This week for home learning we returned to the Reptile Park. 2 weeks ago Alexander was keen to do more animals including the komodo dragon and the kangaroo. In planning though I did realise that each of the animals he chose didn't have heaps of activities online that we could easily do. Anyway, I did the best that I could. This week too Alexander was a bit over doing work at the table so a few days he chose to go and play in his room which was totally fine. Sometimes I feel a bit frustrated that he doesn't do all the activities that I organise for him, or when he responds with 'I don't feel like doing that' but I am trying really hard to also have the perspective that he would normally be choosing what he wanted to do at preschool and it's totally fine for him to decide that he wants to do his own thing.
Monday morning started with some fine motor activities followed by handwriting. Alexander drew a picture of him walking Kraken the Komodo dragon.
I then ran through what each kid had to do. James had a meeting at 9:30 until 10 and I had a dentist appointment at 9:45 so we had to leave them to themselves for 30mins. It was the first time that we have had to do this but they ended up doing really well. Daniel and Eliza's work was set out in their timetable and for Alexander I left him to colour in a couple of Komodo dragons and then he could make his own Komodo dragon with recycled materials.
The dentist was fine and the kids each did their work which was great. James was able to focus on his work too. I am again grateful that I am not working so I can spend this time teaching and helping the kids without having to juggle work myself. I wouldn't be able to do it. And neither would James. I do take my hat off to those who are juggling work (including online teaching), and helping the kids with their school work, those who also have a preschooler in the mix and also need to run a household too. I honestly wouldn't be able to do it. People say that I'm doing an amazing job but I am fully aware that I have the time to be able to to do it and invest in the kiddies.
Anyway, when I got home Alexander read Ollie the Komodo dragon and we read about Kraken in the Reptile Park magazine. It mentioned that Kraken was 2.28m long and 36kg in weight so we weighed Alexander and realised that almost 1.5 Alexanders = 1 Kraken.
We then measured 2.28m along the ground and had Alexander lie down on the ground to see if he was close to Kraken's length. We realised that just under 2 Alexander's would = 1 Kraken. I showed the photo to James and he decided to fiddle around with photo shop to show it so Alexander could see how long Kraken is compared to him.
He watched some Reptile Park Youtube videos of Kraken their Komodo dragon and told me information he remembered and we wrote them down.
When the postie came Alexander was lucky enough to get some mail from preschool - some homework for him to do and send back in the stamped envelope they provided. It also had a lovely card with had a picture of all his preschool friends.
I cut out the Komodo dragon pieces that Alexander had coloured in and then he glued them down like a puzzle. He then wrote Kraken along the bottom of it.
Daniel continued learning about procedures this week. I loved teaching and doing procedures as a teacher. I find it is one of the easier text types to do. Daniel doesn't fully feel the same. Today he had to make a leaf man and write the procedure for it. I think for him he over complicated it, making it a bit too detailed and he got stuck with instructions that could have been simplified. I think the concept was a bit too abstract for him. Different to a recipe. Anyway, I let him go with his idea but after 45 mins of working on it I felt I needed to step in and help him see how to simplify the steps. We sent into Mrs Fearnside the work that Daniel had done and then we wrote the procedure together, discussing it as we went. It was a bit tricky and a bit stressful for us both as he just wasn't getting it. But I was very proud of him for persisting with the procedure and coming up with the ideas for each step. Last year we both would have been in tears! This year we were much better. I was also proud of me for pausing, taking a breath and sitting down with Daniel helping teach him and guiding him through this process.
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Meanwhile Alexander made a pop up Komodo dragon by folding it along the middle lines so it sits up off the table and ground. He then had fun drawing a Komodo dragon with his pet Kraken sitting next to him.
Daniel did some hopscotch for his PE today too. It has worked out having the exercise loop outside to use for bonus PE activities.
The kids finished off their day dancing to a random Komodo dragon dance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uskgMhrTbKQ) that I found on the internet, followed by some Would You Rather activities too.
Tuesday Alexander was keen to learn about rainbow lorikeets and then he added that he also wanted to learn about kookaburras so I combined both birds into the one day. He watched the Reptile Park video about the rainbow lorikeets at the park.
