10/31/18

Happy Halloween!

Today's weather was gorgeous!  We began with some Farm News.  Last night, coyotes came closer than they ever had.  The howls woke us up, and I was outside in a pasture at 1am!  Something with green eyes was standing in the back field, and it had knocked down some of the electric fence lines.  I was able to fix the fence lines, and we managed to get through the night with only one animal injury... a cat with a hurt paw.  Han and Chewie (the livestock guardians) did a great job keeping danger away from their herds!

Next, the class read their animal stories for the week.  We then moved quickly into discussion of chapters 6-10 in Island of the Blue Dolphins.  There was a lot to talk about this week!  We dove into the comprehension questions, and we talked a lot about how certain parts of the story made us FEEL.  The class agreed that this book was a little harder to understand than My Side of the Mountain, but I explained that it is important to challenge yourself!  We worked through a vocabulary crossword that covered chapters 1-10, and then we moved into our descriptive writing assignments.

The descriptive writing passages that these students created were just amazing!  They took turns sharing them, and their peers would erupt into applause.  That's exactly what I love about this class!

I took up the field guides this week for a Field Guide Check.  I will make notes and give them back next week.

The group took their Central America countries quiz today.  I listed all of the countries' names on the board, so spelling was not an issue.  I feel like things like this are important every once in a while for homeschoolers.  They were able to practice some test-taking skills and tackle some nervousness.  I keep telling them that, beyond the actual material that we cover, my class is really about learning how to work together, how to study, how to be responsible, and how to give things your best effort.  After the quiz, we discussed the study guide chart for four major Central American countries.  We'll be wrapping these up soon and beginning our study of South America.


In science, the class went over the six kingdoms.  They really did a great job learning the specific characteristics of each!  Afterward, we talked about viruses.  It's cold and flu season, and I think it's very important for children to learn the how viruses are spread.  They thought it was fascinating that viruses are not actually classified at all!  They are not considered living things because although they contain genetic material, they are unable to replicate at all without taking over a host cell.  In perfect Halloween fashion, I explained them as if they were creepy alien robots... or zombies!  We went over the different parts of a virus and how the virus is able to replicate in a host.  They added this information to their science notebooks.  We'll be learning more about them this week!

Information about the big field trip in April to the Rock Eagle 4H Center will be going out soon!

10/24/18

After our outdoor animal jobs, I caught the class up on a little Farm News.  We've had some pig escapees thanks to the electric fence being left unplugged.  You see, most of the animals, once they know that the fence will shock them, will leave it alone.  Not pigs!  They will continue to test it... and I really believe they can hear the "click" that the fence makes when it is on!  After talking about our week away from each other, the class listened to the rest of the James Herriot story, "Moses the Kitten". Our farm has had an increase in mice over the last few weeks so we may be adding extra barn cat rescues, and this story was a perfect fit!  In the story, the kitten is adopted by a momma sow. I told stories of how different animals here on the farm have adopted other baby animals over the years. The kids love hearing all of those crazy stories! At home, they will have a creative writing prompt that deals with animals adopting other animals.

Last week, the class learned about how technology has made things like trimming cows' hooves easier and less stressful. At home, they imagined what new technology would be like in the future! Some of the inventions that they came up with inventions were super efficient, some were luxurious, and some were downright silly!

Next, I used pasture fencing to teach the concept of perimeter and area. At first, we discussed how to measure perimeter using simple numbers. Once they all grasped the idea, we talked about calculating area.  We took this a step further and learned to calculate the area for pastures that were L shaped.  I taught them that, as long as the shape was made up of right angles, you can divide up the shape into rectangular pieces to find each individual area.  Then, you add them together.  I shared some easy ways to calculate large numbers that end in zeros.  I think it was a great math-integration day in agriculture!

We discussed some of the key points in the first five chapters of Island of the Blue Dolphins.  We went over the worksheets on active and passive voice, as well.  Some need a little extra practice recognizing those boring "to be" verbs, but a lot of the students were getting very creative with their rewrites!  Next, the class took out the field guides.  They shared the plants, animals, landforms, and survival skills that they encountered in the book.  Again, the goal here isn't to list everything, but to choose some of the things that interest them, or that the book describes in detail, and write about those in the notebook.  The class loved sharing these!  We will keep the large encyclopedias in class so that we can continue to research and add things as the interests arise.

