Hello, year 7! Back to school we go!

 

Learning Log #39 (May 11th - 15th)

TOGETHER
Science - This week we had a science lesson on the Scientific Method.  To put it to use we did an experiment to answer the question, "How many drops of water will fit on a penny?" and filled out a worksheet to go through the scientific method.






KEIRA
Math - For our last week of Math, we mixed it up with games and lessons.  Keira did a chapter of Life of Fred, and on other days she played games such as The Allowance Game, and Code Names.
ELA - Keira did a page of handwriting, listened to a workshop on creative writing, practiced a little writing of her own, and read from Harry Potter, book 5, and The Real Thomas Jefferson.
Tech - She spent time building houses and gardens in Minecraft this week.  The house had interesting rooms built underneath the house, and unique gardens.
Music - This was our last week having digital lessons.  Next week we'll have our teacher back in person.  Keira's working on about 6 different songs on the piano; all of which are fairly difficult.

GARRETT
Math - For our last week of Math, we mixed it up with games and lessons.  Garrett did a few chapters of Life of Fred, and on other days he played games such as The Allowance Game, and Code Names.
ELA - Garrett did a few grammar lessons from The Good & The Beautiful this week, and listened to a workshop on creative writing.  He also read from Tuttle Twins books, and Harry Potter, book 1.
Tech - He spent some time trying to do some programming lessons from Tynker.com.  He kept getting stuck, so this week was a bit frustrating.
Music - This was our last week having digital lessons.  Next week we'll have our teacher back in person. Garrett passed off his Dr Who song, and started a new song of the Jurrasic Park theme song.

LIBBY
Math - For our last week of Math, we mixed it up with games and lessons.  Libby did a chapter of Life of Fred, and on other days she played games such as The Allowance Game, and Code Names.
ELA - Libby practiced her handwriting, and listened to a creative writing workshop.  She also read from Reading Rainbow, and Mayan Legends.
Social Studies - Libby and William spent nearly every evening reading from a Mayan Legends book, that has stories that are traditional to the Mayan people.
Tech - Libby explored Minecraft this week, and created a house in the world they created. She got creative with her house and made it cylindrical! 
Music - This was our last week having digital lessons.  Next week we'll have our teacher back in person. Libby started a new song this week by ear; Part of Your World.

WILLIAM
Math - For our last week of Math, we mixed it up with games and lessons.  William did a lesson in multi-digit addition, and on other days he played games such as The Allowance Game, and Code Names.
ELA - Will did a few typing lessons this week, and read many different books.  He read Little Critter books, and Dr Seuss books most of the week.
Social Studies - Libby and William spent nearly every evening reading from a Mayan Legends book, that has stories that are traditional to the Mayan people.
Tech - Will was inspired by a show we were watching, called Lego Masters, and spent some time trying to rebuild some of his LEGO structures.
Portuguese - We learned a few more phrases that are common to use around the kitchen and mixed them into a flashcard review.  We mixed up the flashcards and matched them up to their English words one day, and reviewed them orally another day.

Learning Log #38 (May 4th - 8th)

Making candles.

Playing Settlers of Catan.

KEIRA
Math - Math was broken up this week by review sheets from the Life of Fred books she has been studying from.  She also played Prime Climb with her siblings.
ELA - This week was more rewriting of the Constitution into her own words, and a discussion on the Constitution with her Scholar class.  She also did a grammar lesson from The Good & The Beautiful, and a typing lesson.  She also kept reading Harry Potter.
Science - We learned about germs from watching Mythbusters.  They did experiments showing how germs spread, and how to avoid germs successfully.
Portuguese - We played a game with all the kitchen vocab we have been learning.  We set it up to play a memory game of everything we have learned, and played that a few times.
Music - Keira kept up practicing her piano and violin.  No violin lessons this week, but she had a digital piano lesson this week with her teacher.

