Baby Moses story
duck coloring page
went to Michael's and got paint and scrapbooks
read The Hungry Duckling and Make Way for Ducklings
Basic skills--read library books, calendar, 100 chart, making sentences Monday and poem, Madelyn practiced writing "D", copywork for Gracie
wrote a birthday poem, rhyming words
Starfall
started painting the bird feeder Jim made

made dinosaur fossils and pretended to be paleontologists as we dug for them in the sand
filled a glass bottle with dirt and water, shook it, and watched the layers settle
drew an apatosaurus and a stegosaurus
days of the week puzzle
number sequences
read library books
made cards
played dinosaur computer games
listened to Jonathan Park
practiced writing names

new verse--Exodus 20:11
dinosaur coloring page
read D is for Dinosaur
made a newspaper page about dinosaurs and used a drawing book to draw apatosaurus
read many dinosaur books
Making Sentences and parts of speech poem
wrote name, phone number, birthday
reviewed two-vowel words--pain, coat, each

verse, God and Me books
created desert dioramas
read about the saguaro cactus
water experiments--a sponge soaks up the most water, wax paper soaks up no water!
copywork
language lessons
desert maze
math computer game

heard a carndinal this morning and went to investigate
the girls observed other things outside with binoculars and magnifying glass
made a journal entry
read Matthew 6 and talked about God taking care of the birds and us
Language Lessons
sentence about hummingbirds
painted
sequence worksheet
read Coyote and the Laughing Butterflies and Lizards for Lunch

colored a desert page
reviewed verse
read about God making animals
calendar, straws, 100 chart
read Coyote and the Laughing Butterflies
made a tortilla food map of Arizona
Gracie made the map key
the girls used some of the leftover Twizzlers (our "rivers) to pretend they had their own cooking show
made patterns with checkers and chess pieces, journaled a pattern
read in Language Lessons, read aloud a poem
copied our verse
made a javelina page in book
read Lizards for Lunch

Desert Week!

"God makes all things possible." Matthew 19:26
story of Lazarus
read Coyote and the Laughing Butterflies and Way Out in the Desert
read about roadrunners--We saw one in our backyard this weekend!
making a book about desert animals, wrote a fact about a roadrunner
read in reader
calendar, 100 chart
workbook page
parts of speech poem--noun and verb
making sentences
copywork and cursive
listened to Sid the Science Kid songs--ants, teeth

verse, song
calendar
Truman
made own schedule, showed 11:00 on clock
read glow-in-the-dark constellation book, talked about what a star is
made own constellations with dark construction paper and a pushpin, used a flashlight to shine constellations on the wall (they loved this!)
watered the plants and saw that M's plant has two little sprouts
Language Lessons, reading, picture study
listened to chicka chicka boom boom and Schoolhouse Rock songs
wrote a thank you letter
published ant paper by gluing it onto a placemat and drawig a picnic scene
watched a Dora that I had recorded yesterday and it was about constellations! I believe that's the Holy Spirit guided us to constellations!
watched a Curious George about ants

I found a middle-grade book at the library called Love, Aubrey. I checked it out so I can read it. I love reading middle-grade books and started writing my own several years ago. I am wondering if I should start writing again...

read Bible
reviewed verse
read Truman's Aunt Farm
talked about stamps
counted out 45 pennies
looked at images of stamps online
printed some out
created own stamps, decorated an envelope
read some of High Five magazine
Language Lessons, reading and poem
storytime at library
designed own quilt
read all of our library books
read a cute book called The Kiss Box
made a special kiss box
read about the rainforest, stamped our passport
finished writing the Hey, Little Ant paper

read Bible
walk, found ants carrying things
read Truman's Aunt Farm
studied illustrations and learned more techniques for making facial features, drew faces of the family
handwriting, cursive
read reader on couch
read Disney stories
started writing Hey, Little Ant persuasive paper on a paper plate
read about dinosaurs and planned for a dinosaur unit
Gracie made a firefighter hat

discussed different names of God and Jesus
read The Road to Emmaus
took a walk
made nametags for Jesus and put them in Bible journals
read Truman's Aunt Farm
discussed Truman's character traits (orderly, responsible)
wrote a letter to an aunt
talked about the word earring (compound word, 'ea' and 'ing')
Gracie read her reader in my lap
looked at birthday albums
helped me with Aubrey's baby album
read facts about ants
will create an ant section on their poster boards

April 5th--evening
We let all five of our butterflies go!

