Our week of learning - 25th Oct - outer space & plays

I find it fascinating how themes emerge some weeks without being staged. This week had a space theme - on Monday Billy came across a "test tube alien" kit he'd been given at some stage and decided to grow it, on Tuesday we had a trip to the observatory with his Joeys & Cubs group, and some of the school shows this week were about space as well.

Current Readaloud: We've read a few Aussie Bites books together this week and are currently reading "Secret Agent Jack Stalwart: The Mystery of the Mona Lisa". This is the 2nd Jack Stalwart we've read - they're pretty good chapter books for kids this age. They blend facts about the country (in this one France) with a mystery that Jack has to solve.

English: Lots of reading (mainly Aussie Bites series) & audio books. He's also been reading a series called "Boyz Rule" which are set out as a 2-person play. He also wrote a very brief script for a play that he and his cousin performed.

Maths: He spent some time on the Mathletics site and finished off the Year 2 curriculum. He was struggling a bit visualising the section on faces, edges & corners of cubes, triangular prisms etc, so I made him some little figures out of modelling clay. That seemed to help make it click and he was able to understand. He's now moved up to the Year 3 level.

Counting corners of a cube!

He also watched a few Cyberchase episodes.

Science & Technology: He played a science board game with his cousins called "Totally Gross".

He went on a trip to a local observatory with his Joeys and Cubs group - they got to look through a $7000 telescope at the moon and the stars. I snuck a peek at the moon, but I'm telescope challenged and couldn't see much!

The school show "For the Juniors" this week was about the moon.

He's also spent time updating his website, and using Pivot (animation software). He had his first programming lesson with his dad using C#.

HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): He's learning bits about France (a few words and some of the geography) by reading Jack Stalwart.

We went on a picnic with some other homeschoolers to Blackbutt Reserve where we could look at the native animals and feed the emus!




Creative & Practical Arts: He did some woodworking with his grandfather when we went there for a visit. He took photos of the animals at Blackbutt Reserve. His new drama class started this week where they got to read through a script - he was very excited by that! He's also been reading some books called "Boyz Rule" that are set out as plays.

LOTE (Languages other than English): He decided he wanted to put together a poster with how to say hello in different languages. I helped him find a website with some greetings on it, and he did the rest.



PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): Exercises with his dad, scooter riding, time at the playground, walks - he's non-stop! His circus class started back this week as well.

Life skills (cooking, gardening, housekeeping): He cooked breakfast of cereal & a cup of tea for me this morning. We made popcorn balls and biscuits. He helped his dad cleaning the BBQ.

School shows: Numbers Count, Being Spanish, For the Juniors (moon), Telling Tales, Count Us In, BTN Special.

Other fun stuff: He grew and has been looking after a "test tube alien" - now I get to say things like "Have you fed your alien today??!" :)