What My Child Is Reading - July 30

Junie B. First Grader At Last
I thought this book would be a good pick since school starts soon. Alexis is an excellent reader but I'm challenging her to read longer books without as many pictures. This will be her first Chapter Book.

Junie B. is about a sassy mouthed girl who is facing new challenges of being in a new class with a new teacher and new friends.



The Human Body: A First Discovery Book
Alexis picked this book herself. She found it fascinating. This book shows all of the parts of the body including the skeletal system, nervous system, organs, and the brain. I like that she picked this book because it goes along with our Life Science studies.

Spelling

This week our spelling list was the numbers one through twenty. When we do spelling, I give Alexis her spelling list and she writes the word twice. I verbally quiz her several times throughout the week. Today we did our quiz in the car. Then we practice putting our spelling words in alphabetical order.

Here are two websites that offer free spelling lists http://www.superteacherworksheets.com and http://www.tlsbooks.com/spellingworksheets.htm.

IXL Math

IXL is my favorite online math practice site. We started using IXL at the end of last school year. Alexis's test results at the end of kindergarten placed her at a first grade level in math. I felt that it was important to keep her skills sharp so I have been investing in IXL for the last 2 months. One reason I like IXL is because there is unlimited practice questions for grades Pre-K through 8th grade. The best feature is you can cross over between grade levels, you are not limited to one grade level.

IXL also give students virtual awards for completing skills. The awards act as an incentive for Alexis to complete a new skill. Using this program has really helped Alexis improve her skills in counting money and time.

Now I have to decide if I will keep investing monthly or if I want to purchase the yearly plan.

Enjoying A Picnic and the Splash Park

Today we enjoyed a nice quiet picnic at the park. Alexis fed the ducks the leftover bread from her chicken salad sandwich.

After feeding the ducks, we headed over to the Splash Park to cool off.

We were going to do some geocaching but Mommy was too tired. 

Life Science: Living and Non-Living Things

After searching for a free science curriculum, I found Scott Foresman Science. This website has the online student editions of the Scott Foresman Science and Math textbooks. Today Alexis studied Chapter 1of the First Grade book. This chapter was on living and nonliving.


Science Lab
Lab #1- I asked Alexis to walk around the house and list 3 living things and 3 nonliving things. She decided to list 6 of each. She did this inside the house and outside of the house.

Lab#2- Hatching Brine Shrimp

This lab is a work in progress. We just placed the shrimp eggs into the saltwater. We will be observing the eggs for 5 days and recording the changes.

What My Child Is Reading

Oh Say Can You Say? by Dr. Seuss
Alexis loves Dr. Seuss. We have a lot of fun with these books because we always get tongue tied.




The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss
More Dr. Seuss





Trick Or Treat Little Critter by Gina and Mercer Mayer


Trick or Treat Smell My Feet by Lisa Desimini
A story about 2 witches who try to ruin Halloween by casting a spell on the neighborhood children. They use stinky socks to create a spell that will only allow the children to say "smell my feet" when they go trick or treating. But something goes horribly wrong and a pink baby booty goes into the evil brew. This reverses the spell and turns the witches into toddlers.

This was a cute book and we liked the illustrations. Halloween is Alexis's favorite holiday so we read Halloween books all year.

Can You Cook An Egg On The Sidewalk?

We are experiencing a big heat wave this week with temperatures near 100 degrees. In an effort to work in a science project this week I decided we would try to cook an egg on the sidewalk.

Alexis wasn't to keen on the idea and didn't think it was "sciency." She says "Why don't we just cook an egg on the stove?"

Geez...is she missing the point or what? So I say "Because it is 98 degrees and this way we can see if it is hot enough to cook an egg outside!"

This is our egg. We waited about 10 minutes and nothing happened. We even tried directing a beam of sunlight at the egg with a magnifying glass. Nothing happened so we moved the egg to the blacktop.

This is the egg after 10 minutes on the blacktop. Conclusion: It definitely is not hot enough to cook an egg on the sidewalk.