First week back for Term 4 and it hasn't been too bad a week. Having the public holiday on Monday was nice, making us only have 4 days of learning this week. The kids adjusted really well to getting back into their school work which was also great. This week's theme for Alexander has been mini beasts.
Tuesday morning we started by doing our hand exercises. Alexander had to put counters in groups of 3 to make the ant bodies and then flip them over.
We then read 2 ant books. One was a reader which Alexander enjoyed reading a couple of times to himself and the other one was the Amelia Ant. He was excited to read a book on his own (although he wasn't reading all the words correctly).
Alexander watched a videos to learn about ants (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXUCUvcscXs) and then we wrote down some facts that he could remember. He then drew a picture of an ant hill and we did finger prints to make the ants.
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He found his sticker book card that he got for his birthday and enjoyed completing some of the pages in it.
He did some ant mazes which were 'so easy'.
And then he made an ant puppet, called Antie. It looked very cute.
I found some ant maths activities for preschoolers and kindy kids and he enjoyed playing maths games on the iPad like the big kids.
Eliza had fun doing another dance class online for PE.
Alexander drew an ant using Art for Kids Hub. It looked very cute.
We then headed outside with the magnifying glass and went on an ant hunt. Alexander found a couple in the garden but they were too fast moving to spot them under the magnifying glass. We then found more on the driveway and found the ant trail. Eliza and Daniel also came out to join us in finding them and watching them.
We tried to catch some ants in a container so that we could look at them a bit closer. They were still tricky to look at through the magnifying glass but we did see a couple.
We then had an idea that we could see what ants eat - honey, peanut butter or Nutella. Alexander guessed Nutella while Daniel and Eliza both said honey. We put it on a lid and left it on the ant trail. It was a flop. Only one ant ended up going to it and went to the honey but then it got stuck in it.
Meanwhile Daniel found a little ants nest in one of the old water pipes and managed to shake some ants carrying eggs into the box to have a closer look at. We noticed that some eggs had black dots on it which we assume are baby ants in it.
For Tuesday Fun Night we played our new game - the Train Game - together. It was very fun to play! Alexander got upset because he hadn't won a game so we as a family worked together to help Alexander win. He was so excited to win (didn't realise that we helped him) and I loved that Eliza and Daniel both helped him to win too.
Wednesday morning was a slow start because the kids were having fun playing together. It is hard to pull them away from their creativity to have them come and do school work so we did start it about 30mins later. Eliza and Alexander made a cafe, played with it and then packed it up before learning started! I was impressed that they packed it all up!
Today was Butterfly Day. Alexander started with Pom Pom fine motor where he needed to put the Pom Poms on using tweezers making symmetry. Eliza needed to make patterns with the transport pieces.
Daniel has continued working on poetry this term and this morning he had to use given works to write a poem about Spring. It was a pretty cool poem that he wrote with rhythm, rhyming words and it made sense.
Alexander and I enjoyed reading the book 'What Will I Be?' which is a beautiful book that goes through the lifecycle of a butterfly but the book is read beginning to end and then you flip it over and read it the other way. It's a really cute book. He enjoyed spotting the butterfly stages and also the other insects that appear in the book.
He then went into his room to listen to the Very Hungry Caterpillar on CD and follow along with the book.
Next up we did a little bit of smudge painting to make a butterfly. We put blobs of paint in the middle of the paper and then folded it over and smudged the paint to the edges of the paper. The butterflies got better as he went. He also decided to do the paint squirting and put it where he wanted to. I loved his reaction when we opened up the butterfly.
We then used food colouring and paper towels to make some more wings for butterflies. Alexander enjoyed the patterns when we opened up the paper towel.
While it dried Alexander did an addition and subtraction colour by number sheet. He did a pretty good job with the maths, only getting muddled up a couple of times.
Once the paper towel had dried we wrapped a pipe cleaner around it and it made a lovely butterfly.
For lunch I used my butterfly cutter to make a butterfly sandwich and decorated the garden with veggies.
