Last week we read the story the Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward. This fun old story won the Caldecott medal in 1953. Lynd Ward beautifully illustrated this story giving such life to his characters, (especially the bear). Though it is a story about a bear, it is not a scary story, but charming and humorous.
Anastasia learned the letters E and F this week.
Our vocabulary words this week were: farthest, orchard, humiliated, trial and tribulation. I enjoy using the daily lessons in Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind by Jessie Wise, but it is quite repetitive, and I am adding a little to each day, to keep Tristan's interest. We are still learning about nouns, but we also identified prepositions found in the Biggest Bear. This story uses many "position" words.
This week the Saxon math lesson on Friday involved counting, adding and subtracting apples. It was perfect! God seems to work these things out and bless our literature based schooling!
In Geography we mapped the big rivers in PA. We mapped the Delaware, the Schuykyll, and the Allegheny (joined by the Ohio then branching into the Monongahela and the Youghiogheny). We also added the state of Maryland and its capitol, Annapolis, to our map.
In art we appreciated American Gothic by Grant Wood. We also worked on a bear symmetry exercise and a draw a bear using basic shapes exercise. The kids also enjoyed making an apple print orchard. Even Gwen participated in apple printing. She is growing up so fast!!
For Science this week we learned about the food pyramid and eating to maintain a healthy weight and I introduced the children to the disease type 2 diabetes which can occur by being obese. We conducted all the experiments found in the book Step-by-Step Experiments with Taste and Digestion by Katie Marsico.
Friday we took a field trip to Weaver's Orchard to pick apples. We picked a peck of apples (about 10 lbs). Apples are the snack of choice around here these days, and I am excited about making some yummy apple meals and treats.
http://www.5dollardinners.com/slow-cooker-pork-chops-with-apples-sweet-potatoes/
Sometime I will figure out how to post beautiful photos of all of our adventures again, for now I will let you imagine row after row of trees loaded with bright red apples, filling the warm fall air with their sweet aroma. Not to mention little hands, and apples, covered with paint!
Other stories we enjoyed this week:
El Oso Negro, Tom and Pat Leeson
Backyard Bear, Jim Murphy
Black Bear Cub, Jacqueline Moody-Luther