This week we finished our rain forest wall by adding labels to our plants, animals and layers.

 

Adelaide is officially moving!  She is crawling all over getting into everything!  It's been quite the week for Austin who was not expecting her to be getting into his things.  It doesn't matter what I put around her she always wants whatever her brothers are playing with and she goes right for them.  She also seems to really like Jackson's tail!

She keeps getting up on her feet like this, I'm not sure why!

Yesterday she helped me pot some flowers.

Here are some books we've read this week.  We started Abraham Lincoln.  I tried to do a couple activities online but our computer was too slow :(

Gavin is reading this chapter book about Lincoln for homework.

We finished up rain forests by reading these books.  I really like the "We Both Read" series.  One page is for the adult to read and the page facing it is for kids to read with easier words and bigger type.

Today we started desert habitats.

And, we finished Longfellow!

We have two chapters left in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.



In math today Gavin practiced skip counting as a prelude to multiplication.  We started by skip counting on the abacus, then I wrote multiplication problems on a piece of paper so he could figure out the answer.  For example, he separated the beads on the abacus by groups of 3 to 30, then I would say 3 X 4 = and he would use his abacus to find the answer.

Then he played a game where I shuffled skip counting cards and placed them face down on the table.  He did skip counting by 3, 4 and 6.  He had to turn over the cards one at a time and put them in the correct order.  When they were all lined up I would say 'what is 3 five times' and he would count over five cards to find the answer.

As a special treat today we went to the library where a lady with Wings of Love was talking about rain forest birds.  She has quite a few of them and has traveled to the rain forest and written books about them and since we are learning about the rain forest this happened at the perfect time for us.  Both Gavin and Austin had an awesome time and were very impressed.

 

This is actually an owl from Asia.  He was the only non-rain forest bird there but he is the second biggest owl species in the world with a wing span of almost seven feet.  He flew right over the top of us and it was very impressive!

On our way to the room where this was taking place Gavin said he hoped she would have a toucan.  I don't think I've ever actually seen a toucan and I told him she probably wouldn't have one and maybe we could find one at the zoo.  Well, I was wrong!  She did have a toucan!  And, I have to say, this is a very beautiful bird.  Way prettier in person then in the pictures.  Super cute too!  It kept hopping off it's perch and hopping across the floor!  She tossed him some grapes and he caught them and ate them right up.

Apparently this bird hangs upside down to drink nectar from flowers just like a hummingbird.  It was a beautiful red color.

This is a cockatoo roller skating.

He can also ride a bike and play basketball.

A couple of the birds even talked!  The boys loved this program so I'm glad we got to go!  When we got home Gavin had to finish up his school work.  He colored in the free states/territories and slave states/territories from 1860.

Then he practiced mapping by following the directions to mark each room in a castle.

We read about the Missouri Compromise and read about another missionary in Ethiopia.  Our fairy tale today was the Black Bull of Norroway.

 

Today Gavin cooked us another Japanese meal: teriyaki steak and broccoli over rice. 

We added animals and plants to our rain forest.  We put them in the correct layer where they live (we added some water to the bottom).

Here is what we have now.

Next week we are going to add labels.  The boys had a rain forest dinner: bananas, pineapple, kiwi, avacado, cashews and Fig Newton's (for figs).  Not exactly a balanced meal but they both enjoyed it!

We read this book about the rain forest today.

We have only three chapters left in our biography about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Gavin has been reading this book on his own.

He is also reading this book about Japan.

 

And we are deep into Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which Gavin is loving!



This morning we started our Japan activity, putting a swordfish fillet in a marinade.  Gavin made the marinade and put the swordfish in it.

 

Gavin also made a Japanese fan.  And by made, I mean he colored it, cut it out and glued it onto a popsicle stick!

This afternoon we took a field trip with some other homeschoolers to the physics building at the university.  A professor showed the kids the telescope, talked about how it worked and let them look inside it.  Then she showed them the scale models of the solar system and other neat gadgets.  The boys had a lot of fun and Adelaide was very interested too for some reason (mostly nosiness).