We have been learning about Central American countries. I was so very impressed with how well they remembered the locations of different countries from the videos! Any time you can use little funny sayings, songs, or rhymes to help remember information, it helps it to stick! We went through and talked about the different Central American counties and colored them in on individual maps. We also learned the capitals of each. The class will be taking a quiz over these locations next week.  We will also be zooming in on some of the key countries over the next two weeks!

During science, we reviewed the three domains: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryote. I'm not interested in learning each part of the cell at this point, but we did need to understand a few concepts about cells in order to understand how these organisms are classified. First, I explained the role of cell membranes. The class learned that animal cells have membranes and can have irregular shapes, but plant cell have a more rigid cell wall. The class learned about the nucleus and labeled it on a diagram. We did not talk about the different organelles, but I just wanted them to understand that the cells of some organisms do have membrane-bound organelles. They learned the prefix "uni-", as in unicycle, and unicorn. This made the concept of unicellular and multicellular organisms much easier to understand! Finally, we talked about the meaning of prokaryotes (no nucleus or organelles) and eukaryotes (have a nucleus and organelles). We will be learning about the six kingdoms at home and discussing them in detail in upcoming weeks.

The class headed outside for a little nature investigation. Each student mentally "gathered" living things that were outside here at the farm.  We recorded these on the board, sorting them into categories. Then, I shared one of my own. I took a pipet and sucked up a little bit of stagnant water from outside. Then, we looked at it under a microscope to see small bits of algae and other small organisms that weren't visible with the naked eye. The kids loved using the microscope! It helped them to realize that the things that we are learning about aren't just academic information... it is everywhere!  I was able to find some excellent rotifers the night before, but I couldn't spot them in class today.  I promised them that we would keep the microscopes out and catch those quick little guys next week!

10/17/18

We began our day with a new set of animal jobs.  The kids are doing an awesome job jumping in and tackling something new!

The class got a reminder of why we should all remember to keep the tops on the feed containers. During the break, a top was left off of the layer pellets.  The next morning, my daughters headed out to do their chores... and found a very fat, sleeping opossum curled up right in the bottom!   Finally, we talked about the importance of cats here on the farm.  The cats have been working hard lately!  As the weather gets cooler, the mice have been out in full force.  I may need to get another barn cat to handle them!  

This lead us right into our story by James Herriot about the little kitten named Moses.  The class listened as I read the first few pages of the story today.  I paused every so often to explain tough words and to give examples here on our farm of things that were mentioned.  In the story, the vet comes to the farm to trim the hooves of a cow.  He talked about how difficult this job is, and how the cows kick.  I explained to the class that there is a cool invention that makes the job less stressful on the cattle and safer for the farmer!  There is actually a contraption that holds the cattle in a safe position and then just tips them over!  The kids found this totally fascinating... which means it would make for a great topic for our farm fusion writing assignment!

I also integrated some math into our agriculture lesson.  Our large hogs are growing, and today we taped them to figure out their weight.  I explained to the class how to measure the girth and length.  I gave them the formula for calculating weight: girth^2 x length / 400.  We practiced the calculations with some very easy numbers in class.  Then, I demonstrated how to measure on the hogs while the class tried it themselves with the mini-pigs!

We then discussed My Side of the Mountain.  We talked about active vs. passive voice in writing and how to avoid passive wording.  The kids will continue this at home with a worksheet using quotes from our novel.  Our next book will be Island of the Blue Dolphins.  We will continue pulling out biology, geography, and survival skills from the new book, just as we did My Side of the Mountain.  

After lunch (and more fire-starting practice, by popular demand!), we dove into geography. The kids took turns sharing their posters on different countries in North America. They really listened to my directions! These looked awesome! After we talked about each country, we began our unit on Central America. Although not a continent of its own, we will spend a few weeks focusing just on the countries of Central America next. At home, they will have a couple videos to help prepare for next week. Also, they have some pretty cool (optional) coloring sheets to review what they learned about North America.

