Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Week 31 Highlights

Monday, April 25

    Grade 1 Archetypal Professions block

  • recall Healer
  • look at Jewelweed & Plantain soap for poison ivy (made locally at Meadows Bluff Farm), look at the ingredients in the Herbal Salve (made locally at Dayempur Farm)
  • add Healer to MLB


    Grade 1 & Grade 3

    Today two groups of students came together to share a story and activity. The younger students were learning about the Hunter, and I had wanted us to do something with making play weapons. The older students were learning about the story of David and Goliath. So we read David and Goliath retold by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers and then went outside to make slings and try to toss raw eggs with them (in the field).


    Grade 7 Age of Exploration / Renaissance & Reformation block

  • discuss ancient navigation techniques, read A Gift from the Past by James Rumford
  • rough draft Christopher Columbus
  • explain that the land on which we are standing was originally Kaskaskia land (resources: https://native-land.ca; "Native Tribes of Southern Illinois" information from Native American Heritage page for the Shawnee National Forest, USDA; Wikipedia page for Kaskaskia)


Tuesday, April 26

    Grade 1 & Grade 3

  • fine-tune sling designs, practice throwing raw eggs (each child got 4)
  • play the Hunter/Gatherer Simulation Game from Early Humans by Michelle Breyer


    • Grade 1 Archetypal Professions block

  • read Dandelions by Eve Bunting
  • note that dandelions were one of the foods in the Hunter/Gatherer Simulation Game but are also a medicinal plant
  • share some pictures of butterflies and a list of their host plants; note how many of these plants are also on our medicinal plant list (milkweed, stinging nettle, plantain, etc.)
  • explain that we are participating this year in NO MOW MAY (PDF) in an effort to help the pollinators
  • add Hunter to MLB
  • explain what a Merchant is, begin to read Beauty and the Beast (original version of the story)


    • Grade 3 Old Testament Stories block

  • have students divide up and read stories for David and Solomon


    Psalm Twenty-Three
    illustrated by Tim Ladwig


    Psalm 23
    illustrated by Barry Moser


    King Solomon and the Bee
    by Dalia Hardof Renberg


    Solomon and the Trees
    by Matt Biers-Ariel


    • Grade 7 Age of Exploration / Renaissance & Reformation block

  • add Christopher Columbus to MLB
  • read 9 chapters of Mapping the World with Art by Ellen Johnston McHenry at home

    7. Henry the Navigator
    8. Printed Maps
    9. Spice Wars and Pirates
    10. Christopher Columbus
    11. Columbus Sails Again
    12. Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot)
    13. Vasco da Gama
    14. Columbus's Last Voyages, Amerigo Vespucci, and Juan de la Cosa
    15. The New World Becomes "America"


Wednesday, April 27


Thursday, April 28


Next week, the youngest students will move into the final First Grade main lesson block of the school year (Science: 4 Elements) and the older students will wrap up any and all existing incomplete projects (originally my plan was to have them do a self-directed World Geography block using Mapping the World with Art by Ellen Johnston McHenry as their primary resource, but they requested that we move that block to the first topic of next year so that they have enough time to do it really well). The student who is most interested in hearing the remaining Old Testament Stories (the holidays of Purim and Hanukkah) will borrow from my booklist as her SSR choices.

Favorite Picture Books for the Old Testament


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