Camping Week

 It is crazy that this is the last week of school! It has been an interesting year but I feel that we have embraced it, learned things, grew closer as a family, and we did so many fun activities with our home school.

This last week our theme was camping. It was a fun week and a perfect way to go into summer!

Paige only had math online for Monday-Wednesday and each day it was a color by number being the last week of school and the last week of school is always fun. For our Monday math, she did this camping dot to dot.

For art they created these cute smores. They painted Popsicle sticks white for the the marshmallow part and the chocolate and graham cracker is construction paper. 

 Then for writing I read Paige some facts about s'mores and she wrote an informative paragraph. At the end of her paragraph, I asked her to write what she would add to the traditional s'more to make it better. It says, "The first official recipe for a s'more came out in the 1927 girl scout guidebook. The s'more used to be called some more. It was called some more from 1927 until at least 1971. The word s'more was put in the dictionary in 1974. National s'mores day is August 10th. During the summer it is estimated that 50% of marshmallows sold are used for s'mores. I would add chocolate frosting to my s'more!"

 Then for this week we moved sewing to Monday since we wanted our cooking on Friday to celebrate the end of school with something delicious. Paige found this cute idea on Pinterest for a water bottle holder. She found the idea a couple of weeks ago and I found the perfect strap at the Goodwill Outlet. It turned out perfectly and just how she wanted. It was a joint effort in the sewing but Paige is getting much more comfortable with sewing straight stitches and learning to back stitch at the beginning and end of her stitch.

 Tuesday's math was this subtraction of 2 digits worksheet with a secret camping word. Baylor even helped color on the worksheet.

 Then for art they did a fire painting with aluminum foil. And of course once Baylor's fire was done then she went onto painting her hand and arm. :) It's just a part of painting in her world.

 Paige's art and Baylor's art

 For writing Paige wrote what you need for the perfect camping trip. It says, "For a perfect camping trip you should have a backpack, water, marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate, swimming stuff, and a tent." This week she also had assignments online for science that taught about the different season and on Tuesday she drew these cute pictures of her in each season.

 For P.E. she had a workout on her computer from her P.E. teacher where she had to jump over a line doing different things. Her hair was flying everywhere and she was getting hot so half of the workout she was doing it while holding her hair in a ponytail. :)

 Wednesday she did her last color by number and online math assignment for 2nd grade. Then she did this camping word problem math worksheet.

 For art they created these cute binoculars that went along with our science for the day.

 Then for writing she did a journal entry about how to make the perfect s'more. It says, "To make the perfect s'more you need graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows. YUMMM!!!" Pretty traditional and straight forward. 

 Then for science they did some observations and went on a nature scavenger hunt. They each had their own bag and pencil. They used their binoculars to find everything. Paige was determined to go down the list in order even if she happened to see something on the list that was farther down. Baylor followed Paige's lead and it was the cutest thing to watch them and I loved watching them use their binoculars.

 Such cute girls observing the world around them.

 Then for another quick little science experiment we did "fireflies" in a jar. We talked about fireflies and what other things light the night sky. Then we observed with glow sticks to see whether they glow brighter in ice cold water or warm water.

Then she filled out her observations and observed that it glows brighter in warm water and the ice water kind of clouded it.

Thursday's math was this camping bar graph worksheet.

 Then for art they created leaf people. We had some dried/pressed leaves and flowers that they used for most of project but did pick a few leaves from outside to use. They turned out so cute!

 For writing her prompt was "I heard a noise outside my tent" This is what she came up with, "Once upon a time I went camping and I brought a backpack full of clothing, water, snacks, emergency kit, PJs, flashlight, and a toothbrush. First I went on a hike with my family. Then we explored the forest. And then we went to the museum. We went to a river. Finally it was time to go in the tent! We got our PJs on, we brushed our teeth and went to sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night and I heard something. I got my flashlight and went outside and I could see something but couldn't tell what it was but then I saw that it was a unicorn! She was so cute and we became best friends and she said her name was Kaylee. The End!"