After lunch (and more fire-starting practice, by popular demand!), we dove into geography.  The kids took turns sharing their posters on different countries in North America.  They really listened to my directions!  These looked awesome!  After we talked about each country, we began our unit on  Central America.  Although not a continent of its own, we will spend a few weeks focusing just on the countries of Central America next.  At home, they will have a couple videos to help prepare for next week.  Also, they have some pretty cool (optional) coloring sheets to review what they learned about North America.

They did an excellent job of learning the levels of classification!  The class is learning about the three domains.  We added these domains to our science notebook, and the students will have a reading assignment at home on the three.  This is a little tricky, so next week we will go back and discuss some terminology and cell structure that will help us understand these domains a bit better.

In art, the class is still working on their fall acrylic scene.  They were told to make a far away, distant scene... but next week they will learn why!

10/3/18

Our day began with the last day of this set of animal care jobs.  The class has really learned how to work together in groups, take turns, and compromise!  After fall break they will be given new jobs but will keep the same groups.  I am hoping to use this to improve on these important skills!

Once inside, we talked about different things going on right now on the farm.  We talked about the new feathers that are coming in on the chickens.  The class is anxiously waiting to find out if Annabelle, the angora (rabbit) doe is pregnant or not!  If she begins to pull fur in the next few days, then she should kindle (give birth) in the next few days.  We talked about how the does' fur loosens due to hormones in late pregnancy.  They are then able to pull the fur to build a warm, fluffy nest!  We are all crossing our fingers that there will be little kits here after fall break, but I did make sure the class understands that a doe's first kindling may not always go smoothly, and not to get their hopes up too high!  Life on a farm: hope for the best but expect the worst!  This group also got onto the topic of snakes.  I described different times that snakes have shown up here on the farm... There are some pretty crazy stories!  

The class had a quick snack and then shared their Farm Fusion stories.  These are optional, but many students are choosing to take part in the creative writing opportunity, which is awesome!  I stopped them every so often to point out wonderful things that I was hearing in their writing.  I pointed out descriptive words and phrases that were used to help their reader get a clear picture of the things in their stories.  I also pointed out ways to transition from sentence to sentence to make things flow more smoothly.  Of course, I also had to brag on beautiful handwriting, hard work, and rough/final drafts.  These kids are doing a great job, and it is my hope that I will take them forward in their writing throughout the year!

We talked about how Sam is faring in My Side of the Mountain.  The kids really seem to be loving this one!  First, we had a vocabulary crossword puzzle to help them review the words that they have been studying at home.  The class worked in groups to complete the puzzles.  Then, we discussed different types of figurative language: similes, metaphors, verbification, personification, and hyperboles.  They will be working with these at home, as well.  They showed off their AMAZING field guides.  I am so very excited that they are getting into these!  The students used Sam's description of how he made his own fishhooks to make their own at home.  They added these to their field guide, as well.  We will continue to add to these throughout the year, and will work with them in class as well as at home.   The class also shared their Reader's Journal entries, which were really improving!  We will be diving into different types of writing as the year progresses.  

In geography, we reviewed the continents and oceans and then zoomed in on North America.  We talked about the North American countries, and discussed the fact that Greenland is sometimes grouped as a North American country (by location), but sometimes it is grouped as a European country (by culture/social factors).  We will be sticking with location, so Greenland will be studied in this unit.  I think explaining these differences in opinion when it comes to topics such as this helps children to begin to understand that these little differences aren't uncommon, nor should they be an arguing point.  

The kids learned a little bit about Latin today, as well!  We talked about "binomial nomenclature".  Mainly, I wanted this group to understand that most big words are made up of a "secret code".  Once you know the "code", you can figure out what the words mean!  We talked about how the prefix "bi-" means "two".  We then discusses the two-name system of scientific names for living things.  We added a section to our science notebooks that will help them remember what we talked about in class.  At home, the class will be learning different mnemonics that will help them remember the different levels of organization.  They can write down their favorite one or make up their own!  We'll be working with these in class, so be sure to bring them in!

Next, we put on our paint shirts and started a new art project!  The class worked with acrylic paints to create backgrounds today.  Next class, we will add details to these... and then the next part is a surprise!

Next week is a fall break, so we'll see you back on the 17th!