Week in Review

I can’t believe how fast this school year went by.  This was our last week of 2nd grade (which was almost a month ago, I’m finally all caught up!).  I very clearly remember the first day of school and wondering how I was going to do this homeschooling thing all year long.  But, we made it and we both loved it!

 Hailey on her last day of second grade.  I wish I could slow down time, she is growing up so fast.

Here are some of the things we did during our last week:

Language Arts:

 We finished up our author unit study about Tomie dePaola from Around the Kampfire.  After we read “Little Grunt and the Big Egg,” Hailey created a book about how she would care for a prehistoric pet if she had one.

On the first day of school Hailey made the top picture (which Hunter colored on while I had it hanging up on the wall :-().  On the last day of school, I had her do the same paper and then we compared how her answers had changed or stayed the same.

Science:

Our butterflies hatched!  Hailey was able to watch one come out of its chrysalis.

We started with 5 caterpillars and ended up with 5 butterflies that were all able to fly away.  One seemed to have damaged wings, but when the time came to fly away it was able to fly.

Hailey put together a lapbook all about caterpillars and butterflies to show what she learned during our unit.  Most of the printables are from here and here.

Inside the first flap.  The top shows the life cycle of the butterfly.

On the bottom there is a little booklet where Hailey wrote out the life cycle of a butterfly.  Then she made a butterfly diagram.

This is inside the next flap of the lapbook.

On the top there are butterfly cards that show many of the types of butterflies.  Next to that is some butterfly math.  Underneath is a Venn diagram comparing butterflies and moths.

On the bottom of this flap there is a little booklet that shows the predators of butterflies, another booklet that shows the defenses butterflies use to protect themselves, and also a little booklet to show the lifespan of a butterfly.

This is the last page of the butterfly lapbook.

On the top there a book to show the different flowers that butterflies like.  There is a observation journal where Hailey wrote about what she observed in the caterpillars we watched turn into butterflies.  Then there is a little caterpillar with some facts about caterpillars.

This section has a butterfly Hailey made to show the symmetry of butterfly wings.  There is also information about what caterpillars and butterflies eat.

We had an amazing first year of homeschooling!!  We are enjoying summer vacation right now and waiting for our new baby to arrive 🙂

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Week in Review

I am a couple of weeks behind in posting my weekly reviews, so I am going to do my best to remember what we did.

Language Arts:

We continued our author unit study about Tomie dePaola from Around the Kampfire.

Hailey really enjoyed reading the books we used in our author study!

We read several books that had Big Anthony in them and we talked about cause and effect- how all of the things that Anthony did were the cause, and then the effect was the result of his actions.

On the left, Hailey wrote several things that Anthony did and on the right she wrote the results of those actions.

Hailey also made a post card pretending that Strega Nona had gone on vacation- she decorated the front of the post card and pretended that Strega Nona was in Disney World.

On the back she pretended to be Strenga Nona and  wrote a message to one of Strega Nona’s friends- she decided to write to Bambolona and told her about the fun she was having on vacation.

Science:

Our caterpillars arrived at the beginning of the week to go along with our study of caterpillars and butterflies.

Only a few days after their arrival they were already preparing to go into a chrysalis.

By Friday we only had a couple left that hadn’t formed a chrysalis.

We did a comparison of butterflies and moths and learned how to tell the difference between the two.

Hailey and Hunter painted one side of a butterfly, then folded the other side over to show how butterflies wings are symmetrical.

Hunter’s butterfly on the top and Hailey’s on the bottom.

Every day Hailey read us a book about butterflies.  She even used a butterfly puppet when she read on this particular day.  Hunter definitely enjoyed it!

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Week in Review

Wondering what we’ve been up to?  Here’s a few things we have been working on:

Language Arts:

Hailey finished up working on a story that she has been writing.  She wrote up a rough draft, we typed it, and then she illustrated each page.  She was very proud of her work!  She read her story to Hunter and he really enjoyed it.

We have been having a lot of fun doing an author unit study about Tomie dePaola from Around the Kampfire.  Hailey drew pictures of the main characters in some of his books and we discussed the traits that each of those characters have.

Science:

We started a fun unit all about caterpillars and butterflies.

Each day we read a different book about caterpillars/butterflies.

The first craft we made were these cute caterpillars- which are simply pom poms glued onto a clothespin with googly eyes added.

Then next day we put our caterpillars into toilet paper rolls and wrapped yarn around the outside- this represented a chrysalis.

Hailey and Hunter colored coffee filters with washable markers,

then sprayed them with water.  The colors all bled together and looked really pretty.

We used the coffee filters to turn our clothespin caterpillars into butterflies.

We sang a song about a caterpillar turning into a butterfly.  Hailey and Hunter loved the song and the hand motions to go with it.  Here are the words that we sang:

I saw a caterpillar
climbing up a tree.
He wiggled and he wiggled,
he wiggled right at me.
I put him in a box,
“Stay right there,” I said.
But, when I opened up the box
a butterfly instead.
I couldn’t do it,
even if I tried.
Only God in heaven
could make a butterfly.

Hailey made this pretty sun catcher butterfly.

Of course, we read more books.

Hailey and Hunter worked hard on making the life cycle of a caterpillar.

Here is Hailey’s completed life cycle project- from egg to larva (caterpillar) to pupa (chrysalis) to butterfly.

We watched a Magic School Bus episode about butterflies.  We also learned about metamorphosis on Brain Pop.

Math:

Hailey has been working on multiplication and we played a memory game using the math facts she is learning.  For example- one of the cards might say 7×3 and the matching card would say 21.  It was fun to play and I love it when Hailey asks to play again!

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Week In Review

Here is a little peek at what we’ve been up to:

Language Arts:

Hailey has been working hard on writing a story.  First she wrote up a rough draft, then we typed the story, and finally she is working on illustrating it.

We have been having a lot of fun doing an author unit study about Tomie dePaola from Around the Kampfire.  In this activity, Hailey made her own version of Tommy- the boy from the book The Art Lesson.  We talked about how an author can tell us how he/she is feeling by the things that happen in a book.  For example, Hailey though that Tomie dePaola thinks that people should be themselves because in the story Tommy is told that a real artist would never copy.

As we read through the books we will add to our gallery of characters- for now this is Hailey’s drawing of Tommy from The Art Lesson.

This is the cute folder we made to keep all of Hailey’s work in from this unit.

Science:

We are learning all about worms during science.  Hailey checking out some worms that we used for various activities.

Hunter and Hailey made little habitats for the worms to live in.  I love the look on Hailey’s face as she is picking up a worm to put in her jar.

The jars had oatmeal on the bottom, then we layered them with sand and dirt.  We put worms on the top and then added some leaves.  We observed them and watched them build their tunnels.

Other:

Hailey has decided that she wants to add a weekly baking lesson- so she made us some delicious cupcakes.

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