He then helped me run Mainly Music where we drew pictures of rockets. I do love leading with him each week and his joy and the way that he helps organise everything - he gets the instruments, gets the hippo for the songs, enjoys showing everyone the craft he makes. This week he helped move the music to the next song.
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| Alexander's rocket drawing from Mainly Music |
He then sat down to colour in a rainbow lorikeet while the big kids were also still working on their devices. He cut out his bird but then didn't feel like doing more work.
The kids chose to sit and watch the rain falling (it did all day) while the ate their morning tea.
Alexander then enjoyed a class room with a small group of friends from preschool. He had Sue, Gus, Edward, Lucy and a couple of others online and he loved being able to chat more and share what he had been doing.
This time meant that I was free to sit with Daniel and Eliza and help them. Daniel was working on a procedure - writing how to make grilled peanut butter and cheese toast.
It was good to be able to sit with him and help guide him in his writing, to have him bounce off ideas before writing them down. Once he started his steps, the procedure started to flow and he was able to work pretty independently. This freed me up to help Eliza with her maths work. This week she has been learning about multiplication. On Monday she did the work but didn't fully understand the concept. Tuesday she was watching the lesson but she kept saying 'I don't get it' or 'It doesn't make sense'. I sat with her and we did some drawing of different arrays and writing multiplication sums as well as repeated addition. She started to get it! The use of counters was a big help too.
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| Chilli came to visit the kids as they worked |
Alexander decided that he didn't feel like doing more work after his zoom so he went into his bedroom and made a light up track. He then decided to build some bridges for the car to drive under.
Eliza was keen to do her dancing PE lesson again. She does love dancing. While Daniel decided to run on the spot for 3 minutes. The kids then did Run the Red Carpet for a bit more movement activities at lunch because they couldn't head outside in the rain.
After lunch Alexander was keen to finish his rainbow lorikeet to help make it fly. It was a bit fiddly but we worked out how to cut the straw so that the wings would move up and down. Pretty cool.
He then drew a rainbow lorikeet and also a kookaburra. We also looked at the feathers of a kookaburra that we found outside on the weekend.
Eliza enjoyed doing her music lesson with spoons and a box of counters. The sounds did drive Daniel a bit crazy while he was working but he had to make do.
Daniel designed some new features for Westleigh park including an AFL field, a walkway and a mountain bike track. We thought this project was going to be done over the week but his teacher said on Friday that what he did on Tuesday was fine so we will leave it there.
For afternoon tea the kids had fun cracking peanuts to enjoy. It's a fun thing that all kids should experience. That and getting peas out of a pod.They really liked them. Daniel was also very excited that we got him a pop it. His OT mentioned that it can be a good thing to use to help strengthen and move the fingers.
Today was also Daniel's last OT lesson. I will write a seperate post about it but I'm very proud of him and how much he has improved. He still needs to practice and that will help him but he is doing really well with how much effort he has put in.
For Tuesday Fun Night we decided that we would make our own Noble Family version of 'Would You Rather'. Each person came up with 3 would you rather questions. They then came up with 3 cards of exercise options. We then printed them off and shuffled them. Then to play it, someone would pick up a would you rather question. Everyone would choose option 1 or 2. Then they would pick up the exercise card and you had to do that number exercise for 30 seconds. The kids loved it! James and I really enjoyed it too. It was fun to work together and then make a fun game that we can use and also be healthy together by exercising. The kids were keen to continue it the next day too for their PE tasks.
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| Eliza said that she could touch her head with her feet. Daddy decided to have a go... he got no where close |
Wednesday morning James and I were doing our exercise upstairs and we heard Alexander crying out. Eliza then ran up to say that he had a bleeding nose and she got him a tissue but he was still calling out for me. I went down and sat with him for a little bit, helped him calm down and asked Daniel if he could read a couple of books with Alexander while I finished my pilates. Daniel was more than happy to help out. I came downstairs after 20mins more and saw this sight of Eliza and Daniel both sitting under a blanket with Alexander still pinching his nose. It was very cute.
It was also Uncle Howie's birthday today. This year I was thinking I would make him a Bubble O'Bill ice cream cake but because of Covid we couldn't celebrate together so instead I wore my Bubble O'Bill earrings and socks. We also bought him a doughnut and James dropped it around for his birthday.
