Heart of Dakota {Beyond}: Unit 4

9.17.2013

As I look back over our 4th week of learning, I am amazed by how fast it has all flown by... 4 weeks already?  The "newness" has begun to wear off, but we are still moving and grooving in our studies.  Up until the last two days of this past week, we would eat breakfast, kids would watch TV or play while I cleaned up the kitchen, and then we would head downstairs to start our school day.  However, T was pretty adamant about not starting the day like this towards the end of the week, so we had a bit of change in our school "schedule."  And actually, "schedule" is defined pretty loosely around here... perhaps, routine would be a better word.  

Instead of working on his school work in the morning, T played with Little Sis and Baby Brother until lunch (which was moved up an hour), then I put Little Sis down for a nap, and finally T and I started on his school work.  It seemed to work out better-- he had my undivided attention, it was much quieter, and he was less distracted.  Typically while the other two napped, T would have quiet time, but he would often start roaming the house looking for things to do because he would get bored after 45 minutes....  I think it's time to relax my Just Get It Done mentality and work off his schedule!

History: This week we kept reading from Stories of the Pilgrims.  We read about the Pilgrim's attempts to get to Holland.  On their 1st attempt they were betrayed by a captain .  The 2nd attempt took the men to Holland, while the women and children were left on shore to be taken to jail by King Jame's soldiers.  Finally, they reached Holland on the 3rd attempt after King James had said, "Enough!  Just let them go!" 

As a fun extra, T made a t.p. tube Windmill.  Thanks to the mama that shared this on the HOD Beyond Facebook page!!

Heart of Dakota Beyond Unit 4

When the Pilgrims made it to Holland, they were in awe of the many new things they saw-- storks, windmills, streets of water... and the walls that protected the cities from the high sea level.  We learned the protective walls were called dikes.  We used some playdough to make a model of a dike and then explored how it worked by adding water to the other side.

Heart of Dakota Beyond Unit 4

Copywork/ Poetry: The poem this week was "Daybreak" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  T has said that copywork is one of the things he enjoys, and I think he did a beautiful job with this poem.  Just love the rainbow colors!  

Heart of Dakota Beyond Unit 4

Language Arts/Spelling:  T moved on to spelling words with the short /o/ sound this week.  We did a few different things to practice his spelling words.  To start off the week, I spelled them using puffy stickers and had T do a chalk-rub activity to reveal the word.  

Heart of Dakota Beyond Unit 4

Another day he spelled his words on the chalkboard, and for a review we took turns spelling the words on each other's back-- that was tricky!

Science:  Our first science activity of the week had us exploring light again.  Last week in Unit 3, we learned that light colors reflect light, and dark colors absorb light; this week we explored that light goes through some things, while other materials block light.  We gathered several materials and held them up to a window to see if the light shined through the material or not.

Heart of Dakota Beyond Unit 4

At first glance, these science activities seem too simple; however, they are truly just perfect for my son.

The next day, we explored water tension with a penny and a water dropper.  T took a guess at how many water droplets would stay on the penny until the tension broke and the water spilled over; he guessed 12, but we were able to get about 20 droplets on our penny!  We did this activity several times.  Loved seeing his expression!

Heart of Dakota Beyond Unit 4

Math: As I mentioned in our Unit 3 post that we are doing a different Math program than what HOD suggests, we still do their math activity every once and a while.  One day it suggested having your student make a backyard scene by acting out different story problems.  We changed it up a bit and did a pond scene and T drew his number sentences to match the addition story.  We have clouds, birds, flowers, bees, trees, and bugs!  

Heart of Dakota Beyond Curriculum

Storytime:  Though we completed our book for storytime last week, I continued to re-tell the story in hopes that T will eventually learn and understand what to do when I ask him questions.  I made a book report for him and I to fill out together.  We made a list of characters, described what our main character was like growing up, and listed different events that happened during his life.  

Next week we will be starting our Adventure story!  I hope it's a good fit for T.

Heart of Dakota Beyond Curriculum

And that about wraps up Unit 4!  Thanks for reading and learning along with us : )  Keep in touch!!  Sign up to get updates via BlogLovin'Facebook, GFC, or Email in my side bar, or follow along via School Time Snippets Pinterest Board!