Dewey Decimal Flower

My sample Dewey Decimal Flower without any pictures....

Sorry this post is delayed....we've had a very busy week/weekend.  Last week we made Dewey Decimal Flowers for Reading.  We are currently learning about the Library, the difference between fiction and non-fiction books, and how books are categorized in the Library.  

One of the kids' favorite activities so far has been the Dewey Decimal Flower.  It is a visual representation of the Dewey Decimal System that the kids can easily understand and it helps them remember the numbers associated with each topic/subject matter.  

The kids started their flowers by cutting out 10 different color petals, one for each of the number sequences in the Dewey Decimal System, 000 - 900.  One difficult thing about our Library section is that there isn't really a "card catalog"  anymore....everything is done on the computer!  I wanted the kids to understand that each book used to have THREE cards (author, title, subject), but now we can search by all of those things and MORE.  We spent a lot of time discussing the different ways to search for books, the best method of searching for a particular book (title), and the best way to do research searches (subject).

 After we had our petals cut out, we had to cut out our stems, leaves, and the middle of our flower, which served as a number guide for our flowers.  We traced circles on construction paper and cut out our yellow flower centers, then divided it into ten parts, writing the numbers 000-900 in each portion.  Then we glued our petals together and added the center circle.  This part was tough because we were trying to match up the numbers on our center to the numbers for each petal.

 Once the flowers were glued together, the kids wrote the categories on the corresponding petal: 000 General Knowledge, 100 Philosophy, 200 Religion, 300 Social Sciences, 400 Languages, 500 Science and Math, 600 Using Science/Technology, 700 Arts & Recreation, 800 Literature, 900 Geography and History.  Once all the petals were labeled, the kids illustrated the petals so they had a visual image of what each category included.  I considered printing out clip art images for the kids to paste on their petals, but decided to let them look through the listings under each category and pick their own image to draw to help cement it in by using something meaningful to them.  My flower (I haven't added images yet) will probably include clip art.

And voila! The kids' Dewey Decimal Flowers!

Asher and Savannah's Dewey Decimal Flowers!

Savannah's Flower Petals.  She took a lot of time drawing each picture.
She wanted the petals perfect, so she took the flower apart three times
trying to get it to fan out correctly.  What a hard worker!

Asher's Flower Petals.  He spent a lot of time writing out things in
each given category and then drawing a small picture.  He managed to get
his flower to fan pretty well until Rosalynne tried 'helping' him and
managed to pull a section apart. What a patient Big Brother!

 

Spring Fever!

Today was a difficult day for focus at the Quinlan Homeschool.

After experiencing sunny skies and seventy degrees yesterday and the day before, combined with Easter on Sunday, the chilling thirty-five degree, drab day outside today was hard for the kids to tolerate.  Asher and Savannah both had a rough time staying on task  Spring Fever has really hit hard in the Quinlan household. I hope they can pull it together better tomorrow.  They are understanding the concepts and absorbing the information, they just didn't feel like putting forth the effort today.

On the upside, however, their prewrites for Grammar and Writing went very well on Monday, and they did a good job on their Rough Drafts today.  Last week we talked about the process and I partially modeled each step (I didn't write an entire rough draft for example, only one paragraph), and while the kids did well on their stories last week, they struggled with a couple steps, so this week I am modeling each step completely before allowing them to move on with their stories.  They are enjoying watching and helping me as I work through the steps.

For Social Studies we are working on a section called "Global Education" so we are trying to focus on learning a few short words/phrases in several languages, and also reading fairy tales from each culture and comparing them.  Today we learned how to say: hello, goodbye, how are you, my name is..., and see you later in Spanish.  We also read the story of the Ugly Princess, which was new for me and slightly disturbing.  Tomorrow we will try learning the same words/phrases in French and read another fairy tale.