Today for Alexander's handwriting page he drew a kangaroo with a joey in its pouch. I loved the little kangaroo eyes that he drew. It's the first time that he has drawn them this way. Very cute.
We read together The Kangaroo and the Porpoise and also listened to the book how the kangaroos got their tails. We then enjoyed watching a couple of indigenous kangaroo dances. It was very cool to see the movements in the dance and recognise the kangaroos. Alexander then did some of the kangaroo dance moves too, although he was hesitant to do the movements.
He then met the mob of kangaroos at the Reptile Park through YouTube. During this time Daniel started to do his writing task. He really enjoyed it because it was reviewing one of his classmates' procedures. He chose Lachie's procedure to make a banana smoothie and made it for everyone for recess. As he made it he commented on what was helpful and what things could be done to make the procedure clearer but overall it worked out fine and it was quite tasty. Each kid loved their smoothy. They especially liked that the last step was add a lolly and treat yourself. Any excuse for some sugar.
I also got to treat myself with a caramel slice that James bought for me when he got Howie's donuts. It was so tasty and a lovely surprise.
The kids did a PE activity of playing their Would You Rather game. I do love that they enjoy it and it was fun to see the comments that came back from their teachers. Mrs Part said 'This looks great Daniel and thank you for sharing it with me. What a lovely family thing to do :-)' Mrs Barwell said 'Wow Eliza. This looks like such a fun game that you have made up. Maybe you would like to show everybody on our class zoom tomorrow because we are going to do a show and tell. Maybe you could ask us all some questions and we could join in too.' Eliza was very excited with this idea.
Eliza then moved onto doing some more multiplication activities. I just loved the smile that appeared on her face when she started to get it. She even said 'I get this now' and asked me to write out some more multiplication questions. Really proud of her listening as I explained it and of her persistence in working out the answers.
Alexander then made a kangaroo using a toilet paper roll. He is starting to dislike the feeling of glue on his fingers so isn't heaps keen to do these sorts of craft activities but I also think it is good for him to push through and then just wash his hands. I do find it a bit funny that he doesn't like the feeling of glue on his hands but a sticky food he doesn't seem to care about at all.
We did some more laminating of some joeys and then Alexander sewed 2 pieces of felt together to make a pouch. I cut out the felt so that both pieces met up but then Alexander used the needle and thread to set the pouch together. He showed such great concentration. Once he had finished sewing the pouch I sewed on some ribbon to make a belt. I then hid his joeys in the lounge room and he needed to hop around the lounge room trying to find the joeys to put into his pocket. I loved that when he paused to look around the room to try and find a joey he actually looked like a kangaroo looking around to find food or where they would next hop to.
In the afternoon Eliza learnt to draw Fly Guy, but she wanted to change him to be Fly Girl by adding some bows in the hair.
Alexander learnt how to draw a cartoon kangaroo with a joey in its pouch. Then he and Eliza did some kangaroo yoga with Cosmic Kids.
Afternoon tea was cinnamon doughnut puffs that I made using Donna Hay's recipe. We also sang happy birthday to Uncle Howie and enjoyed eating doughnuts to celebrate him.
Thursday morning the kids started with music practice. Eliza sight read a song to play which I was very impressed with. Daniel did his bass practice in the backroom with Alexander joining him on the ukulele. It was very cute watching him 'teach' Alexander how to play the bass and to play along together.
When I put out the art gallery I noticed there was a package in the letterbox. It was another letter from preschool - this time it had different craft resources for Alexander to use and it also had had a class photo. Alexander was so excited to see the pictures of his friends and he showed Eliza and Daniel who each person was.
Daniel needed to follow an origami procedure and he chose to make penguins. Even though you should use double sided paper, he thought outside the square to use both the white and coloured paper folded together. He also made 2 because the last step said 'Repeat the steps to make a couple of penguins'. He was obedient in following the procedure.
Alexander was learning about Tasmanian devils so we started by reading Daniel the Devil. Such a cute little book. He then watched the Reptile Park talk about them. He was a bit tired today so wanted to watch it on the TV. He then coloured in the different parts of a Tasmanian devil, cut them out and then glued them down to make his own Tasmanian devil.
