Sonlight K - Week 10

This week was pretty fun but we had to work some this weekend because a lot of things came up this week (doctor and dentist appointments, surprise trip to Disneyland, fun time with Grandma).  Here are the highlights from our week:

Language:
Munchkin worked on sentence length.  

Here he changed a short sentence (Sam ran.) into a longer sentence (Sam ran fast at the race!)

We discussed how adding descriptive terms to sentences help the reader envision the story better.  After lengthening some sentences and shortening others, Munchkin decided that when he grows up he wants to be a Dad, Author, Illustrator, Knight.  Very cute!

I also gave him a group of words and asked him to sort them into like categories. I thought I might need to help him through this one but he did it all by himself.  I was very impressed!

left to right: body parts, food, animals, men, etc.

History:
We discussed the first explorers and I Munchkin worked on this worksheet while I read.

Munchkin loved this and asked if he could have more of these!

We also discussed how explorers navigated using homemade compasses.  In order to see what it was like, we made our own homemade compass.

we confirmed our experiment by comparing our findings to my husband's phone

Meanwhile, I took this picture of what Ditto worked on one day while Munchkin and I were having school.  I thought it was so cool that he was making such a cute effort to write letters.

Because of this, and after discussing it with a very eager Ditto, I've decided to start Letter of the Week (based on books) activities this Monday.  We're all excited!

Math:
We continued to work on our double facts as well as adding one number facts and adding zero number facts.  Munchkin understands all of these concepts perfectly.

On Friday, he tried to figure out how many different ways he could make the same shape with a different pattern?  This was just the perfect amount of challenge. 

Art:
We finally finished up our Preview Lesson of Meet the Masters.  Dad worked with Munchkin on making his portfolio.   

not part of the preview- a quick lesson on color mixing

On the front is a palette with all of the artists we will be studying this year (including Munchkin's name) and he decided he wanted to paint this picture on the back (a knight on a horse with a knife and a castle in the distance)

Science:
This week we learned about "living things" and cells...
To help cement the information in Munchkin's brain, we made edible cells...

animal cell

plant cell

And watched Magic School Bus Goes Cellular. Not the best video but the boys enjoyed it.

Another day we discussed the "animal world".  I decided to take a different route with this and first discuss vertebrate vs. invertebrate.  We did the activity below to make sure he understood the difference...

Then we watched this video...twice. Great video!

Sonlight K - Week 5 Day 2

We had a great school day today!  Among many other things, we went continued our journey through Sweden and learned more about the Vikings.  Today we learned about the clothes the Vikings wore.  Munchkin worked hard going around the house to collect what things he could to make himself a Viking costume...

Munchkin has all the necessary supplies: sword, axe, belt with buckle, wraps around legs, "pretend leather shoes", and cape. And a mean face (even though "he is a happy and nice Viking").

For our Saxon Math lesson today, I used some of our Montessori materials to help Munchkin gain a more thorough understanding of some math concepts.

We used the Short Bead Stair to begin to recognize quantities using colors (this will come in handy in future, more difficult math presentations)

Then he wanted to complete a worksheet to show off his skills (within two presentations he had memorized all of the colors and their corresponding quantities without looking)

Afterwards, we worked on a non-mathematics related activity (even though this is in his Saxon Math 1 Meeting Book)...

Here he is drawing a picture of a Fall tree (from memory)

His completed page. He decided to write a sentence about what a Fall tree means to him - "The Leevs chanj culer (the leaves change color).

Then we did a little bit of seasonal picture math (addition and subtraction) using leaf table scatter I bought at Target last year.

He loved it and was very good at it!

I also did a mirrored example on our whiteboard.

Sonlight K - Week 4 Day 5

Munchkin is working hard this week to get caught up after basically missing school on Wednesday.  So today, we worked on the work we had scheduled for yesterday.

Math:
He started with an Assessment worksheet to confirm his understanding thus far.  As expected, he aced it!

We then worked on addition and subtraction. I decided to switch things up a bit for Munchkin and do something I knew would intrigue him...apple manipulatives and an apple bowl to put them in.

Munchkin did really well figuring out the answers to my "apple story problems" and coming up with his own.

He then completed his worksheet...

...and Developmental Workbook...

We also did all of our read-aloud reading (with Ditto, of course) and then we went to Karate class and the grocery store to get a few last minutes things for our special dinner...

Under Munchkin's instruction, and just like the Romans as he kept reminding us, we had - First Course: Salad (cucumbers and lettuce), Main Course: whole chicken, artisan bread, and Boar's Head (salami), Final Course: fresh fruit (plums, grapes, and peaches).

I truly have never seen Munchkin so happy at dinner!

The boys are learning how to eat chicken legs (horizontal...not vertical)

dessert!

bowl of water used to clean our hands after each course

really enjoying the Roman way of eating...laying down while eating grapes :)

So happy after eating a great meal!

I LOVE THIS BOY!

Sonlight K - Week 4 Day 1

Getting back into the swing of things we had school today.  Even though Munchkin was feeling a little under the weather, we discussed the importance of being productive even when sick but still taking care of ourselves. So, here's some of the things we did today...

We are headed to Rome this week so Munchkin added his Italy stamp to his passport.

After reading about Ancient Rome, both boys chose to color Roman coloring pages (Ditto chose a gladiator and Munchkin chose a Roman Soldier)

My best attempt at making a toga for him out of a bed sheet...he loved it!

He continued to color and work in his toga up until lunch time.

Then he decided he wanted to become a Roman Soldier so he made this "costume" himself (we worked on the "paper towel spear" together).

After I laid Ditto down for his nap, we worked on catching up on our Science worksheets.

He is working hard on his handwriting (I don't ask him to write everything but I encourage him to write at least some of his responses...he's usually very willing).

After reading about Rocks and Fossils in Science, I took out Munchkin's rock collection (most of which he received from Aunt Tatiana and boys for Christmas) and he immediately went to find out which rock would write on paper (graphite, of course).

He was very please with this!

He proceeded to draw a very detailed picture.

He also discovered the beauty of a magnifying glass.

He thought this large rock his Dad brought back from a camping trip was very interesting.

He made sure to record his finding in his Science Journal.

After exploring rocks further, Munchkin worked making a homemade fossil using clay and sea shells.

As usual, he made this assignment his own...

After Ditto woke up and while enjoying his snack, he joined us for our Language Lessons #64 and #65

For Family Home Evening, we decided to do Munchkin's Science lesson as our activity...

Dad is SO good at this...

I am so thankful he was able to do this with the boys. They loved it...

Ditto even added a smiley face to the top of our spool.

The finished product...our very own homemade weather vane.