Our Library section in Reading is going well, though I think a planned trip to the library on Friday may be in order.  The Librarian for the Children's room is just a sweet lady, and I think the kids will really benefit if after we finish all or most of our Library section, they are able to have her explain all about how books are organized, sorted, and shelved at the library and the best ways to search for a given book.  We've already determined that if we are looking for a particular book, Title searches work best, because subject and author searches provide us with too many other suggestions.  I am excited for them to get to the library and ask the Librarian questions.

In ASL we are learning about rooms in our house and the things that can be found in those rooms.  It has been so amazing to see the kids learn signs this year.  They are picking up an impressive amount of signs, and using them whenever they can.  They are particularly appreciative of knowing signs during church, and often use them while we are in mass.  Savannah has been getting me a lot when I am on the phone, asking me things by signing...it can be tricky answering her while continuing a conversation. :)

Asher's turtle Max is doing very well, and seems to be adjusting to the regular sounds of children in our house and the typical activity in our classroom each day.  Asher is doing a great job with him.  For a boy that REFUSED to touch any new and especially slimy creature just last year, he is doing wonderful picking Max up and moving him when needed.  It's wonderful to see the change and animation while he is caring for Max. All the kids seem to really enjoy Max.

Fortunately, Savannah's cat Butterscotch has no apparent interest in Max, and as long as Savannah feeds and waters her first thing in the morning, she keeps to herself until the kids sit down, then she climbs on their lap to cuddle.  With Spring weather just around the corner, Savannah will have her hands full brushing Butterscotch's fur.

The First Day/Week Back....whew!

So - today is our first day back in school after Spring Break.  We are all rejuvenated after our week 'vacation' and are ready to get back to work.

Asher working on the rough draft of his story.

Monday was extra special because Daddy was able to hop in during our Science period and teach a lesson about rocks!  We learned how weathering works, what causes it, what minerals encourage weatherization and what can inhibit it, and how it is all a cycle.

This week we have also acquired a new addition to our classroom/home.  Asher got a 'small' pet turtle that he named Max.  Max is currently residing in our classroom in his small tank and in our laundry room sink when he needs a larger space to play and exercise.  He is a Red Eared or Painted turtle and is fairly friendly.  Asher really likes Max!  He is careful to feed him every day and for once, doesn't seem to mind getting his hands dirty while handling him or cleaning his cage. Mommy and Daddy may not be Max's biggest fans, but he is a fairly calm little guy that the kids enjoy watching.

Sunday after Mass, Savannah had some really deep questions about Heaven and death.  She doesn't want to die for a VERY long time and is praying that nothing happens to her Great-Grandma Pachmayer or any of her Grandparents because she would miss them so much.  I usually let Daddy take the lead on these kinds of conversations since he manages to explain them better than I can on the fly.

Grammar and Writing this week is proving to be a process - the writing process! But seriously, each day is devoted to a different part of the process. Today Savannah blew it out of the water with her rough draft, but Asher is having some problems focusing, so he is working on his third attempt of his rough draft, this time with a 'list' of story needs: who, what, when, where, why, and how.  It seems to be working better for him knowing that he needs to address these parts of the story. Wednesday the kids will be working on their reviews and peer edits. I'm curious to see how well they do.  This is our first week back AND our fist week writing "un-directed" so I'm sure it will be a learning experience and give us some ideas on things we will need to work on/improve.

Our "Friendly Letter" pen pals are still going strong. The kids have probably written about 40 letters to various people.  They love getting mail and responding to their pen pals.

A close-up of Max, Asher's turtle.

The Final Leg

These next six weeks are the final leg of our journey for this school year.  The curriculum is changing slightly, allowing for more open topic writing opportunities in Grammar and Writing.  Our only focus is the steps of the writing process, so the kids will have the opportunity to let their imaginations roam free and unhindered. I am excited to read their work! They have such amazing minds.

During Reading we have been working on abbreviations, writing dates, using the dictionary, and learning how to use research books more effectively.  Next week we will start a Library section, where the kids will focus on learning how to find non-fiction and fiction books at the library, the dewy decimal system, using the card catalog, searching by author, keywords, and title and locating books that we find in the catalog.  We have also been reading Junie B Jones books during reading and the kids LOVE her.

