Posted on October 23, 2009 - by Kay

Year 1: Week 8

(October 19 – October 23, 2009)
Our school week will see the heavier loads on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as those are the days that ds is at Mother’s Day Out so that dd and I have less interruptions. Each activity is designed to take only 10-15 minutes at the most as this is one of the defining characteristics of a Charlotte Mason approach to education.

*Please feel free to leave your comments or questions below. I always love learning from other people!*

• Monday
• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday
• Friday

Planning Day

• Literature – Free Reading: Old Macdonald Had An Apartment House, by Judi Barrett. (Cute story about Old MacDonald as the Super of an apartment building. As his tenants move out, he uses their old apartments to plant vegetables. Great use of imagination as the carrots grow down through the ceiling of the apartment below, etc…)

School Day

• To Start: Pledge/Calendar/Weather
• Natural History: Record our observations of the Monarch caterpillars we’re rearing.
• Memory Work: “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Phillipians 4:8 (NLT)
• Nature Study: We are starting a tree lapbook and will work on it a little bit at a time over the next 2-4 weeks. If you’d like to know more, check out my post about lapbooking.

• Go to a local park with lots of different kinds of trees.
  • Pick out 3 trees to observe more closely.
    • Using one of these blank mini-books, make a bark rubbing.
    • Then collect 1-2 leaves from that same tree to paste onto another flap of the same book. Or make a leaf rubbing (same technique as a bark rubbing above).
    • Draw a picture of the tree on a third flap of the same book.
    • Optional: Collect or draw a seed from the same tree. You can use this “Tree I.D.” book which has a flap for seeds included.
    • Using those clues collected above, try to identify that tree.
    • Repeat the same steps above for the other 2 trees you’ve chosen to observe.
  • Read The Oak Inside the Acorn, by Max Lucado. This book is a beautiful story that incorporates the story of a little girl growing up into the life cycle of an oak tree.
    • Fill in the “Life Cycle of an Oak Tree” mini-book.
    • Collect acorns for our Fall Centerpiece for the dining table.
  • Learn about Conifers and Broad-Leaved (deciduous) trees. We are using Tell Me, Tree: All About Trees for Kids, by Gail Gibbons.
    • Add definitions to “Vocabulary” accordion book.
    • Complete “Types of Trees” flap book.
    • Add information we’ve learned so far about the differences and similarities of coniferous and deciduous trees to the “Comparing Trees” venn diagram.

Copywork: I found this beautiful poem about trees and thought it fitting for our lapbook on trees.

• Breath by: J. Daniel Beaudry
  Tree, gather up my thoughts
  like the clouds in your branches.
  Draw up my soul
  like the waters in your root.

  In the arteries of your trunk
  bring me together.
  Through your leaves
  breathe out the sky.

Library Day

• Phonics – Additional Reading: NASCAR ABCs, by Paul Dubois Jacobs and Jennifer Swender. (Most ABC books aren’t all that great, but this one was perfect for my 4yo ds who loves race cars! It didn’t try to dumb all the words down, but used real terms (with a glossary at the back for those of us who didn’t know them all). Fun book!)

School Day

• To Start: Pledge/Calendar/Weather
• Natural History: Record our observations of the Monarch caterpillars we’re rearing.
• Memory Work: “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”Phillipians 4:8 (NLT)
• Bible: “The Good Shepherd” (Psalm 23), from The Jesus Storybook Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones, pgs 130-135.
• Literature: “The Gnat and the Bull”, from Aesop’s Fables (Milo Winter Edition).
• Literature: “The Plane Tree”, from Aesop’s Fables (Milo Winter Edition).
• History:
  • “Cincinnatus”, from Fifty Famous Stories Retold, by James Baldwin.
  • Add this story to the timeline in our Book of Centuries.
• Math: Place Value Abacus Chips Lesson from 100 Best Ideas for Primary Math, by Holly Sar Dye, M.A.
• Geography:
  • Chapter 6 of Paddle to the Sea, by Holling C. Holling.
  • Fill in another square of our Paddle to the Sea Story Board with a picture depicting this chapter and a one sentence summary on the back.
• Natural History: “Reddy Fox’s Sudden Engagement”, from Animal Tales, by Thornton Burgess. (during Tea Time)

Field Trips/Nature Study

• Literature – Free Reading: Elmer and the Lost Teddy, by David McKee. While we love Elmer stories – Elmer is a special multi-colored elephant that stands out amongst all his other elephant friends – this one wasn’t really our favorite.