We started our learning a little bit early for this week. Since it was garden week, we did a growing experiment with grass. So last week on Thursday we planted some grass so that it would have time to grow and so we could see results by the end of this week.
Paige filled out a hypothesis (and also learned what that meant) for each condition. Cup A: Sun and Water (normal growing conditions), Cup B: Sun and No Water, Cup C: Water and No Sun, Cup D: No Sun and No Water, Cup E: Sun and Water but No Soil, Cup F: Sun and Sugar Water, Cup G: Sun and Salt Water. The ones that she thought would grow at least some would be Cup A, Cup C, Cup E, and Cup F.
Monday started with color by number with adding and subtracting and 2 digit addition problems her teacher had emailed to everyone.
For art, the girls went outside and picked all sorts of leaves and flowers to create a bunny face with.
They turned out so cute!
Then for writing, Paige did a journal entry: My favorite bug to find in the garden is a rolly-poly because they roll up into a ball and are very fast and tickly with their legs.
Then we also did an informative writing activity. I read a little article about the life cycle of plants and had her fill out a paper about 3 facts that she learned from it. Her 3 facts that she picked out were: Plants need water and sun to grow. The adult plants die and give seeds to make new plants. Most plants start as seeds. Then we watched a YouTube video about it.
For our science this week, we did a wormery. The purpose of it is to see how worms dig tunnels and how they mix soil and make compost which is good for plants. First we put different layers of dirt in a glass jar so that we could see the distinct layers so by the end of 2 weeks we are going to see if the dirt is all mixed together.
Then the girls and Nate worked on collecting a whole bunch of worms. It was cute hearing their squeals of excitement and silliness of the worms wiggly in their hands. Paige loves to hold worms but she is still definitely a girl with all the squeals that happen. We then put the worms on top and little pieces of veggies on top to see if they compost them.
Paige filled out another hypothesis worksheet for this science experiment. She drew and wrote about the different materials that we used to create it. She wrote what she thinks is going to happen in the 2 weeks- The dirt will be mixed up, the worms will dig tunnels and the veggies will be mixed up. There is space at the bottom for 3 questions that you are wondering about and the one that she had is what is compost which is a great question and something we will discuss at the end of the experiment.
Monday evening we went for a walk and Paige picked all of these beautiful wildflowers to press. It wasn't really part of our school but went well with what we were talking about this week.
Tuesday's math was a clock worksheet which I didn't realize when I printed it but it is to the nearest minute which she hasn't learned yet. At school they only learned to the nearest 5 minutes but she did really well and figured it out pretty quick. She also did a word problem about fruits and veggies in the garden.
Then for art they went outside again to collect flowers, leaves, pine cones, etc. to paint with and create a work of art with.
It was a very colorful and pretty mess!
Their masterpieces- Paige's on the left and Baylor's on the right. Baylor preferred painting with the paintbrush and she would occasionally stamp with a flower.
Tuesday's writing was a garden word search and her journal writing.
"My favorite thing to pick in the garden is flowers, the pink ones." (She is referring to the beautiful pink camellia bush in the yard.)
Wednesday's math was money counting.
Then for art they did flower painting with plastic forks.
For writing she did opinion writing and a journal entry.
"My favorite thing to do outside is ride bikes. I also like to explore new things!!"
Then for cooking, we first did cooking verb charades.
Then we made donut muffins. We talked about often with muffins you mix the dry ingredients and liquid ingredients separately and then mix them together. Paige looked at the recipe and told me which ingredients were dry and which were liquid. We also talked about the importance of not over mixing with muffins.
They turned out so good and with these ones after they are cooked you roll them in melted butter and cinnamon and sugar. So delicious!
Thursday's math was learning to read a pictograph and answering the questions about it.
For art, they did finger painting to create flowers and then created a fence with Popsicle sticks. Baylor was way more interested in painting her hand than painting her picture. :)
Finished product.
Then we did some mad libs for writing and her journal writing.
"You would need a slide and something to climb on. Also what makes a good playground is you'll need swings and a zip line." Then she drew her playground and was telling me all about it and how she wished she could go and play on it right now. "Doesn't it look like so much fun?" is what she kept saying.
For music we talked about the different types of notes and how many beats each note gets. She filled out the worksheet and then we would clap the rhythm and write our own notes to clap out.
Friday morning was a little bit rough. She was not in the mood to do her subtraction worksheet and it was a struggle to get through. It tested both of our patience but we got through the morning and after a while Paige was finally in a better mood and ready to do the rest of school.
We created a little garden scene with root vegetables. They colored the paper plate and the vegetables. For Baylor's I just stapled the brown "dirt" to the paper plate. For Paige's I helped her string brown yarn back and forth for her veggies to go in.
For writing I told Paige that she could type up a narrative story about a garden. "Once upon a time there was a rabbit names Riley. Riley was in their beautiful garden with her big sister Rachel. She also brought her friends, Liana and Katie. The girls played in the garden every day and met at the big tree with bluebirds in it. One day Rachel and Riley's mom came to the garden with them and helped pick veggies to eat for lunch the next day. They all helped pick the veggies for tomorrow. Just then the birdie said I am going to have babies soon to Riley's and Rachel's mom. Could you and the girls get some worms for my babies. Yes I will deliver them tomorrow how about? Yes at 11:00. Okay we will be happy to do that since we have this big garden. We will definitely be able to do this for you. Thank you! Thank you so much!"
We finally did sewing for the first time. Paige loved it and I got through it. I knew with sewing that Paige would only be able to do so much and that I would have to do the majority of it. It was frustrating for me since some of it wasn't working but we finished it and Paige loved it so it was worth it. Paige is good at hand sewing stitches and tying the notes when she did done. They turned out cute and I'm glad Paige is happy with them.
After we were done, Paige put together a photo studio for her dolls to have their pictures taken with their news hair clips. She used my phone and I had all sorts of pictures but I loved her little captions on these ones.
Another cute captioned one.
But I have to disagree and think that these 2 are the best sisters ever!
Then Friday evening we finished our grass growing experiment. We loved watching them throughout the week and seeing our results.
The three that had successful growing. Cup A: Sun and Water, Cup C: Water and No Sun, and Cup E: Sun and Water and No Soil.
So she wrote down her observations for each cup and we now know that water is key. The only one that was a wrong guess is that the sugar water one didn't grow at all but it sure was the stinkiest. I love seeing the difference the sun makes in Cup A and Cup C. The one with salt water, you could see salt crystals on top of the soil but no grass. It surprised me that the grass grew some without any soil but it was cool to see these little grass roots and the top part growing in the water.
We are going to give our wormery another week but here it is at the end of week 1. The worms have been busy digging tunnels. We can see some of the food throughout the dirt though there are still some distinct layers of dirt.
It was a fun week and next week is Outer Space!