In Math this coming week, our focus will be on solving equations and checking answers using opposite operations.  This should be easy for the kids to grasp since we have already discussed this when explaining fact families.  We will also be discussing ordinal numbers, which the kids have already learned thanks to ASL. :)  Our week in Math will be completed by creating a mini book  of things that go in a specific order, like the days of the week, months of the year, recipe ingredients/directions, or the order of a story.  This is especially convenient because our spelling words this week include the days of the week, so we will be able to get some extra practice.

In Social studies we are continuing our study of the History of Transportation by talking about the problems different forms of transportation have caused.  Throughout the week we will be discussing solutions to problems from transportation, like noise pollution, traffic jams, traffic safety, the depletion of our energy sources, and the effects on our planet.  Towards the end of the week the kids will be able to create their own form of transportation using their choice of materials, and lastly, they will write a short description of what their lives would be like if we didn't have cars, buses, trains, or planes.

Science this week will be focused on Rocks.  We will spend our week attempting to weather a rock, to illustrate erosion and showing how with enough force or constant wear, rocks of all different sizes will break or crack.  Weather permitting, we will also go on a rock finding field trip, and make our own sandstone rock that we can put outside and observe the process of erosion over the next few weeks.

I am looking forward to starting the final portion of our school year on Monday after our short break.  It has been nice to have a week off to regroup and plan, but I am definitely ready to dive back in! :)

Spring Break!

This week the kids are out of school for Spring Break.  I am using this time to clean and organize our classroom (which somehow seems to need re-organizing every few weeks for some reason!), and to schedule our last six weeks or so of the school year.  I am also using the time to start planning for the coming school year, find new materials for the upcoming topics of choice, and prepare for the end of the year and some of the more difficult topics the kids will be learning.

So far, a lot of the kids' curriculum was either review or a building on knowledge they'd learned last year.  In these last six weeks of school, the kids will be focusing heavily on adding/subtracting monetary sums, more writing/handwriting, reading, and spelling.  I think I can safely say our handwriting/writing capabilities have improved greatly in only a few short weeks (thanks to all the pen pals!).

This summer we will take about 8 weeks off, but while we are enjoying our time off, we will be doing some fun science projects and experiments that we weren't able to do outside this winter.  With Trevor's hours being somewhat unpredictable, we can't really schedule/plan any trips just yet, but hopefully by the time we officially start Summer Break, we will have a better idea of what we can manage this summer as far as traveling.

I am looking forward to these final six weeks and compiling sets of the kids' work to illustrate their progress in the different subjects from the beginning of our school year to end.

Research Papers

For Grammar and Writing last week we worked on short research papers.  The kids started by choosing a topic and making a brainstorming web of what they already knew about their topics and what they wanted to learn.  Asher decided to write about dinosaurs and Savannah decided to write about flowers.  After the webs were complete, the kids wrote their questions on index cards and started their research.  They looked through encyclopedias, non-fiction science books, and even searched online for answers to their questions. After they answered their five questions on the back of their index cards we started writing the actual paper.

We checked our rough drafts for grammar and spelling before writing our final drafts in our best handwriting.

Here is Asher's paper:

"I am writing about dinosaurs.  The meat eater Barxonyx had a claw on the thumb of each hand. It may have been a fish hook to snatch fish from water.  This is a clue that Barxonyx probably ate fish.  The Protoceratops female arranged her eggs carefully in a spiral shape or in circles."

Asher also researched information about pteranadons, but he forgot to include it in his final draft (I think his hand may have gotten tired...)

Here is Savannah's paper, which is a little less based on fact. :)

"I am writing about flowers! They are as pretty as dolls. Some can grow without sunlight.  There are as many as 100455 kinds of flowers. They have to drink water every day. They grow in all 50 states. They help and feed bees."

The kids are also focusing on writing in DETAIL using adjectives, adverbs, and trying to SHOW our readers rather than TELL them.  I will let them pick one of their detail practice pieces for a later blog entry. :)