Monday, February 08, 2010

Our week of learning - 7th Feb 2010 - Macbeth & Robots!


We've had a bit of a theme of Robots going on this week. Billy decided he wanted to learn more about them, so that's the direction we've headed (as well as a lot of other bunny trails).

Current Readaloud: The Lemonade Trick, Five on a Treasure Island

Five on a Treasure Island (Famous Five) The Lemonade Trick

Audio books: Billy listens to audio books every night as he goes to sleep, plus on his music player and sometimes in the car, so I thought I'd start recording what he listens to.

We've been listening to Andy Griffith's "Just Macbeth" in the car - an adaptation of the "Scottish play" for younger audiences - basically add fart jokes into Macbeth and you've got the idea! It's actually very funny and well done - we'll have to keep an eye out for the stage play coming to Newcastle again. I think it toured last year but I thought he'd be too young.

Just Macbeth!

He's also been listening to 'The Waterhorse' by Dick King-Smith.

English: We watched the movie 'Robots' which led to many discussions on character & plot development, as well as vocabulary work. There is a scene where Fender sings "Singin' in the Rain" so I found the original Gene Kelly sequence on YouTube and Billy watched it.

He's been reading a book of magic tricks that he got for Xmas, and then trying to do the trick by following the instructions - if that's not 'reading for comprehension' I don't know what is!!

To my great pleasure, he's been keen to actually sit and read this week - woohoo! The book that's grabbed his attention is a Jack Stalwart one: The Theft of the Samurai Sword. I like those books - they're a good mix of an easy to read chapter book with cultural information about a different country (in this case, Japan).

Jack Stalwart: The Theft of the Samurai Sword - Japan

Maths: One of the magic tricks he learnt involved the use of parallel lines - this was a new concept for Billy so we had a discussion on those.

Science & Technology: He wanted to learn more about robots, so we got a few books out of the library. One that we've started reading together is called 'How to Build a Robot'. Obviously that meant he wanted to build one - so we trotted off to our local electronics store to see what we could find. I'd love to buy the Lego Mindstorm NXT kit but at $400+, finances just won't agree! So we ended up with a cute little sound detecting robot that we had to build. (ie I had to do the majority of the fiddly bits like building the gears and putting wires where they needed to go and he helped me with the bigger bits).


It's so cool - it turns towards the sound of your clapping and moves towards you!



He also spent some time updating his website.

HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): We had a social day at Blackbutt Reserve with the natural learner's group, and had a great time going around looking at the animals.

On the weekend we spent ages looking at the mangrove eco-system and had a walk through the wetlands.

Creative & Practical Arts: Drama started back this week. He seemed to enjoy it again.

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): Little Dragons martial arts class, fishing, swimming, walking and running around at the playground.

Life skills (cooking, gardening, housekeeping): Just general contributing to the household.

School shows: Not on yet.

Other fun stuff:
Joey's started back again for the year, and he's started working on his Promise badge.

11 comments:

jugglingpaynes said...

"Macbeth with fart jokes" LOL!
I'm sure the Bard would have loved that!

Peace and Laughter,
Cristina

Caz said...

LOL Agreed, loving your summary of Just MacBeth ;) Looks like a busy week! Always nice when the kids favourite 'usual' activites get going again for the year!

libby said...

What a fantastic week at school :-). Love the robot.

Libby

Butterfly said...

Lego is a money-munching vortex, but I LOVE it!
Have fun with the robots!

Rynalee said...

I really wanted to take the kids to see Just Macbeth last year, but I thought it was only on at Sydney and we couldn't get there. If it comes to Newy, we'll be lining up for tickets without a doubt! I was actually thinking the audio version of the book would be the way to go, since it's a play. Did you get it from the library?

Kez said...

Karen, I think its from Maitland Lib - not sure if Newcastle has it, but you could get it via inter-library loan if you want to.

karisma said...

Has he seen the movie Wall.e? Gameboy says the little robot looks just like the robot in that movie.

I just love reading about your week's of learning! Thanx for sharing. Hugs xoxox

Kylie said...

My kids listen to audio stories every night as well....our library of those just isn't very expansive so I really need more, especially some to rotate into the car.

My dilemma is the difference in the kids ages and their interest - an 8 year old boy and a 5 year old girl are rarely interested in the same thing LOL!!

I must remember the library, for some reason I always forget about their audio stuff.

So anyway in a long winded comment I'd love to see more of the audio stuff you listen too. Oh and by the way I got that book you recommended, we've only just started as I've been sick the last two days and haven't been able to read a thing.

Kez said...

Karisma - yes, we're big WALL-E fans in this household :)

Kylie - did you see the site I posted a week or so ago where you can download audio stuff for free? It was called something like My Audio Homeschool. It has some classics like Treasure Island etc.

mum+dad=akira and linkin and elijah said...

What an edumacational week!! lol

That audio book site is great. We also found Storynory.com with lots of classic fairytales--although the narrator's voice can be a little irritating!!

Kylie said...

Oh yes I must check those out. I have to admit I am soo picky about the narrator's, some of them really erk me and I just can't listen at all lol!