Week 4

 Mali: This week I finished the Henry and Mudge book I was reading. I also read some other books. I worked on my flashcards. I did some lessons in Spelling You See. I started doing TTRS for typing and spelling practice, too. I started Xtra Math to help me with my math facts. I finished a section in my math units. We learned more about the middle east for geography. I made a potholder. I made some more slime. 

Max: This week I spent a lot of time practicing and learning long division. It is hard to keep all the steps straight and sometimes the problems take so long. I did XtraMath to practice my math facts. I started doing TTRS for typing practice. I finished up Unit 3 in my language arts program. I read two Dogman books that we got from the library. I am also reading Stickdog. 

Mali's delicious banana split

Week 3

 Max: I read two Dogman books this week. I really like them. I started back up in my language arts workbook again and did some contractions and spelling and homophone practice. In Math I worked on learning long division and I started using XtraMath to practice my math facts. We went to the park. We tie dyed tee-shirts and handkerchiefs. I practiced piano. 

Mali: I read a Henry and Mudge book. I did some math lessons. I started back up with my Spelling You See workbooks. We went to the park and tie dyed. I did some more drawings on the iPad in Procreate. 

Playing Throw Throw Burrito

Playing multiplication/skip counting Speed with the Fours deck

One of Mali's designs on Procreate from this week

Week 1 & 2

 We went to the aquarium. Our membership is expiring soon so we wanted to be sure and go at least one more time before it expires. We talked to an employee there about water conservation. Toilets use a lot of water, often 5-7 gallons per flush! We really liked seeing the otters swimming around. 

Max: In math I am working on division, including division with remainders. I finished the book series I was reading so I started reading Dogman. I really like it. 

Mali: In math I am working on directions, shapes, and lines of symmetry. I have been reading the Pinkalicious series of books. I like them. 

We have played a lot of games lately. Guesstures, Wits & Wagers, lots of different UNO games, Trash Pandas, Exploding Kittens, and Flip 4! 

Week 39

 This week in Science we learned about phylogenies. Phuylogenies tell which species are more closely related to other species.You can go back and see which ones have a common ancestor. Some interesting things we learned is that hyenas are more closely related to cats than they are to dogs, even though they have a lot of similar traits. Also we learned about homologous and convergent traints. Homologous traits came from an ancestor common to both species but convergent traits evolved independently for that species. A common example of that is wings for bats and birds. They evolved wings independently, bats and birds don't share a common winged ancestor. Also, we learned that you have to go waaaay back in the history of carnivores to find a common ancestor for cats and raccoons. A long time ago there was a split and you have the cats & relatives (hyenas, ,mongooses, and linsangs) on one branch and the raccoons, skunks, bears, walruses, and dogs on the other branch. Pretty neat. 

We have both been working on practicing our compositions for our recital that is happening next week. Max's song is called Felice Pinguino which means Happy Penguin in Italian. Mali's song is called Baby Bluebirds. We had to perform them for people outside of our household to practice and help us get ready for the recital. 

In Geography we learned about Iraq and Kuwait. 

We went to the Hogle Zoo. It was a really nice day and there was a baby Colobus monkey and also a baby Titi monkey and a pretty young gorilla. So fun to see the babies.

This shows how the ancestor of whales used to have nostrils at the end of its nose and 

gradually it moved up to be on top of the head

All of these organisms evolved from a common tetrapod 

(four footed) ancestor and you can see the ways the bones have changed but still have the same bones. 

We had parent day for our last day of music class and mom told me 

to lay down so she could put all these instruments on me.

Mali at the zoo

Baby titi monkey

Rhino statue at the zoo

baby colobus monkey

Max compared to a black, grizzly, and polar bear

Mali compared to a black, grizzly, and polar bear

Noni "helping" Mali with her language arts practice. 

Maybe he knew it mentioned cats?

Week 38

 Mali: I am still working on measurements for math. I've been learning about volume measurements. Gallons and cups and also cubic centimeters. I started reading a collection of Biscuit stories. He is a really cute puppy and the stories are fun. I finished the yellow fairy book but wanted to take a break from the series so we are reading something else. 

Max: I started the third book in my Spaced Out series. I am doing subtraction of big numbers, into the 10,000s. So I am getting lots of practice with regrouping. I finished my essay comparing polar bears and black bears in my language arts lesson. 

We played Konexi

We went to Doctor Strange on my mom's birthday and we all dressed up as Marvel characters.

Picnic at the park on Mom's birthday

Mali on the jungle gym

Mali at Lagoon

Week 37

 We have had fun in our Parkour class at Lowes Xtreme Airsports. This week we did a timed course that included a sort of monkey bar thing that you go along with just hand in front of hand. It also had a balance beam and a block you had to jump onto without using your knees to get up. 

In Science we learned about genetic drift and what a bottleneck is when talking about genes and evolution. Cheetahs are so genetically similar that you can do a skin graft between cheetahs and their bodies don't reject it because they think its from their own body. 

We did a cooking lesson with our dad and learned how to make Nice Salad, named after the city of Nice in France. It was yummy. We all helped do the food prep.

Max: I started the fourth grade math on CTC Math. I have been reviewing place value in larger numbers. I have been working on an essay comparing polar bears and black bears.  

Mali: I have been doing measurement in Math. Area in square inches and square centimeters. I have done a lot of drawings lately. I did a whole series of dessert themed dinosaurs. 

Making the salad

The salad!

Mali practicing flips on the trampoline

Week 36

In science this week we learned about the differences between invasive species and endangered species. Something that makes a big difference is the animal's adaptations. Some animals and plants can survive in a wide variety of environments and other ones need really specific conditions to thrive. One invasive plant we learned about was kudzu. Our sister is traveling in the south and saw kudzu everywhere. It really grows fast and can spread over anything in its way. 

In Geography we started Asia. We learned about Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia. The pictography to help us remember is a turkey vulture wearing a hat and eating a butterfly. 

We also went swimming at the rec center. It was during regular school hours so it was super empty and we pretty much had the whole big pool to ourselves. 

Mali: In math I finished up patterns and money. I am doing measuring now. It involves measuring with inches, feet, and yards and converting inches to feet, feet to inches, and yards to feet and feet to yards. I finished reading the Orange Fairy book and am now reading Sunny the Yellow Fairy. 

Max: I finished up the 3rd grade math program in CTC Math, so I did quite a few review lessons to go over things and make sure I understood everything. I will go ahead and start on the fourth grade lessons soon.