GARRETT
Math - Garrett continued with his studies from Life of Fred.  He also played Prime Climb with his siblings, and played around with an IQ Key kit.
ELA - He kept reading from The Phantom Tollbooth, and did a typing lesson this week.  It was a slow ELA week.
Science - We learned about germs from watching Mythbusters.  They did experiments showing how germs spread, and how to avoid germs successfully.
Tech - He continued to learn programming from Tynker.com.
Music - Still plugging away at the piano.  Practiced every day, and digital piano lessons.

LIBBY
Math - For math this week Libby played Froggy Fractions to learn more about fractions, and did a lesson from Life of Fred.
ELA - Libby wrote an ad for a pretend newspaper, that was meant to be written in the 1770s.  She also kept typing the book she has been writing, and did a typing lesson.  She started reading Fablehaven, and the Three Musketeers.
Portuguese - We played a game with all the kitchen vocab we have been learning.  We set it up to play a memory game of everything we have learned, and played that a few times.
Science - We learned about germs from watching Mythbusters.  They did experiments showing how germs spread, and how to avoid germs successfully.
Music - Libby learned another simplified hymn, and is still working on a song from Phineas and Ferb.  She practiced nearly every day, and had digital lessons.





WILLIAM
Math - For math this week, Will played Mastermind with me, and did some lessons from Math Seeds. 
ELA - He read from several books this week, including One Fish Two Fish, The Good & The Beautiful level 2 book, and a book about how things work. 
Portuguese - We played a game with all the kitchen vocab we have been learning.  We set it up to play a memory game of everything we have learned, and played that a few times.
Tech - As you can see from the pictures below, there was a lot of creating this week, with Keva planks.  While I read to him about The Wright Brothers, he created trains and buildings.  Wow!
Science - We learned about germs from watching Mythbusters.  They did experiments showing how germs spread, and how to avoid germs successfully.

Learning Log #37 (April 27th - May 1st)

KEIRA
Math - She did great working out of her Life of Fred book this week.  She did a lot of lessons from the Life of Fred Kidneys.
ELA - Keira read from The Law, and from Harry Potter this week.  She also rewrote parts of the Constitution, and memorized parts of the Declaration of Independence.  We had a fun aspect of ELA this week when we learned to play, Upwords Scrabble.  Lots of looking up words, and figuring out how to spell things.
Science - We did a unit study of Frogs this week.  We learned about the life cycle of a frog, class order, the differences between frogs and toads, and read from a book about frogs.
Music - She continues to practice daily, but no lessons this week.  She's also practicing her violin periodically, even though she's stopped having lessons for now.

GARRETT
Math - For math this week Garrett did some lessons from Life of Fred, and did some math puzzles as well.  One is called Alphameterics, where he decoded letters, using math.
ELA - He continues to read The Phantom Tollbooth, and did some typing lessons this week.  We had a fun aspect of ELA this week when we learned to play, Upwords Scrabble.  Lots of looking up words, and figuring out how to spell things.
Science - We did a unit study of Frogs this week.  We learned about the life cycle of a frog, class order, the differences between frogs and toads, and read from a book about frogs.
Tech - He picked up on Tynker programming again.  This set of lessons he has been doing has been glitching a lot, so he hasn't enjoyed it as much lately.  Hopefully it's a temporary problem that gets resolved soon.
Music - He continues to practice piano, but he's getting a little burned out on life right now, so he didn't practice as long this week.  No lesson this week, either.

LIBBY
Math - Libby continues her great math streak, and got a lot of lessons done this week.  All of her lessons came from Life of Fred; Edgewood.  She's doing great!
ELA - We did a grammar lesson out of The Good & The Beautiful, a typing lesson, and handwriting.  She got really pulled into a study of fish one day and spent hours reading and taking notes on unique fish.
Science - We did a unit study of Frogs this week.  We learned about the life cycle of a frog, class order, the differences between frogs and toads, and read from a book about frogs.
Music - Libby's making great progress on her piano songs again.  She practices every day, but no lesson this week.

