.

the original idea came from To The Lesson

Munchkin's

Ditto's

They really enjoyed these and worked on them for a very long time.  

On Wednesday, we read about ways we can help our planet and afterward we made a bird-feeder.  

Language
This week, I decided to start Munchkin on writing in a journal. I want him to develop a real love for writing and even though he practices his handwriting daily, I feel free-writing in a journal will allow him to practice without even knowing it.

 After his reading work, we worked on defining the word cab...

...this process really cemented the meaning in his mind (we have read more stories with this word in it as the week went on and he still remembers).

Spelling.
Munchkin has been doing extremely well in spelling. He hasn't misspelled any words yet (granted he is still spelling phonetically spelled words and sometimes writes his letters incorrectly) but this week he advanced to my dictating phrases to him and him spelling them...

...he did well (this provides a great opportunity to work on handwriting and word spacing).

That sums it up for our week!