Finally Friday! Tying Up Loose Ends
We were so happy it was Friday today. The boys were all excited about going to gym and seeing their friends. Our Fridays are usually pretty light on schoolwork and heavy on fun.
Reading:
The older boys both read this morning and Ian finished almost all of his books that we picked up last week.
Evan and I read the last four Dick and Jane stories and I told him that if I put the book up in his room he could read them to himself at night since he never got stuck on any of the stories. He was disappointed that we didn't own the book and he wouldn't be able to keep it forever. Luckily, I had already ordered another one from our library as well as some other books for him to try.
Math:
Each of the boys worked in their math workbooks today. Ian completed his first measurement book and he's going to start book two next week.
Alec worked on subtracting fractions and ordering decimals on a number line. I find it so funny that he prefers to work on the worksheets at the back of the fourth grade book and he tends to skip over all the ones in the front. I would think that they would be ordered from easiest to more difficult but I guess he just loves a challenge.
Evan worked on subtracting two digit numbers today and did awesome! I had no idea he knew how to do that without asking for my help. Each of the boys also worked with me for a little while and completed one more page in their verbal math books.
Sight Words:
I had pulled out a sight word bingo game to play with Evan, but after noticing how many "new" sight words he seemed to know yesterday I asked him if he'd want to just read through a few sight word lists with me and highlight those words he already knew so I'd know which words we still needed to work on.
I gave him the highlighter and told him to just read me the words he knew and he could skip any he didn't know. He did want me to read him the words he missed and he'd usually mark them with a small dot; mainly because he thought using the highlighter was so much fun. We went through two full lists before he got bored and I assured him that was plenty for today (I had only planned on working with one anyway!).
Free Play:
The boys still had plenty of time to play once their schoolwork was completed. Alec wanted to work some more on his color by number paper. Ian chose to go up in his room and play around with his Lego bricks some more. He ended up making a plow that attached to one of his toy loaders. He then worked on making a folding plow to attach to another vehicle.
We went to the library, finished up our book on CD, and had a great time meeting up with friends at gym day. All three boys also spent some time playing video game today too. It was a nice, relaxing Friday for us all.
We finally settled down to work and we had a few loose ends we wanted to tie up.
This is something we try to do each Friday.
I find that we all go into our weekend in much better moods if we can get everything we're working on tied up and in a good place to take a break.
It's no fun having unfinished work hanging over our heads all weekend long and it also makes us feel like we're starting our week behind trying to play catch up. It makes for a stressful time and we all end up dreading starting school on Monday.
I wanted to make sure we had our loose ends tied up today and this week it meant we needed to make sure everyone had their geography fair reports and activities all planned out and ready to go.
We always start with the work we need to wrap up before diving into our everyday work on Fridays.
Since we often don't work in our workbooks on Fridays anyway I don't mind if we don't get around to them... but I would mind if we still had lots of work to do on those reports come Monday.
Since we often don't work in our workbooks on Fridays anyway I don't mind if we don't get around to them... but I would mind if we still had lots of work to do on those reports come Monday.
Geography Fair Reports:
Alec and I sat together at the computer and finished typing up his information for his Greek & Roman god report. We settled on his snack, his hands on project, and all of their "stamps" for the kids' passports. I finally feel like we've got a real good handle on everything now. For a while there I thought we'd be finishing up Alec's report on the morning of the fair. He's such a procrastinator! I told him that we would attach everything to the board on Monday and we'll pick up the ingredients for all of the boys' snacks over the next week or so.
Spelling:
Alec and Ian worked on their spelling lists again this morning and when they were done I gave them each a little quiz. They did great and will both move onto the next list next week. I'm amazed at how much their spelling has improved just by using a spelling list once or twice a week. I'd like to think it's because each of their lists are always based on a rule but I think it's probably just that focusing, even a little on spelling, has made them more aware of their own spelling. I'm still looking for ways to make their words fun and am often surprised when they'd rather just fill in a worksheet!  |
| Alec writing RAINBOW spelling words using his markers |
The older boys both read this morning and Ian finished almost all of his books that we picked up last week.
Evan and I read the last four Dick and Jane stories and I told him that if I put the book up in his room he could read them to himself at night since he never got stuck on any of the stories. He was disappointed that we didn't own the book and he wouldn't be able to keep it forever. Luckily, I had already ordered another one from our library as well as some other books for him to try.
Math:
Each of the boys worked in their math workbooks today. Ian completed his first measurement book and he's going to start book two next week.
Alec worked on subtracting fractions and ordering decimals on a number line. I find it so funny that he prefers to work on the worksheets at the back of the fourth grade book and he tends to skip over all the ones in the front. I would think that they would be ordered from easiest to more difficult but I guess he just loves a challenge.
Evan worked on subtracting two digit numbers today and did awesome! I had no idea he knew how to do that without asking for my help. Each of the boys also worked with me for a little while and completed one more page in their verbal math books.
I had pulled out a sight word bingo game to play with Evan, but after noticing how many "new" sight words he seemed to know yesterday I asked him if he'd want to just read through a few sight word lists with me and highlight those words he already knew so I'd know which words we still needed to work on.
I gave him the highlighter and told him to just read me the words he knew and he could skip any he didn't know. He did want me to read him the words he missed and he'd usually mark them with a small dot; mainly because he thought using the highlighter was so much fun. We went through two full lists before he got bored and I assured him that was plenty for today (I had only planned on working with one anyway!).
 |
| Using highlighters is serious business! |
The boys still had plenty of time to play once their schoolwork was completed. Alec wanted to work some more on his color by number paper. Ian chose to go up in his room and play around with his Lego bricks some more. He ended up making a plow that attached to one of his toy loaders. He then worked on making a folding plow to attach to another vehicle.
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