BIBLE:

Parker worked on his letter V verse this week.

I printed the V verse tracer and he listened to the Sing the Word track.

The following day we cut his tracer apart like a puzzle and glued it into his Bible lapbook.

S.S. & HISTORY:

Homes Around the World:

Paper House Craft:

This week we studied homes around the world. I gave the boys paper houses (an idea from picklebums) glued to construction paper.

The boys added windows, doors, and details to their houses.

After cutting their windows and doors, the boys painted their homes with dot paint.

That afternoon our science lesson was about atoms combining to form molecules and molecules combining to create materials.   I decided to have the boys label the materials used to make their homes.

This was a hands-on and SUPER fun way to combine both history and science!  They turned out adorable too!

Types of Homes:

As we continued our lessons of homes around the world, I brought out a few house building activities for the boys to work on.

LEGO House:

I printed a cool “How to Build a LEGO House” activity and gathered as many of the matching lego pieces I could find.

Bub quickly realized he didn’t have all the pieces needed to create their version, but he improvised with a few modifications.

He did a great job!  He’s such a great little engineer….has ALWAYS loved building things!

Parks worked on it too, but he needed a little assistance.  This quickly became a DIT (Do It Together) activity!

They LOVE any LEGO activities we include in our Learning Lane!

Mountain Home – Huts:

I brought out some tan Pla-doh so the boys could carve cave homes out of the mountainside (like in the book).

Parker isn’t a BIG fan of Play-doh, but he squished it around and I help carve some “caves” in the side of his “mountain”.

Jordan has ALWAYS loved Play-do, so he had no issue building a house out of it.  Instead of creating caves in the side of the mountain, he decided to build “mud” bricks to make a hut.

He said he needed a mold to make mud bricks, because he remembered watching clips of a man making mud bricks on our Core A playlist earlier in the school year.  He decided to get a “waffle” mold and form his bricks to construct the walls of his hut.  He’s VERY clever and they looked really cool!

3 Branches of Government:

We read about the three branches of government and watched Schoolhouse Rock’s 3 Ring Circus song from our Core A playlist.

Jordan felt inspired and used his chain toy to make the three rings, Executive, Judicial, and Legislative.

We made a simple craft by gluing three construction paper branches to paper and adding Executive, Legislative, and Judicial labels.  Jordan added an American flag to make it official….cute little Patriot!

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Letter of the Week:

This week was all about the “Letter U”, so we added a few songs to our Core A playlist.

Parker worked on his HWOT letter of the week activities.

Since we even added an Ugnot to his ABC lapbook.  He was happy to see a Star Wars character, but this definitely wasn’t as cool as Luke or Vader.

Valentines Rhymes:

I created a Teddy Bear Valentine CVC Rhymes Grammar Pack for the boys to work on.

The boys used their magnifying glasses to find the hidden words and dot-painted the matching heart rhyme on the worksheet.

Later in the week Parker matched the heart CVC pictures to the rhyming teddy bear words.

Spelling:

CVC Traffic Light Cards:

I brought out our Traffic Light CVC Spelling cards.

I had Parker cut apart the traffic light letters, because this was a good chance to work on our scissor skills.

Then he whipped through the stack of CVC words and did a fantastic job sounding out the letter sounds!

Mystery Snowflake Words:

I brought out four mini containers and filled them with magnetic letters to spell the words on our snowflake picture cards.

Parker opened each container, figured out the mystery word, and spelled it beneath the picture card. There were some tricky ones, but he figured them out.

Little House:

This week we read about clove apples and decided to make one.

I placed an apple on a plate with a handful of whole cloves. I showed Parker how to poke the clove into the skin of the apple.

We worked on this activity together and it smelled SO good. I placed it in the kitchen and added a scent of Christmas!

MATH:

Calendar Work:

We colored our calendar picture, located the country of origin, and added our February dates and holidays.

The boys were excited, because they saw that Valentines Day was only a couple days away!

SCIENCE:

Acids – Cola Coin Test:

This was a carry over activity from last week about acids in foods and drinks.  My kids don’t drink cola, but we needed coke for this experiment and our I Can Read Prune Cake (Week 24).

We found some dirty pennies and placed them in a plastic cup. We poured coke on top and left them overnight.

After pouring out the liquid, we saw the pennies were still dirty.  If at first you don’t succeed…

We poured more coke on top and left it overnight. There wasn’t a dramatic difference, but it makes you wonder what it does inside your stomach. Food for thought…

3 States of Matter:

This week we took a close, VERY close look at science and what MATTERs most!

Movin’ Matter:

We read about the three states of matter and thought this would be fun to act out.

The molecules in solids are stuck close….just like the two brothers!

Molecules in liquids are close, but they still have room to bump around so they can flow and splash around.

Molecules in gases don’t touch each other at all and have room to move around at high speeds….thus the blurry arms of these grooving boys!

LIQUID to SOLIDS – Expanding Water:

We read that water expands as it freezes, so we decided to conduct our own experiment.

Parker filled a dixie cup with water to the brim, we placed a piece of foil on top, and put it in the freezer.

Then we checked on it the following day….not what we hoped for.  Perhaps our IG instructed a PLASTIC cup for this reason.

So our little scientist tried it again with a plastic cup.  He filled it to the brim (a little spilled out on our way to freezer).

We placed it in the freezer until the next morning.

We pulled it out of the freezer and saw that the water pushed up the foil as it froze (it would have been a little bigger if we didn’t spill some of the water).  We learned that water expands as it freezer and following directions is very important too!

Gases – Chemical Reactions:

I filled our pink balloon with baking soda and our plastic bottle with vinegar.

I had Parker gently lift the balloon up so the baking soda fell into the vinegar.

The reaction was dramatic! The mixture bubbled and the balloon instantly swelled with the off-gas. This was a crowd pleaser!

Ice on the Griddle:

After our pancake breakfast on Saturday, we kept our griddle hot for another states of matter experiment.

We dropped a few ice cubes on the hot griddle to see solid (ice cube), liquid (boiling water), and gas (steam) at the same time!

Of course the boys asked to do it again with ALL the ice cubes, because it’s our FAVORITE states of matter experiment!

SKILL BUILDERS:

Organizing a Drawer:

This was a carry over skill builder from week 22.

Parker and I emptied the drawer then we sorted through the do-dads.

Then we put away items in their rightful place.

Painting With a Straw:

This week’s skill builder was painting with a straw.

Parker picked the colors and I dropped it on a large sheet of white paper. He blew the drops of paint with his straw.

He used his straw to blow the paint around.

Next, he dropped the paint using his finger as a stopper.

He continued to blow the paint which made all the colors bleed into eachother.It turned our really beautiful!

JUST FOR FUN:

This week was especially fun since we celebrated Valentines Day on Wednesday!

We started our morning on a sweet note with heart-shaped pancake muffins.

And a fun game of Valentine Bingo.

They spent the rest of the day creating Valentines for our family dinner.

We had a wonderful week of learning and we’re looking forward to week 24!