Fun Friday in the Woods~

Ask Mr. Bear had several settings but the woods was probably the most intriguing so we planned our Fun Friday to take a walk through the woods behind our house.

We packed backpacks with books, journals, and snacks.

We invited Max to join us and went over to pick him up on the golf cart. 

 We headed down through our backyard stopping at the swing for snack and to hear our story, Ask Mr. Bear.

We talked about what we might see along the way... hoping for a bear and a snake... me? Neither one please!

It was pretty much follow EK down the hill toward the lake.

Everyone had boots on just in case we veered off the beaten path

(and yes, WP needs his own rain boots:).

We finally made it down to our dried up cove on the lake~

and there was much exploring to do.

We made our way to the dock and spread a blanket for resting, reading, writing, and snacking (again).

Everyone thought of what they noticed along the way that God made and wrote about it in their journal.

The sweetest breeze was blowing and I could have stayed all morning just praying and being still.

Wasn't long before we started back UP the hill.

What to do other than take a dip after such a long trip?

We came back, shed our clothes, and swam for a while...

ate lunch on the breezeway...

rode bikes...

went to Max's backyard for a while...

back to swim just a smidge longer...

and I voted for MOVIE afternoon!!!

Think that is going to be the reward for a great week for students and a time for teacher Mom to get a few things done around the house. 

I think EK pretty much summed it up when she said,

"Mom this was the best Fun Friday ever!"

Have to agree~ SO fun but I am plum worn out!!! :)

Morning Routine and Reading Time~

Each morning it is SJ's job to choose a new state for the day.

I think one of the best things EK ever got for her birthday was this talking globe~ they LOVE it!

After choosing the state, the girls work together to find it on the globe and then on the flat world map.

 They have their own US map in their calendar notebooks and color the new state in.

LOVE when they hear a state someplace and immediately know if they have colored it in or not.

WP usually chooses something off his shelf to do as well... this day he was working on matching uppercase letters.

During reading EK and SJ have a reading drawer with their reading items inside.

While I am reading with one, the other is doing word work.

This week I introduced Scrabble to EK but in a revised way:

*we set up the board and dumped the letters

*chose a sight word from her cannister

*we both made a word somewhere on the board

*added up our letters to see which word won

After all words had been made, we saw who had the most word points.

Later on, we will play for real but for now this works great!

SJ's sight words this week have been color words.

She has practiced matching color sticks to words and today I wrote the words in pencil on paper.

She had to match the word to a dot painter and dot each letter of the word.

SO fun learning new words and they can't wait to do more tomorrow!

Ask Mr. Bear~

This week we have rowed Ask Mr. Bear and LOVED it!

 This book was published in 1932... 4 years before my daddy was born... that is CRAZY!

Had this not been part of our language arts curriculum, BFIAR, I would never have chosen it for the littles.

It is old, seems to have boring illustrations, and not in our fav book pile BUT this week it has been a HIT!

The Farm is always such a fun unit to do and this book lends itself with farm animal characters.

I ordered Draw, Write, Now: On the Farm and added it to our morning routine.

Each little has enjoyed drawing a new animal each day, discussing its role in our story, and discussing what we know about it.

One of the favorite parts is a little question on each page...

we talk about what we know, make a list of what we want to find out, and type the question into safari.

We have found awesome YouTube videos teaching new information about the animals.

Today we watched how sheep farmers in Australia sheer their sheep for wool~ SO cool!

Ask Mr. Bear: such a great little book and plan to row it again next week!

PS... Today is a special aunt's bd and birthdays just happens to be the main idea of this story SO 
for Art we made extra special big birthday bear hug cards!!!

 Happy birthday Aunt Susan... we'll be over later to sing!