Friday, April 6th
Spent the day in Phoenix. We went to the Sea Life Aquarium. Got to touch a live starfish, see a sea turtle, sharks, interesting blood shrimp, and many other creatures.

Today
read more of Easter story, practiced verse
went to the lake, gathered seeds, watched ants
read Truman's Aunt Farm, talked about homonyms, made little flipbooks of homonyms (mail/male, aunt/ant, pear/pair)
Gracie and Madelyn decided to make their own lacing cards
copywork Jesus is Risen!
calendar, 100 chart
Gracie read her reader in the tent
read-aloud Hey, Little Ant and talked about whether or not the ant should get squished, completed a four-square planner for a persuasive paper to NOT squish the ant. Reasons--it feeds the baby ants (M) and it is God's creation (G)
put away Easter books and filled baskets with new books

our fifth butterfly emerged
colored and cut a puzzle picture
copywork
reader
read The Salamander Room
nature scavenger hunt in backyard--saw a spark in Gracie's eyes! She created her own list and drew a picture of our backyard
blew bubbles and talked about how the bubbles looked like they had a "skin" that stretched
water experiment to show how water bulges over the rim of a glass before overflowing
played with water and coins, discovered seeds float and coins sink
played a number guessing game

Exciting Day!

We watched our fourth butterfly as it emerged from its chrysalis! It was awesome to watch it.
Gracie's tooth fell out during lunch.
"Mom, there's something crunchy in my sunbutter, like a seed or something. Why is there blood all over my sandwich?" She's lucky she didn't swallow her tooth!

I never thought learning about salamanders would lead to learning about the rainforest, but here is how our day went.

reviewed verse/songs
amphibian life-cycle coloring page
looked in amphibian book to find out the color of a tadpole
read The Salamander Room, Jungle Life (Gracie's suggestion), and Magic Schoolbus Spiders (Madelyn's suggestion)
verse copywork, cursive, read from reader, calendar, straws, 100 chart
used watercolors and fingerpaint to paint a salamander
talked about the food chain
wrote a letter to the toothfairy
read The Little Rabbit
looked up info about the jungle/rainforest--Do butterflies, ants, and salamanders live there?
Yes, they do! And so many other animals, too!
created a lapbook about the rainforest layers and where they are found
found rainforests on the globe

reviewed verse and songs
ballet coloring page
watched Curious George (saw a real salamander in his environment and learned about tadpoles)
read The Salamander Room
made a list of all the things found in the boy's salamander room
created our own diorama salamander room using grass, dew, leaves, rose petals, rocks, drawings and set Madelyn's colored lizards inside it
read from reader
picture study
updated nature notebook to show two butterflies have emerged
looked at images of the spotted salamander

Introduced an Easter song using felt pieces
Madelyn played with the felt pieces
learned a new verse
remembered I had a butterfly song about the life-cycle
colored and filled in an April calendar
read The Salamander Room
read a few facts about amphibians
counted the critters in The Salamander Room using tally marks
read from reader
handwriting, cursive
looked at pictures of salamanders and printed off a drawing, put it in journal
found out salamanders do live in Arizona
made play-doh salamanders
read the Easter story, drew and wrote about Jesus in Bible journals
listened to Jonathan Park and looked up the Aucilla River
added a straw to our place-value cups, added another number to 100 chart and calendar
raed a butterfly poem by Emily Dickinson on a site I found, rememered I had an Emily Dickinson poetry book so we read several of her nature poems
two butterflies emerged from their chrysalises, gave them sugar water on tissue and watched them drink