more fun

There is a lot of reading going on around here.  I have many things I want to post about but I need to download more pictures.  Today began "magical writing" (writing styles) class.  We also began "charms" (latin) class.  Braeden drew a cartoon of 2 wizards, dueling and yelling latin phrases.  One yells, "aqua-sem" and has water squirting out.  The other is yelling, "inflammo!" and fire is shooting out of his.  Gracyn also thought of these:

fabulamus:  tricks someone into believing your story

viadatum:  creates a road or a way out

silvantase:  finds a way out of a forest

terrabilse:  makes the ground change

portase:  makes a gate appear where there wasn't one

Dareduce:  makes someone do what you want them to

Creative way to remember those vocab words which we haven't bothered to memorize until now.

It's fun to pretend and learn simultaneously!

Hey, wait a minute!

Here are G and B measuring and figuring *together* as we take the fun things from Harry Potter and use them to learn math concepts on Tuesday.

At one point, Braeden stopped and said, "Hey, wait a minute!  Is this just a fun way to do math?"

harry potter unit study

It's simply corking to announce our upcoming Harry Potter unit.  Our activities will include fun things for 3rd through 7th grades.  Here are some of the things my kids can expect:

magic squares

marauder's map

quidditch-additionally, they will be asked to create a version of quidditch themselves

a few of these activities

some of these

pretty much all of these

plus some ideas of my own which include but are not limited to:

arithmacy class (known to you muggles out there as arithmetic):  

• we will learn about area and perimeter of cupboards and choose which one we might best enjoy  living in
• we will create a mock diagon alley in which we go from room to room to measure for our robes and wands.  we will measure using various units of measure
  
• we will purchase our wizard supplies by converting muggle money to wizard money and the reverse
• we will solve logic "potions" problems as in the end of the sorcerer's stone

We will have a reader's theater in which we each choose our favorite dramatic reading from one of the books and present it in our dress robes with snacks served 

We will create a newspaper that tells of our favorite parts of a HP book as a report.

We will choose a chapter to re-write as a play.

We will draw our favorite characters according to the descriptions in the book.

owl study

We will create our own "apples to apples" game called, "Quaffle to Quaffle."

Latin practice of latest vocabulary words will be creating incantations using the words.

Letter Writing.

A stuffed, white owl will bring a morning message...either a journal topic or letter to be answered.

And some writing activities will be pulled from a book I like called, "Grammar for Middleschool."  It includes some practice forming sentences in the style of J.K. Rowling.

But wait, there's more!  In an effort to involve my son with autism, we will be doing some hands-on-montessori-style activities...

• We will connect train cars on the Hogwarts Express with words on them to create sentences and talk about grammar topics such as parts of speech and parts of a sentence as well as learn about conjuntions.
• We will place macaroni (gluten-free, of course) quotation marks on pre-written sentences from the stories.  Then, we will take turns reading the dialogues in play form.
• We will practice gauge reading by creating a dashboard of the flying anglia with dry erase gauges.
• We will categorize animal cards including reptiles like snakes and shoot falcon paper airplanes at the eyes of a poster of the baskilis to add points together for column addition practice.
• We will match keys (correct math answers) to their wings (equations) in a folder.
• We will perform other folders that depict the last scenes of the Sorcerer's stone..I haven't thought them all through yet....

Latin, PE, and Math

Latin vocabulary practice...leapfrog game.

PE for spiderman and his teddybear

Another great PE event...

And another.

Algebra game for Gracyn...Hands On Equations.

Here she is solving for "X."

today's schooling

Well, today, Gracyn got up and dressed and took initiative to complete her individual work. She worked very diligently and I was so proud. Here is what she accomplished on her own:
poetry memorization
spelling, completing the lesson with 100% accuracy (advanced level spelling with the phonetic zoo)
Math practice sheet (I'd planned to do the next lesson with her and move on, but we'll do that tomorrow)
Read another chapter in Pride and Prejudice (highschool level reading)
Two pages in her Pride and Prejudice companion book--reading and vocabulary work (hs level)
I had some "together" things planned, but she worked so hard and did such an impressive job, I let her have free time instead.

Braeden played GI Joes while the above activities took place. So, he and I did our reading practice and spelling links together, then math and a science/language arts combo lesson. Then we took Kaegan to the school for his time with Susie and we worked on our animal classifications game that we are making together.

Kaegan had an amazingly interactive time with Ms. Susie at school and then we did a little bal-A-vis-X. Soccer and karate were after school. whew!

We got a lot done and had a nice, productive day.

life science

Here is a life science lesson.... Braeden is learning about animal classifications and what attributes animals have within those classifications. This past week, we talked about fish and reptiles. Here, he dissects a fish by the river after our fishing excursion. It was very interesting, and I think he'll remember it since he got to cut it open himself with his new pocket knife. We unfolded the gills, identified the heart, backbone, stomach, liver, and central nervous system.

Picture This Bible! Love it! This is the book of

Acts. I have lots more pictures to upload, so check back!