Killer Cricket Addition (lol)

We've been hard at work.  Two and a half weeks in to the school year.  With my middle girl we've had a bit of a attitude problem.  This is very unusual for her.  She is overall very compliant and always wants to please us.  I'm thinking she is a little hesitant this year, because we've changed spelling curriculum and added Story of the World.  She likes things to be the same.  She likes to know what's going on and what's coming next.  I hope once she gets used to the new things that she'll become her old sweet self again.  Right?

Today we had some fun with flash cards.  I don't think no one has ever done this before, but I hadn't come across the idea.  So, in case you too haven't, I thought I'd share.

We've been working on flash cards for math proficiency and the girls are usually fine with doing them the old fashioned way.  Even the preschooler wants to do flash cards and is always saying "my turn".  I usually just ask "what number is this?" and let her tell me either number on the card.  Or she just randomly shouts numbers, as this is probably what it looks like we're doing.  

Today, just for fun we laid a group of cards down in a grid and used fly swatters.  I'd ask the girls to slap a card who's sum was 8, or 5, or 12.  What ever sum I felt like saying.  Once they slapped the addends we'd flip the card over.  

Example: I might say "find a card who's sum is 10".  They could slap 2+8, or 9+1... Then we'd flip it over until all the cards had been flipped.  Of course, little E wanted a turn and so I'd say "slap one that has a 5". 

Even a little cricket wanted to join our fun, but little E used her fly swatter a bit too effectively/literally.

However, it is very unusual that 2+3= dead cricket :)

We also had some fun with geography.  Who doesn't love sticky notes? Honestly, who?  I got out our sticky strips, you know the skinny papers, but not the arrows.  I said "put the purple on the North Sea" etc. until we went through all the European waters.

Then we did a trace of Europe and labeled the waters.  

We will do the sticky notes tomorrow also.  So, I took one of each of the five colors (there happens to be five European waters in CC Cycle 2 Week 2) and posted them on our white board next to the name of each water.  Tomorrow they'll be able to look at my board and match their waters with my colors.  I can pop some laundry in while they get their stickies to match mine:)

Hope you can use these ideas somehow.

 

Week 1 Presentations and Science

Our group is starting the year with an interview type presentation.  Our skill focus is simply getting to know our classmates (mostly feeling comfortable with speaking in front of them).  I looked on CC Connected and found a file for impromptu open-ended  questions that you can print and cut into cards.  

I don't recall the uploader's name, but if you search "impromptu speaking cards"  you should find it.  I think I found it by searching these terms.

week: 1

Cycle: All

Subject: presentations

There were only nine, and I wasn't sure they would all apply to my kids.

So I googled impromptu speech topics.  There are many resources to find in this manner.  I think most of the questions I wrote on notecards

were from about.com  .

I decided to clip them to my white board above the presentation "line up", so they are right where I need them when I need them.  

When making my Line up, I decided to place the students who've been in CC before, near the top.  The newcomers will be on the bottom of the list.  I thought it nice to allow them time to know what to expect and hopefully relax any fears they may bring.

Science 

I found some good printable resources on CC Connected.  This weeks experiments won't take much time, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to employ the scientific method on a worksheet.  Here's what you should search:

emoticons method (is a "poster" with emoticons to help the younger students have a visual of each step)

same place, uploaded by jen30- a worksheet to fill out the steps for the scientific method

shaded #2 , also by Jen30- a similar worksheet 

C2W1_sci_exp  was another helpful file.

Hope this helps your last minute prep for Week 1.

We have our first day on Monday!! My girls and I are so excited.  I am guessing I'll have another post for you this weekend as I put together my specific supplies Sat and Sun night.  

  

You Zoo Book Review

I ordered a book a couple weeks ago called The You Zoo.  It is a wonderful tool written by Jami Kirkbride and Kathryn Robbins.  This book is a wonderful personality assessment tool to allow you to get to know your children better.  Not only that, but it assesses the parent and gives wonderful examples of how parent and child can work together.  

Let me give you some detail.

The book is a story format.  You read about four monkeys in the zoo.  These monkeys make their way through 12 scenarios.  You read how each monkey handles the situation and the child chooses which monkey they are most like.  It was so simply laid out for my kids to complete.  I have an 8yr old and 6 yr old and they did wonderfully.  I could tell they felt like one answer might be "right".  As the books instructions direct the parent, there is no wrong answer.  If I really felt they were choosing an answer way out of their norm, we would just discuss it.  If you need to break it into multiple settings, to the authors let you know that it doesn't have to be completed all at once.  You can come back and see if the child answers the same way if you feel like confirming an answer.  I hope that doesn't make it sound like it was hard, or work- It was fun and easy.  My girls breezed through it and asked if we could do it again the next day.  They loved the time reading it with me and felt valued knowing I wanted to hear their answers.  

