Friday, March 5, 2010

Weekly Update: Iran and Kindergarten Phonics completed!

The disappearing tsunami miracle last Saturday postponed our library trip, so we will be spending another extra week on Iran when we have more books. Iran and Iraq are not included in the Galloping The Globe guide, but I could not pass by these countries that are so rich in ancient history and involved in current events. I'm also planning it so that we will finish two weeks on Israel with Passover and Easter.

Geography/Literature: We left India and took a magic carpet ride through Pakistan and Afghanistan and landed in Iran. We stamped the passport, colored the map and flag of Iran and read some Persian folktales. The flag for Iran has the Arabic symbol for God, and then an intricate design that says God is Great. Before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the flag had a symbol of a lion with a sword and rising sun. I was surprised when Govinda said "Sri Lanka has a lion with a sword, too!" He remembered that from How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World which we read back in November! The flag coloring is certainly leaving impressions! The story books we read were Forty Fortunes, The King and The Three Thieves, The Legend Of The Persian Carpet, The Rich Man and The Parrot, Goha The Wise Fool, Cappy The Lonely Camel, and The Persian Cinderella. We noticed that many Persian legends are about righteous kings and thieves stealing their treasure.

Phonics: We finished McRuffy Kindergarten Phonics and Reading! The focus this week was on the blend 'gr', and the reader was Greg's Grape Ride. It was another funny story. The spelling words reviewed previous concepts with 'gr', the trickiest being 'grace'. The week ended with a Unit Test on everything learned in the last quarter. Govinda got them all right! We're very excited about completing such a great phonics journey, and we are looking forward to using the 1st grade curriculum coming soon.

Math: We did lessons 136-140. We practiced adding and subtracting in the vertical format, reviewed odd and even, reviewed counting coins, learned about numbers written in fonts that are different than how we write them, played with symmetry with pattern blocks, and ended with The Elephant Truck Game, which is a fun way to practice counting by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's. We still have 4 weeks left of McRuffy K Math.

Homeschool Group: We met with the local Aloha Homeschoolers group for an hour long tour of the fire station, led by the fire captain. It was a great treat and coincidental reward for finishing kindergarten phonics. This was the first time meeting with the group, and we recognized some of the other 5 year olds from soccer. We look forward to doing more fun group homeschool activities with this great group of families.

No comments:

Post a Comment