Swan School

SCRITPTURES - We read Luke chapter 13.

READALOUD - Trumpet of the Swan Chapters 8 & 9.


MATH - We paused in the reading of Trumpet of the Swan to talk about direction. Jared drew a compass and we played a game like "draw a line to East, Southeast." Then we talked about degrees on a compass and circle and Clarissa got to practice her place value by writing the numbers on the board while Jared practiced arithmetic figuring out which numbers correspond to N,S,E,W. We found some patterns to help us remember that the four main degrees are 90, 180, 270, and 360. We read a book called, "How do you Count a Dozen Ducklings?" While I read, the kids used fuzzy balls as little ducklings and put their "ducklings" in order along with the story. The story deals with multiplication as a mother duck puts her twelve ducklings in different sets and then skip counts them rather than counting them one by one. She starts out by putting them in groups of two and only has to count to six, six times two is twelve, etc.

SCIENCE, WRITING, & ART - Each of the three older kids made books about swans. For Clarissa and Krystal, I wrote out sentences like, "Trumpeter swans like..." and they had to finish the sentences and draw illustrations. Jared is making a book about 8 different types of swans including a description of each and an illustration. I read everyone a chapter from a Childcraft Annual book on Feathered Friends about waterfowl to get more details for Jared's booklet. The girls also practiced writing "I Love You" on the board, just like Louis from the story. Everyone continued to work on their Illuminations books while I read. (Clarissa asked me if every night I read ahead to get great ideas on what fun activities go with the chapters we are reading, I had the opportunity to tell her that, "No, I just pray each morning that the Spirit will help guide me and give me ideas to help teach the kids, and then the ideas just come." I am grateful I could share that with them.)

GRAMMAR - We reviewed Onomatopoeia in Trumpet of the Swan and How Do You Count a Dozen Ducklings.

PRESCHOOL - Amber worked her cutting skills by making crayon paper bookmarks for everyone (her own idea). She also worked on matching with some letter cards that make a complete picture when you match them correctly. She joined in on the math with sorting fuzzy balls.

SPELLING - The girls practiced their spelling list using an Amazing Handwriting Worksheet.

READING - Clarissa read an easy reader called 100 years that has the word FIND in it, since that is the word she is working on in tutoring. Krystal read a Reading a-z level D book called Little Loon and two Waterford Institute books, one focusing on the word Under (which is about soccer) and the other focuses on the words Yummy and Yellow.

LUNCH - We had a "yummy yellow" lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches with mustard, cornbread with honey, peaches and orange drink.