Yesterday Gavin had a pile of tiles and had to determine if they were an even or odd number without counting them.  He decided the easiest way to do this was to put them in groups of two.  He found out that he had an even number of tiles.  Then he added a group of odd tiles with a group of even tiles, a group of odd tiles with another group of odd tiles, etc. to review odd plus odd equals even, etc.

 

Austin practiced playing the piano!

We took some time away from all the Civil War battles and focused on the Emancipation Proclamation.  Then Gavin added some pages to his history journal.

The one says, "The Union surrendered at Fort Sumter in the (first - he forgot that word) battle of the Civil War."

"Ironclad ships were first used during the Civil War."

"Spectators watched as the Union fled at the Battle of Bull Run."

and, "Many lives were lost at the Battle of Antietam.

We read these books about the proclamation.

This weekend we also read these books because Gavin just couldn't wait for school on Monday!

Today we read more in our oceans book and then used sand to make the bottom of the ocean.  Gavin made the continental shelf and the continental slope, then added mountains and valleys.

 

When he was done with his ocean floor we added water and that was when the fun really started.  We talked about sonar and how scientists can tell how deep the ocean is by measuring the sound waves.  Since we don't have access to sonar, we just used a ruler to measure the different depths.

Then he got to play in his ocean.

And then it was Austin's turn.  He pretty much got out all the bath toys and made a mess but he had a great time!

We are still working on this book.  It is taking longer then I expected.

And this book at lunchtime.



Friday we took a field trip to the fire station.  It was actually a field trip for Austin's class at school but Gavin, Adelaide and I tagged along.  We had a great time learning about fire safety and seeing where the firemen live while they are at work.

 

It was a little chilly when we first got there, but it warmed up nicely by the time we were back outside to check out the fire truck.

 

This is Austin watching the ladder being raised.

And here with his classmates listening to the fireman.

Finally it was time to go inside the truck.

Gavin got a personal tour of the truck by this nice man who was kind enough to answer his incessant questions.  I always feel kind of sorry for unsuspecting strangers who get caught up in the torrent of questioning.



Adelaide is ready for Thanksgiving!

 

She's still trying to figure out the walking thing.  She is also trying to push the buttons on this ride on car.  I should probably put some batteries in it!

Yesterday Gavin worked some more on math strategies and then we played addition war.  Have I mentioned he really likes playing math games?

He's in an undershirt because I made him wear a sweater and he always complains about being hot when I make him wear sweaters (Austin does the same thing).  I like boys in sweaters though so I keep making them wear them anyway!

 

Since we finished with France, Gavin opened the next package from Little Passports.  He went through the side rather than the top...

I think you can tell by the look on his face that they redeemed themselves this month.  Last month they just sent us a poster for France, this month they sent...

a pyramid excavation kit.  Basically you get to be an archaeologist and 'dig' through the pyramid to find a prize hidden inside.  He was very excited!  He did this when we learned about dinosaurs (except it was a dinosaur egg) last year and he was really excited to do it again.

Then he completed a puzzle using hieroglyphics.

Austin thought the excavation kit was awesome too.  (He is also in is undershirt because I made him wear a sweater yesterday too!)

Speaking of Austin, he has been putting stickers all over the house, so I stapled some paper together and made him a sticker book.  Hopefully that will help solve the problem.

Gavin traced a map of Egypt with major landmarks and cities.

Then he finally got to work on the pyramid.

All of the sudden, the sweater didn't seem like such a bad idea anymore!

For some reason he thought he would go in through the bottom, but a pyramid is hard to balance when you turn it upside down, so he had Austin hold it steady for him.

And, he got, some sort of sphinx looking thing.

We read this book about Egypt.

We took some time out of the battle scenes yesterday to read about what was going on at home while the men were off fighting in the Civil War.  We read a few stories about the women and children in this book.

And then we read more about it in these books.

 

This morning we reviewed another math strategy, finding doubles.  For example, for 5 + 6, you know that 5 + 5 = 10 and then you add the one because 6 is 5 and 1.  He then found all the doubles on his math table he completed earlier and found out that the answers are always even because odd + odd = even and even + even = even.  Then he found the near doubles and found they are always odd because even + odd = odd.

 

Today Gavin started ocean habitat.  We read a couple books about oceans and then did an experiment to find out more about the differences between fresh water and salt water.  Is it inappropriate that our experiment used whiskey glasses and shot glasses?  I needed clear, small glasses and they are what I could find.  Strange since we don't drink whiskey or do shots but they worked well for our experiment.  Anyway, first Gavin filled two glasses with water, then he added salt to one of the glasses and stirred it until the salt dissolved into the water.

 

Then Gavin put a little of each glass into a smaller glass and added food coloring so he could see it.  Then Gavin added the small glass of fresh water into the bigger glass of salt water.

He noticed that the fresh water stayed closer to the top of the salt water and drew his findings in his science journal.

Then he added salt water to the fresh water.

He noticed that the salt water sunk to the bottom of the glass.

Then he recorded this finding in his science journal. 

Finally, we poured two tablespoons of salt water and two tablespoons of fresh water into glasses and put them on the balance.  Gavin's guess that the salt water would be heavier than the fresh water was proven correct.  He added this to his science journal.  Then we talked about density and he recorded the definition of density into his science vocabulary notebook.

Austin was painting but he decided he wanted to come check out our experiment after all (he had been invited at the beginning).

We read these books about oceans.

We didn't finish this book but will finish it next week.

And, we loved the Thornton Burgess Animal Book and the Thornton Burgess Bird Book, so now the boys are super excited that we are reading the Thornton Burgess Seashore Book during lunch.

I think I haven't updated our new poem, verses, etc. for November yet this month.  Our Bible verses are Matthew 5:2-12.   It's the Beatitudes, which I'm not going to copy since everyone probably already knows them!  Our composer is Edvard Greig and our artist is Rembrandt.

 

Our poem this month is The Rainy Day, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

 

The Rainy Day

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

The day is cold, and dark and dreary;

It rains and the wind is never weary;

The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,

But at every gust the dead leaves fall,

And the day is dark and dreary.

 

My life is cold, and dark and dreary;

It rains and the wind is never weary;

My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,

But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,

And the days are dark and dreary.

 

Be still, sad heart! And cease repining;

Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;

Thy fate is the common fate of all,

into each life some rain must fall,

Some days must be dark and dreary.

 

Depressing?  Maybe, but true.  And, I want Gavin to know that even when things aren't going the way we want them too that there are always good times ahead.  Plus, since we read the biography about Longfellow, we were able to talk about some of the 'dreary' times in his life when he may have written this poem, and how those 'dreary' times turned out alright as his life continued.