Week 7 Overview

An adventurous week this has been! The Coleman Academy for Girls went under a repiping of the whole school, so we took our studies on the road for a couple of days. We got to use the Starbucks gift card for a treat for our students that was sent to us from a CAG donor, play piano on the baby grand at Mrs. Dix's house, study in the church library, work in the public library, and visit some local parks and playgrounds. Thankfully, God sent us some much cooler weather that was perfect for being outdoors! Thursday, we had special snacks and watched Beezus & Ramona in celebration of finishing that book last week. While we had some fun adventures, we are definitely looking forward to getting back into our regular routine. Well, the teacher is anyway!

Here are some things we studied this week:

Language Arts:

• We are expanding our genres in independent reading by adding a biography and realistic fiction selection
• New vocabulary words, including: deteriorate, despair, sever, jubilation, approximate, and more
• Identify adverbs and diagram sentences with adverbs when they are describing or modifying the subject.
• making words with th, sh, and ch

Bible & Other History & Geography:

• Covering the history recorded in Exodus chapters 1-15, we learned about how God's people went from slavery to freedom, miracles, the exodus, the Passover, and the timeline of these events compared to what was happening or who was ruling in Egypt at that time.
• Story of the World- the first Olympics, the early Greeks, the Mycenaeans, Greek alphabet, story of Homer, the Medes and Persians, Cyrus the Great
• Map: Tyre, Greece, Crete, Aegean Sea

Math:

• making 10 for math fluency
• Multiplication and division word problems

Science:

• Amphibians and reptiles, including: life cycle of a frog, laying eggs, and living in water and on land
• Check out our Usborne links in the previous post to see cool videos of amphibians and reptiles!

Until next time, happy learning!

Usborne Quicklinks ~ Week 7

Enjoy using the Usborne Quicklinks site by finding the book listed below on their site and looking at the cool videos they have for each of the pages we are studying.

For 3rd Grade~ Science

Book: Mysteries and Marvels of Nature

Pages 82-83 See:

• baby pythons slitting their eggs open to hatch
• cobra lays eggs, then they hatch
• Surinam toads hatch from their mother's back
• baby crocodiles and their parents

Pages 94-95 See:

• video clip of amphibians
• difference between an amphibian and a reptile
• a hellbender salamander move along the bottom of a river
• a sea snake swimming under water

For All Grades~ History

Book: 12,000 Years of World History

Pages 34-35 Palaces and Tombs
Pages 36-37 Warriors and Traders
Pages 58-59 The Power of Persia

Happy Learning!

Week In Photos ~ Week 6

Week 6 Overview

We are moving along this school year and just completed week 6. Here are just some of the many things we learned or did this week.

Language Arts:

• Vocabulary word winner: prey (since we are studying about animals, and specifically birds, we found prey 13 times in various readings during the week). 
• Our 3rd graders FINISHED reading Beezus & Ramona by Beverly Cleary. We will watch the movie as a treat in the near future. They are so excited! They found Ramona to be very funny.
• Our sentence diagrams are getting more complex in grammar. We have now learned to identify adjectives and diagram sentences with adjectives when they are describing or modifying the subject.
• Somehow, girls writing about dads is universally better than girls writing about moms. Yes, we are writing about moms now and some main topics related to moms, so far, have been napping and eating. Surely, we do more than that? I am waiting for some girls to write that their moms do "all the things". Haha! I won't hold my breath. #daddysgirls

Bible & Other History & Geography:

• Covering the history recorded in Genesis chapters 25-50, we learned about God's people in the times of Isaac, Esau, Jacob, and Joseph. God's people were safe in Egypt during famine and during wars in Canaan.
• Story of the World is so exciting because it helps us see recorded history of the Bible and the rest of history together, unlike what many people experience in history classes. This week, we learned about the history of: the Phoenicians and the Israelites in Canaan, the founding of Carthage, how the Assyrians rebelled against the Babylonians, Ashurbanipal ruling the fierce Assyrians, the library in Nineveh, the Babylonians taking revenge out on the Assyrians, Nebuchadnezzar's rule in Babylon, early life in Crete, and the end of the Minoans. (Covering events in our timeline from 2200 BC to 500 BC).
• Map: Assyria, Samaria, Corinth, Judah, Nineveh, Carthage, Tyre, Asia Minor, Nile Delta, Gaza, Aegean Sea, and Crete

