Weekend Activities

Saturday:
☑ RFS Open Day with Daddy.

Trying out the fire hose.

Sunday:
☑ Quiet day at home.

Term 3 Week 10 Day 5

☑ Excursion: Calmsley Hill Farm with Penrith Homeschool Group


Getting brave enough to pat a snake - with Daddy.
 

Boronia liked Coco the Camel.

Waratah milking a cow.

Mulga milking a cow.

Mulga's favourite activity - the tractor ride. With Mummy.

Waratah making sure he would not miss out on his wool sample. He is keen to try processing his own lanolin during our homeschool holidays.

Term 3 Week 10 Day 4

☑ Excursion: Pre-K Playgroup visits Featherdale. This was our final excursion with the Pre-K Playgroup.




Mulga and the Wombats

Boronia with the free-range Kookaburras and Tawny Frogmouths



Fun at Featherdale

The snakes liked Waratah - they all slithered up for a closer look at him!

Term 3 Week 10 Day 3

Kindergarten

Religion: The Best We Can Be
☑ Sister Mary Lelia, Leading Little Ones to Mary (1993) Chapter 1.3

Religion: Lives of the Saints
☑ Mother Teresa

"Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness."

“Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”

English: Independent Reading
☑ Department of Education, NSW, A Book to Read (1955)

Mathematics: Worksheet
☑ Odds and Evens sorting

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education: My Body
☑ Once Upon A Time... Life - Breathing [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]
This series is still fascinating the boys. It is a very good introduction to the body. We watched this episode through three times in a row.

Creative Arts: Craft
☑ More structure formation - attempting to build a plane that can fly out of wooden blocks, sticks and feathers.

Human Society & Environment: Mystery Activity
Topic: Families Past and Present - At the Museum.
☑ Arctic Artifacts [Link]
☑ Stories from the past - Pictographs [Link]
These interactive games from the US National Park Service were greatly enjoyed.

Cultural Studies: Music
☑ There was an Inuit drum amongs the artifacts to be identified in the Artic Artifacts game. Waratah wanted to hear what one sounded like and see one in action, so we went exploring. We watched two videos of Inuit Drum Dancing [Link] [Link].
☑ We also went down a rabbit trail to find out what kind of drum dancing our Cree ancestors might have done. We found the Cree Indian Prairie Chicken Dance [Link].
☑ We discussed the differences between the Inuit and Cree Drum Dancing, and compared these dance traditions with the acrobatic Chinese Drum Dancing we had watched previously [Term 3 Week 8 Day 5].

Science & Technology: Craft
Topic: Looking around you - Town and Country.
☑ Watercolour painting
☑ Discussion of organic versus manufactured shapes and objects, and how they affect the look of the landscape.

 

 

Preschool



Imaginative Play: I am a fireman.

Infant Activities

Tummy Time
Peek-a-boo
Baby Sign Language
Mirror play

Boronia is starting to teethe.

Term 3 Week 10 Day 2

Kindergarten

Religion: The Best We Can Be
☑ Sister Mary Lelia, Leading Little Ones to Mary (1993) Chapter 1.2
☑ Discussion of Eve and Mary (choosing to disobey or choosing to obey)

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education: My Body
☑ Once Upon A Time... Life - The Mouth and the Teeth [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]
☑ Once Upon A Time... Life - The Digestion (from yesterday, watched again).

English: Reading Eggs
☑ Map 5 Lesson 48 (part completed)

English: iPad
☑ Phonics - Silly Sentences, short vowels [Link]

Mathematics: iPad
☑ Rocket Maths - subtraction

Cultural Studies: Music
☑ Slim Dusty, The Man From Snowy River Song [Link]

Creative Arts: Poetry
☑ Banjo Paterson, The Man From Snowy River [Link - wonderful reading of the poem with visuals from the movie]

Human Society & Environment: Discussion / Debate (Clarifying Values)
☑ What makes someone a hero?