In the afternoon Eliza needed to recreate 'The Great Wave Off Kanagawa'. They suggested using paints, water colour paints, baby wipes, brushes or even your own hands. Of course Eliza chose her hands. She made the wave shape using her hand and then used her fingers to paint the rest of the picture.
Meanwhile Alexander learnt to draw a cartoon butterfly.
Finally the butterfly smudge paint had dried so Alexander was able to cut out the butterflies. He wanted to make one of them fly so he stuck on a piece of string and flew it around the house like a kite.
Eliza headed off to Clara's birthday party at the park and the boys enjoyed riding on the road and playing on the road. Car races is still a popular game to play. The kids then enjoyed having a ride on the road with Lachie, Ems and Flynnie.
Thursday was worm day. Alexander coloured in a snake (which we pretended to be a worm) and then used the scissors to cut it out.
We then sat on the couch and Alexander read 'Under the Ground' reader to me. He did pretty well working out the animals. Some words weren't correct but he was excited to be reading so I just let him go for it. Then it was my turn to read Superworm. Alexander really enjoyed the book so we read it twice. I love how he snuggles into me, puts his arms around my arm and holds me tight while I read to him. He does it at bedtime too.
Next up Alexander drew a worm on the whiteboard and he needed to use the tongs to put pompoms along the worm.
Then we made play dough worms. Even though we know worms don't have eyes, we thought they looked pretty cute with googley eyes so we added them anyway. He described each of the different worms to me. We also made some fruit and vegetables that the worms would eat so that we could play with them. He was so happy playing with the play dough as long as I was there playing with him.
Alexander then wanted to use the cookie cutters to write our names.
During recess time Daniel made Alexander a worm maze for him to complete. Alexander enjoyed doing it and found all that he needed to.
Alexander and I then made a maths game for us to play. We cut string into 20 pieces making little worms and put them into a container. We then rolled a dice and you had to pick up that many worms using tongs. The first to 10 won. Alexander won the game. He wasn't keen to play again. Ha.
He then worked on a worm picture. He drew under the ground and above the ground and then finger printed worms crawling under the soil.
While he was doing his drawing, Daniel was doing some maths on subtraction with trading. He said he hasn't ever done this before so it was a pretty tricky concept to do without teacher direction, at least I felt it was. Daniel was getting the answers right but he wasn't showing any working out. I was proud of him because he challenged himself with level 4 work which used decimal places. This was again another new concept having decimals. It was nice teaching him how to do the subtracting with trading. He took a few goes to do it and got a bit muddled with how the trading worked but he got there in the end and was able to do 3 bonus questions that I wrote out for him.
Alexander then did a worm obstacle course. He needed to wriggle through the tunnel, slide along the ground to the piano chair, slide under that, then wriggle under the chairs in the kitchen, and under the table back to the hallway. He enjoyed it but did hurt his arms pulling himself along the ground. Daniel and Eliza also had a go of the worm obstacle course.
Lunchtime became a lunch train with the kids sitting on the chairs in the kitchen to eat their lunch.
Alexander drew a picture of a cartoon worm and an apple using art for kids hub while Eliza painted a picture of the book that she read in the morning.
For afternoon tea the kids enjoyed a gingerbread man with their fruit - a little treat supporting our local bakery.
During lockdown Uno has started to be a game for the kids to play. Daniel is keen to play first to 500. At the moment he is beating me.
Fridays for school tend to be quite a light load. It is good but also quite annoying. It wouldn't be this way at school. But I guess not every family is keeping up with the workload so to have a light day means that those families can catch up. Anyway, our Friday morning started with the kids needing to read quietly to themselves for 30mins. I decided that each of them could get a new book to read - Daniel got Tom Gates, Eliza got an Ella Diaries book (thanks to the Carltons for passing them on!) and Alexander got the next Bad Guys book. They each enjoyed sitting and reading their books quietly.
I noticed that each of the kids had accidentally dressed in the same coloured clothes - their home learning uniform for the day!
