Archive for the ‘Heart of Dakota’ Category
Heart of Dakota- BLHFHG Unit 13
Jan
Another fun and busy week of homeschooling has ended. This is actually a review of what we did 3 weeks ago. I have been so tired that I just haven’t been doing much blogging. But here is a quick roundup of what we did:
History/Geography:
We learned more about the Pilgrims and we talked about what they did during the first Thanksgiving. We played some of the games that the kids played that first Thanksgiving. Hailey stood on a line and then jumped as far as she could. We marked it with tape and then she jumped again, trying to beat her previous spot.
I had her measure how much further she jumped each time.
We also set up a box and then Hailey took a pair of socks and tried to throw them into the box. Needless to say, the games that the kids played at the first Thanksgiving are much different from what we do now.
Hailey did a little mapping activity and had to tell me which direction she would need to go to get from one place to another.
Science:
In science our focus was on penguins. We have learned so much about them!
We also did this simple science activity. We cut out 2 leaves on paper towels and then Hailey drew the veins onto the leaves. We put one of the leaves in a cup without water and one in a cup with water and watched the water spread through the veins- it was a great illustration of how the water travels to the ends of the leaves.
Language Arts:
Hailey has been busy reading all about nature in her new emerging reader.
We added to Hailey’s Reading Notebook- she added a page about story structure and we discussed how stories have a beginning, middle and an end.
Hailey made this super cute book about 2014 that I found on Teacher’s Pay Teachers, but I can’t find it now to link to it.
The book is full of pages all about 2014, and Hailey had a great time working on it!
I am really hoping to start feeling better in the next few weeks and I’ll be back to my usual posting schedule just as soon as I feel up to it!
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Heart of Dakota- BLHFHG Unit 12
Jan
This post is actually about what we worked on the week before our Christmas vacation and I am finally getting around to posting it. We had a wonderful break and it was so nice to relax and just do a whole lot of nothing! So, here is what we did the week before break:
History/Geography:
Hailey did some mapping practice by drawing a key and then following my directions about where to add various things to her map.
We have been learning about Pilgrims and Indians. This week we learned how Indians would write stories by drawing pictures in a circle. Hailey drew her own story, telling the story of how a seed grows into a flower.
Science:
In science we talked about how germs are spread and why so many of the Pilgrims died during their first winter here. We did a little experiment to demonstrate how important it is to cover our coughs and sneezes. Hailey ripped up some paper to represent germs and put the pieces in a cup. When I said “achoo” she shook the cup and the germs flew out all over the place.
We tried it again, and this time she covered the cup when I said, “achoo.” The germs stayed inside.
Language Arts:
We finished up our fun gingerbread unit and then Hailey made her own gingerbread man.
He turned out cute and yummy 😉
Other:
One day we found Bobby, our elf, on the top of our classroom tree. We thought maybe he was trying to tell us that it was time add a star.
Hailey and Hunter worked together and painted a star for our tree and then added a bit of glitter.
Our beautiful star.
Hailey and Hunter also worked hard to finish our nativity scene.
The completed nativity scene.
It was a nice week and we had a wonderful time having 2 weeks of vacation for Christmas. Now it’s time to get back to work!
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Heart of Dakota- BLHFHG Unit 11
Dec
The weeks are really flying by! I can’t believe it will be Christmas next week. Anyway, we just finished unit 11 and had a great week.
History/Geography:
This week in history we learned about the pilgrims working to build their homes now that they had decided where to settle.
Hailey looked over a map to see the route that the pilgrims took and looked to see the routes that other explorers before them had taken.
The pilgrims did not have glass to use for windows as they built their homes. Instead they used brown paper and brushed oil on them to let more sunlight through. So, Hailey rubbed some oil on a brown paper bag to see what happened.
Hunter made one too, but he did not cover his whole paper with oil. So we held it up to the window to see the difference in the light that came through.
Hailey built a pilgrim house using Lincoln Logs
The finished house
We cut some pieces from the brown oiled paper to use as windows in the house. Those windows must have let in a lot of cold air.
Science:
We have been doing a unit all about owls. Our favorite part of the unit was dissecting some owl pellets.
Here are just a few of the bones we found in the owl pellet.