Science & Technology: Observation and Report
Topic: Looking around you - Town and Country
☑ Watching the tree-lopping contractors trimming the trees near the power lines all down our street and mulching the branches as they go. Reported to Daddy afterwards.

Science & Technology: Experiment
☑ Potato experiment revisited

Observations: Day 9 - roots growing from base of stems, not from potato slice as hypothesised. Roots are growing down into the cotton wool. No leaves yet. Cotton wool had dried out so we added water. Potato slices are turning green.

English: Story Time
☑ Richard Scarry, The Funniest Storybook Ever (1972)
☑ Judy Sierra, Suppose You Meet a Dinosaur (2012)
☑ M P Robertson, The Funniest Storybook Ever (1972)

Creative Arts: Craft
☑ Structure formation

Preschool

☑ Joined in Story time and Science
☑ Indoor fort building
☑ Bubble blowing
☑ Imaginative Play - Doctor

Infant Activities

☑ Joined in Story time
☑ Singing - Winnie the Pooh songs

☑ Tummy time

Term 3 Week 10 Day 1

Kindergarten

Mathematics: iPad
☑ 123 Domino [Link]
☑ Hungry Fish [Link]
☑ Rocket Math [Link]

English: Reading Eggs
☑ Map 5 Lesson 46

Science & Technology: Video & Worksheet
Topic: Looking around you - Town and Country
☑ The Magic Schoolbus Gets Eaten [Link]

Food Chain

Food Web

(By the way, the line between the eagle and the plant is not a mistake - Waratah drew a nest there, showing that the interaction is more complex than just eat and be eaten!)

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education: My Body
☑ Once Upon A Time... Life - The Digestion [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]
Waratah particularly enjoyed this video and watched it through twice. He wants to see more of the series.

Cultural Studies: Music
☑ In depth discussion of the lyrics of Waltzing Matilda (Banjo Patterson) and G'day G'day (Slim Dusty).

Religion: Lives of the Saints
☑ More on St Jerome - videos [Link] [Link]
☑ Homily on St Jerome [Link]

Human Society & Environment: Discussion / Debate (Clarifying Values)
Topic: Families Past and Present - At the museum.
☑ Are lost teeth an artifact?

English: Story Time
☑ Lois Ehlert, Leaf Man (2005)

Creative Arts: Craft
Leaf pictures inspired by Leaf Man for our Virtual Book Club Activity. Waratah liked the idea, and the leaf collecting. However, he was reluctant to actually try to put a picture together until I sat down to make one myself. We will revisit this book in Autumn (it is Spring here now, so we added in flower petals to give some colour.) Waratah particularly liked it that after we took our pictures, we picked up the white paper and let the wind carry our creations away.

Waratah's Leaf T-Rex with camellia petal carrion and daisy petal teeth and claws!

 

Mum's Leaf Man.

Preschool

English: Story Time
☑ Richard Scarry, The Funniest Storybook Ever (1972)

iPad: Create a Car

Imaginative Play: Trucks

Active Lifestyle: Trampoline

Infant Activities

☑ iPad: Baby video flashcards [Link]

☑ Mirror play

☑ Water splash: lots of kicking in the bath today - investigating cause and effect

☑ Peek-a-boo

Planning for Term 4

I am very happy with how our choice cards are working out, but I wanted to get a head start on Term 4, with a rough map of the subject topics and themes which I can mix and match Waratah's choice of activities to.

The outline is not completed, but I have made a start which I am happy with. During the holidays I want to get a lot of "Busy Bags" made for Mulga, to get him started on the idea of choosing daily school-type activities. I plan to start more formal preschool with him next year.

Boronia has started teething and is not her usual happy self, and I have lots of my own work piling up. We also have three excursions planned, so this will be a super busy last week for Term 3!

I have modified the Daily Choice Sheet for record-keeping. It is very useful for quickly jotting down Waratah's choices for the day, and reordering them on the go, but it wasn't working so well for Mulga and Boronia's activities. I think this new version will work better.

