Northwest Trek

Monday we met some friends out at Northwest Trek for a wonderful day of exploring and learning! This park is a fantastic learning facility that has an open free roam area for northwest animals that a tram drives through and a host shares details on the animals, behaviours and area. Then you come back into the park and enjoy a zoo style interaction with animals in various habitat settings. Making for a wonderful experience!!

This day we learned a lot about the fall rut with the elk out in the free roaming area. They were in fine form and shared with us the behaviours expected. We witnessed an elk with the females, satellite elk attempting to hone in and bugling between them. It was so very cool!!! We made a point to come home and learn more on the rut, fortunately I have nature book with good information and photos.

We had a wonderful day with the kids, exploring and doing a bit of naturalist work with the kids - working on observations and transferring that to their nature journals. A great day indeed!!

Federation Forest ~ Nature Club

Our Nature Club met all through the summer, however since I took a break from blogging I am not sharing about those outings. I so thrilled with our little group who take time to gather for bi-weekly and sometimes weekly outings, often times with a small agenda and sometimes without. This day we had no agenda but to simply BE in nature. Explore, journal, discover, learn, climb, crawl, experience, observe and ask questions. Many questions were asked, many answers were shared or looked up. The kids had a grand time!!!

Paper Mache Project

Holly enjoyed her first ever paper mache project. In her Expedition Earth curriculum she had to create a paper mache earth after reviewing the continents, oceans, parts of the globe such as equator, prime meridian, etc.

Doing paper mache is a multi-day project that is messy, both in building and then painting. I blew the balloon up and then explained what paper mache is and how you build it. She didn't mind the mess... me, well - it was messy! Not to bad but it did require a lot of plastic and paper coverage, dripping and wiping up. Despite the mess it was well worth it!

Her earth project turned out fantastic!!! She is very proud of her work - as she should be!

Review

Starting out the year begins with a lot of review... which can be mundane and honestly, quiet boring! Holly is reviewing counting verbally working her way up to 300. We started day one with 100. To spice it up a bit she did a little writing review that was very easy and then did a little estimation project with it.

Using a container, an eye dropper and water she had to estimate how full a container would be after 100 drops of water. She had to count them aloud for me (review... shhh!). She made her predictions, set to work after mastering the eye dropper gentleness and discovered her predictions were a bit off. It was a fun little project and she really made no qualm of counting to 100... again!

Second Grade

Last week Holly started second grade!! The year promises to be a great one in which we have some fun stuff planned, special interest units she desires, a load of nature, hands on projects, reading and games -- this along with our traditional core curriculum and I think the year will be fantastic!

I thought I'd share what curriculum we are using for second grade, keeping in mind this is not every little book, program or part we will be using. It is flexible and I am willing to make changes as I see fit or needed.

Second Grade

Math - Horizons, level 2
           Games, Computer, Ipad & Manipulatives
           Living Math
           Math Journal of word problems & concepts

Penmanship - Modern Cursive
                       Drill Sheets
                       Daily Handwriting Practice: Contemporary Cursive

Language/Phonics/Writing - Horizons, level 2
                                             Writers Workshop
                                             Journal Work
                                             First Language Lessons
                                             Poetry Notebook

Spelling - Weekly list from phonics & unit work
                Spellboard on Ipad
                Handwriting work

Science - Real Science 4 Kids (Physics, Astronomy & Chemistry)
                Nature Club Outings & Journaling (large selection of books)
                Nature Workbook
                Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding
                Programs on the Ipad
               
Art & Music - Atelier Art
                     Art Treasury, Usborne
                     Big Book of Art Ideas, Usborne
                     Guitar & Piano introduction
                     Youth Chorus
                     Programs on the Ipad

Reading - Daily reading time, 40 minutes
                 Book list for the year

Health - Why Should I Bother to Keep Fit, Usborne
              Body Unit
              Safety

P. E. - Swimming
           Seasonal Sports
           Hiking
          
Geography/Social/History - World Religions, Usborne
                                            Expedition Earth World Study
                                            Programs on the Ipad
                                            Pioneer Sampler
                                            Native American History Pockets
                                            Early Western Settlement