English Literature...what to choose next

I find myself up late at night constantly researching books and looking for fun ways to study literature without making it too dry for them but also making sure they are comprehending the material given to them. I remember when we had chosen the umbrella school in the beginning and they suggested all classic literature. ..most dating back 100s of years and I thought to myself..there has to be a better way to teach the reading skills I have learned and test the comprehension and build on it with fun activities. Then I discovered The Magic Tree House supplement website: http://www.mthclassroomadventures.org 

I am addicted. Not only do they have lesson plans and readers theatre for each book but they are from teachers who use these books in their classroom. There is also a leveling chart to help you figure out what level to start them out and what books are appropriate for them. The girls are loving the different options to choose from and I was even able to find books relating to what we are studying in other subjects such as mummies. Tying all the subjects together is so helpful yet time consuming so this year is definitely a learning curve for me. I feel that next year I will be much better at planning and choosing the right material. I am half way through this first year and I feel like I have gotten them where they need to be thus far. The new year 2015 will be even better!

Open House and Play

Who doesn't need a mini-vacation before a stressful event right? Well we did! We took a nice little trip up to Sandusky to have some R&R, play time and to see one of the Great Lakes of course. 

Ainsley's Desk

Emma's Desk

Each of the girls made "Wish Jars" for their special guests to put wishes in. Each guest wrote what they wished the student would accomplish for this year and we read them aloud in class the following week. They loved this!

Marissa's Desk

Story of the World History Timeline Progress

Report Card Display

Self Portraits

Flower Petal Art

Leaf Stamping Art

Light Hut Progress-The Valerian Root seems to be the best

Our Learning Tree

This was our biggest project for the Open House. We found as many different leaf specimens as we could find and laminated them and cut them out. Then they wrote all of the things they enjoyed learning about during the first trimester on little cards and put them on the leaves. After making a tree out of construction paper we hung the leaves off the tree. 

Report Cards

Before the Open House, we showcased our talent in musical theater by putting on a performance for our guests. This piece was taken from a story we learned about in our History book when learning about ancient Egypt. This was a total family affair and we had a blast doing it. I will post video too once I finish editing. This is a memory we made that we will never forget for eternity and I am so glad we did it together!

Fun with Cookies!

Emma's Archaeology Kit

California Woods Leaf Hunt & Flower Pressing Crafts

WOW! It has been a long time since I have blogged! Not only have I been really busy but I had to keep a lot of our photos hush hush for our Open House that we hosted over Thanksgiving. Now I can share what we have done through the first trimester.

In Botany we studied leaves and needless to say it is so much fun!  We had to start hunting a while back before the rain pulled the rest of the remaining ones down. We pressed them in between books and then laminated them.  We also did this for the flower lesson as well. Then we cut them out so we could study them and categorize them by arrangement, venation, shape and margin. They can tell you more about a leaf than most adults:) 

These are flowers from our flower bed that they found before the first frost hit that we pressed and laminated. They took the petals apart and made art with some of them using Mod Podge.