Heart of Dakota- BLHFHG Unit 5

Has another week really come and gone? It just doesn’t seem possible!  This school year is going by so quickly.  I have actually gotten a little bit behind in my posts.  I am just now posting about unit 5, but we are going to be starting unit 7 tomorrow.  Anyway…

We started a new behavior chart a few weeks ago.  When Hailey has had 5 outstanding days on our chart she earns a reward.  Hailey made a list of the rewards she wanted to work towards- she has things like skip a subject, extra snack, computer time instead of calendar time, pajama day, show and tell, etc.  So, she had earned 5 outstandings and decided she wanted to pick show and tell for her reward.

Hailey showed us her American Doll, Aveena and told us all about her.  Then she showed us her stuffed dog Mike and told us all about him.  She loved doing show and tell!

History:

In history this week we learned about how the Pilgrims found Holland to be very different than England.  Streets were canals and houses looked very different.  Everything was very different for the children and adults and the children even started learning to speak some Dutch.

Language Arts:

Hailey working on putting her poem for the week in order.

Hailey’s illustration for her poem.

Practicing spelling words… I am running out of fun ideas for practicing and would love some suggestions.

We have been learning about nouns and for a fun activity I had Hailey tell me a short story.  I wrote it on the board and had her erase all the nouns.  Then without looking, she named off new nouns to fill in the blanks.  Our own little Mad Libs :-).  It was a lot of fun and turned out really silly.

We started learning about common nouns and proper nouns.

Hailey made a word search with common and proper nouns.

We are doing an interactive language notebook, so Hailey added a page for common and proper nouns.

Working on listing common and proper nouns in her notebook.

Hailey did a cereal box book report about Helen Keller.

We started a new book this week.  It’s an adventure book, so we started out with a treasure hunt.

Hailey loved the treasure hunt!  She thought we should do one everyday 🙂

Science:

During science we learned about the heart and then listened to each others hearts using an empty paper towel tube.

Columbus Day:

Since these are activities from a few weeks ago, we made a boat for Columbus.

Then we made this fun map.  You can see everything we did here.

Unit Study:

Our Unit Study was all about leaves.  One day I had Hailey and Hunter dress in the color of chlorophyll 🙂

Hailey also made this cute Fall Tree Craft.

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Heart of Dakota- BLHFHG Unit 4

It’s hard to believe that it’s already the middle of October! The school year is going by so fast. Here is a review of what we did during unit 4.

I have changed a lot of our calendar notebook in the last week or so.  It was taking so long to get through everything, and a lot of it was just a repeat of what we did together during on our calendar board.  So, I have taken a lot out of the notebook.  One of the things I plan to continue though is the daily drawings.  Hailey enjoys doing them and I can already see an improvement since last month in her pictures.

History:

We read about the Pilgrims and how they left their homes in England to try to find religious freedom in Holland.

We learned about how different everything looked when the Pilgrims arrived in Holland.  Many of the streets were canals rather than roads.  We looked online to see pictures of what it looks like and it was really neat to see!

We learned about how dikes work by making this little model.  We put Model Magic down the middle a plastic container to represent the dike.  On one side was some water and on the other were the houses.

Then I made a hole in the dike and Hailey had to yell “ding, ding” like she was ringing a bell, as the people did back then.  Then she had to quickly repair the wall before the houses were flooded.  She loved it!

We talked more about what the city looked like and how there were a lot of windmills.  I saw this cute craft on Homeschool Survival, so Hailey and Hunter both made a windmill.

Geography:

We are using Road Trip USA to learn all about the states.  We learned about Delaware this week.

We learned about the Delaware Memorial Bridge that links Delaware and New Jersey and then made a model of the bridge.  Hunter and Hailey painted some cardboard blue to represent the water.

Next we put together some popsicle sticks.

Here is our completed Delaware Memorial Bridge.

Hailey added some animals to our USA Animals wall.

Hunter likes to do everything that Hailey does, so he added a fish for us.

We are also using Which Way USA by Highlights, so Hailey did some work in her magazine and learned more about Delaware.

