China Project

Last month the children completed a project on China.

 

Yesterday we made a video of their project. We hope you enjoy it!



Curriculum 2014-2015

For Nathanael 7, Tabitha 6 and Abigail 4 (years 3, 2 and Reception) 

and any of the younger children who want to join in!

Bible

 

 

Morning Bible Time and related projects

Read aloud missionary books

Memory Verses and Hymn Singing

K-3 Picture Smart Bible

Postal Bible School

Walk thru the Bible

Time Travellers Club

Maths

 

Heinemann Maths

Maths Games

iPad apps including IXL, Primary Maths Skill Builders ages 4-8 or Maths  3-5 and 4-6 from EuroTalk apps.

Real life opportunities to use money when shopping, measuring and weighing in baking, collecting data for projects etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reading

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and lots of library books!

Phonics

Sound Phonics by Schofield and Sims.

Ladybird I'm Ready.. for Phonics!  app on the iPad.

Games such as Pop for Sight Words.

Spelling

Look, cover, write check method using Schonell's Essential Spelling Lists.

Spelling 1 and 2 by Schofield and Sims.

Handwriting

 

 

Schofield and Sims Handwriting Practice 1 and 2

Various workbooks and worksheets

Copy work from the Bible, poetry and in relation to current project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

English

Lots of different projects and lapbooks, using the children's own interest as a spring board. Past projects have included Cowboys, Houses, The Human Body and Genesis.

Five in a Row.

Poem memorisation.

Literacy - Nathanael

Letts Key Stage 2 Activity Book

Galore Park Junior English Book 1

Bible studies

Literacy - Tabitha and Abigail

Nelson English Books

Letts Key Stage 1 Activity Book

Science

 

Science in the Beginning by Dr Jay L. Wile

365 Science Experiments, Big Book of Science things to Make and Do, No Fuss Science Photocopiables, Junior Illustrated Science Dictionary.

Geography

Having researched and completed mini projects on the four countries of the United Kingdom last year we plan to broaden it out to some European Countries and look forward to discovering more about the main geographical features, food and culture. We have also bought a large map of the world for the wall in the living room which is providing a great amount of discussion and learning about world geography.

 

History

 

 

Weekly lessons of History are going to continue with Daddy for the next 6 weeks on their WWI project and then returning to their project in on Ancient History. Resources are  Story of the World, activity book one Ancient World, Lost Civilizations - Time Life Books and various internet and YouTube videos.

Lots of visits to museums and historical buildings, drama, art and technology activities.

German

Rosetta Stone.

Simple oral activities such as numbers and greetings.

Music

 

 

iPad Naxos My First Classical Music app, My Orchestra app and The Carnival of the Animals.

Peter and the Wolf YouTube videos, both orchestral and ballet.

Recorder lessons from Recorder from the Beginning

Nathanael has Piano lessons from Tunes for Ten Fingers

Music theory book Theory made easy for Little Children.

Hymn singing.

Art and design

 

Katie books, A Children's Book of Art, Usborne Art Sticker Book, You can Draw, visits to Art Galleries and lots of opportunities to create their own art.

Simple sewing lessons and woodwork.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ICT

iPad apps, this year we are looking forward to creating e-books using Book Creator for iPad app.

BBC Touch Typing

Lessons in how to use Microsoft word.

PE

 

 

 

Lots of walks in the country, games in the garden, visits to our local parks and swimming pool.

Home Economics

Baking, cooking and cleaning lessons. Little Keepers and Contenders, The River Cottage Family Cookbook, Kids' First Cookbook.

Nature

We have enjoyed some lovely walks lately and spent time identifying birds and wildlife. I intend to build upon this, visiting the same country park every month, to document in their new nature journals the changes in season, birds spotted, flowers identified etc.

RSPB Wildlife Explorers Club.

Sounds like its going to be a fun year!

"And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD;

and great shall be the peace of thy children."

Isaiah 54:13

Art Bots

Today we attended our second Maker Fun workshop at a local library. This is a non-profit club that aims to get children designing and making for fun, using traditional craft supplies and more modern digital materials.

 

The packs included a motor, motor holder, offset weight, battery holder, plastic disc, wire covers, bolts and nuts, sticky pads and a set of instructions. The craft materials were provided separately.

