Third Grade: Day 109

Let me just say, “I miss the sun, when it doesn’t shine for 2 days.” This morning we woke up to rain. A steady rain that lasted all day until around 4 p.m. and then it was back again around 8 p.m. We are all wishing spring would get here sooner.

In the classroom today:

Isabel is working hard on learning her literature memorization piece. She has learned the first few paragraph’s rather quickly. She worked on those verses 10 times today.

This week has been a big week in history, we have been going over the Constitution, how our government was formed, how the 13 original colonies became states, how the United States was formed, who does what jobs in the government and the Bill of Rights. Talk about some heavy topics of discussion! She’s understanding it better today. The internet has been a huge educator/help with (short) video’s from School House Rock (form the 70’s) and Have Fun With History.

We have also been reading our book…

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“If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution” by E. Levy.
Just scratches the surface of what our Founding Fathers did for us 240 years ago!

We have started a “states” book. We started with Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. As we continue through history we will begin to add more and more of the states.

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Pennsylvania.

I had to go online to look up more famous women, she was getting upset that all we were talking about was men. We talked about all the women we looked up and some she already knew about!

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Massachusetts.

All the forms, I have found online. I am so thankful for all those who share their homeschooling experience online! Otherwise I would be lost…

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This 13 original colonies map I found online as well. It’s the best one I have found.

Today Isabel had to write a “book commercial” for a book she has read. She chose a G. Stilton book.

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Writing is not her best subject, but after going back to it throughout the day, she was finally able to get the work completed. She did a great job!

Tomorrow we begin our other new book for the week and Isabel has been waiting all school year to begin this one!

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This is a large book and will take us the rest of the school year to finish.
With reading 2 chapters a week on Friday’s… she’s going to be so excited!!

Third Grade: Day 106

While the rest of the country is covered in a white blanket of snow, we are cold but we have clear blue sunny skies and it’s wonderful! We have all loved the weather we have been having the past few days. However the rainy weather will return on Wednesday for a few days before clearing up again sometime next week.

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This morning we were 27° outside but the sun wasn’t hidden behind mounds of clouds.
What a great way to start your day! I LOVE it when I can actually see and feel the sunshine!

In the classroom:

There is no Bible verse memorization for the next 6 weeks. Isabel will be working hard on learning a piece of literature and she has picked “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. She began today diligently working on learning the first 3 paragraphs, with a total of 13 paragraphs in all. She was doing great today, it’s a long one though and hopefully she can keep her momentum going over the next 6 weeks!

The dictation passage for this week:

“Faith is being sure of what we hope for. It is being certain of what we do not see. That is what the people of long ago were praised for. We have faith. So we understand that everything was made when God commanded it.” – Hebrews 11:1-3

Our new books for next several weeks are:

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“Om-kas-toe” by K. Thomasma

And “If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution” by E. Levy
(add photo)

We had a huge (informative) lesson about the end of the Revolutionary War, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of the Confederation, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights! It was a ton of information but we are working on this all week long and I hope that she understands just the basic’s, nothing to deep here.

Isabel asked me later in the afternoon, with a look of worry on her face, “Do I have to memorize the whole Constitution?” Giving her a reassuring hug, and chuckling to myself, “Oh, no Sweetie, I won’t make you do that. Let’s just get the basic understanding of these documents and government.”

Today’s science assignment was from Friday. We were observing and comparing leaves.

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Can you see the “primary vein” and the “secondary vein” in this cotyledon?

I didn’t get the true leave photographed it was so small and by the time Isabel was completed with it there wasn’t anything left. So moving on…

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Isabel trying to do some leaf rubbing with our tiny leaves. She was bummed.

So hard to teach a lesson and learn from the lesson when you have nothing to actually go with the lesson! We did what we could and we move on.

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Not working out to good.
The true leaf was so tiny that we decided not to do it until spring.

We also had to do measuring of growth that we started last week. We also finished up some lessons that we had started last week. Isabel was comparing her predictions to the actual results from the seedlings. We are finishing this radish seedling study on Wednesday, so we are down to our last few assignments before we finish.

Third Grade: Day 105

Today is Friday and we’ve been looking forward to it! It’s supposed to be a gorgeous weekend with lot of sun in the forecast. We are hoping for that so our little seedlings can get some much needed sun so they can really start to grow! By now they should be further along then what they really are. So we’ll see how the weekend is and hope for the best for our seedlings.

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The Bible passage this week she couldn’t not remember and had to look up in order to write out.
We’ll be working more next week on learning the verse.

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The dictation passage for this week.

Yesterday we were reviewing the book “The Bears of Hemlock Mountain” and today we are continuing our review with some extra food for thought…

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What is a Onomatopoeia? It’s a word associated with a sound of that name. See above.
We went through the whole book and added them all here and a few more along the bottom.

In the book, B.of H.M., there is a lot of snow and we talked about it and took some time to make our own little snowflakes in class today.

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Isabel drawing her last snowflake.

Snowflakes have 6 sides, which make them a hexagon shape, some of them can have over 100 ice crystals and no 2 are exactly alike.

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Our completed hexagon snowflakes.

Isabel likes the blue one that she drew and the blue one that I drew.
I like the green one she drew and the green one that I drew.
Which one do you like best?