Math:

• making 8 & 9 for math fluency
• We started MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISION! What?! It's true! And we are doing pretty well, too.
• Skip counting by 2s, 3s, 4s, & 5s.
• Our 6th grader is learning about the math computation involved in real world problems, like eating right, quilting, income taxes, and computer hard drives.

Science:

• Birds! Feathers, eggs, migration, nests, and more.

We hope you will check out our Usborne Quicklinks (see previous post from yesterday) to see cool videos and such about our science and history topics.

Happy Reading!

Usborne Quicklinks ~ Week 6

Science~ 3rd grade

Book: Mysteries & Marvels of Nature

Pages:

p72-73 bird nests, bird plumage, attracting a mate

p84-85 nests and eggs of birds, egg to chick

p96-97 webcams and videos of birds in their nests

p108-109 bird migration, birds catching prey, surviving harsh conditions

p120-121 special bird features

History~ All grades

Book: 12,000 Years of History

Pages:

p50-51 Phoenician voyage, Phoenician alphabet, ruins of the city of Carthage

p52-53 Assyrian soldiers, Assyrian wall relief from a palace

p54-55 Palace of Nimrud, lion-hunting in Assyria, King Ashurnasipal II

p56-57 Babylon ruins, Babylonian inventions, trade in Babylonian times

Week In Photos ~ Week 5

At our 2nd co-op meeting,

Form 2 had a shooting tournament with their marshmallow guns.

Yay for Sarah Cate!

 We also had an extra student join us for co-op and after due to

Hurricane Irma causing public school closures all week.

The Coleman Academy for Girls... & a Boy!

Our first full week of dance

Reciting Psalm 139:1-6

Packing our "Buckets of Help"...one of our church's Send Relief projects after Hurricane Irma.

A treat for my helper after we shopped for the relief supplies

 Even the teacher got a lunch treat :)

 This week, we prayed together for Dominica. They were hit with Hurricane Maria as a category 5 and we have not heard from people we are connected to through our church, but we pray for their safety. Nick and I were in Dominica a couple of years ago right after a tropical storm. After seeing the damage from that, I cannot imagine the devastation from this category 5. Please pray for them.

Week 5 Overview

Week 5 was a little different because we started our first day of the week last Friday, our 2nd co-op day. We continued with a full work schedule as we dove into the rest of "week 5" this week.

Here's some of our studies:

Language Arts:

• A new chapter book called God King: A story in the days of King Hezekiah
• Some unknown vocabulary: duration, obscure, preserve, puny, & comprehend 
• 3rd graders' first assigned independent reading- Beezus & Ramona by Beverly Cleary (this is a challenge for our students because it is longer than one they would choose on their own, but it is time to push them to the next level)

Bible & Other History & Geography:

• Father Abraham and God's promise
• Egypt invades Nubia, a woman pharaoh, Amenhotep (the first Egyptian monotheist), the Israelites leave Egypt with Moses
• Map: Palestine, Canaan, Red Sea, Jerusalem, Mediterranean Sea, & more

Math:

• making 6 & 7 for math fluency
• two-step word problems (another step up in complexity for 3rd graders)
• Long division review and divisibility rules review for our 6th grader

Science:

• Birds! From camouflage to movement to prey and more.

See that image above? Piano Maestro is an I-pad app that we use during the week in conjunction with our piano practice and lessons with Mrs. Dix. The students love it! They get immediate feedback from their playing: timing and accuracy. Our newest 3rd grade student has already moved up to Rank 7! This is fabulous! Our other two students have entered their 4th year of using piano Maestro, so our 6th grader is on Rank 70 and our returning 3rd grader is Rank...80! They are working hard at their next steps in music. 

Ask our students about what they are learning throughout the week!