Our history studies brought us to a sad point -- the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The Byzantine Empire is gone forever! We learned about Suleiman the Lawgiver and the rise of the massive Ottoman Empire.
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella have entered the stage and Prince Henry the Navigator, of Portugal, encourages exploration of the coast of Africa.We expanded our science unit Earth for an extra week. There was a lot to learn and I didn't want to rush it. I found a Yahoo group for the Exploring Creation series and some kind homeschooling mom put together quizzes for each unit. The kids retained everything and were able to experience test-taking, since we don't usually give written tests.
I also found a bunch of supplementary pages for the science notebooks here. The kids reviewed the unit by putting together over twenty mini-books. Here is an example of a few:
Since we were finishing up our study on Mozart we focused heavily on his life and music this week. In addition to the materials included in the RTR Teacher's Manual and the CD narrating Mozart's biography, I used this book:
This book is mostly about Mozart's childhood and contains many musical examples. We also read from Lives of the Musicians Good Times, Bad Times (and What the Neighbors Thought).I picked out five of Mozart's most famous pieces, from different genres, and we had a listening quiz. The kids enjoyed this and did very well. These are the pieces we studied:
Kindergarten was all about Penguins. We read about penguins, watched The March of the Penguins, and made a penguin craft all out of hearts:
This is also the week in the Kindergarten program where the money cup comes in. So much fun! We start with a penny each day and substitute with a nickel when we hit five. Then continue until ten and replace with a dime, and so on. No quarters yet, though. I found a workbook I had stashed away and off she went! We worked on counting by 5's, too.
For our Bible time we have been reading through the book of Philippians and memorizing chapter 2. We are learning what it means to "let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" -- humility and servanthood to the extreme.
I'm sorry to hear you were sick Andrea (what a full week anyway)!
ReplyDeleteWe used the Exploring Creation notebook pages some too, good stuff!
Cute penguin craft! How did you guys like 'March of the Ps"? I couldn't believe it, but ALL our kiddos sat still and watched the whole thing!
Have a good week! Kattie at 2 Ladybugs and A Lizard is hosting this week (we're on Spring Break)!
Kathi
I'd love to hear how you and your kids liked the Opal Wheeler book! I just learned about her composer books recently, and I've read really great things about them. Was it worth the cost, in your opinion?
ReplyDeleteKathi -- Our kids were completely enthralled with March of the Penguins, too! I was amazed by the movie myself, actually.
ReplyDeleteJennifer -- I LOVE the Opal Wheeler books! I do think they are worth the money. The composer bio CDs in the MFW curriculum are a bit dry and not too engaging for the kids. We also bought the CD and study guide to go along with the book. I like the study guide for the extra information (a time line of the composer's life and historical background info). If you play the piano, you don't need the CD. There is also a lapbook for each book available on the Zeezok publishing site.
I'm going to head over to your blogs and see what you've been up to! We're doing EX to 1850 next year and I plan to use a lot from Adventures, too.