Third Grade: Day 38

We have been studying amphibians in class this week and I have been able to found several cool school at home websites and have gotten several tools to further Isabel’s learning in areas that we cover. So awesome!

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Working on cursive writing.
She does it beautifully if she takes her time.

We have finished our study on the Aztec’s from Mexico and are now reading through about the Mayan people.

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We will probably finish this book early next week.
It’s been a very eye opening and informative study.

For science, I’ve been trying to add some art type projects. This week since we are talking about amphibians, I found some great things about frogs.

Project 1: Life Cycle of Frog wheel.

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Cutting out pieces to make her frog wheel.

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She cut and glued but didn’t want to color anything.
I left that up to her.

Project 2: Tadpole or Frog? book.

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Pieces for her book.

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Assembly of her book on to construction paper.

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All finished.
Again, didn’t want to color anything.

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She had to match up each fact whether it was tadpole or frog.

Third Grade: Day 37

Tuesday’s in class are usually pretty crazy days and they begin with piano lessons at Mrs. G’s house. We were almost late this morning but made it just in time with 2 minutes to spare!

Afterward we stopped by the store to do some much needed grocery shopping and then picked up some lunch before heading home.

We didn’t start class until 1:30 p.m. and Isabel worked so hard she got all her work done and we were able to enjoy a brisk walk around the neighborhood before dinner. It was a great day!

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In Language Arts we have been working on building a good story.
Today Isabel did a reverse outline on the story of Noah.

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Working in one of her math books and doing patterns.

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Working on coloring shapes.
This was a BIG page with lots of coloring; she finished it and it looks beautiful!

Third Grade: Day 32

Tuesdays are piano with Ms. G.

Isabel is finishing up learning “Beauty and the Beast”. She will be going over the remaining lines of music this week and next week she will be adding the dynamics to finish the song. I spoke with Ms. G after class and she assures me that Isabel is doing a great job learning all her songs. This week we need to work on slowing down during practice times and counting a-loud (early metronome practice) during songs.

Our class time was delayed due to piano but Isabel got all her work completed except for one assignment (which we will finish tomorrow).

Today, since we got most of our reading done yesterday, we spent the early afternoon working on writing assignments. We did spelling, language arts, English (helping verbs: has, have, had, do, does and did), vocabulary development, science, math, Bible and poetry. We also continued reading about the Aztecs from Mexico.

We worked again with limerick’s.

  • limerick is: a humorous verse where lines 1 and 2 rhyme, lines 3 and 4 rhyme and the final verse rhymes with lines 1 and 2.

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Isabel’s assignment was to write 2 limerick’s and they had to start with “There was”.

We finished with school work and had time to continue, free-reading “The Swiss Family Robinson“. I have never read it before (or seen the movie) and I’m enjoying it as much as Isabel!

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Third Grade: Day 31

Today is a big week for Isabel. The 6 weeks of memorization for Psalm 8 that she’s been working on needs to presented.

“O Lord, our Lord how majestic is Your name in all the earth.
Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!
From the mouth of infants and nursing babes.
You have established strength. 
Because of Your adversaries,
to make the enemy and the revengeful cease.
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which You have ordained.
What is man that You take thought of him and the son of man that You care for him?
Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and you crown him with glory and majesty!
You make him to rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet.
All sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field.
The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea.
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas,
O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is your name in all the earth!

Today she presented it to Grandma and Grandpa and hopefully she’ll get to present it to her piano teacher and Nana and Pompo tomorrow.

This week in Bible we are learning about “redemption” in the story of Joseph. Also, we learn that more of Jesus’ followers are ready to be a part of His ministry but religious leaders don’t like what He is doing.

This week we are praying for the Seminole Native American people.

In History and Geography, we are continuing our lesson on the Aztecs from Mexico.
(We finished the Inca’s (actually called Tawantinsuyu) last week.)

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Today we learned about the Aztec beliefs/superstitions, practices/sacrifices and history. It was a hard lesson to cover and yet it was awesome to discuss the topics that we covered. I hope that she continues to ask questions and that I am able to answer her questions with scripture like today.
It was such a great morning!

This week we will be finishing, T.S.o.t.B. by E.G. Speare.

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Both of us have really enjoyed this book and are sad to have to finish it.