Weekend Activities

Saturday:
☑ Quiet day at home

Sunday:
☑ Attend Mass. Both boys participated in Children's Liturgy.

Term 3 Week 9 Day 5

Kindergarten

English: Independent Reading
☑ Sue Graves and Belinda Worsley, Harry's Hat (2007)
- Waratah read the whole book aloud to us, with just a little assistance.

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education: My Body
☑ Study of nutrition - discussed and put posters on the fridge for "Eat a Rainbow" and "1 Great Plate"

Science & Technology: Project
Topic: Looking around you - Town and Country
☑ Comparing the Town and the Country

Town: The town is smoky and you can't see the stars.

Country: The country is great. You can see lots of stars. There are ducks and wattle trees.

English: Handwriting Practice
☑ Writing about "the town" for science - see above.

Creative Arts: Craft
☑ Making a bird feeder from paper cups.

Mathematics: Weights and Measures
☑ Introduction to the balance scale

☑ Estimating - how many grams?
☑ Adding two column numbers
☑ Spin and compare weights game [Link]

Cultural Studies: Investigating Diversity
☑ Looking at pictures of towns in different countries - India, Greece, Russia and Italy. Comparing features and talking about what it would be like to live in each one.

Human Society & Environment: Mystery Activity
Topic: Families Past and Present - What is an artifact?
☑ Exploring some artifacts from my family heirloom treasure box. Waratah's favourite item (and mine as well) is this very old American Indian seed necklace. We also looked at a photo of an oil painting of our ancestor wearing the same necklace. I told Waratah about seeing the painting  hanging over my Grandma's piano, when I was about his age, and also showed him photos of and items inherited from my Grandma - his great grandmother. We agreed that sometime in the future we would like to conduct further research to learn more about our Indian ancestor. All we know is that she is a Cree from Canada who married a Scotsman.

Preschool

☑ trampoline
☑ marbles
☑ tree climbing
☑ story telling - Mulga has not stopped telling everyone all his favourite details about our visit to the swimming pool yesterday.
☑ iPad - Mulga spent some time on 3D ABC, and then played Create a Car.

Infant Activities

☑ Peek a boo
☑ lots of singing
☑ introduction to a shaker (maraca)

Term 3 Week 9 Day 4

☑ Excursion: Pre-K Playgroup at Wallacia.

Mulga's chalk drawing

Waratah's chalk drawing

☑ Excursion: Swimming at Springwood.


Waratah and Mulga investigate their new pool



Boronia ready for her first ever swim

Kindergarten
 

Religion: God's Gifts

☑ Counting our blessings - discussion.

English: Independent Reading

☑ Reading signs along the road and at the swimming pool

Mathematics: Maths Games

☑ Navigation - naming corners left and right

☑ Distance estimation - counting down to corners

Creative Arts: Drawing / Painting / Colouring

☑ Chalk drawing

Human Society & Environment: Brainstorming

☑ What are the differences between the town and the country?

☑ I Spy an artifact

Science & Technology: Experiment

☑ Experimenting with the turbo pool at the swimming centre

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education: Skills Practice

☑ Swimming

Cultural Studies: Music

☑ Listening to Australian folk music (Slim Dusty etc)

Term 3 Week 9 Day 3

Kindergarten

Religion: The Best We Can Be
☑ Excursion to local cemetery; discussion about respect; practising appropriate behaviour.

Cultural Studies: Investigating Diversity
☑ Noticing the different kinds of headstones, and how styles have changed over time.

Human Society & Environment: Discussion / Debate (Clarifying Values)
Topic: Families Past and Present - What is an artifact?
☑ Discussion of cemeteries: what are they for? who are they for? how are they protected? 
☑ Introducing the idea of sacred ground.

Mathematics: Weights and Measures
☑ Size comparisons.

English: Independent Reading
☑ Excursion to library; independent browsing and choosing books for borrowing (including early readers).

Creative Arts: Art Study
☑ Looking closely at a local artist's interpretation of Van Gogh's painting on display in the local library. Identifying local landmarks, and identifying similarities with Van Gogh's work. Also identifying the different media used (pastels instead of oil paint).