 

Following instructions, the children made their own robots,

 

 

checked they worked

 

 

and then decorated them!

 

 

To make them into Art Bots, cotton buds were inserted into their legs and they were dipped into paint. The children turned them on and watched them paint their own masterpiece!

 

Here is a video of Tabitha's Art Bot painting a picture!

 

Christmas Crafts - Bible Verses

Over the month of December, I am endeavouring to do a post a day on a Christmas art and craft project we have completed. To start this blog series, we have made some Bible verses to decorate the house and to focus our minds upon the real reason we celebrate Christmas.

I got the idea from here and here are the instructions as to how we did it.

Windy Day

Stormy weather was predicted today, so we decided to have a wind themed day! We started off by watching the weather forecast together on the BBC website. We located where we live on the map of the United Kingdom. Following that, we shared together the book Me on the Map.

 

Looking in an old Ladybird book we have on the Weather, we discovered how wind speeds are measured using an anemometer, and we made a very simplified version of our own by sewing lengths of ribbon onto a piece of fabric and attaching it to the washing line! Throughout the day the children checked how much the ribbons were blowing and tried to work out the wind force on the Beaufort scale.

 

 

We then read together the from the Bible the stories of Jesus calming the storm and God speaking to Elijah after the wind, fire and earthquake.

 

Using straws the children blew watered down paint, which when dry we...

 

 

...laminated and made into windmills.

 

 

We read together Postman Pat's Rainy Day

 

 

which gave Nathanael and Tabitha some inspiration for writing their own new story entitled "Postman Pat's Windy Day."

 

 

Tabitha's handwriting practise today was based on storm vocabulary

 

 

whilst Nathanael wrote an acrostic poem about the wind.

 

 

Wild, whistling wind.

Inside we stay, out of the wind's way.

Noisy nights, lots of frights.

Destroying trees, foaming seas,

Wild, whistling wind.

 

 

We finished the day with a trip to the park to splash in the puddles.

Autumn Activities - Part One

Over the last month, while we have been out and about, we have been spotting signs of autumn and collecting conkers, acorns and apples.

 

 

In our Bible time, to tie in with our autumn activities, we have started to learn God's promise from Genesis 8:22 " While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

 

We talked about the differences between deciduous and evergreen trees and the changing colours of the leaves. Our first autumn based art activity was colour mixing. I gave each child a palette of the three primary colours, and we experimented by mixing them in different ways to try and create oranges and browns and different shades of red and yellow.

 

 

When each child was happy with their autumn colours, they painted onto a sheet of leaves.

 

 

Finger painted autumn leaves

 

 Using sticky back plastic and collage materials, the children made some sun catchers to brighten up our kitchen windows...

 

 

 

...and a simple sewing project.

 

To supplement our art and craft, we are currently working on some autumn literacy activities - to be shared at a later date!

 

 

^"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat,

and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." Genesis 8:22

Our Week

It was a rainy start to the week.

 

Making music in the park at Broadbottom.

We made a rain gauge to measure the amount of rain that had fallen in our garden.

 

Yes Tabitha is wearing one shoe and one welly. It is very difficult in our house to find matching footwear!

The kitchen windows were brightened up with artwork (collage materials on sticky back plastic.)

 

 

 

In History the children had a quiz to test their knowledge of the Edwardians. They played guess the Edwardian item. The chocolates were the prizes.

 

 

The sun came out at the end of the week for Miriam's 2nd Birthday.

 

 

Where have last two years gone? Happy Birthday precious girl, we love you loads.

 

Baby Miriam and Mummy.

 

 

 

Lo, children are a heritage of the LORD:

and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

Psalm 127:3

Jellyfish

Wax crayon and watercolour resist.

 

Whilst exploring the beach at Llandudno this week, the children discovered some jellyfish washed up on the sand. This sparked great discussion and the desire to find out more about them.  We started by watching some clips on YouTube of different types of jellyfish and then created some art work based upon this.

 

 

 Nathanael and Tabitha then made little jellyfish shaped books based upon what they had learned. Nathanael was delighted to be able to word process his book.

 

 

 

 

 This has tied in nicely with our current project on the Human Body, as the children discovered that jellyfish are invertebrates and were able to compare and contrast them to vertebrates.