Saturday, December 20, 2014

MFW K Unit 5–Nest (Max)

{CLICK HERE} to view the rest of our MFW K unit posts.
{CLICK HERE} to read our 2012 Nest Unit post with our older son.

Be sure to read the math section for a fun little giggle!

MFW K, My Father's World Kindergarten, kindergarten homeschool

In this unit, we learned the letter Nn for nest.
Our Bible words were: God takes good care of me!

books

These are the books we enjoyed throughout the week – click on any book image below to read the book description on Amazon.  (We love to buy used copies; they’re usually in good shape, and the price is right!)

Max’s favorite was The Perfect Nest.  It’s a cute and funny story, though not very believable!  I always enjoy The Best Nest – we own this book and read it often in our home, even when we’re not on a bird unit.  A Nest Full of Eggs is a very good informational book.


Book links are Amazon affiliate links.
If you purchase through these links, you are supporting our family. 
Thank you!

video

Once or twice a week, we start our school day with a YouTube playlist of 4-6 songs/videos that go along with our current school lessons. 


calendar

I didn’t get any pictures of calendar time this week!

bible

God takes good care of me!

We read about Elijah and the ravens.  God can even use BIRDS to care for his people!

phonics

Learning about S and it’s /s/ sound.

Max LOVES to sort out his picture cards from each unit.  At some point, we’re going to either take over the entire kitchen table or force him to choose just a few envelopes rather than ALL the picture cards.  I can’t fathom doing all 26 envelopes at the end of the year!
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circling the pictures that begin with /n/

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Max is just LOVING the worksheets in MFW K!  I honestly thought he might struggle with these, but I underestimated my boy.  He’s breezing right through and ALWAYS excited!
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handwriting

(my own page…available HERE for MFW K users only)
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I asked Max to circle his favorites, so he circles the ones he TRACED rather than the ones he wrote on his own.  (Stinker, ha ha!) I circled my favorites that Max wrote on his own.
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working on his picture page & writing N and n
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 math

writing 5s – short neck, belly fat, Mr. 5 wears a hat!
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cuisenaire rods N page
(Alex didn’t really care about these, but Max LOVES them!)
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weekly MFW K math page
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Max wanted to start with number 1, even though it was in the middle of the page. 
I told him to draw 1 egg in the nest. 
He did.  1 *fried* egg.  Ha ha!  I laughed SO HARD!
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science

The nest unit is about more than just birds – it’s about animal homes.  Besides reading about animal homes, Max also did this cut & paste page to match animals and their homes.

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art

We made birds nests from brown cardstock, paper scraps, and plastic Easter eggs.
For instructions, CLICK HERE.

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snacks 

Uh, do you remember what I said with the last unit?  That something’s gotta give?  For the apple unit, we skipped cute crafts.  For the nest unit, we skipped snacks.  What’s sad is that I even BOUGHT the chow mein noodles and jelly beans to do this snack.  We just didn’t have time to squeeze it in.  Maybe if we’re bored some random, snowy day in January, we make birds nest snacks for no reason Winking smile

other

Technically, I suppose this picture should go under phonics or handwriting.  But I really wanted to highlight how different it is going through MFW K with a second child.  Each child has their own interests, strengths, and weaknesses – making it a totally different experience for me as a mama!

I love how excited Max is about drawing pictures of words beginning with N.  His drawings make me smile.  I wish you could hear how he’s describing the pictures as he draws – it’s so sweet!
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This letter find is from my free Baby Birds preschool pack
Max loves to hunt for the letters!
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(Jensyn is 3.5 years old.)

I didn’t do so well with getting pictures of this little munchkin doing her MFW K pages this week.  She did her typical pages, but she also BEGGED for more.  I planned to wait until she turned 4 to pull out the Rod & Staff preschool workbooks, but she needed something and I was desperate…so she’s doing the “About Three” workbook and loving it!  The hard part is getting her to slow down and wait for me to read the instructions – she just wants to start circling and X-ing and tracing!

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Our table full of learning (on a rather organized day…when the table doesn’t look like it exploded!)
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Monday, December 15, 2014

MFW K Unit 4 – Apple

{CLICK HERE} to view the rest of our MFW K unit posts.
{CLICK HERE} to read our 2012 Apple Unit post with our older son.