 She did her last music assignment online from her music teacher. In the afternoon we got to drive to Paige's school and drop off some library and classroom books and also pick up whatever things she had left at school. There was schoolwork and some notebooks. She also got her yearbook and a cute little present and book from her teacher. Ms. Coppinger is such an amazing teacher and I am so glad that Paige had her for 2nd grade. Ms. Coppinger pushed her and gave her more challenging things to work on. I wish that Paige could have been in the classroom the entire year with her but it all turned out alright and Ms. Coppinger even put some math and reading things on Paige's computer that she can work on during the summer if she wants to do it that will help prepare her for 3rd grade.

It was officially our last day of school and she started the day off with this cute camping color by number. It is a multiplication one and so we did a little lesson on how multiplication works and we worked together on the answers before she colored the picture.   

 Then for art they created these cute tents with watercolor paints.

 Paige colored and filled out this beach ball with 3 memories from 2nd grade. She wrote, "Doing art projects, building towers for science, and getting an extra recess during the Apex event."

 Then Paige had her last class meeting where they talked about their memories, listened to their teacher read one last story, and say goodbye to their classmates for the summer. The last day of school is always kind of bittersweet. You are always excited for summer break but it is strange and kind of sad saying goodbye to another year of school, your teacher, and your classmates and friends.

While I was helping Paige get settled into her meeting and cleaning up from art, Baylor decided to do her own outside scavenger hunt. She did this all on her own. She grabbed a bag from the drawer and got a note card and pencil to write one. She took her binoculars out and started looking. When I went outside she already had a couple of leaves in her bag and was looking at the grass before grabbing some to add to her bag. Then she started looking for some roly-poly bugs. It was so cute and I love that she did it on her own accord.

 Paige's last writing assignment was opinion writing and she was to pick which 2 camping activities she likes best and why. The options were sleeping in a tent, fishing, hiking, and roasting marshmallows. She wrote, "I like roasting marshmallows and hiking. I like roasting marshmallows because it is fun and yummy! I like hiking because it is fun and you can see nature."

 Then the rest of the day we did those exact 2 things: went on a fun little hike and roasted marshmallows.

We took a picnic and went to Pretzel Tree Interpretive Trail. It is a really short hike that was beautiful. The forests are so gorgeous here!

You walked around this loop following signs that told a story of a field mouse. He goes on a hike through the woods and meets different creatures in the forest and each creature tells what they do to help the forest. So you learn about the different animals and some plants in the forest through this cute story and the field mouse is also on the look for a pretzel tree. One of the signs you read it and the field mouse asks one of the creatures he comes to where it is and it says look behind you. We turned around and there it was- the pretzel tree (pictured on the right). 

Paige got to try out her water bottle holder for the first time. It worked out perfectly and this was such a fun little hike!

Oh how I love this family of mine!

Then to celebrate a great school year and a fun camping themed week we had s'mores!

Nate got to try out his birthday present from his parents. A fire starter and the stick is a poking stick and can  move the logs around in the fire and you can also blow in it to give the fire more oxygen.

 We had gourmet s'mores and Paige wrote the menu for them. Instead of graham crackers we used the cookies (something I always did growing up and I think is way better than chocolate and graham crackers and way easier). The options were the grasshopper (peppermint patty), the nutty buddy (peanut butter cup), the Oreo (cookies and cream bar), or the normal guy (milk chocolate Hershey bar to make your s'more extra chocolately with the cookie).

 Baylor just wanted the cookies and some milk chocolate. She is a chocolate lover! Paige wanted the normal guy and also tried the grasshopper. She said she liked both but liked the normal guy with the extra chocolate better.

 Nate tried the nutty buddy and I tried the grasshopper and the Oreo. They were all delicious!

 It was such a fun way to end our week and to end the school year! I can't believe that Paige finished up 2nd grade and is now moving onto 3rd grade. She is growing up way too fast! I loved this extra time with her and it was a joy to be her teacher. I love that she loves to learn and create. She loves school and always tries to do her best. She is sweet and always willing to let Baylor "help" her with her schoolwork and almost anything she is doing or working on. We did so many fun things with our themes each week and I am glad that we came up with that idea in the beginning. It made school so much more fun and easier for me to plan. Thanks for being you Paige and being such an incredible daughter!

Now let's have some fun this summer!