Alex went to the eye doctor a week ago and it was discovered that he needed glasses. This explains his eye tiredness and headaches. He is to wear them for reading, computer work and other close up things. He does not need to wear them all the time. Here is what he looks like now:
We read the book The Very Last First Time for co-op last week. In the book, the girl uses a stick to pry up mussels from the sea floor. This is a simple machine called a lever. I had Alex study simple machines. He learned the difference between a simple machine (one that uses human effort to work) and a complex machine (one that uses artificial power to work.) After he read about the simple machine and understood it, I had him look in a book that lists experiments for each. He was to do the experiment with Nicolas in order to explain the concept to him. He learned about the following simple machines and examples of each, along with the experiment that went along with it.
inclined plane (a ramp or a slide)
A raw egg dropped from the height of the can onto the plate broke. (Actually it fell to the floor and broke on my rug, so we had to do a little laundry.) But an egg rolled down an inclined plane from the same height did not break because there is less force.
a lever (shovel or a see saw)
The stool with Nicolas on it was hard to lift by hand, but when using a broomstick and chair as the fulcrum point, it was easier to lift. This is because he was using his weight to push down in order to lift the stool rather than using his strength against gravity to lift the stool on his own power.
pulleys (on a crane)
We made our own pulley using an empty spool of thread and ribbon. The pulley reverses the effort so that we need to pull down on the ribbon to lift up the bucket.
wedges (an axe or a nail)
For wedges, the boys cut wedges out of carrots and stuck them into an apple. They discovered that it is easier to push carrots in when they have the point at the end than when the edges of the carrots are rounded.
screws (self explanatory)
wheels and axles (also self explanatory)
We did not do experiments for these two types because they are so common.
Here is the lapbook he created:
Characteristics of a simple machine.
This is a machine Alex invented that uses several simple machines - the lever to move the axes, wheels and axles to move from tree to tree and in the steering wheel and wedges to cut down trees.
We have been reading Mr. Popper's Penguins for our read aloud. Since I had Alex working on Simple Machines this week, I decided to have Nicolas work on Penguins. Here is the lapbook he created.
Map showing where penguins live.
Pop-up penguin book. We wrote interesting facts about penguins.
And finally, Nicolas used drawing instructions to create his cover....
And when I told him he was going to draw a penguin for his cover, he said, "What? I can't draw a penguin!" But, you know, he CAN draw a penguin because I think this one looks pretty good!
So since we moved I have been meaning to go through all the boys' schoolwork that I have been saving and discarding much of it, keeping only the minimum in order to save storage space. So all the workbooks that I have been saving, I went through and tore out pages that show an overall view of the work that was done for that subject. Then I threw out the rest of the workbook. It's amazing how much space is left over ! Of course I couldn't part with the drawings, stories, book reports and those kinds of "personal things". It was enough to get rid of the majority of the math and language workbooks. Whew... I feel so much better.
The next job to tackle will be the rummage sale stuff. The books will go to a local bookstore that buys used books or Half Price books and the clothing will go to a local children's clothing resale shop. The broken toys will go to the landfill :), and the rest will be saved for the summer rummage sales. BIG JOB that I am not looking forward to, but will breathe easier when I step into the garage once it's done.
Symmetry/Pattern
We read:
River Winding by Charlotte Zolotow (Nicolas's copywork assignment)
I Heard a Bird Sing by Oliver Herford
The Little Boy and the Old Man by Shel Silverstein (my favorite and thought provoking)
The Little Boy and the Old Man
Said the little boy, "Sometimes I drop my spoon."
Said the little old man, "I do that too."
The little boy whispered, "I wet my pants."
"I do that too," laughed the little old man.
Said the little boy, "I often cry."
The old man nodded, "So do I."
"But worst of all," said the boy, "it seems
Grown-ups don't pay attention to me."
And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand.
"I know what you mean," said the little old man.
And Alex's composition:
Jedi versus Sith
The Jedi are strong
The Sith are weak.
The Jedi aren't gone
The Sith have fleed.
Repitition
We read:
Feather or Fur by John Becker
The Secret Song by Margaret Wise Brown
Clickbeetle by Mary Ann Hoberman
Every Time I Climb a Tree by David McCord (our favorite)
Every time I climb a tree
Every time I climb a tree
Every time I climb a tree
I scrape a leg
Or skin a knee
And every time I climb a tree
I find some ants
Or dodge a bee
And get the ants
All over me
And every time I climb a tree
Where have you been?
They say to me
But don't they know that I am free
Every time I climb a tree?
I like it best
To spot a nest
That has an egg
or maybe three
And then I skin
The other leg
But every time I climb a tree
I see a lot of things to see
Swallows rooftops and TV
And all the fields and farms there be
Every time I climb a tree
Though climbing may be good for ants
It isn't awfully good for pants
But still it's pretty good for me
Every time I climb a tree
Alex's repitition poem:
My Cat is Stupid
My cat is stupid
She jumped on a puzzle
She knocked the pieces down
My cat is stupid
My cat is stupid
She got in the shower
She turned it on
My cat is stupid
My cat is stupid
She jumped in a flower pot
It had mud in it
My cat is stupid.
