Mush!: A Wordless Wednesday

Dolch Words

Look at these BEAUTIFUL dolch lists illustrated by Jan Brett! I am going to print them out and have G start working on them. He knows a lot of the ones pictured above. He is really trying to sound things out but when all you know is short vowels it gets a little frustrating. We love Jan Brett books and looking at her illustrated lists will be a joy for us. I am also going to try out the site Dolch Words and see what it has to offer.

Sled Dogs

This week we used the information from the Sled Dog Lapbook and read about the different types of dogs used for sledding and their other uses besides racing.




We also read the True Story of Balto and watched the animated movie. I was very disappointed with the film. Other than kids with diphtheria in Nome, a stuck train, and a brave dog named Balto the rest of the story is all wrong. Very disappointing. I am glad we read the book first. I then had G narrate some cards about the story ( I helped illustrate). He had me add the speech bubbles.

(Yes, we have invisible sled dogs but I thought the sled was great!)

At It Again

Yes I changed again. I had to go to the other site to add and change everything. Too much trouble. So I did a little more searching and through the Blogger help boards found:
The Real Blogger Status - to edit into a 3 column
Dummies Guide to Googles Blogger Beta- how to widen the columns

So know I have 3 columns and easier editing again. I really liked my print in the background though. Oh well, when you are HTML illiterate you do what you can.

Iditarod 2008

Mush!

I am so psyched to follow this years race. Tracking the Iditarod has always been on my teaching wish list and now that I am writing the curriculum... Let's Go!

As I mentioned in the previous post my friend Dana and the movie Snow Buddies inspired me to tackle the unit this year. And thankfully I have some great resources shared and saved. I am following many of the links shared by Martin Zoo and was lucky enough to catch the Sled Dog Lapbook FREE download at Homeschool eStore. (If you don't get their e-mail alerts you are missing something special. Each week or so they offer free downloads. The Sled Dog lapbook is now $14. I digress) So we will spend the next two weeks studying about the care, training, and history of the sled dog. I went down in the basement and scavenged for The True Story of Balto, Balto the movie and Stone Fox. I could not find Stone Fox but it may be too much for G right now. I really want him to feel the emotion for himself not just wondering why Mommy is crying. I just requested a book from Paperback Swap last night that you can buy on the Iditarod web sight so I hope it will come before or while the race is going on, Kiana's Iditarod.

We have choses our teams and are waiting anxiously for the race to start. Here are our Mushers.

G wanted the youngest teams... so we found a couple of 18 year old wonders.
Ron Buser - Last years Jr. Iditarod winner
Melissa Owens- 2005 Jr. Iditarod winner

I picked Jessica Hendricks, 25, Rookie of the Year 2003.

G has even gotten Nana & Papaw into the spirit so we will be tracking their teams too.
Ed Iten - Papaw
Rick Swenson- Nana

Week in Review: February 11, 2008

We have had a very productive week here at the Academy.

Handwriting: G is working on writing between the lines. He is doing really well!

Math: We explored Greg Tang's Grapes of Math
G counted however he wanted to solve the problem. I tried to follow the texts directions. It was fun to see the alternative ways to come to the solution.

Reading: We quickly went through the remaining consonant blend lessons in our Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. We had been working on this skill in our outside reading and life so we breezed through the formal 5 or 6 lessons. We also learned about adding (s) to words {kid/ kids, ask/ asks}. It was fun to listen to him explain to Nana that when there is an (s) there is more than one. Also, we started digraphs- (ng).

G also finished 6 books this week. He has to read Bob-type books aloud, 5 times then he earns a sticker for each book. When he meets his goal he gets a new Leapster game. He gets really confident with them by the 5th reading and starts adding sound effects and actions to the stories... which they desperately need.

Inspiration: My friend Dana over at School for Us is going to track the Iditarod. I always wanted to do this when I taught PS but never had the time. Go figure. Well we are going to do it now! It was an easy sell for G as we just watched Snow Buddies last week and he dreams of mushing now. While I plan on doing a post just on the Iditarod, here is where you can read about the mushers and Martin Zoo has done all the lesson leg work for us. Thanks Dana!!! And Thank you Martin Zoo!!!!

Extras: G had a Valentine's Party at Storytime at the Library and we had to miss Gymnastics this week because of the Winter Snow Storm. I am really jealous of those who have green trees and sprouting seeds! You know who you are!

On Hold: Our Iditarod fascination took over where we normally read A Children's Book of Heroes. I hope to add it back in next week even though we will be doing a lot of sled dog study. So far, We have learned that heroes have the following Qualities:

• Use their brains
• Self Control
• Courage & Determination
• Faith
• Doing right even when tempted to do otherwise
• Do small ,good deeds
• Persevere

Whew! Busy Week.

George Washington's Teeth

Have you seen this book,George Washington's Teeth?
Fabulous!
It reads with short rhythmic sentences and
ends with timelines and photographs.
Poor Washington started losing teeth at age 22 and
a root fragment infection may be what lead to his death.

We learned that George had many sets of dentures...
most made out of Ivory (elephant, walrus, & hippo)
We didn't realize hippos had ivory.

Piddling

I really wanted a new Blog look and previously just settled for the Dark Dot template. Well, I found this great site today and am really pleased with the look but it is in the old blogger format and is not as easy to make my sidebar content. So the posts are still here but the side links are gone. Please be patient. If someone knows how to create something like this but in "new" blogger for really cheap or free (since I do like to change) let me know. I was really excited but then got deflated.

I also joined Paperback Swap and received requests the next time I checked my computer! WOW!