Sonlight Level D (Week 1)

Back to School:

With a full summer vacation behind us, we were ready for school to start again.

I set out The Kissing Hand (The Kissing Hand Series), since it’s our traditional back to school read-aloud and a sudoku puzzle.

I made pancake muffins to make our first day of Sonlight studies warm and cherry after saying a fond farewell to summer. This brightened everyone’s spirits.

After breakfast, the kids worked on their sudoku puzzles and we began our day!

BIBLE:

Memory Verse:

I created a Psalm 8 Tracer Pack for the boys.

You can download your FREE copy here at our TPT Store.

On Monday, the boys traced their first verse while we listened to our Sing the Word track.

On Tuesday, the boys traced and illustrated their second verse.

On Wednesday, I cut apart their verses like a puzzle and they glued them together into their Bible notebooks. On Thursday, the boys recited both verses.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Mapping Colombus:

Earlier in the week, we color-coded Spain on our world map.

The following day, we read how Columbus sailed to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. We located both locations on our world map.

Afterwards, Parker color-coded both locations on the world map.

On Thursday, we mapped Columbus’ travels to Honduras.

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Reading:

Pocahontas and the Strangers:

Jordan is reading the Regular Level D readers this year while Parker is reading the 3rd Grade readers.

Since Jordan started reading Pocahontas and the Strangers (Scholastic Biography), he wanted to recreate their village on Minecraft. I LOVED this idea!

He worked on it a little at a time during the week. His Teepee was SO creative, because you’re using blocks on Minecraft! I love when HE loves to put his learning in action!

Reading Map work:

Parker and I started mapping the places he’s reading about in his third grade readers.

Clara and the Bookwagon:

Since he started reading Clara and the Bookwagon, Level 3 (I Can Read Book), he added Maryland to our U.S. map.

The Long Way to a New Land:

He started The Long Way to a New Land (I Can Read Level 3) color-coded Sweden since Carle Erik snd his family immigrated from there.

Grammar Grab Bag:

I created a Back to School themed grammar Grab Bag for this week’s language arts activities.

You can purchase your copy here at our TPT Store.

Consonants & Vowels:

On Monday, we reviewed consonants and vowels.

Parker sorted his letter tiles by consonants and vowels.

Afterwards, I asked Parker to spell a few different words.

Last, I asked Parker to write down the spelling words for this week.

Later in the week, he completed the “Just the Facts” worksheet.

ABC Order:

I created an ABC Order worksheet for Parker to practice alphabetical order.

Parker did such a great job placing his spelling words in alphabetical order.

Capitalization:

Parks and I reviewed the various reasons we capitalize letters.

After our review, he completed the “I Can Fix It – Color to Capitalize” worksheet.

SCIENCE:

Living Things & Their Kingdoms Booklet

I created an Animal Kingdom booklet over the summer that I planned to use this year. I quickly realized it needed quite a bit of revising in order to work with our biology book. I’ll post a link once it’s complete.

Living vs. Non-Living:

I set out a living vs. non-living tray on our Learning Lane for Parker to use following our lesson on biology and taxonomy. The kids still love when I do this, because it brings back fond memories of our early learning units.

There were three containers. The first container had play-food since all living things eat. The second container had an egg representing that all living things reproduce. The third, and last, container had a cardboard tombstone representing that all living things die. I also set out our Living and Non-Living cards (The Helpful Garden) with two baskets for sorting.

Parker sorted through the stack of cards putting them in living and non-living piles.

Afterwards, I had Parker color-code the living and non-living pictures.

The next day, the boys completed their living vs. Non-living booklet pages.

The Kingdoms:

The kids added a “Kingdoms” page. They wrote and illustrated each of the six kingdoms.

Vertebrates vs. invertebrates:

I set out a sorting by vertebrates and invertebrates tray on our Learning Lane.

I set out our Vertebrates and Invertebrates cards (The Helpful Garden).

Parker sorted through the stack of animal cards referencing the Classes of Vertebrates cards (The Helpful Garden).

Afterwards, the boys completed their vertebrates and invertebrates page.

Name the Animals:

I set out our Create-a-Creature activity for Friday’s “Name the Animals” science activity.

You can purchase your copy here at our TPT Store.

I paired this activity with Wild School and How Do Dinosaurs Go To School?by Jane Yolen.

The kids had fun creating their creatures and naming them just like Adam did in the Bible.

JUST FOR FUN:

Apple Tasting Tree:

Fall is right around the corner. We set up our Apple Tasting tree in the classroom.

We bought several varieties from the store and had our apple cut-outs ready to color.