Update week of 4/2/12

This week we are actually on spring break which gives me time to catch up on this blog. It seems like the weeks are just flying by and it is so hard to believe that we only have 6 weeks left of school. 

In the past 2 weeks we finished up listening to The Legend of Squanto for storytime.  He also read about Squanto in MOH 3 and watched a NEST video on Discovery Streaming about William Bradford that talked about Squanto.  Each version was slightly different and we discussed how sometimes it is good to read from several sources and compare because facts can get altered over time.  We have just started reading "A Piece of the Mountain: the story of Blaise Pascal.  N. loves books about scientists so I am sure this one will also be a hit. 

In Science he continues to read the story of Isaac Newton.  He has had a good time with his science experiments.  Although they are simple they have really sparked an interest in Newton's laws.  He has even been making up experiments on his own to show Newtons Laws.  I love that. Here are pictures of the experiments that his guide had him do.  First he looked at how gravity influences the orbit of the earth.

Then he did 3 experiments that demonstrated each law of motion.

His history project for the week was to make a paper mache shaker like the Algonquin Indians would use. I have usually avoided paper mache, but he was so excited to do this.  It was messy, but he really enjoyed making it.

 He is really excited to start learning more American History.  Since we started HOD at Preparing he didn't get the 2 years of American History in Beyond and Bigger.  In fact he thought that Pocahontas wasn't real.  I asked him why he would think that and he said it was because Disney made a movie about her and they don't make movies about real people.  I had to laugh, but then we talked about who Pocahontas really was.

In Grammar he is learning more capitalization rules.  These are mostly review which is nice after learning many new things in the last chapter. 

He is learning to write a response to a writing prompt in IEW.  This has been really good for him.  It is making him think through things on his own and back his thoughts up with examples. 

All in all a great last few weeks.