1st Week Back

What we did:  I wanted to have a New Year's party the first day back from school.  The idea came from @steph_frosch in a Twitter chat over winter break.  I create a cute sign, got donuts and sparkling cider.  The boys each wrote blog posts reflecting about 2014.  Here are the links if you want to read what they wrote:

Isaac's reflections
Joseph's reflections
Andrew's reflections

We also did a math game where they had to come up with the most ways to create a math equation that equaled 2015.  The person who got the most got to pick their Christmas present first.  My mom found these Minecraft figures that I gave them.

For Social Studies they "traveled" with their passports all over the world to read and learn about different New Year's Eve traditions.  They went to 12 different countries.  I made a little paragraph with a "stamp" that correlated with the tradition.  They glued in each stamp to their passport.  We talked about similarities and differences between the countries.  They picked which country they would like to actually travel to for New Years.

We did several art projects the first week back. I found this STEAM idea for pendulum art paintings.  The boys had so much fun putting it together and creating.

The boys also did artist research projects and created a piece in the same style of their person.  Isaac imitated Georgia O'Keef, Joseph researched Henri Matisse, and Andrew used the style of Jackson Pollack.

Good things are in store for 2015.  We are preparing for our first Mystery Skype, we are going on a whale watching field trip to Samana, we are collaborating with another homeschool class for a project about the Mirabal sisters, we are reading tons more books.  We are creating, exploring, writing, and discovering.