In this unit, we learned the letter Aa for sun.
Our Bible words were:
If I stay in Jesus, I will have much fruit!

books These are the books we enjoyed throughout the week – click on any book image below to read the book description on Amazon.  (We love to buy used copies; they’re usually in good shape, and the price is right!)

Max loved How To Make An Apple Pie and See The World, and we all enjoyed the rest of the books as well.  Down The Road is a neat story that I’d recommend.  We made our apple pie using the recipe found in the back of the Amelia Bedelia book.


Book links are Amazon affiliate links.
If you purchase through these links, you are supporting our family. 
Thank you!

video

Once or twice a week, we start our school day with a YouTube playlist of 4-6 songs/videos that go along with our current school lessons. 

During this unit, we watched Johnny Appleseed.


calendar

We don’t exactly do calendar time the MFW K way.  We print a calendar page from HERE (preK and K options available), and Max fills in the numbers.  (Sometimes I do, too, depending on the day.)  I wrote November at the bottom, and he traced it.

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For the rest of our calendar time, we’re using a foam board that we can bring out during school time (and put away later, as our kitchen table is our school room).  Right now, we’re:

  • adding a straw for each school day to our place value pocket chart
  • writing that school day’s number on the MFW K 100 Chart (not pictured…on the left side of the board)
  • singing a Days Of The Week and Months Of The Year song while Max points to the day/month on the board.

bible

During this unit, we learned about the Fruits of the Spirit.  We read Bible verses, had short discussions, and made a mini book and did a coloring page. (You’ll see those below in the art section, although they are nothing fancy!)

phonics

Learning about A and it’s /a/ sound
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writing the correct beginning sound by the pictures
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Max opted to color and write the correct letter
rather than cutting/pasting the correct letter in the box.

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sorting picture cards by beginning sound
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handwriting
letter A, number 4

(my own page…available HERE for MFW K users only)
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 math

MFW K recommends using real apples to do a graph, but we did it a little differently using a page I created.  It’s available here on the blog if you’d like to use it.  Just look under the MFW K tab.

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MFW K attributes graph, cuisenaire rods A page

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Max LOVES math, so I made the page below for him based on one on that I found (for free) HERE.  I prefer a different tracing font than what she used, so I designed my own.  I don’t plan to share it, due to copyright, so I’ll just direct you to the original author’s site(Site has been removed…I’m not sure how to share it with you, sorry!)

We’re using raisins, chocolate chips, and other fun items as manipulatives to fill in the ‘ten frame’, and we’re then using the food to work on ‘even/odd’, ‘1 more’ and ‘1 less’.  He may eat the snacks when he’s finished with the page. 

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science

We read about apples and apple orchards, visited an apple orchard (in September),
and we did a fun apple taste test using the printables from 1Plus1Plus1Equals1.

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Max absolutely LOVED this taste test, and he declared that every apple was delicious!

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art

I know it’s not as cutesy as what we did with Alex a few years ago, but it’s what we had time to do…fruit of the spirit coloring page & mini book.  With co-op preparation and a big brother with schoolwork, as well, it’s hard to fit it all in.  Since we did so much baking, something had to give!

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snacks 

Max absolutely loves to help me in the kitchen.  He was SO excited to purchase apples and help me make applesauce and apple pie.  He was SUPER proud of his own little apple pie, just like Amelia Bedelia’s little apple pie!DSCN3139

our baking projects in progress…

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other

We went on a field trip to the apple orchard with our co-op friends!
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(Jensyn is 3.5 years old.)

I don’t insist on participation from Jensyn.  She is free to join us or to wander away, but so far, she almost always wants to be a part of MFW K!  She sits with us as we read picture books, does the art or science projects, and completes papers or puzzles at the table.  She loves the Lauri alphabet puzzle included in MFW K!

My only goal for her this year is to learn the uppercase alphabet letters, and you may notice that in many of the activities that she’s working on…

I’ve designed lots of pages that can be used to keep a preschool sibling busy while you’re working with your kindergartener.  You can find most of these pages HERE and even more in the photo albums of the MFW-Kindergarten Facebook group.

cutting apples (with butter knives) to make applesauce & apple pie

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using pattern blocks to build letter A (pattern block alphabet pages from Confessions of a Homeschooler) and playing with the cuisenaire rods

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gluing pictures on top of their shadow (my apple preschool pack) and tracing letter A

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alphabet tracer

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hard at work

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