Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel

We made them out of clay! 

The Write Stuff

Today we did a couple special things along with the usual stuff. 

First, it was our day to do Pirkei Avot, and E took a lot of pride in being able to write our summary of the line we studied. He was also pretty excited to finally be able to reach to hang it on our board!

The other new thing we are trying is for writing. E LOVES to use his imagination to write stories. So we are going to take a break from Writing Strands and try out a book Ingot from my Usborne book party called My First Story Writing Book. We are going to do 2-3 sections a week, and then he will work on filling a blank book. It should take us through February to finish it. He was really excited to try it!

Working on "About the Author." 

Getting back to it!

Yesterday (11/30/15) we finally got back to normal school after vacation and sickness and Thanksgiving. E begged me to start with math, so we did. 

The lesson was on adding 3 numbers, with a focus on sums of 10 and 15. We practiced different ways to think about adding them, and then we played a fun game. 

One thing I love about this curriculum is that it has a huge focus on games. E actually giggled and said he loved this particular one. 

For spelling, we worked on final blends. Easy peasy. Also a spelling test that he aced. 

We also began learning about proper nouns and worked grouping into lists in writing. 

A great day!

Not That Kind of Tablet...

9/30/2015

I am a little behind in posting this one - sorry!

Today was just a regular school day, but we did some fun things so I thought I would share.

One thing that really drew me to our math program was that is has a huge focus on using games to apply the concepts being learned. This time, we were working on quickly adding 0-9 by playing War. We each played two cards, and he had to add each pair to decide who won  the round. 

We also spent some time studying Pirkei Avot. He was writing our summary of the verse on a card for our board.



Next, we worked on writing. This was his first assignment in the Writing Strands Level 2 book. We were working on using adjectives, incorporating commas and the word "and", and composing sentences.



Lastly, we worked on a project for history - a cuneiform tablet. Referencing the Cuneiform alphabet, he decided to stamp his name into the terra cotta tablet.

Sukkot

Monday, 9/28, was the first day of Sukkot. Our friends were planning to come over for lunch and decorating in the sukkah, but the weather didn't cooperate. So here's what we did instead....

We started off by having an interactive snack - carrot and cucumber sticks and mini bell pepper rings with hummus. We had the kids try to build sukkot with their food. Some were more successful than others...

Next, we learned some sukkot terms and did a fun secret code worksheet.

Since we couldn't hang out in a real sukkah, we decorated and created our own! 

This little guy came all the way from my grandmother. He used to sit in my model sukkah when I was little! 

Last, we made all kinds of paper chains, flowers, and lanterns. A. Made the longest one!

Our First Day of Jewish Homeschoolers!

Tuesday, Sep 8, 2015 was our first day of "Jewish Homeschoolers". Basically, our family and another family decided we wanted to get together to encourage Jewish learning and friendship. E is not enrolled in Hebrew School at this time, and I don't plan on it anytime soon. 

So for our first class, Lisa had lots of great projects and learning opportunities for us! First, we learned about the holidays throughout the Jewish calendar - especially Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the ones coming up soonest.

Our next activity was to decorate a folder to keep all our information in. L hand drew the cutouts! It certainly helps to have a friend who has a degree in art....

While the glue was drying, the kids did a holiday puzzle while L got snack ready....







So proud of their speedy work! (I took this picture upside down. They thought that was fun!)



N watched the big kids do their puzzle. (Upside down pic of him, too!)


Apples and honey - what a treat!





Last, we worked on stamping and painting Rosh Hashanah cards to send out to friends and family. We will be writing in them for our writing class this week, so if you want one let us know! What a great day!

Art and (food) science!

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Today, R joined us for lessons. On days when we expect this almost-3-year-old, I try to plan things he might enjoy as well. 

First we had to prep for our science lab....except it ended up being snack. Oops!

I was a little ill-prepared for the science lab, so while we were waiting for one part of it to be ready, we did our art/history project - cave paintings!





E took it quite literally and painted a man in a cave.









Finally, our Jell-o was set, and we could go about making our plant and animal cells. We made banana nuclei and grape chloroplasts...



Our animal cell got a bit jealous and also got some chloroplasts...it must have eaten a plant cell for lunch....






Now, for what we learned....



And the best part - enjoying the fruits of our lab!