Alexander's Big Red Car was pulled out again and he enjoyed driving it around. This was inspired because Daniel needed to make a procedure - it could be a craft, an experiment, a recipe, anything really. I was expecting Daniel to make a recipe but he instead chose craft. He wanted to make a box car using the cardboard box that Janelle and Andrew brought around. He wrote out the procedure as he did each step. It was cool seeing his thought process. It was a car that you could sit in, not the same as the Big Red Car. He put a chair in, added wheels (that needed to move so he could pretend to change the wheels like racing cars), added a steering wheel. He worked out how to make a front windscreen too. He had a lot of fun driving in it too.
Eliza enjoyed doing her class zoom, sharing Would You Rather. It was really cute hearing her ask the 2 questions and seeing them do the actions.
Anne messaged asking if Alexander and Flynnie wanted to play a couple of games using a new app that she had come across called 'Together'. It's a mix of zoom but you can also play games with the person on the other end of the screen. Alexander and Flynnie played memory, colouring in, snakes and ladders and had a great time. They had many giggles.
Alexander mentioned that he wanted to learn about koalas as well, so I pulled together a couple of koala activities too (which was a bit helpful because there weren't heaps of Tasmanian devil activities to do). He had already drawn a koala early on so I avoided drawing. I also realised that Alexander has done a lot of craft, cutting, gluing and not heaps of playing. I then came up with the idea for Alexander to use the mega blocks to try and build a tree for his toy koala. I honestly found it hard to not offer and encourage him to design it how I would. I needed to keep reminding myself that at his age a lot of the learning comes from the process and making mistakes, doing the building his way. After a few times interrupting, Alexander kept saying 'I just want to do it my way' which is totally fair enough. So I apologised and left it to him. He loved the tree that he made.
We had a lovely delivery of dinner from the Duncans - the famous Duncan paella as well as choc chip cookies and some mars bar slice. It really meant a lot of get this delivery and meant that I didn't have to cook dinner at night so the kids could play more outside in the afternoon.
Alexander and I then made a koala mask for him to wear. It looked so cute! My little cuddly koala. We headed outside for him to climb a tree and be a real koala (although it wasn't an eucalyptus tree). He's so cute!
Alexander and I then did some koala peg maths. He needed to put a peg on the next number on each card - fine motor and also maths work. Winner.
Then as James was making his lunch Alexander told him about the koala mask. He told Daddy what he did to make it saying 'first I... 2nd I... then I...' James honestly thought he knew that he was saying a procedure. Alexander didn't know the name of it but he sure was. I asked him if he wanted to write a procedure (with me writing it) for how to make a mask. He was keen. He even knew what you needed to start with, what the aim would be and then listed the steps. What the? It amazes me how much Alexander is taking in during this home learning time. From speaking with Daniel about the structure of procedures, Alexander has been able to write his own. From talking with Eliza about doubling, Alexander is able to work out doubles.
Eliza finished off her school day by making a farm. I love her creativity. She grabbed soft toys, play dough toys, Alexander offered for her to use his fence pieces and then he suggested that she could use the mega blocks to make more fences. Daniel offered for Eliza to use his car as a tractor. I loved seeing their generosity. I loved her creativity - Pig the Pug dog to round up the sheep, Pass the Pigs pigs rolling in the mud, the puppet cow in the milking shed. Just creative ideas.
We then watched Daniel on the Hornsby Shire Council Facebook page speaking as an environmental captain for his school. So proud of him. He spoke really well and he was in almost every shot. A bit funny really. I do love how he has been really proud being an Environment Captain this year.
Then I introduced Looney Tunes to the kids. Because Alexander learnt about Tasmanian devils, I showed them some videos of Tassie Devil and the fun of him with Bugs Bunny. They loved it, giggled and asked for more.
Friday Alexander started learning about spiders. I used an idea that school has used for the big kids and Alexander needed to make a spider using pieces of nature. After watching some videos he knew that they have 2 body parts, 8 legs, up to 8 eyes and can have nipples. His nature picture is a bit abstract.
He then wasn't too interested in doing much craft so headed into his room, put on his music and used his microphone to sing along. A bit cute.
Eliza's timetable was very light on and she had done most of the work that was offered as catch up time so I told her to write a letter or card for a friend. She decided to write one for Emily and one for Clara because she didn't want either of them to feel left out. Bless.