In our science study, we were only able to complete one assignment today. The other assignment I have pushed to Monday in hopes that our seedlings will really grow over the weekend in the much needed sun.

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After measuring the growth of her seedlings. 14b has really taken off and is in the lead.
Tomorrow she will measure again to complete this weeks measurements.

Third Grade: Day 104

We did so much work today! No complaining from Isabel either, she just kept going until I said, “That’s enough we’re done!”

So in the classroom…

After completing a book, I usually have Isabel do several different things to extend the story out a bit. Since she finished “The Bears of Hemlock Mountain” yesterday, I had several things in mind for her to due today.

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I had her draw a picture of something (her choice) from the book.

To get her to think “outside the box”, I found this cool worksheet online about “The ending after the ending”. She needs to think of how to further the story a bit. Today she did an awesome job and wrote 1/2 a page! That’s fantastic for her!!!

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I missed all the grammar errors because I was so excited for her length in writing.
(We’ll fix those tomorrow)

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We started a state study about where the book “T.B.of H.M.” took place.
She really enjoyed doing this assignment!

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Science started with the measuring her plants.

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I didn’t think they had grown but after she measured, I was surprised by her findings.

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Isabel has turned this assignment into a competition between the seedlings.
I think she’s secretly hoping 14A wins.

Third Grade: Day 103

Our morning started out so great, that I thought we would be completed with all our school work early. However something happened after lunch and we s-l-o-w-e-d down, we got the work done but it was late in the day.

In the classroom, we both worked on math. I sat with Isabel while she worked on problems, if she needed some help, I was there. It was great and she got a lot completed, without needing my help so much.

In history we have begun to discuss the Constitution and the role it plays even today, 200 years after it was written.

In science:

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Looking at our assignment from yesterday (I know, I’m not supposed to look but you can’t help), Isabel’s prediction seems to be correct. We’ll check back tomorrow

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Her seedlings from Friday have really grown!
(see the growth below)

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She measured and the results are in.
14a is off to a great start!

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Toxic environment assignment from yesterday is coming along or rather not depending on how you look at it.

Our new books for the week are:

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“The Bears of Hemlock Mountain” by A. Dalgliesh
Isabel read this all in one day.

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“Carry on, Mr. Bowditch” by J. L. Latham

Finishing this week:

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“The Light and The Glory” by  P. Marshall and D. Manuel

Third Grade: Day 101-102

We were off yesterday and enjoyed the day together on the trail (see previous post).

With this week being shorter due to the holiday yesterday we can get all our work completed on time. Except for maybe today, since it’s piano lessons day. We usually don’t get something completed on Tuesdays, it gets pushed to Wednesday and that’s alright.

The Bible verse for this week is:

“When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” – Proverbs 16:7

The Native American prayer focus this week is for the Chickasaw tribe.

The dictation passage for this week:

“Let the words you speak always be full of grace. Season them with salt. Then you will know how to answer everyone.” – Colossians 4:6

Today we talked about what it means to “season our words with salt”. What does that mean? In the passage, Paul is talking to the church in Colossians and he is urging them speak gracefully to others. Just like salt is used to make our food taste good or palatable, we need to use words that speak well or are palatable to the listener. Isabel’s lesson was to create some creative phrases of her own to replace “season them with salt”.

In our other lessons, we got through all of them today except for our reading books. Which is perfectly fine, we can add those chapters to tomorrow lessons!

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In the classroom, we are continuing our science studies on radishes. Next week we wrap up our final lessons and move onto more seed sprouting! Before that though, we are growing, growing, growing our little radish seeds.

Today’s science assignment #1:
Toxic stress for our little radish seeds.

Objective:
To expose radish seeds to acid and salt water conditions. To appreciate that acid rain and soil salinity inhibit seed germination.

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Making the germination bed for the seedlings.
(paper towels work very well for this!)

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Cutting them out to fit inside the cups.

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Each cup has 16 layers of paper towel.
1 cup for each environment.

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Each environment with seeds inside.
We will return in 9 days to see the results.

Today’s science assignment #2:
Grid work

Objective:
To draw the development of growth from the seeds planted last Tuesday. (sorry no photos for this one!)

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Today’s science assignment #3:
Grow!

Objective:
To measure and record the growth of developing radish seedlings planted on Friday.

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Good thing we were off yesterday, these little seedlings have really grown overnight!
She is able to record the grown better.

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Since we were absent yesterday we will record the findings from now until Saturday.
(with today being Monday’s observation, tomorrow being today’s and so on)

Today’s science assignment #4:
Phototropism: turning toward light

Objective:
To use a radish model to predict how cotyledons and hypocotyls grow to maximize exposure to light.

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Her foil model to make her prediction.

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She wanted to make 2 models, which is totally fine.

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Placing her models in the tray with her sprouts.

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Her prediction: that the seedlings will turn (bend) toward the light.
We’ll find out in 2 days when we return to this assignment and observe the results!

Memorial Trail

Today just after lunch we headed to one of the area local parks to walk the N.Chapman Memorial Trial. This nice trial is paved all the way and is about 2.5 miles of walking, biking, rollerblading and scooter fun! We weren’t the only people (lots of dogs too!) on the trial, which made for some tricky spots but still a very nice scenic walk.

I really enjoyed it and might have to walk it again in the future!

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On the trail of the Nathan Chapman Memorial Trial.
Gorgeous day to get out and walk.