I thought it evaluated them quite precisely.  It placed them right where they should be.  We now know better what their strengths and weaknesses are.

After doing the parent evaluation (which also pegged me right on)  there is a section that helps you know your child better.

 

(trying to take photos that don't give away the great content :)

Then there is a section of parenting tips that match parents personality and how to work with each type of child personality.

The book ends with a FAQ section and information on how to contact the authors for additional info.  I have contacted one of them, Jami, and she was so sweet in responding and even signed my copy before sending the book.  Her note in the front of my book "God bless your zoo!"  How'd she know?  LOL!!

I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to know their child or student better.  This is a great classroom resource and was even piloted at a school.  The teachers had great things to say about this assessment.

For something that seems like fun to the children it is truly a blessed way to get to know them more. I have found myself checking the parenting tips several times since the books arrival to see the suggestions and how they can help my "zoo".

You can find it on Amazon or at YouZooKids.com

CC Cycle 2 Week 1 Walk Through

So, I enjoy being prepared, not just planning, but practicing.  So, yes, I go through the weeks grammar with my kids the week before (sorry, just being honest). My purpose is to work out the bugs.  We don't totally drill and have it perfect.  We do run through what I'm going to run through with my class at CC.  If I start having trouble with my children "teaching" during class my first action will be a verbal "knock it off" kind of correction.  If they continue I won't be able to continue running through the new grammar ahead of time with them.  No body likes the no-it-all kids who take over class.  We love kids to be involved when they need to sing/speak up/ answer and the like.  However, I'm going to try not to let my girls step out of line.  Last year they were so shy I had to almost bribe them to answer any questions :).  However, it's always different when you have your mom for a teacher, in this case tutor.

Wow! that was a long intro.  

All that was to say this:

We introduced science and math grammar today for week one. This is my original thought for science to have them draw a little snippet of what each biome might look like.

It worked well, they enjoyed completing the drawings.  However, I like doing memory work to songs.  So, I looked for songs on CC, and just a general google search.  I did find a couple on CC.  They are fine songs and I applaud the work that went into the songs.  However, I like to stick to melodies we already know, so we aren't learning grammar and melody.  We found that it fits well to the melody of Joy to the World.  Here goes:

CC Pronoun Song Weeks 4-8

So a couple weeks ago I told ya'll (I lived in Virginia for 5 yrs, picked up a bit of southern :) that I had a Chicken Dance Pronoun Song.  The first time I found the song was at Practicum this summer, in the hotel with two of my girls sleeping in the bed next to me.  I was planning our sample week to share with the other Foundations Tutors.  I found the great song somewhere online.  WHERE?  I can't find it. Someone commented on the post a couple weeks ago that they had looked and couldn't find it.  Could I find the link?  Nope.  I searched for an hour and a half.  I know I didn't look that long the first time.  So, I'm wondering if it got taken down.  Could just be lost in cyber space.  Or hiding from me.

So, I told this reader I'd do the song in a video and post it.  Why did I say that?  A moment of crazy weakness? Yes.  No.  I can do the song.  I had to get my mom back on her way to Wyoming and get our school year started.  I am ready now, well, as ready as I'll be.  My kids think it's great to post videos on youtube or facebook.  They say "we're famous".  Well, I'm not looking to be famous, and it's a good thing... any fame I was on the way to, I'm taking a couple steps back here.  If it can help my fellow tutors and CC moms, I'll do what is needed.

So weeks 4-9 in chicken dance style...

Well, my first video.  Maybe shouldn't have done it right after I woke from a much needed nap.  I hope you can use this in your class.  You could add actions more than just the clapping, but this was enough of a stretch for me just doing the video. :)

For some reason I couldn't pin the picture of the video, so I had to take a screen shot, add it to the post, then pin the pic of the video.  So, below is not the video, but the pic. confusing, but wanted to get it on pinterest for those of you who follow me that way :)

CC Tutor Traveling white board

Today's post will be rather simple.  ( I have to work my little delivery job this weekend, so I suppose I should spend some time on prep work)

Some of the classrooms at our facility have small white boards which is great.  However, I'm not sure I'll have the time I need to write everything when we show up the morning of CC.  I'll get there early, but I'll have an 8yr old, 6 yr old, and 2 yr old with me.  They are "helpers" of course, but just in case, I'd like to be mostly ready when I arrive.  So, I know you can find the foam trifold display boards at many stores.  Those work great.  I just had to do a trifold white board.  We love whiteboards and use them often at our place.  I thought that would be easier than putting paper in sleeves each week, printing all the memory work... 

