Upside Down Cake, Jumping Ducks, and Forgiveness

LETTER OF THE WEEK: U

Luke helped me make pineapple upside down cake for our special "U'" treat. I had a hard time coming up with foods that start with U but thankfully the cake was a hit.

A couple of our favorite "U" books 

Jan Brett always tends to be a favorite. The Umbrella was ready multiple times.

Jonathan wanted his picture taken this week, so here he is counting, sorting, and color matching various manipulatives .

MATH

Focusing on patterns, we used crackers, fruit loops, and pretzels/raisins on peanut butter celery sticks.

Some of our pattern ideas came from this fun book that is full of ways to use healthy foods to learn about math including geometry, measurement, fractions, estimations, etc.

POND LIFE

Continuing our pond life unit, we learned about ducks last week. We watched a National Geographic video called Duck Pond  and saw baby wood ducks hatch and then have to jump out of their tree nest into the water to their mama. The boys thought it was hilarious, and we watched it over and over...

A few of our pond books

 We read My Visit to the Aquarium so that we could practice recall and recognition with the animals we saw during our visit to the Chattanooga aquarium during spring break. 

FIAR 

Five In A Row Literature: Using picture books to open the door to art, history, vocabulary, geography, science, writing, etc.

Caleb's FIAR book last week was Grandfather's Journey. It ties together four generations as you see a young man come to understand his Grandfather's love for both his own home and a foreign country. We focused on:

Social Studies: Geography and Culture of Japan

Language: Poetic Prose

Art: Reflections and Shadows; Medium, Color, & Contrast

Math: Days in a Week and Weeks in a Month

Science: Biology - Birds

After looking at pictures of many birds native to Tenneessee, Caleb chose the Northern Cardinal for his project. Gotta love that one of his three facts was cardinals have mohawks. 

I smile every time I get see what comes out of a six year old's mind onto paper. 

Caleb's examples of similes:

That wrapping paper is as colorful as a rainbow.

That crayon is as blue as the sky.

The smores are as good as a banana split.

My brother is as funny as a clown.

LENT

Lent activities this week including discussing Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, God's promise to Abraham, the widow's mite, and prayers of confession. 

Amazingly, the night before the confession activity, one of the boys had a rough, I mean rough, night. Kennon was gone, and we were struggling. The next morning though he wrote the sweetest prayer of confession as we both thanked God for forgiveness and mercies that are new every morning for him AND me. I was tempted to post his prayer but was reminded some moments are simply to be held close in your heart and home. 

Last week's library Easter books that were added to the Easter basket