10/29/18

The kids were all decked out in their costumes, so no animal-care duties today!  They absolutely loved being able to run around as cats and turtles and Dorothy from Wizard of Oz!  I think this is one of my favorite things about teaching here on the farm every week.  A lot of times homeschoolers have a difficult time finding a consistent group of peers to share holidays with like this.  I love my job!

The students took turns reading and sharing their Farm Fusion creative writing assignments.  The eagerness to jump up and read aloud has stayed strong!

I taught the class the difference between facts and opinions today using a pumpkin activity.  The kids came up with different sentences about the pumpkin, and we sorted them into facts and opinions.  Sometimes children can get confused with this!  I mean, puppies ARE cute!  It's a fact, right?  By the end of the lesson, they had really come a long way in recognizing the difference!  They'll be completing a writing assignment with facts and opinions at home so we can tie it in next week, as well!  

We finally completed our fall projects!  The kids added the yard trees to the foreground of their scenes.  It was a little tricky, but they ended up really getting the hang of weaving in and out between the yarn branches!

We talked about their chapter book which involves being lost in Costa Rica.  We reviewed the vocabulary words from this section of the book with a little crossword puzzle, and we showed off all of the amazing entries in our field guides!  I actually took up the field guides to check their work, and they will get them back next week.  This is not to formally "grade" them, but to help give guidance and feedback so that I am sure they are getting the most they can from the class!

The kids learned about state of being verbs.  We practiced saying the words and recognizing their role in different sentences.  This can be tricky!  It's far easier to point out action verbs!  They all did an awesome job with this.  We'll be moving to linking verbs soon, so please be sure to complete the at home assignments to master state of being verbs at home.

The class needed to spend a little more time completing the activity on the six kingdoms of classification in their science notebooks at home, but we did move on to a wonderfully creepy lesson on viruses!   They thought it was fascinating that viruses are not actually classified at all!  They are not considered living things because although they contain genetic material, they are unable to replicate at all without taking over a host cell.  In perfect Halloween fashion, I explained them as if they were creepy alien robots... or zombies!  We went over the different parts of a virus and how the virus is able to replicate in a host.  They added this information to their science notebooks.  We'll be learning more about them this week!

Information about the big field trip in April to the Rock Eagle 4H Center will be going out soon!

10/22/18

Today began with a set of chilly October chores.  This age group is working on taking turns, sharing the scoops, and communicating with their groups.  It's not as easy as it sounds!

Once inside and hands were washed, the class listened to the rest of the James Herriot story, "Moses the Kitten".  Our farm has had an increase in mice over the last few weeks so we may be adding extra barn cat rescues, and this story was a perfect fit!  In the story, the kitten is adopted by a momma sow.  I told stories of how different animals here on the farm have adopted other baby animals over the years.  The kids love hearing all of those crazy stories!  At home, they will have a creative writing prompt that deals with animals adopting other animals.

Last week, the class learned about how technology has made things like trimming cows' hooves easier and less stressful.  At home, they imagined what new technology would be like in the future!  They had some pretty awesome inventions, and there were some pretty spoiled cattle!


Next, I used pasture fencing to teach the concept of perimeter and area.  At first, we discussed how to measure perimeter using simple numbers.  Once they all grasped the idea, we talked about calculating area.  Because many of the students were not yet multiplying, I gave them 1"x1" squares of paper to use.  They created little "pastures" on their paper.  Then, they each worked on calculating their own perimeter and area.  My goal here was to help them understand the difference between length and area.  Hopefully, they will remember this lesson once they reach these type lessons in their individual math curricula!

The class continued to work on their fall art projects.  Today, they learned that they would be adding yarn to these backgrounds!  They used brown yarn to create the trunk and limbs of their trees.  The trees will be in the foreground, and we will be adding colorful fall foliage next week!

After lunch, the students took out their grammar cards.  They reviewed nouns, including common and proper nouns.  Then, they discussed the definition of a verb.  I taught them some motions that will make it easier to remember the four types of verbs!  The class scattered throughout the room to work on an action verb collage.  They rummaged through magazines to find pictures that represent action verbs.  They glued them onto their sheet and labeled them.  When we work on activities like this, I help them to spell words correctly by creating a class "word wall".  As they come up with words that they need help with, I write them and keep them up on the board.  Hopefully using sight, sound, and hands to write the words will help them to remember them!  The more senses, the better for learning!








Next, the class was given their next grammar card: state of being verbs.  They learned that state of being verbs are the more boring of all verbs.  They simple state that something exists!  The kids learned a chant to help them remember the state of being verbs.  They'll be practicing them at home so that we can work with them next week.

Everyone seems to be liking our new book!  Our characters are now lost in the jungles of Costa Rica.  The class was able to recognize MANY animal species that could be added to their field guides!  Most students are really doing a great job with researching and bringing in cool facts about topics that interest them from the reading!  They were excited to share information about and pictures of howler monkeys, poison dart frogs, bushmaster snakes, the Osa Peninsula, and more.  We reviewed the vocabulary words from chapters 1-3, and next week we will be working on an activity with words from both weeks.

We have been learning about Central American countries.  I was so very impressed with how well they remembered the locations of different countries from the videos!  Any time you can use little funny sayings, songs, or rhymes to help remember information, it helps it to stick!  We went through and talked about the different Central American counties and highlighted them on individual maps.  We also learned the capitals of each.  We will be zooming in on some of the key countries over the next two weeks!