Language Arts:

Hailey did some copywork using her poem for the week.

Hailey is working on a story, using the rules about sentences that we were studying/reviewing.  She has finished writing the story and is now working on her illustrations.

We finished reading Helen Keller by Margaret Davidson.  Hailey is working on a book report, but isn’t quite finished yet, so I’ll be posting that next week.  Here are a few activities we did about Helen Keller:

Hailey tried doing some writing and drawing while blindfolded to see what it would be like to try to write as a blind person.

We used glue to make Hailey and Hunter’s names in braille.

Once the glue was dry it left little raised bump that felt like braille.

We went to the Great Wolf Lodge for Hailey’s birthday and while we were there we noticed some braille.  Hailey was seeing what the braille on our room number felt like.

Math:

Hailey learned a little about fractions, and what 1/2 and 1/4 look like.

She did some coloring to practice what 1/2 and 1/4 of a circle looks like.

Science:

We did a couple of experiments in science this week.

Hailey held several different items up to the window to see if the sun would shine through or be blocked.  We used aluminum foil, construction paper, saran wrap, wax paper, and lots more!  Hailey tried all sorts of things that she found around the room to see what would happen.

She completed her science notebooking page about the experiment.

We also did an experiment to see how many drops of water we could get on top of a penny before the tension would break and the water would spill off.  We were surprised that it took 19 drops!

We tried it using other coins too.  It took 15 drops with a dime, 32 with a nickle and 30 with a quarter.  I don’t know why the nickle could hold more water than a quarter, but we tried it twice and got the same result.

Unit Study:

We started a unit study about leaves and Hailey is working on a fall tree craft here.

It was another great week and each day we get up excited to start our school day!  I hope that continues!!

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Heart of Dakota- BLHFHG Unit 3

We just finished our 3rd unit of Beyond and I feel like we’re getting into a good routine.  I am really enjoying Heart of Dakota and I like learning right along side of Hailey.

History:

This week we learned about the Brewster family who ran an inn in Scrooby, England.  The Brewster family had church meetings at their home because many of the people in Scrooby did not want to worship the way King James wanted them to.  King James ordered the people to worship at his church and sent soldiers to find out where people were having church.  When they were caught, the men were sent to jail.  At the end of the week we read about the people making secret plans to leave England and move to Holland.

Hailey made this picture of a stone wall to represent the Brewster’s inn, which at one time was a palace.

One of our favorite history activities was playing a game to see if Hailey would worship the way King James wanted or if she would end up in jail.  I didn’t take any pictures of the game, but it was fun and Hailey ended up in jail.

Geography:

We are using Road Trip USA to learn all about the states.  We learned about our first state this week- Connecticut.

We read about Connecticut in the National Geographic US Atlas.  To start teaching some mapping skills, I had Hailey look up the capital of Connecticut (Hartford) in the index.  Then she used the grid to find it on the map.  She thought it was really neat and wanted to try finding other locations too.

Since the robin is the state bird for Connecticut, we made a cute a Robin Craft– you can see the finished craft here.

Hailey added Connecticut to our US map.

Hailey designed a postcard for Connecticut.

Hunter and Hailey tried clam chowder for lunch.  Hailey said she liked it, but then after a few bites asked for some chicken nuggets.  Hunter ate most of his, but he’ll eat pretty much anything 🙂

Language Arts:

I am not loving the curriculum we are using for Language Arts.  I am going to try to keep using parts of it, but I’m also starting to do a bit of my own thing too.

I had Hailey sort sticky notes onto either “sentence” or “phrase” to practice what makes a sentence.

I looked over the remainder of unit 1 in Rod and Staff Preparing to Build English 2 and made up a test for Hailey that covered all of the material in that unit.  She did very well on the test, so I decided we are done with unit 1.  She has been asking to write a story, so I decided that would be good practice for what we were working on in unit 1.  She filled out a brainstorming paper and then wrote a rough draft.  We worked together on fixing her rough draft and she started working on her final copy.  She will finish it up this week.

