Sunday, August 30, 2009

Our week of learning - 30th August - New toys to play with!



Current Readaloud: We finally finished reading Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (adaptation)

English: Lots of reading. We did a spot of people-watching while waiting for an appointment and he made up stories about where the people might have come from, and what they might be doing there. I helped him come up with a list of words he could use in his stories to replace "and then..." eg "suddenly, eventually, without warning" etc

Maths: He watched a cyberchase episode on doing surveys and collecting the results.

Science & Technology: Apart from having a first hand experience of how x-rays are taken (!), he's also been doing some hands on science. He got a pluggable circuit board set for his b'day so had some fun with that - coincidentally, the first one he made played "Happy Birthday"!



He spent a fair amount of time playing around with the Scratch programming language.

He put together a puzzle of the brain (another b'day present!) and compared it to a picture in the Body book.

HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): He watched a school show talking about "Working Dogs" - quarantine dogs, guide dogs, sheep dogs and hospital dogs.

We had a
couple of discussions about Captain Cook, and the convicts in Australia, and he has decided he wants to learn some more about it. We also discussed what type of things he wants to learn about the Ancient Greeks which are next on our path.

Creative & Practical Arts: Drama, lots of imaginative play, and a trip to the newly re-opened Maitland Art Gallery.

LOTE (Languages other than English): He and his cousin made up a game based on "Rock, paper, scissors" but using greetings from other languages!

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): He was a bit limited at circus class with his fractured arm, but managed to use the spinning plates and the hoops.

Life skills (cooking, gardening, housekeeping): He iced and decorated cupcakes to take to Joeys on his b'day.

He also made use of another one of his b'day presents - a Fairy Floss (Cotton Candy) machine! It's so cool - all it takes is a tablespoon of sugar to make a fair amount of fairy floss!



Other fun stuff: He put together a new lego helicopter he got for his birthday, has been busy learning new magic tricks and putting on a show, and playing lots of logic games on the computer like Tinker. He's also found time to play with a pinball machine & a game called "Bop it" both of which he got for his b'day.

He had his Auskick presentation today where they were presented with their certificates and trophy for participating in the year.

3 comments:

Wendy said...

The circuit board looks like fun. I had no idea such a thing existed. The wonderful things you learn reading fellow homeschoolers' blogs. :)

Kez said...

I know - isn't it great?! This is what the kit is if that helps you - http://www.zeusmercantile.com/servlet/Categories

The one Billy has is the top one (the 180).

Magic and Mayhem said...

Wow, even *I* am jealous of the cotton candy machine! We love the stuff but hardly ever get any. What a neat present!

Sounds like lots of other wonderful stuff is going on there, too, as always. Our kids have lots of similar interests-- Scratch, Cyberchase, etc. The circuit board looks cool too!
~Alicia