Karate & Science

The kids are working very hard in karate. Last week they got to break boards, which is always a special treat. 

Jayden did very well! He broke through two boards at once with a nice strong kick. 

Caitlin is working on her follow through when it comes to board breaking. She tried chopping it with her hands, kicking it, then went back to trying with her hand.

After some persistence and cheers from her classmates, she got it!

We had a pretty relaxed week school-wise, due to Thanksgiving. But we did manage to catch an episode of The Magic School Bus, which means we snuck in science! ;)

DIY

Just before Thanksgiving we had a co-op day where we created our own cause and effect contraptions. The idea was to invent a contraption that would make a bell ding.

Everyone branched off to make their creations in smaller groups. Eventually most of us pitched in to make a domino line up that went around the room.

LA & Geography

Jayden is working diligently to finish his 4th grade math early. He is now 66% complete!

The kids have been working on conjunctions. Caitlin worked on putting two sentences together.

 Jayden worked on commas, conjunctions, and independent clauses.

We finally picked up our geography lessons again. Jayden helped Caitlin locate it on the map. Then we read a little bit about it in our Atlas.

 We learned many facts about Delaware, including the state fish, bird, and flower.

We learned about the Delaware Memorial Bridge and the kids made their own replica out of legos.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

We have been learning about the phases of the moon. 

We learned that the moon revolves around the Earth, while the Earth revolves around the sun. It seemed confusing until we acted it out. 

We also learned the length of time it takes the moon to rotate around the Earth (appx 27 days), and how long it takes the Earth to revolve around the sun (appx 1 year).

Coincidentally, our local library had a space camp program discussing the phases of the moon. They got to use oreos to demonstrate what the phases looked like. I think this is a project we should retry at home, to make sure the lesson really sinks in! ;)

Our Brave Writer book this month is How to Eat Fried Worms. 

Someone turned 7! Her request: green pancakes, bacon, and eggs for breakfast. 

 This is the birthday cake she asked for...

And in karate, the birthday kid gets to break a board. Here is her breaking her board!

Who Dunnit?

Last week the kids participated in a local library event called "Who Dunnit?" They were each given a character from "The Wizard of Oz" to play. Jayden was the "Wizard" and Caitlin was the "Wicked Witch of the West".

The objective was to find out who killed the Wicked Witch of the East, but the tricky part was not even the killer knew who did it, so everyone is a suspect.

The kids all worked together to ask scripted questions, crossing off suspects through process of elimination.

 In the end they discovered a munchkin killed her because she constantly ridiculed them.

It was a lot of fun!