Language Arts:
We are still reading through Little House in the Big Woods. Hailey really is not enjoying this book. I had hoped we would love it but we are just having a hard time getting into the book. Instead of begging me to read more like she usually does, she asks if we can skip reading for the day 🙁
Hailey did a little mapping activity to go along with the book. She had to use the key on the map and then follow the directions to see where to add the different details on the map.
Copywork using her poem for the week.
We are working through a super fun Gingerbread Unit and I’m pretty sure we have read every version of the Gingerbread Man that there is. There are lots of cute books and ideas to go along with them.
We read both “Gingerbread Baby” and then “Gingerbread Friends” and we really enjoyed both. After we read “Gingerbread Friends” Hailey made this cute beginning, middle and end project.
We also enjoyed “Gingerbread Man Loose in the School” and then Hailey made a gingerbread man that looked like the one from the book and a missing poster to go along with him. We took turns hiding the gingerbread man and then searching for him.
After we read “The Gingerbread Cowboy,” Hailey made this candy cane cactus.
The candy cane cactus hanging on our classroom tree.
We played Hangman to practice Hailey’s spelling words.
Other:
We added this cute tree to our classroom and then added decorations to it throughout the week.
One day we decided that, rather than doing our regular schedule, Hailey would throw a ball at our routine and whatever the ball hit was what we would do next.
One more week until our Christmas vacation!! We are excited!
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Heart of Dakota- BLHFHG Units 9 & 10
Dec
After taking most of November off from Heart of Dakota to do a fun Thanksgiving Unit study, we dove right back in to HOD last week. I don’t want to get too far off from where I had wanted to be before our Christmas break so we squeezed 2 units into one week.
History/Geography:
This week we read about the hard trip on the Mayflower and what is was like for the Pilgrims when they landed in America.
We did a fun little mapping activity practicing using north, east, south and west to find some corn in a basket.
We found Plymouth on the map and Hailey made a picture of what the coastline looks like where the Pilgrims landed. Hunter helped her color the ocean.
Hailey added a new date to our timeline.
We did an activity where Hailey had to try to build a wall and then I would knock down part of the wall as she tried to build. It related to the Bible story and our focus on the pilgrims trying to build their homes. It was one of those activities that I thought seemed a little silly when I read it in the curriculum, but Hailey loved it!! She giggled and giggled and wanted to keep doing it.
Language Arts:
I introduced the concept of historical fiction this week, as we are starting to read Little House in the Big Woods.
I told Hailey to act out what she thought it was like to be on the Mayflower and spot land after being stuck on the boat for so long. I explained to her that she acted things out based on the facts she has learned about so that she could understand what historical fiction means.
I found this in one of my Mailbox books, it related perfectly to our book. Hailey had to color and cut out the different foods that the Ingalls family prepared to store for the winter and then glue it to where they stored it.
We are doing a super fun Gingerbread Unit from Around the Kampfire. Hailey worked on a cute folder from the unit that she is keeping all of her gingerbread papers in.
The front of the finished folder. So cute!
Science:
This was another activity that I thought seemed a little silly and I actually skipped over it at first. Then I figured we would just do it because it would only take a few minutes. I am so glad we did it because Hailey loved it! I put tape on the table to represent land, the blue X represents Virginia where the pilgrims had hoped to land. The ball is the Mayflower and Hailey had to blow on it to try to get it to Virginia. At first she was able to do it. Then I blew on the ball from another direction and changed the course of where it went.
We put clay in the bottom of this container to show what it could look like under the water and why it was important for the pilgrims to settle where there was a bay deep enough for large boats to dock. Our bay wasn’t deep enough, so the boat got stuck.
We also did a little experiment to see how the water cycle works.
We focused on learning all about owls. Hailey and Hunter made a cute owl craft.
Hailey turned hers into a book and wrote a fact about owls on each page and then illustrated it.
The front of Hailey’s book.
One of the pages in her book.
We also dissected a couple of owl pellets, which was so interesting!!
Owls can, have, are chart
Christmas:
We have been reading all about the Christmas story and the real meaning of Christmas.
After reading the Christmas story, Hailey and Hunter used our Little People Nativity set to act out the story.
We are working on our own nativity set and adding a little at a time.
It was a great and busy week!
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