Interactive Journal, Interactive Fun

Trying to take a fresh approach to school this year, one that Chase seems to enjoy.  We'll be trying to work more in his journals opposed to strictly worksheets.  Last year, it was such a struggle to get him to do his written assignments, I didn't have the energy to do the journaling.  Preparing them can be a lot of work.

Today, we worked on two journals, Math and Science.  For Math, I made a small project, Groups of Two and Groups of Three.  I drew everything to fit in the notebooks and he colored, grouped and then labeled them and glued each into the book.  Finally, I had him write an equation to represent how many groups of twos and threes there were to reinforce the multiplication concepts.

I plan to be making some TpT material out of this.  Maybe offer the pumpkins and baseballs as clipart.  I find the clipart on there to be lacking and want to flood the site with my own art.  Of course, many of my materials have sadly been lost to our external hard drive crash, which we have not yet been able to recover.  I may have to rescan some things if I managed to keep them.  Some I just used the 'hard copy' for Chase's journals last year.  Or it's been misplaced in my mess of art supplies.  I need shelves.  And drawers!  A roll cart!

For Science, we made a quick cover for the notebook, which he decorated.  I wrote in his vocabulary words: Entomologist, Arthropods, Invertebrate, Exoskeleton, and Antennae.  I'm planning a unit on insects!  He wrote in the meanings and drew a picture of an ant enlarged with a magnifying glass.  This is his field journal, so we might need to take it outside to do some investigating.  Chase is terrible at identifying bugs.  He hates them.  But any time he sees one, he shouts, "Bug!" without telling us if it's a spider or a fly or a moth, etc...

So, we've gotten internet on my art desk computer.  Yay!  So now I can upload directly from creation.  And once we upgrade a bit, then perhaps, live art sessions.  We need an adapter to switch out the current motherboard with another we have stashed in the closet.  Which will have a better power supply and perhaps even on board audio.  This computer cannot even run headphones.

Well, I need to get back to creating new TpT materials.

"Candids"

Chase loves to have me take 'candids' like in Big Nate.

Interactive Notebooking - Math

Woohoo, I've gotten 5 assignments readied in Chase's Math notebook. Seventeen days til' school starts... Goal - two weeks worth of work prepared... Hopefully, we can get the printer fully operational so I can print out the collection of freebies I've been gathering. I use all those worksheets for notebooking. So, want to see what I've got so far? Don't let the ordinary cover fool you! First day of school, I plan to have him decorate this. Maybe with some aluminum tape and go to town with my metal embossing tools... Or let him art it up in some other way. I don't have fancy papers though. But maybe if we can get the printer to be awesome, we can print our own.

The first thing I did was watch several tutorials on making pocket folder inserts for notebooks. So, I added one to the front of the book and one to the middle as a divider. This is a one subject book, but it will be handy later on in the year when he needs to flip to the back right away. The front pocket contains a piece of cardstock to use as a page saver, to go behind pages he's writing on so as to not poke through. Since pages will have fold out things and flip books, etc, there will be lots of problems with writing without making holes. On the back of this divider is the first Table of Contents. As more are needed, then I'll add in another divider. Opposite the Contents is a chalkboard! I found a blog post on Come Together Kids about making your own paper chalkboards and it's super easy and really works. I just glued it in place and it is ready to go. He can use it for notes or scratch paper, or doodling! There's another secret one on the back.  It has a cover flap to prevent getting chalk all over everything and keeps the writing from smudging.

The assignments are on place values and 3 part word problems.  I made the subject be Star Wars to go with the workbooks we bought.  They're really great, though a bit thin on workload.  For place values, I have a chart with flip up sections.  Across from it is a flipbook of place values.  He would mark each page as being 100-200-300 so on, either by coloring it or using a sticker.  Not 100 stickers in each, I'd be out of stickers and the page would be a mess.  He would write the qty on the front of the booklet.  I'm making a printable version of this with my party theme art on TeachersPayTeachers.


More place value work, just some labels for the squares, color coded them to keep him on track with HTO.  And finally, a place value slider.  I used some cardstock to make these.  The cardstock I used is from Core-dinations, I had won this sampler pack from JoAnn Fabrics several years ago now.  They are perfect for making bookmarks, and perfect for little projects like this.  I cut it to just short of my paper and used the cut off for the mount.  I measured how big the opening should be and it perfectly came out to how many I needed.  On the next page are some task cards, just index cards with mini place value assignments.

I'm sure I spent more time making these than he'll spend doing them.  Well, he better not spend that long!

Supplies List

It's school supply season, so here is a list of things we'll be needing this school year. I've been compiling a wish list on Amazon for the Second Grade school year.

• Star Wars 2nd Grade Workbooks - Math/Writing/Reading
• Common Core Math&ELA Workbooks/4Today Daily Practices
• Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Workbooks
• BrainQuest 2nd Grade Workbook/Q&A Packs
• Science and Geography Workbooks
• Cursive and Print Handwriting Practices
• Wide/Primary Ruled Composition Books (6+) (2/5+)
• Glue Sticks (multi-pack) (1/6+)
• File Folders (manilla/pocket)
• Wide Ruled Filler Paper
• Construction Paper
• Safety Scissors
• Writing utensils - Pencils/Pens/Dry Erase Markers/Markers/Color Pencils/Crayons
• Erasers
• Stickers
• Tape - Clear/Masking
• Rubber Bands/Paper Clips
• Pencil Pouch/Case (binder type preferred)
• Posterboard/Bulletin board accessories
• Art Supplies/Lesson plans
• ...