Narrative Poems (poems that tell a story)
We read the following poems:
The Wrong Strt by Marchette Chute
Patience by Bobbi Katz
and Smart by Shel Silverstein, which was our favorite.
Smart
My dad gave me one dollar bill
'Cause I'm his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
'Cause two is more than one!
And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes-I guess he don't know
That three is more than two!
Just then, along came old blind Bates
And just 'cause he can't see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!
And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
And the foold gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!
And then I went and showed my dad,
And he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head-
Too proud of me to speak!
Alex wrote his narrative poem.
I woke up in the morning
And saw an eagle soaring.
I thought it would be a happy day
Until I started snoring.
My mom woke me up again
But I just could not stop snoring!
Poems of Sound using alliteration, onomatopoeia and nonsense words. Nonsense words are also caled Portmanteau, which is combining two different words to make a new word (such as brunch). The poem "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll illustrates this concept well. The boys were to make up two portmanteau words. Nicolas came up with "Wiimote" (Wii and remote) and "cog" (cat and dog.) Alex came up with "lupper" (lunch and supper), and "jurun" (jump and run.)
We also read, Fishes Evening Song by Dahlov Ipcar which used onomatopeia and Sea Shell by Amy Lowell showing alliteration (which Nicolas copied for his writing.)
Our favorite was:
Eletelephony by Laura Richards
Once there was an elephant,
Who tried to use the telephant-
No! No! I mean an elephone
Who tried to use the telephone-
(Dear me! I am not certain quite
That even now I've got it right.)
Howe'er it was, he got his trunk
Entangled in the telephunk;
The more he tried to get it free,
The louder buzzed the telephee-
(I fear I'd better drop the song
Of elephop and telephong!!)
So, Alex tried his hand at writing a nonsense poem:
About to have lupper,
With my brother,
Then I will go jurun
Like Atilla the Hun.
Poems of Imagination.
We read They're Calling by Flice Holman, The Runaway by Bobbi Katz and, my favorite, One Day When We Went Walking by Valerie Hobbs.
On Day When We Went Walking
One day when we went walking,
I found a dragon's tooth,
A dreadful dragon's tooth.
"A locust thorn," said Ruth.
One day when we went walking,
I found a brownie's shoe,
A brownie's button shoe.
"A dry pea pod," said Sue.
One day when we went walking,
I found a mermaid's fan,
A merry mermaid's fan.
"A scallop shell," said Dan.
One day when we went walking,
I found a fairy's dress,
A fairy's falnnel dress.
"A mullein leaf," said Bess.
Next time that I go walking-
Unless I meet an elf,
A funny, friendly elf-
I'm going by myself!
So the boys tried their hand at writing a poem using their imaginations.
Nicolas's "Football"
I was playing football.
I almost threw the ball.
Then I tripped and fell
the grass flattened out.
I had a muddy back,
so I washed my clothes for the next game.
Alex's "Mysterious Fort"
I looked outside and saw a fort that was brown and green all over.
It's kind of in the shape of a clover.
It's got some poles to swing upon,
Kind of like Tarzan.
But beware - some are dead,
One will hit you in the head.
What could it be?
A tree!
Today's poetry lesson was imagery - creating a picture in your readers' mind using words, specifically about the senses. We read A Dragonfly by Eleanor Farjeon, The Rain Has Silver Sandals by May Justus, and Dreams by Langston Hughes, my favorite.
Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
for if dreams die
life is a broken-winged bird
that cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
for when dreams go
life is a barren field
frozen with snow.
Alex and Nicolas each attempted to write their own poem using this method. You can see Alex's creation here.
And Nicolas's poem:
Winter
Winter is a cold, white room surrounded by a woods, clean everywhere.
It sounds crunchy, like when I eat chips.
Snow tastes like water in my mouth.
Ice feels like a freezer.
I like winter because we can have snowball fights.
After reading Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" for co-op, we began our poetry unit. The 5th and 6th graders learned about poetry at co-op yesterday and then practiced writing their own. They had slips of paper to use to help them get started so they could arrange and rearrange them until they had what they wanted. The first poem listed in Alex's blog is the one he created at co-op.
Today we began studying different poetry styles with personification. We read "Fog" by Carl Sandburg, "Things to Do if You Are a Subway" by Bobbi Katz, and "Dandelion" by Hilda Conkling.
Dandelion
O little soldier with the golden helmet,
What are you guarding on my lawn?
You with your green gun
And your yellow beard,
Why do you stand so stiff?
There is only grass to fight!
Nicolas copied the poem "Paper Dragons" by Susan Alton Schmeltz. Alex had the assignment of personifying something and writing a poem. These are the next two listed in his blog. The one entitled "Rain", he used this website to create.