We went for a walk to Josh's place to drop off a couple of origami penguins. He mentioned on the class blog that he had made the penguins but his younger brother broke them. Daniel felt bad for Josh so decided to make 2 penguins for him. It was a really special idea. On our way Alexander found a rainbow lorikeet feather which he was very excited about. Good spotting because I can't remember ever spotting one of their feathers before.
When back home Alexander needed to make a spider web for his paper plate spider. We hole punched around the rim of the plate then I tied on the string and Alexander needed to thread them to make the web. It took a little bit of time to get the idea of doing opposite holes to make the web but he also found it a bit tricky so lost interest around halfway through. I did a few holes for him and then he was keen to finish. He did well in the end and the web looked really cool.
We then did some marble art to make spider webs. It has been ages since I did marble art and the kids loved it! Alexander made 4 different prints using different colours. Daniel then wanted to have a go too and made a couple himself. Such a simple and fun craft.
Eliza and Alexander did some spider yoga - including making a tricky spider pose. Alexander does enjoy yoga and dancing more with someone else with him.
The kids did a superhero would you rather because it included Spider Man.
Then in the afternoon while the big kids continued their work, Alexander and I made chocolate spiders. So simple and so very tasty! Although he did find breaking the chocolate very tricky to do. Ha.
While the settled in the fridge he drew a spider using Art for Kids Hub and Eliza drew another emu family for the art gallery. Daniel had finished his work so had a go at playing a coding game that his friend Noah sent. It was a bit tricky to make it work so he lost a bit of interest in it. I then told the kids that they could have 10mins of games on the computer time. They were so excited! I try to avoid it most of the time because I don't want them looking at the computer screen more than they have to and they are looking at them a lot with school work!
To celebrate the end of Week 7 home learning they had some healthy (oranges) with Jumpy's (for kangaroos) and the chocolate spiders that Alexander made.
We then went for a ride to drop off Clara's letter, Alexander's letter in the post box to go to preschool and Emily's letter. The kids loved bumping into Anne and the kids on our way home. It is a lovely surprise when it happens! They also loved seeing the plumbers birds who had baby plumbers. I had to go up and see. 4 little chicks were walking around someone's front lawn with one of the parents. So cute!
Eliza wanted me to take home some lovely pink flowers off the ground. I said no (because I'd have to carry them) so the compromise was to take a photo of her with them.
When we got home Lachie and Daniel were desperate to have a zoom session so that they could work on writing a song for them to play together - saxophone and bass. They were so cute coming up with a band name (Flaming Music) and then writing the start of their lyrics. It's great for their literacy and creativity. Will see what comes from it.
Week 7 is now done and it has been announced that there will be another 8-9 weeks of home learning to go. When people ask how I'm going I honestly can't complain. There haven't been heaps of tears, I am loving seeing the kids progress, I am enjoying the teachable moments, I am enjoying including their learning in every day things (asking them to spell words, maths questions on the topic they have done, talking about their science subjects). Sure there are hard moments and it does still drive me crazy that most days we don't get the lessons earlier than 8:30/9am. And some of the content is really lacking (particularly for Eliza) or way too much (particularly for Daniel) but the kids are all doing quite well and have a positive attitude about their home learning. They have said 'thanks' or 'you're a great home learning teacher' or 'I'm lucky to have you teaching me' which has also been lovely because there are also moments where I really doubt it all. But overall it is going well and it has been a huge improvement on last year!
This weekend was an art filled weekend, getting ready for the next street art gallery. The kids had loved spotting Cherry Blossom trees as we went for walks. Because they enjoyed spotting them, I decided that they could paint them. I found a cool way of doing it from Art for Kids Hub. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cIjUwedQAZo It involved blowing the black paint, then once dry, blotting pink paint around the branches. So simple but so cool!
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| Once they had sketched, they outlined in Sharpe and then painted their sunflowers |
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| So bright and pretty |
Come Sunday the kids learnt about another fun artist, James Rizzi. I love that his artworks are very simplistic and like a child's perspective, having faces on the buildings and sun and moon. It was cool learning about reoccurring features that appear in his different artworks - smiling sun and moon, birds, buildings as well as the pop colours too.
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