Homeschooling Week 10: Rain Forests, Looms, Character Analysis, and Number Patterns

Along with the assignments for Week 10 came our first report card. We were so nervous because all this work we have been doing has been turned in and we have had no feedback. We have gotten back almost nothing graded so I had really no idea how Phi was doing. The school has an on-line system where we should be able to see all scores for all assignments but Phi's teacher does not have it up and running. I am hoping that she will get it up and running eventually so that we have a really good understanding of what subjects we need to work on. With that being said we were very happy to see a straight A report card! 

One new thing that started up was PE homework. Yes physical education at home! Each week Phi needs to complete 100 minutes of physical activity. It can be anything from playing outside to taking a walk. Believe it or not, this will be a challenge for us. We are just not outdoor kind of people. This week we spent some time after work and before dinner riding scooters.

Phi has been learning a lot about different Native American tribes and on Tuesday her teacher made each kid their own loom out of a disposable coffee cup. The wove the yarn over and under each section. They brought the "loom" home and had to finish it. Phi loved this and because weaving is like a step away from crocheting I wanted to keep her passion for it alive. I went to my trusty Pinterest and found a way to make a small loom out of cardboard.

Phi read chapters 11-13 in Charlotte's Web. The reading assignments are still a bit to slow for Phi. At her pace I think a couple chapters a day would be better so that she gets more than 5 minutes of reading in 3 days a week. Anyways, the assignment this week was to pick a character from the book and make a character bag. On the front the bag she drew her character and wrote it's name. Of course she picked Charlotte. On the back went a picture of the book cover with title and author. (I love her sheep). On one side she had to list 3 physical characteristics of Charlotte and on the other side she had to write 3 personality characteristics. Last the bag needed to be filled with 5 things that represent the character. It was the 5 things that was the hardest part. We talked about what "represent" and what "symbols" were and then reviewed the traits she used to describe Charlotte.

She ended up with.
1. Pink Hamster = Cute
2. Strawberry Candy - Sweet
3. Black Hair Bow = Black
4. Mini Hair Clip = Tiny
5. Photo of Nana = Kind and Generous

For Math we worked more on multiplication and also on finding number patterns. The number patterns were easy but for the multiplication she is still using arrays to figure out problems. I really think that it's time for her to memorize the multiplication tables. I have flash cards ready and I think for next week I am going to add writing her times tables as part of her work. Also Tio Kelly told me about some songs all about the multiplication that I hope will help too.

For science the Phi learned about forest ecosystems. Her assignment was to pick a forest and write about it along with a picture. She chose the rain forest and did a great report about the different layers of the forest, what things are found there and a few on the animals that call it home. Here is her watercoloring of a sloth.

We also did about 10 worksheets on possessive nouns and a few spelling lists. This worksheets are sent home every week, but are not required to turn in. We try to do about 2-3 a day.

The weeks are starting to really fly-by! I anticipate that next week may be a little challenging with the 2 holidays in the week. Halloween with most likely cut our Thursday in half and Saturday is booked with Dia De Los Muertos Festivities!