Science:

We pretended that these 2 plates were flowers.  I crushed up some Cheetos and put them in the middle of one of the plates to represent pollen.  Hailey and Hunter pretended to be bees landing on one flower, and then carrying the pollen to the other flower.  Hailey learned how flowers need bees for pollination.

We also did a science experiment with light- I hung up a piece of black paper and a piece of white paper in a dark room and then we shined a flashlight on them to see the difference.  Since white reflects light, that paper was much brighter than the black paper because black absorbs light.

Hailey filled out her science notebooking paper about the light experiment.  She thinks it’s great when she can do her work on the floor instead of at her desk 🙂

Bible:

Hailey and Hunter loved doing toe-touches in between saying their Bible verse.

Music:

We are really enjoying the Hide ‘Em In Your Heart CD.  Hunter always asks to have the music on and wants everyone to dance.

Unit Study:

We finished up our Apple Unit Study this week.  I am going to post more about it this week and show more of what we did and the lapbook that Hailey made.

We did a science experiment with apples.

Hailey made an apple and labeled the parts of it, which we put in her lapbook.

Art:

Hailey and Hunter made this Apple Core Craft together.

We did this cute Apple Tree Activity.  I love how these turned out.

We did some fun activities for Johnny Appleseed’s birthday, and I will post more about those this week.

We also made a basket of apples, which turned out cute and I will post it this week.

We had a really good week and I am looking forward to unit 4!

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Heart of Dakota- BLHFHG Unit 2

Our second week of homeschooling is complete and was a success 🙂

Hailey practicing counting by 3s during calendar time.

Hailey read her journal to Hunter.

History/Geography:

This week we read about Sally and Richard, two kids who lived in Jamestown, and what it was like for them.  Hailey really enjoys the readings each day and doesn’t want me to stop reading.

One of the readings was about Richard getting lost and Sally searching for him.  Hailey drew a map to show where Richard went.

Language Arts:

Hailey’s illustration of her poem from this week.

Hailey is working through the Emerging Readers and started with The Beginner’s Bible.  She is enjoying reading it, although it is not challenging her.  I am hoping it is building confidence for when we move on to the more difficult books.

We are using Rod and Staff Preparing to Build English 2 for grammar and I am finding it to be boring.  I have been looking at Pinterest trying to find some ideas to make it a bit more fun.

Math:

This week in math I introduced the concept of division.  Hailey picked some fairies and then had to give each of them an equal amount of Cheeze Its.  She loves the activities we do like that.  She’s not a fan of the work in her math book, but she loves our hands on activities.

Science:

Hailey is really enjoying science.  We only have it 2 times each week, but she is always so excited when I tell her we are doing science.  Even though the activities seem very simple she really enjoys them.

Hailey had to pick an animal from a different climate that she wanted to learn more about.  She decided she wanted to learn more about giraffes.  After we read about giraffes she picked a stuffed animal and narrated a play to show what she had learned.

We also studied tree squirrels and how they stretch out their legs and flatten their bodies and tales and then glide through the air.  We did the following experiment:

Hailey dropped a piece of paper that was crumpled up.

Then she dropped a flat piece of paper.  She immediately made the connection to the tree squirrels flattening out their bodies.

 This is Hailey’s notebooking page for the our tree squirrel experiment.

Music:

Hailey and Hunter really liked the song that went with our Bible verse this week and had a lot of fun dancing along with it.

Unit Study:

We are still learning all about apples.

Hailey made applesauce with the apples we picked last week.

We also made apple crisp.

Yummy!

Art:

We made this simple Apple Tree Craft.

We also made this Apple Life Cycle Craft.

Field Trips:

We went on 2 field trips and had lots of fun!

First Hailey and I went to see The Three Little Pigs opera.  It was so cute and she loved it!!

Hailey with the three pigs and the big bad wolf after the show.

We also went to see how donuts are made.

We got to see the process for making apple cider too.

After all of the juice has been squeezed out of the apple this is what is left.  It was pretty neat to see.

We are all ready for another fun week of homeschooling!!

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