Next up the kids needed to do their hand exercises. Alexander was learning about snails today so he used the Pom Poms to cover the snail shell using tongs to get them out.
We then read The Snail and the Whale book. I only had my big book of it so I pulled that out and we read it on the floor. It is a very cute story. I don't know that I have really read it with my class. I will need to remember my big books when I do casual days and make a day's theme around some of these books. I think home learning has helped me feel that theme days are the best when you go into a school or a teaching day pretty blind.
We then returned to the snail sheet and Alexander did another fine motor activity with putting stickers onto the snail's shell in a spiral shape.
Daniel had a free writing task which he was keen to do poetry for. This week he had learnt about syllables and haiku poetry so he was keen to write a haiku poem, knowing the only rule was 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables. I loved teaching Christmas poetry with haiku and seeing what the kids came up with. He did pretty well. After he wrote his poem about Water, I asked him to do one about Home Learning. He sighed and rolled his eyes but then did the task and did well again.
I then showed him a fun haiku poem that I have seen around showing that as long as you follow the syllables rule, the poem really doesn't have to make sense. He had a giggle when he heard it.
Haikus are easy
Sometimes they don't make sense.
Refrigerator
Eliza had a couple of reading tasks to do and a reflection task and then she had an optional spelling task. Eliza shouted to me 'Mum, I have a spelling task that I don't have to do, so I'm not going to do it.' This was around 10am that she was saying this. Poor girl had a mum who made her still do it because she could do it and had the time to do it. She did it really quickly too. It was just a task of putting a letter at the start of -vc word to make a new word. She had finished her work by 10:15.
Alexander made some snails using Daniel's putty.
Recess time, the kids got back into Around the World basketball. They drew the lines to throw from and took turns and cheered each other on.
After recess Daniel and Eliza both had some Mathletics tasks to complete and Alexander watched the story 'Snail Trail' which is a story about a snail finding Henri Matisse's artwork 'The Snail'. A really cute story. He then made his own Matisse snail shell artwork. I also noticed that the NSW art gallery is actually having a Matisse exhibition at the end of this year, start of next year that will show different artworks of his. Very cool. In the 3rd artillery the kids made some Matisse artworks too.
Alexander then helped make some apple and cinnamon scrolls for our afternoon tea. He did a great job and loved getting his hands all dirty while mixing the dough. He added heaps of cinnamon (but it was worth it) and brown sugar too. I do like this recipe.
For lunch the kids had Nutella snails (a kit friendly escargot) - Nutella wraps, as well as their veggies.
Because the kids had finished all their work by lunch time, they enjoyed watching Turbo in the afternoon - a racing car snail! A great way to finish off their mini beast week. We also celebrated with a snacks plate - snails (made with sour snakes and the apple cinnamon scroll) and sour worms eating apple 'scraps'.
We then headed to the park to meet up with one of Alexander's preschool friends. In the chaos of home learning I accidentally thought I'd sent a reply but I hadn't so we will catch up next week. The kids still had a blast playing at the park - something they haven't really done for the last 3 months. It was good for them to run around.
This week we have found out that Eliza is still going back to school 18th October, so she has one more week of home learning. Daniel is now going back the week after on the 25th October. We decided that Alexander can go back to preschool on the 18th as well. Then we have found out that people can go into houses (10 adults at most), that swimming starts up this week on Wednesday and Friday, that Eliza's dance starts up on the 18th again too. Carols are going ahead at the park, Mainly Music will start up again face to face at the end of the month too. It is a lot of change and it feels like it all is a bit quick! But I need to trust the leaders of our state and hope that it will be ok. James and I are double vaccinated. If the kids catch it, hopefully they won't be too badly affected by it. Things are opening up again. I do need to prepare for the kids getting sick meaning they will be home on and off again which will be a bit frustrating and disruptive. But it should be ok. We will try and roll with the times.
I'm feeling anxious and uncertain but trying to give it to God.
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