Term 2 Language

Kyler read "Stuart Little" this week.  He read most of it out loud and some to himself.  He answered some comprehension questions below, and he is working on an alternate ending...or extension to the ending.

Trinity was sick this week so she did a lot of reading.   Trinity wrote the following for "Tom Sawyer":

Kyler and Trinity are doing a novel study together.  The three of us take turns reading "The Cricket in Times Square" and we have started working through a novel study guide together.  The following vocabulary sheet was done by both children.  The novel study is for grade 4-7 but the novel is very engaging so Kyler is excited about learning what the new words mean. 

Kyler read "Canadian Flyer:Pioneer Kids" and wrote the follow synopsis:

Trinity writes a lot with her online Science course.  Much of what she writes is prediction and findings of experiments, but also how this applies to her knowledge of creation.

Here is some of Kyler's Science writing.  He took notes from "Magic School Bus:Goes to Mussel Beach" and then he wrote out a little report on what he learned about their structure and

 Mussels

     Mussels  are interesting creatures that can live in salt water or fresh water.  In the ocean mussels live along rocks on the shore. They attach themselves to the rocks with strings so that they don't fall off during waves.

     Mussels can't live in the high tide zone because it is too dry so they can't breathe through their gills.  Also, they would get eaten by seagulls.    They can't live in the low tide zone because they would get eaten by starfish.  So, they live in the middle tide zone.  When the tide is low their shell closes to hold in water.

     Mussels eat through tubes called siphons.  Their food comes to them by the waves at high tide.

     God made mussels on the fifth day of creation with the other sea creatures.


Trinity's personal narrative is below, starting with the cluster she made to start her off.

Kyler used good descriptions and transitions words in the paragraph below.

Kyler wrote this information about camels in several of his Christian Light language lessons.

Communities

The above was written by Kyler.  He watched a Discovery Education video on communities twice.  The second time he learned to take notes.  He then wrote the above from his notes.  He is learning proper punctuation, sentence structure and paragraph structure.

Sportsmanship

Structures

Kyler loves the Colosseum in Rome and stories about gladiators and lions.    It was fitting then, that he study the structure of this ancient building.

A Rocha

We went on an A Rocha field trip Friday.  Below are a list of the activities we did:

Station 1: Forest Explorations
  -Habitat walk (senses-K)
  -All about Plants (characteristics, families, uses, identification, as resources, relationships, --gr. 1, 3, 4,5, 7, 11)

  -Forest creatures &  food chain/web: (gr. 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 11
Station 2: Water explorations (pond, river)
 -pond-dipping (food chain, webs, animal characteristics-gr. 1,2, 4, 7)

 -human impact, stewardship, water-testing (gr.7, 8)
 -Natural resources, how creatures are 'fit' for life (gr. 5,6)

Station 3: Ecological footprint/'Fair Share'
 -game-general relationship to the earth-responsibility for/caretaking of resources, human impacts (gr. 5,7, 11)

The group was given many talks about human impact on the environment and given many tangible examples of how ARocha is restoring the natural habitat to encourage the native wildlife to return. 

The group was also given a talk about biodynamic farming and the prevention of overuse of the land.

Chilliwack Museum

At the beginning of this field trip our host talked to the children about fire safety and the routes to use in the event of a fire.  Good way to start I think :)

During this presentation Trinity and Kyler were given a very in depth look at one of Chilliwack's forefather's diary.  The diary was from Charles Evans who traveled from Ontario to the Gold Rush via Panama.

During the edited reading of this diary the children in the group were given sticky notes with a date and day of Mr. Evan's journey.  They were asked to plot his course with the sticky note.

The presentation covered types of transportation used, cost of transportation, length of journey and hardships along the way.  Charles Evans talked about meeting other Canadians in New York who were on the same journey and just how dangerous it became to be on the steamers.

The children also heard about yellow fever, spoiled meat, burials at sea and bug net protection.

Our host engaged the children with questions about the types of fuel used on the steamers and how the weather changed from North to South and South to North.  She also made note of the different species of sea creatures encountered by Mr. Evans and how they changed as the water grew warmer.

Finally, the kids were told about how Mr. Evans journey ended in, not gold but politics, as his body was not cut out for tent life.  After his early death, his wife and sons became dairy farmers, supplying the CPR workers in Yale with fresh butter. 

A subsequent slide show gave the children a look at how people, ships and places looked in the early to late 1800's.  They saw not just Chilliwack but New Westminster and Yale.

As seen above,  the children matched a photo with information about that local, famous, settler.  They had a page to fill out with that information and they had to search for that person's picture on what used to be the wall of the town hall meeting room.

In a second activity the children identified artifacts from the First Nations peoples in the area, the Chinese settlers and the local farmers.  At the end they all helped make bannock and learned about how many people relied on it as a staple food.  They were able to taste it with a bit of jam.

What fun!

Karate!

In Karate Trinity and Kyler learn defensive and offensive punches, kicks and blocks which involves a great deal of practice, self control and physical exertion.  Our traditional dojo also teaches these moves in a special format called a kata.  The children practice this kata, perfect it and then are tested for the next level of belt.

Karate has given Trinity and Kyler more body awareness, strength and stamina, but also helps them focus and listen clearly to instructions....in Japanese!  They can count to 10 in Japanese and all instruction is given in both Japanese and English.