Lego Class: Battle Cars

With today being Isabel first ever Lego class, she is just learning how things work. The other students in the class took the class during the previous quarter, so they have more knowledge of how to build things. Which didn’t seem to mind Isabel, she asked lots of questions!

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Her completed battle wall.

The wall was built so the kids could see if their car could knock it down. However, I didn’t see any of them ramming their walls. I saw them ramming each other! Which is more fun.

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Her completed battle car.
A little later she added to it.

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The girls were going to battle but Isabel was having motor issues and had to replace her motor 3 times in order to get her car working.

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They battled again but there wasn’t a winner, they were just having fun smashing into each other.

Third Grade: Day 132

It was a new kind of Tuesday for us. With piano lessons in the morning and our Play-well Lego® class in the afternoon. Our Tuesdays are busy!

I have to say, that Isabel pulled it off. We completed all but 2 subjects and we can focus on them tomorrow! Very proud of our girl!

In the classroom (before leaving for piano):

We started the morning with getting into the Bible and read our reading from both Isaiah and 1 Corinthians. Great way to start the day! Filling our minds with things above and getting the right mindset for the day!

Spelling test:

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Great job again on spelling.

Isabel has been keeping a journal since receiving one for her birthday. Each morning I give her 10 minutes or so to write her thoughts down before moving on with the rest of the day. She has kept it up (without complaint) since. I have not read all the entries but have peeked at a few, in hopes of seeing more lengthy passages. Maybe as she continues to write, they will get lengthier and she’ll begin to enjoy writing more. We’ll see.

On the way to piano lessons, Isabel read aloud part of our history lesson for the day. She did an awesome job and by the time we arrived at our piano teacher’s door, we were finished. This also worked well at getting Isabel to read louder, due to road noise and such. I may have to keep this in mind and continue the practice each week in order to boost her voice volume while reading at home.

After meeting Daddy for lunch, we arrived back home and worked on several more things with a heavy focus on Language Arts: past, present and future tenses. We also worked on passive and active voice.

Before our Lego® class, Isabel played 2 online games. One was a Lewis and Clark expedition game and the other was a state location game. She loved the state location game and played both the easy and harder version. She even tried her hand at the capital game but wasn’t able to finish before we left. It’s something we will play again.

We also completed our 5-minute frenzy test for the day.

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Today’s test was a bit of a challenge, I had added 10, 11 and 12 multiplications to the mix.
She got flustered and didn’t finish but that’s O.K.
I realized today that I have been grading her frenzy tests wrong. So from now on it will be correct.

Until tomorrow…

Third Grade: Day 131

We are looking forward to this short week but we have a lot to complete before we get to our Easter vacation!

In the classroom:

This week is Isabel presentation of her memorized poem, “Paul Reverse’s Ride” by H.W. Longfellow. She has practiced it so hard and has done so well at memorizing it, I think, she just wants it to be done and over with.

I’ll post the presentation soon. We will not be able to get to it until Wednesday or Thursday.

In Bible we are continuing through 1 Corinthians and Isaiah. Great lessons to be learned from those whom started out in faith.

Our Native American prayer focus this week is the Pawnee tribe. We haven’t heard about this tribe in any of reading so, it’ll be great to learn about this tribe.

Spelling:

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Forgot a comma.

5-minute frenzy:

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Tomorrow I change it up!

In language arts we talked about regular and irregular verbs. We didn’t focus to much attention to it since Isabel was rattling off irregular verbs faster than I could write!

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The dictation passage this week is:

“Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good. His faithful love continues forever. He gives those who are thirsty all of the waster they want. He gives those who are hungry all of the good food they can eat.” – Psalm 107:1,9

In science we went over mirrors (concave and convex) and bending light. Learned how light travels through different objects and how that light can change direction, speed up and slow down.

We are finishing up our latest book:

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Isabel has really enjoyed it and we both have been caught rooting for the little horse.
A great book!

We will also finish, this week:

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Isabel has really enjoyed this one and hearing her laugh is great to hear while she reads aloud.

Project: Family Room Lighting

Since the kitchen, dining and family rooms are all in one room it only makes since to add lighting throughout the whole space. Today Gino worked on getting the holes cut for the lighting in the family room. He is also adding surround sound speakers as well.

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Three holes begin the project.
It’s like one big giant canvas of nothing.

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I can picture the lighting.
It’s going to brighten up the place!

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By early afternoon Gino has all the holes cut for the new lighting.

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Getting the first speaker hole cut.
It’s a big one.

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First speaker hole is cut.
Another one will be cut out directly across from it.

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By early evening the holes for both the lights and speakers are cut out.

Now it’s time for wiring.

Project: Dining Room Light

It’s time for the dining room to have some light.

This room has been in need of light since we purchased the house 8 years ago. We’ve lived with it but now it’s time for an upgrade!

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2 new recessed lights and a relocation with a new fixture.

The location of the old hanging lamp in the dining room was so far off. The table would’ve been positioned right next to the sliding glass door. Very poor design but it’s fix now! No one will know but us.

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The hanging light will be replaced with the light from our classroom (formal dining area).

The new hanging light is now centered in the room or where the center should be.

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Removing the old lamp light box.

A while later, he was back doing more light work.

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Canister’s are going in and we’ll have 2 new lights soon.
Tomorrow we’ll get the new (old) light hung.

In the other room, Isabel is practicing her piano while the new lights are going in.

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Cheese!

Third Grade: Day 130

It’s Friday!

We have had another busy week and next week is going to be busy as well, with it only being a 4 day week before Easter break the following week!

We are looking forward to this break. It’s our final big break before the final weeks of school. We’ll have 10 weeks of school left after Easter break! Exciting times but we still have a way to go before then, so we’ll take it day by day and week by week until we are through.

In the classroom:

As something different for the day, I laid out all Isabel’s assignment’s for the day on her desk and had her choose what order we would do them in. She chose wisely and we ended our day reading 2 books before class ended.

Friday’s dictation passage:

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Another long one this week but Isabel had half of it memorized.

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Her Bible lesson this week.

5-minute Frenzy:

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She got all her answers correct and ran out of time for the final 2 answers!
She was so close!

Multiplication tables are fun!

Spelling test:

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Missed the “s” on “huts“.

Today we worked on 1 state which brings our total of completed states to 30!

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Wisconsin.

Third Grade: Day 129

It’s almost the weekend!

Got any plans for the weekend? I think we’ll be working on the lighting in the dining room and family room, at least Gino will be.

In the classroom:

In our Lewis and Clark expedition, after a hard winter crossing the Rocky Mountains, we have made it to the Pacific Ocean!

We have visited and traded with Native American tribes all along the way.

  • Kaskaskias
  • Souks
  • Kickapoos
  • Shawnee
  • Missouris and Otos
  • Omahas
  • Yankton Sioux
  • Teton Sioux
  • Arikaras
  • Cheyennes
  • Mandans
  • Hidatsas
  • Assiniboines
  • Crows
  • Blackfeet
  • Salish
  • Shoshones – the tribe of Sacagawea
  • Nez Perce
  • Yakamas
  • Wanapams
  • Walla Wallas
  • Umatillas
  • Teninos
  • Wishram-Wascos
  • Watlalas and Cushooks
  • Chinooks
  • Cathlamets
  • Clatsops
  • Tillamooks

We have learned about the great buffalo hunts and how important this ONE animal was so important to ALL the tribes, not just the plains Native Americans.

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I love this illustration from one of our library books about the buffalo.

Spelling Test:

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She missed 2.

2 States:

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Iowa.

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Texas.