We will also be finishing, P.a.t.S. by C. R. Bulla

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Isabel has really enjoyed this book too.

In science, we are still studying birds. Today we talked about “showing off“and what birds do in order to attract a mate.

  • We learned about bowerbirds and how they use every day objects to impress females. The male bowerbird builds a bower or den and then decorate it with flowers, leaves and other birds feathers. They will use bottle caps, plastic forks and other discarded items to decorate with.
  • Aracari birds use bright feather’s to impress females. Yellow, red, brown and black contain pigmets from certain fruits or seeds the males eat. Green and blue feathers reflect light and is called iridescence.
  • Birds of paradise have vivid feathers, loud calls and perform flamboyant dances.

We also talked about how we as humans “show off” to other humans. Isabel came up with clothes, earrings, jewelry, tattoos and crazy hairstyles (facial or otherwise).

Third Grade: Day 27

Today is piano class and National Dessert day. Isabel was excited for both!

Isabel is doing great in piano. She is learning several new Christmas songs.

This week has been all about poetry again, today we went over limericks and quatrain poems.

  • a limerick is: a humorous verse where lines 1 and 2 rhyme, lines 3 and 4 rhyme and the final verse rhymes with lines 1 and 2.
  • a quatrain is: a complete poem consisting of 4 lines.

Isabel did an awesome job writing her own (see below).

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Limerick with drawn pictures!

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Quatrain

We also did a whole lesson on birds and how they get the food they eat. We went over pelicans, kingfishers, green heron and with our main focus was owls.

Isabel learned how owl pellets are formed, what they are, where they come from and what’s inside them. She took an virtual owl pellet dissection study and became a…

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Bird Barfolotist! Isabel loved this!

Third Grade: Day 25

This week has been a good one, we have covered a lot of new things and had a bit of review on things we already knew.

Psalm 8 is coming along, this week we added the final 5 sentences of the poem/song. Isabel can sing it beautifully on her own but does get caught up in the middle. She has 2 weeks before needing to have the whole thing memorized.

This weeks 5 sentences…

You have put all things under his feet. All sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field. The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea. Whatever passes through the paths of the seas, O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is your name in all the earth!

In Bible this week we heard the story of Jacob and Esau, 2 men who were part of God’s plan even before they were born. In the end God’s plan does play out but it makes you think, life is easier when we follow Him instead of doing things ourselves. Good stuff!

Also this week we worked again on adjectives and adverbs but added similes and synonyms. Her passage this week…

“Captain John Smith raised his head. She saw his face. It was half covered with golden hair. His eyes were blue. Never before had she seen a man’s eyes that were blue.”
– from Pocahontas and the Strangers by C.R. Bulla

See below…

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Her assignments.

The top assignment is from today (Friday) and is from dictation (me reading, her writing). During this assignment she has to get the capitalization and punctuation correct from the original piece.

The bottom assignment is from yesterday (Thursday), for this assignment she add to add adjectives, adverbs, similes and synonyms to make it more interesting.

For both assignment she did an awesome job, I love her work from Thursday and the color she chose. Great job!

This week she completed her Friday, book “Lawn Boy”, this book she has been sharing with Daddy. The book is about a boy who starts a lawn mowing service in his neighborhood to earn money to buy bicycle inner tubes. Through a bunch of different meetings, some investing and other adventures by the end of the book the boy has a half a million dollars in the bank!

Project: House Paint Part 1

We have been in need of new paint on the house for about a year or so now. The south side of the house gets slapped with rain during those rainy months around here and the seams along that side were exposed.

So this is the year to get those seams sealed and get some paint! After some lengthy talks and debates we decided on a 4-color color scheme that is similar but also very different. Enjoy!

Caution: wet paint ahead!
The painters will be back to finish trim, gutters and the front of the house (where their is more detail). Today is just body work.

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South back corner of garage.
This side gets hit hard with rain but is a bit protected from the neighbors house.

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South back corner of garage and house.
This wall gets slammed with rain during our rainy season.

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Wide view of the house.
Notice the shed has the old color of house paint on it.

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Looking north toward the shed.

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Back north corner of house. New paint color on the left. Old paint color on the right.
The painters hadn’t painted this side before going to lunch.