FIRST DAY BACK FOR TERM THREE

The kids were a bit hard to motivate today given it was the first day back at school and we had had such a relaxing school holidays at home :) Never mind, they still did a lot of great work and we started our new theme for Science - Astronomy, and did our first tramping fitness walk of 3kms.  So while it wasn't the most exciting day the kids have had at school, they still did a lot of work.  The picture today is of the kids at there desk doing their Grammar work.  One of the major teaching resources I use for Grammar are the once a week workbooks from Help Me Learn, which have fantastic education resources they will send anywhere in the world!  We have found them to be prompt with orders and the workbooks I have ordered have ALL been great teaching resources.  Ben has had two weeks without doing any writing and you could tell ... his writing was back to waffling with not sentence structure so it is something we will have to concentrate on this term and really make it something he does without thinkikng about as opposed to the concerted effort he currently has to make to form sentences.  We made great advances last term in this area but it seems without a reminder and after 2 weeks holidays he has reverted back :(  We have made major steps forward with the writing though, in the area of he no longer sees it as a punishment to have to write!  Pollyanna had a reading test today and passed, moving her from Level 11 to Level 12!  She is doing so well with her reading :) 

MATHS: WHICH NUMBER IS LARGER?

I am using this worksheet with Pollyanna at the moment so she understands the relationship between numbers 0-30.  Its a really good exercise that provides meaning to a number and how big it is. I have left the top of the worksheets blank so that you can use them to find either the smallest number or the largest number for each series provided.  When they are first beginning to understand numbers and their order, number lines become really handy.  This website here has some great ones that you can just download instantly Sparkle

Until I discover how to attach files to my posts you will just have to email me for each worksheet and I can email it back to you :) Sorry about not having them available to just download instantly yet. HATE THAT as I am an instant gratification kind of girl!!

Anyway todays worksheet is Which Number is Bigger 0-30.  Email me if you would like a free file of this worksheet Kirsty

EASY SCIENCE WORKSHEET AND EXPERIMENT FOR LEARNING ABOUT CLOUDS

So today I thought I would post my first home school worksheet to help other families that are in need of FREE worksheets to help with the at home teaching. Each day I will post a new worksheet and let you in on little tidbits about my day at home with the kids and anything we have been adventuring into. Hopefully you will find it helpful :)

To do with today's worksheets is a really easy experiment you can do quickly with the kids and doesn't require any major ingredients! Boil the kettle and put 1 cm of boiling hot water into the bottle of a clear wine bottle (or similar) and then put a piece of ice on top and wait for the cloud to form in the bottle.

Scientific Explanation (at a child's level of understanding)

When water heats up it rises (water vapour), when it goes high into the sky and cools (thank you ice for achieving this effect). Cooled water vapour is what creates clouds. A very simple explanation but it helps make the science expt relevant for children.

The worksheets are Cloud Names, Generic Science Experiment Worksheet, and one that even the littlies can do What Clouds Are About Today.

Today was a Great Day

Living in the country is brilliant, especially when you are only 40 minutes from downtown Auckland, but some things come at a cost. Like our particularly some supermarket, that stocks very little and at a higher price. So Mags, my neighbour and I left our little community today and went into Albany to do our grocery shopping and finish off buying the kids stationary for this year. We had lots of fun wandering around the mall picking up little items for little cost and then it was over to A BIG supermarket! What fun, lots of stuff, all at great prices so we did the right thing and filled the car up before heading home!

Pizza Oven Start Date ... Yah

I can't believe it after having 100 pieces of pizza oven stored in the barn for a month we finally made headway and might actually be able to have pizza before the end of summer. Steve and ben hired a concrete mixer and they made concrete for the first time. Hope its good concrete because the concrete they made was for the floor slab of the pizza oven!

Project Life

I can't believe I have got to the 22 and this is the first photo I have taken of BP with lego!