Our week of Learning - 12 Oct

Picture of Chimidyue & the monkeys from the rainforest story

English: Finished reading Charlie & the Chocolate Factory together. Billy drew a picture & wrote what his favourite scene from the book was (Mike TeaVee flying through the air in little pieces!), and also designed his own chocolate bar - "it tickles your throat when you eat it"!

Lots of smaller books read - both him reading & us reading to him - and Pete & Billy are still reading The Hobbit together.

Maths: Leap into Maths Yr 1 workbook - Units 9 & 10. Lots of impromptu telling time and working out how long things take.

Science & Technology: Weather unit - Made a comparison chart of how many sunny, rainy & mixed days we had through September. Learnt about the forms of precipitation - rain, hail, snow & sleet.

He made a "torch" out of a battery, light globe and wires - hopefully we don't have any power outages in the near future as he dismantled the real torch to do it!

HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): Hunter Wetlands trip that I blogged about earlier. Read a North American folk tale about Paul Bunyan, and a South American folk tale called "The Wings of the Butterfly". It was set in the Amazonian rainforest which tied in quite well as he'd been watching something earlier in the day on Animal Planet about Amazonian snakes. (Notice I said *he'd* been watching it - snakes give me the heeby-jeebs!)

In history, we learnt about "The Crowded Seas" and "The First Fish" in the Ordovician Period.

Creative & Practical Arts: Made snowflakes by folding paper & cutting. Took part in a print-making workshop. Lots of drawing.

He also made a 'supercomputer' out of boxes & junk. (Don't ask me why!)

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): Canoeing, playgrounds, swimming at neighbours, playing some ball game with his cousins.

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No TV through the day is working out quite well, even though he still whinges about it every morning. I did let him watch TV on Monday at lunchtime though as it was a public holiday and Pete & I were watching Midsomer Murder on tape. It's been close to 5pm each afternoon before it's gone back on - he has to have tidied up everything he's been working on before it's allowed on, so that stretches the time out further! I've noticed that he's also choosing different things to watch (ie Animal Planet channel) rather than just staring at the same stuff every day. So far so good anyway..