Wednesday 16 November 2011

Reading

Here are the read-alouds that the kids have done this term.  They both read books quietly, in their rooms, as well, and Trinity has a reading class with ABeka video streaming every day.

Kyler's stories are shorter so that he can be encouraged by finishing in 20 minutes.  Trinity is reading chapter books and short stories.  She has fun wondering what will happen in the story tomorrow. 



 
Kyler reading a traditional poem

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Home made barometer


Explorers worksheets

This week's explorer is Jacques Cartier.  We just moved from the east so Trinity is enjoying study places we have visited.

Language Arts

Kyler - language paper

This was Kyler's first phonics test of the year.  He excels in phonics, which makes reading come easy to him.
                                                Kyler's spelling


Here are a couple of Trinity's Language arts samples.  She finds it easy and I can see an improvement in her sentence structure.  Below I have copied and pasted the outline of a story she has begun.



Above is a Language test Trinity took
 November 24, 2011.


The Last Of the King Unicorns by Trinity Brinkman




Topic-what the story is about

My story is about a boy that just moved to his new house on his birthday and they had nothing to give him and they happened to unpacked a old rocking horse . A  fairy comes one night and turned the rocking horse into a unicorn

Sequence  -   the order in which a story is written

1.            first :boy moves in to new house
2.            second : it is his birthday and they have nothing to give him and they were to busy to go out shopping
3.            next : they found a old rocking horse in the
basement that someone hade left behind what was           weird about it was that it was addressed to them
4.            then : they give the rocking horse to James
5.            after: it’s the middle of the night James is sleeping a fairy comes and she said little foal little foal come come to the land of unicorns they are in great danger!
6.            Unicorn city was attacked by ????

7.            next : the king dies in war and Rockster becomes King

8.            Next: Rockster becomes king

9.            ????




Characters – people, animals, or things with lifelike qualities.

1.                     James is a shy boy that just turned 11
2.                     Rocking Horse/Unicorn is named Rockster
3.                     fairy is a girl
4.                     king Unicorn likes cream pies
5.                     his friends names are Unicorette,






Feelings – how your characters are feeling

James – sleepy

Rockster- excited

Fairy- worried

King Unicorn- happy








Setting – where and when the story takes place

When- Time stays the same here but passes by in Unicorn city

Where-Unicorn city



Problem – something that goes wrong in the story or with the characters
They’re being attacked


Conclusion- how the problem was solved 
They win the battle and Rockster becomes king.  He comes back to invite James on an adventure to Unicorn City                                                            

Monday 14 November 2011

Trinity's Guitar lessons

Trinity now knows nine chords and she has learned three songs.  She is working on 'Amazing Grace' to play for her aunt's birthday.

Remembrance Day

It was a huge, torrential downpour but the kids had a grandma sized umbrella to keep them dry.  They got the opportunity to see their dad, Major Wade Brinkman, as master of ceremonies. 

We discussed the reason for the parade, as we do every year and how blessed we are to have a free country.



Tuesday 8 November 2011

More Science in the kitchen

Kyler is studying water and how it affects food.  Here he is adding water to spelt grain to watch how the grain soaked up the water and made it expand.  The container started off sealed tight and then, low and behold, it popped open.


Measuring rain

Trinity set out a rain gauge 14 days ago.  She checked it almost every day and it was finally full today.  You would think that we have more rain than this with our soggy Fall.

Our Community

Kyler's Community Map

We did some mapping and talking about our community today.  It is amazing how much we take for granted as we walk to the park.  The kids loved this activity and learned more about where they live.

 Trinity's Community Map