We are supposed to be able to model teaching with a stick in the sand.  Showing that parents need no special equipment, that they can just write out memory work for their children.  (blah, blah, get to the white board already lady).

So, at hardware stores they have available showerboard/whiteboard.  It's not magnetic :(, but hey we're simple.  So I had the hubs bring home a large piece of showerboard.  I had figured out what size I wanted my traveling whiteboard to be.  It's about 4'w by 3' h when folded up.  That is the size of the center panel.  So divide 4 by 2 and you get the size of the two side panels 2'x3'.  When you go to cut the shower board be aware that your saw should be coming from the brown back side.  Our saw made a line down the white side when we ran the saw along the front.  

Then take a pencil and lay it between the center panel and one of the side pieces on the top and bottom.  The pencils space out the boards so when you use your handy-dandy duct tape as a hinge the boards will be spaced enough to close.  Tape along the front, remove the pencils, then tape the  back.  Then do the other side panel in like manner.   I also went around the whole opened up trifold with tape just for a finished edge.  I folded it around the edges.

Maybe I should give a visual so you have some clue what I'm jabbering about.

The closed trifold board.

Here it is open.  The kids even left a little work of art for us:)

You can see along the bottom edge I have plastic sleeves for the timeline cards (8, 1 from the previous week, and 7 from the current week).  I currently have the attached by one clear self adhesive hook and loop disc at the top.  However, I shall be adding a second on the bottom in order to keep them from swaying.  

One other adjustment yet to be made is putting a handle on top.  The plan is two drill holes handle width apart and use those hiking clip things... what are they called? Come on brain. Thanks to a search engine, not my brain, the name is carabiner.  Place a carabiner through the two layers of the folded board and somehow make a handle between the carabiners.  Ooh, idea.  I could use my jumbo size cushioned carabiner as the handle.  Those "mommy" clip things that are supposed to hold all your grocery bags.  I'm sure my "instructions" for the "handle" are quite clear.  So, clear that I'll post again to show the finished product.  I don't want  you thinking I'm as crazy as I sound.

We had a bunch of leftover showerboard since hubby bought the super size. So, I had him cut them into individual whiteboards for each student in my class.  I also finished the edges with fun tape.

I thought I said this was a simple post.  I may not have been completely accurate.  

Day 2

No, I'm sure we wont blog every day of school this year, though it would be cool to have it all for memories sake.

While I'm excited, refreshed from summer and not burned out :) I thought I would post about our days.  

On our school menu today- Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Monks and the Pope spreading religion.

Coloring their Celtic brooches while I read.  The wanted to use their flying carpets again. 

Also coloring Beowulf from yesterday. They loved coloring the Illuminated letters like the monks would have used in book making.  We counted the hours it took monks to make a book and it could have been near 100 hours.  They found that amazing (I did too).

Then we wrote our names in lettering the monks used.  We just covered a template of the alphabet with tracing paper, and traced the letters we needed.  

We painted (really just washable marker) blue swirls on our arms (yes me too) and their faces.  I'm trying to sink in these facts about History.  Doing history makes you remember at least a little.  So they made the celtic brooches and pinned on their cloaks (still the silly rugs).  Then they finished up their celtic axes- mom didn't read the directions, they are supposed to be double sided.  So, these are only half as effective at war.  You can see we are sitting on our large sheet map of Europe.  I wanted them to be finding points on the map as we read about them.  

Of course, we did all our usual spelling, math, language, geography.  Science today will be Wild Kratts.  Gotta say that show is so educational that I'm okay with using it on days we're busy and mom needs to get things done.  Our plate is full today, so we're using our resources- Netflix :)

I have to say Bella is having a harder time than I imagined for her.  Last year she did so well.  I know she likes knowing what we are doing. She doesn't care for new things, but would rather be routine.  So some of the things she's saying "I don't want to do this" are because she's not sure what we're doing.  I think she'll become more familiar with the SOTW curriculum and love it.  I guess at the end she did say "I didn't know school was going to be like this.  I thought we were doing workbooks more like math and stuff."  This was a positive statement, not criticism.  She's such an observer, gotta watch, then do.

Claire, on the other hand is really loving it, and when we finished, she got out more school books to work on.

Still happy for our day two success :)

Oh, and Emery is up to five states!  she's doing good and even talked about her states at lunch :)