WILLIAM
Math - We mixed things up a little this week, and did fun math worksheets this week,  Such as magic number squares, a toy store challenge, and hands on math with cooking.
ELA - Will went back to reading The Good & The Beautiful, Level 2 book.  He also did a lesson from The Good & The Beautiful's grammar book, and learned about adjectives, and practiced handwriting.
Science - We did a unit study of Frogs this week.  We learned about the life cycle of a frog, class order, the differences between frogs and toads, and read from a book about frogs.
Tech - Will made a little wooden bird feeder this week out of a woodkit we have.  He used wood, screws, and followed the instructions.
Portuguese - No Portuguese this week.

Learning Log #36 (April 20th - 24th)

Science - This week was a great big week full of science!  It must be the Spring weather, calling us to enjoy more science.  We planned out our garden, talked about what grows best when, and where, and then everyone had seeds to plant in our little garden box.  Then we played a new game we got called, "Totally Gross Science".  It's a fun, random way to learn scientific facts, and do experiments.  Another day we watched Mythbusters, and had a read aloud about Marie Curie.

KEIRA
Math - Keira has been neck deep in getting stuff done for her other class that is ending next week, so she was excused from doing any math this week.  We'll catch up when her busy Scholar class is finished.
ELA - She had time for plenty of reading, though.  She read The Law, and Harry Potter nearly every day for hours.  She also memorized more parts of the Declaration of Independence, and rewrote parts of the U.S. Constitution.  She also wrote a paper about freedoms, and whether intoxicating yourself is a constitutional right.
Portuguese - She went light on Portuguese this week, too.  She learned a few more kitchen words and reviewed words already learned, and that was it.
Music - This was probably the least amount of practicing she got in for the last year, but she still managed to play about 20 minutes a day, and have a lesson.




GARRETT
Math - Garrett did a few lessons from his Life of Fred, Farming book.  He's learning at a good rate, and doing well with what he's learning.
ELA - He continued reading from The Phantom Tollbooth this week, and spent a good amount of time in his creative writing book.  He also did a grammar lesson from The Good & The Beautiful.
Science - In addition to all that was mentioned above that we did as a family, he also kept digging on his own.  He explored a book about the Periodic Table, and looked up elements online and what they do.  He also had some questions about the weather, so he watched a lesson from Mystery Science about how to predict weather.
Portuguese - He learned new kitchen vocab with the rest of us; o balcao, and a bancada.  He also did a Mango lesson on his own.
Music - Not a whole lot different this week; he still practiced every day and had a lesson mid-week.  He's plugging along nicely, and enjoying it.




LIBBY
Math - Libby is on a roll with math!  She's been doing an excellent job reading in Life of Fred, Edgewood.  She finished several lessons this week, and just about to the end of the book.
ELA - She started reading Mrs Piggle Wiggle's Farm this week, and has discovered that it is a fun read.  She also continued writing in her book, online.  She's having fun applying her typing skills to a creative writing project.
Portuguese - She's also on a roll for Portuguese this week!  She did several lessons from Duolingo, throughout the week, and is enjoying that program.
Music - She's slowing down a bit on her interest in piano this week.  She ebbs and flows in her interest, and this week it's low.  She still practiced, but not a lot, and skipped out on lessons this week.  I'm ok with that when they're online like this.




WILLIAM
Math - We continued to work on double digit addition with the abacus this week.  It's very enjoyable to him, so he liked pulling out the worksheets and figuring out the problems.
ELA - He took a break from the other book he's been reading from lately, and spent a lot of time reading from Little Critter books.  He also listened to some read alouds about Marie Curie, and The Federal Reserve.
Tech - Lots of building with Keva blocks, and building things outside this week. He likes playing around with different structure styles that they show in the Keva blocks manual.
Portuguese - It was a pretty light week for Portuguese.  We reviewed previously learned kitchen vocab, and added a few more on to our knowledge base.  He also made a video of himself speaking those words and sent it to his aunt, who is a native speaker from Brazil, to get some feedback from her.