Jeremiah and Daniel

Last week, Grant and I continued with the language arts block using stories from the Old Testament.  We also continued to practice spelling, and review math in different ways.  We reviewed math by rolling math dice, singing the times tables songs, or doing  worksheets.  Here is one worksheets he did:

Grant also continued reading everyday, and we reviewed the French songs and words they had learned so far.  Here is a video of Grant and Johanna singing a song about Spring (they thought it was pretty funny when Julia walked right in front of them):

Here are the words in English:
Spring is here. Hurrah for the nice weather! Here are flowers of all colors.  No more sleeping.  Wake up.  Spring is here coming to visit us again.

Grant and I also had our piano lessons/practices.  He really liked the song you will see him playing in the video below (I think he liked it because it was the first time he got to use the pedal during a song). Right before I got ready to record it, he ran off saying he would be back in a minute.  He came back with his hair nicely combed, and wearing a nice shirt.  I was very impressed!  No sooner had we finished recording the song than he was off changing back into his other clothes.  Enjoy the video!

Grant also finished writing his thank you cards for cursive practice, so we moved onto capitol letters. I dug this nice dry erase board out that I had stashed in the cabinet for him to practice on.

On Monday, I read Grant a story about the prophet, Jeremiah.

Once I was done reading the story, Grant and I drew a picture from it in our lesson books.

 Mom's Drawing

Grant's Drawing 

I also introduced Grant to the form drawing for this week:

On Tuesday, Grant re-told me the story,we came up with a summary, and then he copied it into his lesson book.

I also read the kids the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, and then they made these bean mosaics:

Grant's Mosaic

(He made Snoopy)

Johanna's Mosaic

(Hers started out as a flower, but then she just kept adding more random beans, so she decided it wasn't a flower any more.) 

Julia's Mosaic

On Wednesday, I told Grant a story about Daniel.

Afterwards, Grant and I drew a picture from the story in our lesson books.

Mom's Drawing

Grant's Drawing 

I also read the kids this book:

Once I was done reading the book, the kids modeled these acorns out of beeswax.

We had some other things going on Thursday morning, so Grant and I were back in the school room on Friday to finish up school for the week.

He re-told me the story about Daniel, we came up with a summary together, and then he copied it into his lesson book.

He also drew the form drawing in his book:

Next week will finish up our last week of new material.  The following week we will review everything from the year, and then call it an end to third grade!

A Day at the Zoo

Last Thursday, we all - Cory, Grant, Johanna, Julia, Uncle Jeff and I - took a field trip to the zoo. We had a wonderful day and the weather could not have been better! We arrived at the zoo around noon, and we stayed until they closed at 5:00pm. As always, the kids had a great time looking at all the animals, especially the penguins.

 I will say this is the first time I had ever seen a giraffe sit down and eat grass.  Getting down to the ground was pretty awkward looking with those long legs!

Inside the flight cage from the 1904 World's Fair...

The kids also enjoyed watching the chimps and gorillas.

We did visit one place at the zoo we had never been before - the first aid station.  Julia tripped and scraped up her knees pretty bad.  I took Julia in, and a very nice nurse got her all bandaged up (as you can see from the photo below).  While the nurse was tending to Julia's boo-boos, Cory, Grant and Johanna came in, and we found out the nurse was one of Cory's patients.  Talk about a small world!

The beauty and diversity of the animals on this planet never ceases to amaze me!

 

Since we were in Forest Park (a huge park located in the middle of downtown St. Louis)at 5:00pm, and didn't feel like sitting in rush hour traffic, we decided to eat at one of Jeff's favorite restaurants, the Boat House, also in Forest Park. We ate outside on the deck overlooking a lake watching the ducks and paddle boats go by.  It was a great ending to a great day!

King Solomon

This past week, Grant and I began a language arts block using stories from the time of King Solomon.  We also started everyday with piano lessons, math review, cursive practice, reading and spelling practice.  For the past few weeks we have been doing French every other day. Next week, I will have a video of the kids singing the newest song they have learned on the blog.  For cursive practice, he continued to write out thank you cards for his birthday presents.  This was one that he wrote:

On Monday, I read Grant a story about the wise King Solomon.

Once I was done, Grant and I drew a picture from the story.

Mom's Drawing

 Grant's Drawing

On Tuesday, Grant re-told me the story, and then we came up with a summary which he copied into his lesson book.

I also read the kids this book:

Afterward, I sat down with Johanna and we drew pictures from the book.  Johanna wanted to draw baby ducklings in their nest.

Mom's Drawing

Johanna's Drawing 

On Wednesday, I read Grant the story of Solomon building the temple.

He had a lot of fun afterward building a model of it out of Legos.

On Thursday, we took a field trip to the zoo (more on that in another post).

And finally, on Friday, Grant re-told me the story about Solomon's temple, we came up with a summary, and he copied it into his main lesson book.