Camden - A Starry Night? by Mark Svenson

Human Society & Environment: Investigation
Topic: Families Past and Present - What is an artifact?
☑ Excursion around local town looking for artifacts; noting what is a natural object and what is a man-made object; identifying artifacts with historical significance.

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education: Free Choice Activity
☑ Bush walk

Science & Technology: Observation and Report
Topic: Looking around you - Town and Country.
☑ Comparing and contrasting the town walk and the bush walk.

Preschool

☑ Participating in above activities.

Infant Activities

☑ Looking at new places, new faces and new things.

Term 3 Week 9 Day 2

Kindergarten

Cultural Studies: Video & Worksheet
☑ Sounds of the bush - bird song, dawn chorus [Link] [Link]

Forty-spotted Pardalote colouring.

Religion: The Best We Can Be
☑ Karen Santorum, Everyday Graces: A Child's Book of Good Manners (2003) pp 81-89 'Telling the Truth'

English: Reading Eggs
☑ Map 5 Lesson 46 (finished)

Creative Arts: Art Study
☑ Julie Merberg and Susan Bober, In the Garden with Van Gogh (2002)

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education: My Body
☑ The Respiratory System [Link] [Link] + discussion

Science & Technology: Experiment
☑ How far will it go when we blow? We took a feather, a ball of tissue paper, a marble and a toy car and attempted to blow them along a race track, first with a straw and then without it, measuring how far each object travelled when powered by our breath.

Blowing a marble with a straw

Blowing a marble with just breath

Mathematics: Graphs
☑ Using Waratah's measurements for each object, he graphed the result and we discussed which object went furthest using each technique and why.

 

Waratah's graph

Human Society & Environment: Show & Tell
Topic: Families Past and Present - What is an Artifact?
☑ Waratah chose an object from his treasure box to talk about. He chose a natural object (minerals) and after his presentation we discussed the difference between a natural object and an artifact ("something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest" [Link])

 

Other Activities
☑ Picnic at the park with Papa (from Melbourne) and A (from Canada).

Preschool

☑ Participation in watching videos and science experiment (above) and picnic.

Infant Activities

☑ Meeting new people

Term 3 Week 9 Day 1

Kindergarten

Science & Technology: Experiment
Topic: Looking around you - Town and Country
☑ Investigating bouyancy (trapping air under water)

Creative Arts: Craft
☑ Decorating a treasure box


English: Reading Eggs
☑ Map 5 Lesson 46 (partially completed)

Cultural Studies: Music
☑ Australian bush bands
- Bushwackers Botany Bay [Link]
- Aussie Bush Band I still call Australia home [Link]
- Hop Around Australia, you Bush Kangaroo [Link]
amongst others

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education: Video & Worksheet
☑ Crawford the Cat: Crawford is a Sneezer Pleaser [Link]


Mathematics: Manipulatives
☑ Introduction to fractions using blocks

Mathematics: IXL / iPad
☑ Pizza fractions: Beginning with simple fractions [Link]

Human Society & Environment: Mystery Activity
Topic: Families Past and Present - Artifacts.
☑ Looking at paintings by my Nana (an artist, now deceased), discussing their relevance as artifacts, and painting our own future artifacts (small paintings on canvas to be given as gifts).


Science & Technology: Why Is It So?
☑ Why are there so many different types of clover? Discussion of diversity and monocultures; investigation of diversity in our lawn ecology. We have a very diverse lawn - Waratah identified 7 different species in the small area frame.


Preschool

☑ Reading Eggs

☑ iPad

☑ Painting


☑ Music

Infant Activities

☑ Play Gym

☑ Fun Start:

☑ Gross Muscle Activities: scooting across bed

☑ Self Awareness: Potty time; mirror play

Weekend Activities

Saturday:
☑ Quiet day at home recovering from the flu

Sunday:
☑ End of Soccer-season celebration