American History and Geography

It’s been a while since I posted about what Hailey has been up to.  And these pictures are actually from quite a while ago.  Anyway, as I always say- it’s time to catch up on my posts!  Maybe this summer I really will get caught up.

 Hailey has been studying US Geography this year.  She started out using Road Trip USA but we have changed curriculum since then.

 Hailey was working on part of the lapbook for Road Trip USA.  We both really enjoyed the curriculum, but we stopped using it because it was a bit more involved than what I wanted to use right now.

We have been studying US History this year and Hailey has completed a lot of fun projects to go along with our lessons.

 She learned about Jamestown and built this model of what it was like.  A group of men, boys, and sailors came from England and founded Jamestown- named after King James I.  They built Fort James in a triangular shape.  There were houses, a church, and a storehouse which were all protected by wooden walls.  In time they learned how to plant crops and hunt game in the woods.  As the settlement grew there were houses built outside the fort walls.  (The model is from Easy Make & Learn Projects Colonial America.)

Hailey also learned what a typical colonial village was like.  She drew a picture of what she thought represented a colonial village.

On the back of her drawing she glued this information about colonial villages.  (Colonial Village activity is from History Pockets Colonial Life)

I have lots more fun history activities coming up to share, so be sure to check back!

Third Grade Update

Wondering what we’ve doing in third grade lately?  Here’s a little look:

Language Arts:

We are still using Daily 6-Trait Writing.  Hailey is working on organizing thoughts, and how to group similar ideas and details together.

Bible:

I ordered the next Old Testament Overview from Grapevine because Hailey has enjoyed it so much.  We are now working on Part 2- Joseph to the Promised Land.

Geography:

We use Daily Geography Practice.  It is supposed to be done every day, but we only do it once a week and get everything done in one day because it’s pretty simple.  It’s been great for learning how to read maps, but we definitely need to add some more.

Health:

Hailey learned in health how nutrients travel through your body.  We used red water and a celery stick to show how nutrients can travel.

The leaves turned all red even though they were never in the water.

Science:

Hailey has been learning about the scientific method, why science is important, and why we do experiments.  I’m using this Intro to Science Unit.

Hailey has been practicing using the scientific method by doing some experiments.  In this experiment she put 4 different colored M&Ms into a bowl of lukewarm water.

Then we observed:

It’s nice to do some fun, simple experiments while learning the scientific method!

So, there is a little look at just a few of the things Hailey has been working on.  I need to remember to take more pictures of what Hailey is working on so I can do third grade posts more often.

Third Grade- Week in Review

Here is a look at some of the things Hailey has been learning:

 Bible:

Hailey loves Grapevine for Bible and says it is one of her favorite subjects.  She drew a picture of her favorite part of the lesson from the week on this page.

Language Arts:

 Hailey is reading Cappyboppy, which we are both enjoying.

She is also working on learning cursive, which she is not enjoying.  I think this is the worst part of our day- she hates it 🙁

We did some dictionary review.

Science:

We are both loving our science curriculum!  There is always a short and easy experiment and we both really liked the one from this day.  We positioned a DVD behind a lit candle and we could see the rainbow.  It was so neat and really taught the lesson of the day (about how white light is made up of all of the colors)!

Here is one of the pages in Hailey’s science journal as she learns about how light works and how we see colors.

We also had a lesson about how when you look at something like a red flower why you only see the color red, so Hailey drew a picture in her journal about that too.  She drew all of the colors of the rainbow coming out of a light source and then the red light being reflected off to the person’s eye.  The rest of the colors are absorbed, so we don’t see them.

Geography:

Hailey learned about Connecticut and used her Little Passports magazine to do some activities.

She also used her USA Sticker book to learn more about Connecticut.

Just for fun:

One day Elsa and Snow White came to school 🙂

Expedition Earth- Mexico

We had a great time learning about Mexico!

Hailey used playdough to make an Aztec Temple.

We made some maracas.

Hailey and Hunter loved dancing with their maracas.

The finished maracas- they were very easy to make.  I put popcorn kernels inside some of our left over plastic Easter Eggs.  Then we taped spoons to the eggs and decorated the tape.

We also made some lovely Mexican bowls.

After shaping air dry clay, Hailey and Hunter pressed beads and sequence into the bowls.

Hunter’s bowl

Hailey’s bowl.

When the bowls were dry, they painted them with water colors and used them for Mother’s day presents.

Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.