Sunday, March 07, 2010

Our week of learning - 7th Mar - new experiences!


Several new experiences this week. It was a pretty full on week with planned activities so we tried to keep the home side of things nice & cruisy.

English:

Current Readaloud:
The Adventurous Four by Enid Blyton

The Adventurous Four: Shipwrecked! (The adventurous four)

Audio books: Raven Hill Mysteries by Emily Rodda - "The Disappearing TV Star", "Green for Danger" and "Cry of the Cat".

Independent Reading: The Mystery of Banshee Towers by Enid Blyton

The Mystery of Banshee Towers (Five Find-outers & Dog S.)

Other: We watched "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" and discussed it. We played a game of Rainbow Scrabble.

Maths: I picked up a board game the other day called "Number Rings". Each person has pegs numbered 1 - 18, you roll 3 dice and then use numerical operations to make whatever numbers you can out of the numbers you rolled. You place your ring over the numbers you make and try to fill all your numbers first - for eg, if you roll 3, 6 and 2, you can put your rings on those numbers or on 3+6 and 2, or 3+6+2, or 3*6-2 etc. We started by just playing using addition and subtraction, but it became very difficult to get the last few numbers over about 15. So we pulled the multiplication table out and used multiplication as well. You can also block another player by putting your rings on their number pegs! It's a great game, and I love how it can be used by any skill level.


He also played several rounds on the World Maths Day site. He learnt about Cartesian co-ordinates by playing this fun game to feed Billy Bug.

Science & Technology: He did several 50 question science quizzes on Quizzy's Corner (Webkinz World).

HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): The children in the Narnia movie are sent away to the country during the London bombings in World War II - the opening scenes are of German planes bombing the city. That led to a discussion of WWII, Hilter (without too much detail) and the fact the Germans were fighting Britain. Co-incidentally it then popped up again while reading The Adventurous Four - it was also set in that era and the children discover a nest of enemy submarines & seaplanes.

He participated in Clean Up Australia day with his cub group.



We had a natural learner's picnic at Blackbutt Reserve and had to go back around and check on all the animals again. He has "adopted" a black-winged stilt that he calls "Chuck" lol, so we have to make sure he's ok :)


Creative & Practical Arts: Drama class. He watched the show Music Moves and was then making up his own rhythms and ostinato.

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): He had his first martial arts grading this week, and was promoted to yellow belt.



Lots of running around at the natural learner's picnic.

Life skills (cooking, gardening, housekeeping): He's been making lots of the tea-cup biscuits in the header of my blog :)

School shows: For the Juniors, Music Moves.

Other fun stuff: He had his first night up at Cubs this week. He & several friends have started the process to graduate from Joeys to Cubs - they have to attend 4 cubs meetings, go back and tell the Joey's group about the things they've done and are then able to
start Cubs for real.

Lots of Webkinz this week!

5 comments:

libby said...

Sounds like another fantastic week in the life of Billy. I'm always amazed how much he gets up and how much learning is done during the week. Anyone who doubts home schooling should read what he (and you) do each week.

Libby

Amy said...

I totally agree with Libby! You guys always do the neatest things, and as always I am amazed by how much you cover in a week.
Love the new header on your blog! Way to go Billy!:-)
Also, LOVE the math games. It's always so much more fun to do math practice that way isn't it??

Eni said...

I am glad you mentioned Enid Blyton's Banshee Towers books. As a young child, I too used to read a lot of Enid Blyton books. Your mention of the Banshee Towers book reminds me of some of my classmates that were elated at the book and the only sounds we could hear in the background were BANSHEEEEEEEEE. As a result of my enthusiasm for Enid Blyton and her books, much later in life I decided to write and publish a book on her, titled, The Famous Five: A Personal Anecdotage (www.bbotw.com).
Stephen Isabirye

Kylie said...

I just realised I haven't checked in here in a little while, gee you guys have been super busy haven't you.

Love that new Maths Game, where di dyou get it?

Kez said...

Thanks everyone!

Kylie, I picked the game up at a local "cheap shop" - one of those shops that buys stuff from overstocked shops or businesses going out of business. They stock a bizarre range of things :)