I'd like to raise funds to purchase all our homeschool needs.  I am accepting donations via PayPal as well as offering artworks for sale on my Etsy site.  I also have a few resource items which I'll be adding to throughout the school year in my TpT storefront.

Any help to get supplies would greatly be appreciated.  I will try to keep the wishlist up to date on any items that have been purchased.  We plan to buy the Star Wars Workbooks first.

Homeschool Fundraiser

Hunting for a Good Book?

Sir Fartsalot

Yesterday I read to Chase from "Sir Fartsalot Hunts the Booger" for his reading 20.  We left off on Chapter 5.  Today, after homeschool was all wrapped up he dove back into the book.  By dinner time, he read to Chapter 10.  He quickly devoured up his mega meal of turkey pepperoni sandwich and yogurt w/banana and sprinkles (I let him choose leftovers or a sandwich) and right back to the book.  And once I'd finished cleaning up and dishes, I'd come to check on him.  Chapter 26!  Wow!  I gleefully told his Dad and Grandpa and Great Grandma and posted how proud I was on Facebook...  And he had finished the book before bedtime with time enough to spare.  So I let him watch the amusing video in this post.  Highly recommend this book.  It is full of laughs and it's a gas.  (totally intentional pun)

He hasn't been getting enough sleep lately and has been giving us a terrible time for school.  It is pulling teeth to get him to brush them.  And getting dressed is a contest of wills.  I'm trying to keep his school work interesting and fun.  A mix of worksheets and hands on learning.  And games.  I'm on a mad search for games.

Mini review of one game.  The Lesson Plan Diva had a nice little "Where the Wild Things Are" book report trivia game modeled after Jeopardy as a freebie.  So I downloaded it.  Chase really enjoyed it, however, there's some flaws.  The answer and question sheets are incorrect.  One of the answers was wrong and the questions don't match the board.  Her stuff looks great, but I'll probably create my own material next time.  I want to make sure the problems and solutions are correct and not have to proofread every question.  There were many great reviews, however none mentioned the errors.  I'll have to give her a precise review, she'd probably want to know there are mistakes.  It is still a great resource and you just have to check the answers real quick before going over with the kids.  Where the Wild Things Are Trivia Game  I cut out the board for Chase's interactive notebook.  And worked out a prize system for his totals.  20 pts = 1 prize, 40 pts = 2 prizes and 100 pts = CANDY!  He liked that.

I mentioned before that I won Mrs. O Knows' giveaway for Trainer's Warehouse's wonderful Quick Response Whiteboards.  They arrived the other day and they are a big hit!  We received the 12 pk which has 4 of each color handle, red, blue and green.  We're keeping half of them.  Chase LOVES them.  We did a spelling/Pictionary inspired game where I would make a drawing and he'd write what it was and we'd flip our boards to see if we had a match and then switch roles.  Today we did some math stories where I presented him with word, number and picture problems and he would solve them on his board.  Then I did a spelling activity where he would pick the correct word to match the picture where I have several variations of a word written down.  (i.e. picture of a fan and choices were fun, fon, fan, fin and fen)  He would write it on his board and we'd flip.

He's been running around drawing on this and carrying them all over the house as a little sign.  I would highly recommend them!  I'll have to post up a picture of them in use some time.  The packaging for them was great, it arrived in a bigger box and padded with paper.  There was a catalog for their other products and website as well as a few free items.  They gifted me a small doodle pad for Chase to fidget and doodle in between working on assignments.  Hopefully, it will save his work from being covered in his wonderful art.  And a certificate/sign display holder that can adhere to the wall.  I'll figure out a use for it.  The whiteboards are available singles or there's snap on handles and other options.  So if a pack of 12 won't suit your needs, there are plenty of options.  The little dry erasers that come with each board are okay, but they leave a fuzz bit behind.  I end up wiping it down with a baby wipe afterwards to clean up remaining marks and fuzz.  I have heard using WD-40 will make your dry erase boards perform better and clean up easier.  I'll have to give it a try.  It is something I found on Pinterest...  ;P

Another very exciting thing, at least to me, since teaching is very exciting to me!...  Humanist Homeschoolers, will be lending us a Social Studies textbook for First Graders.  They're a secular free resources for homeschool provider.  They receive support via donations.  I'd like to thank everyone who donated books to them so my son can have a better education.  There isn't a 1st grade common core standard, but I want to keep him on par with his peers.  I'd been alternating between Geography, Biographies of Historical figures, Current Events and local/US histories, etc.  Now, I need science, which HH recommended Classic Science: Elementary Life Science as a free curriculum.  I'm excited to have a great start to his school year.

I absolutely gushed and fawned over his reading skills tonight, I hope he feels proud of himself.  He says he didn't have trouble with a single word, and it is the first chapter book he ever read by himself.  Maybe he won't feel so daunted by books like Harry Potter, since they have so few pictures.  This one had pictures every few pages or small pictures in the text.  But way more text than illustration.  He also admired the fonts and design of the cover art, saying how the black and grey border go nice together and he likes the color of the dragon, and color scheme.  I would have to agree.  Looks like he has an eye for design.  ;)

215 page Chapter book