Week 3 of First Grade

This week in "Real Life" was pretty kooky, so it was nice that our school life was pretty un-eventful.  


We continued our study of the Old Kingdom of Egypt and on Monday the kids made Egyptian throwing sticks.  I posted about them earlier this week, but as a reminder, here is a picture of the finished product:

Really, how could you forget such amazing works of art?

We continued to read a lot about mummies and pyramids this week, and I had a pretty average project planned for Wednesday, making pyramids.  But the kids beat me to it.  They spent their play time in their rooms wrapping up some toys in tape, calling them mummies, and then making various sarcophaguses out of boxes they found and decorated.  I decided that we could skip the pyramid project, as they're clearly retaining something from this study.

ChacoKitten and I both especially liked Mickey Mummy in his Nerf Gun Ammo Box Sarcophagus 

Although it was a little sad to learn that all of the Cars characters had passed on:

The horridness of Cars 2 was probably just too much for them all.

We started to dig into (punny) the different animal kingdom phyla this week with a look at Annelids.  This involved digging in our yard for earth worms or wood lice (aka rollie pollies.)  You can guess which science day they liked the most, the one I had a hard time ending.

Of course we were in costume for this because *something something underground animals in level something something* about some Mario game on the Wii.  Whatever.

We started the classification chart, but I still haven't decided exactly how this is going to look as a finished project.  So, for now, we taped some things to the dining room wall.  Because we're classy.  I think I'll try to get some string and clips so that we can have a hanging, more mobile-like chart, where they can take down individual cards to study or have to re-arrange for practice.  I figure I'll let the kids help me decorate the labels and make them fancy.  We're probably not out of rainy weekend days yet.

I'm sure I saw something like this on an HGTV contest show and I'm SURE the designer who did this won a million dollars.  It's pretty trendy right now.

And we, of course, spent as much time enjoying the gorgeous weather.  We took a couple of spelling tests outside with sidewalk chalk.

Right after this picture was taken, a neighbor's dog tried to pee on Josiah's work.  Because it's never a dull moment around here.

Other things we worked on:
We are plugging away at math, and we are enjoying Singapore 1.  The kids could probably stand a little more challenge from their math, but I'm really focusing on building reading and writing fluency right now.  Plus it makes them feel like geniuses.
We finished Peter Pan, and all the literature narrations that came with it.  We'll decide this weekend what to read next, but I'm leaning toward a Little House book.  If Josiah can stand it.
Both kids are progressing nicely in their reading, and gaining more confidence.  They've adapted quickly to the new 30 minutes of independent reading time we strive for- and the difference has been huge.


Next week- our history will take us back to Mesopotamia, and the first dictator, Sargon.  And in science we'll start studying insects.  Yippee...

Things We Can Throw

Making History and Science interesting for little ones can be challenging.  Especially when your beautiful offspring go beyond the description of "wiggly" into the realm of "Help, I think I've given birth to a visitor from the Other Dimension of Perpetual Motion!  And he brought his sister!"  At five and six, my kids are simply not going to be able to sit through "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."  (And I think only one of their parents could.  I'll let you guess which one...)  So studying these subjects becomes a balancing act between trying to teach them something and trying to capture their interest-quickly.  Because I've usually got about 5 minutes to keep their attention before someone starts poking a pencil in someone's ear.

These may look like typical sunglasses, but they're really protective safety goggles.  Because you never already know who may come after you with pink paint on a brush. 

I have had to learn to make peace with the fact that sometimes the project we do may be, technically, not that educational.  Sure, I'd like every science experiment to be the first step toward their PhD dissertation or their drawings of monuments be done to scale using high level geometry and algebra.  But more often than not, their projects are more educational in the "How to Not Get Glue Stuck in My Nose, Because I Picked My Boogers While Making Macaroni Art 101" or "Advanced How Far Can I Spread Paint Around the House Before Mom Packs It Up and Declares It's Quiet Time."

We've never actually made macaroni art, but if we do, I hope my kids make this.  And then they could sell it for $600 on Etsy.  (http://www.regretsy.com/2012/02/07/im-going-to-need-600/)

This week we return to study Egypt, as we're getting started to put our historical timeline together.  A recommended project- making Egyptian throwing sticks.  Apparently, these were toys used by Egyptian children, painted to look like serpents, used in throwing games.  I guess this would be useful for children who will grow to hunt and fight with spears.  My kids will use them to bang on the walls and torment the cats.  Like they use every other craft they make.

It's okay, they find their ways to get their revenge.  (Not pictured- poop.  IN MY DRYER.)

Basically, all this build up is going to be disappointing when you see what we made.  We painted wooded spoons to look like snakes:

It's okay, you can relax.  Despite the what the authentic colors and patterns may make you think, these are not actual snakes.

Look how happy we are when we're done painting!

"We smiled for the first fifty-six pictures, now all you get from us in barely-contained rage."

And, the most important part- they can be thrown.

Look at that form!  We're ready to go kill some boar!

Or not.

Duck!  A wooden spoon painted to look like a psychedelic snake from the River Styx is coming right at your face!  That kid in the Where's My Water Shirt means to kill us all!

I have no idea if this throwing stick thing has any historical accuracy.  I also don't know that I think this would be the most valuable fact for my kids to remember about Ancient Egypt.  But they had fun and got to practice some painting.  They got some fresh air and got to throw things.  Overall, I give this project a rating of "Successful: They Had Fun."