During science, we reviewed the three domains: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryote.  I'm not interested in learning each part of the cell at this point, but we did need to understand a few concepts about cells in order to understand how these organisms are classified.  First, I explained the role of cell membranes.  The class learned that animal cells have membranes and can have irregular shapes, but plant cell have a more rigid cell wall.  The class learned about the nucleus and labeled it on a diagram. We did not talk about the different organelles, but I just wanted them to understand that the cells of some organisms do have membrane-bound organelles.  They learned the prefix "uni-", as in unicycle, and unicorn.  This made the concept of unicellular and multicellular organisms much easier to understand!  Finally, we talked about the meaning of prokaryotes (no nucleus or organelles) and eukaryotes (have a nucleus and organelles).   We will be learning about the six kingdoms at home and discussing them in detail in upcoming weeks.

The class headed outside for a little nature investigation.  Each student mentally "gathered" three living things that were outside here at the farm.  They had to remember these three organisms and talk about them in class.  We made different columns and grouped the different living things as each child shared their three.  Then, I shared one of my own.  I took a pipet and sucked up a little bit of stagnant water from outside.  Then, we looked at it under a microscope to see small bits of algae and other small organisms that weren't visible with the naked eye.  The kids loved using the microscope!  It helped them to realize that the things that we are learning about aren't just academic information... it is everywhere!

10/15/18

Today began with a new set of animal care jobs.  The groups did a great job learning the ropes to taking care of a new set of animals.  More importantly, they did an excellent job of working together!  I've discussed how people all have different personalities and that some personalities have to be extra careful not to become "bossy pants" and shut people out.  The kids are learning actual strategies on how to make a point to discuss, cooperate, and enact a plan.  There are always natural leaders among people, and learning how to effectively work in a group is a life skill that is invaluable!


Next, the group came in to talk about some farm news.  Our angora rabbit did not have babies, so we will rebreed and try again.  The class also was able to hear an actual story of why we should all remember to keep the tops on the feed containers. During the break, a top was left off of the layer pellets.  The next morning, my daughters headed out to do their chores... and found a very fat, sleeping opossum curled up right in the bottom!   Finally, we talked about the importance of cats here on the farm.  The cats have been working hard lately!  As the weather gets cooler, the mice have been out in full force.  I may need to get another barn cat to handle them!  This lead us right into our story by James Herriot about the little kitten named Moses.  The class listened as I read the first few pages of the story today.  I paused every so often to explain tough words and to give examples here on our farm of things that were mentioned.  In the story, the vet comes to the farm to trim the hooves of a cow.  He talked about how difficult this job is, and how the cows kick.  I explained to the class that there is a cool invention that makes the job less stressful on the cattle and safer for the farmer!  There is actually a contraption that holds the cattle in a safe position and then just tips them over!  The kids found this totally fascinating... which means it would make for a great topic for our farm fusion writing assignment!





We integrated a little math into our day today!  The class cut out different coins to paste around their "piggy bank".  We talked about the pictures on the coins.  (For example, they learned what the torch, olive branch, and oak branch on the dime stand for.)  They learned/reviewed the names and values of each type of coin, labeling them on their page.  Then, we did a few adding exercises.  Keep practicing adding money at home!



The class then got to work painting the borders on their plate projects, as well as the details on their pasture scenes.  Next week, they will be completing these (hopefully), as we add a final element that they aren't going to expect!

After lunch (and some time running around with Smalls, the pig), the class returned to discuss the book, The Mystery of the Northern Lights.  We talked about different locations in Canada such as Vancouver, Toronto, the Niagara River, and Yellowknife.  Many of the kids had added these places to the field guide, which is exactly what I wanted to see!  We talked about what makes the  Northern Lights glow.  We also took out the globe and demonstrated why the north and south poles have months of light and dark.  The students seemed to enjoy the book, and it definitely helped them to learn a lot about the country!  We reviewed the vocabulary from the last section, talked about the ending, and learned a little about dogsledding!  A few students opted to research and write about dogsledding, and everyone loved hearing about it!

Next, the kids took turns sharing their posters on different countries in North America.  There were some seriously awesome facts on these posters that I didn't even know!  The enthusiasm and encouragement among peers was exactly what I hoped for!  After we talked about each country, we talked a little about Central America.  Although not a continent of its own, we will spend a few weeks focusing just on the countries of Central America next.  At home, they will have a couple videos to help prepare for next week.  Also, they have some pretty cool (optional) coloring sheets to review what they learned about North America.

The class cracked open their science notebooks to add the classification mnemonic activity that they worked on at home.  We went over different phrases to help remember the different levels, and then we cut and glued these into our books.   We talked about cladograms and how these levels of classification look, visually.  Then, the kids took out the imaginary animals that they created at home and hit the floor!  We all gathered around, and the kids worked to sort and classify their animals.  Because their creatures were all animals (no plants) and none involved scales, they decided to sort them mainly by feathers vs. fur.  They then decided to separate those with horns from those without horns.  Although this activity ended there, I explained that they could have further divided their creatures by other characteristics such as habitat, what they eat, how the have babies, etc.  I think this was a really great way for this age to grasp the entire point of taxonomy!  We'll be focusing on the three domains at home this week, and we will discuss them in detail on Monday!