Saturday, August 18, 2012

HOD Beyond Week 1



This was the big week we were waiting for--our first week using Heart of Dakota. I'm happy to report that our week went smoothly and we had a lot of fun too. I've had to add to Beyond because I am using it with a 3rd grader (Comedian R) but I still think it is a good fit for my guy. There will be a later post on how to beef up Beyond for a 3rd grader.


In storytime, HOD begins reading a Biography. To introduce that a biography is a book on a person's life, they have the students go to their room and pick 5 items that tell more about them. My son picked out an American flag because he is an American, green shamrock beads because green is his favorite color, a Superman figure because he wants to be a superhero when he grows up, a Lego Ninjago figure as he loves playing legos, and a rubber lizard just because he likes it. We are reading a biography on Benjamin Franklin. The Story of Benjamin Franklin: Amazing American by Margaret Davidson. You don't have to use the title suggested in the curriculum. It just has to be a biography. All the activities and questions are generalized to work with any biography.


In history, we learned about the Spanish pioneers as they crossed the Atlantic on their way to settle St. Augustine in Florida. In geography, the curriculum says to make an outline of the world with masking tape. I just got out my large laminated world map which worked great pointing out the continents. In this picture Comedian R is jumping on one foot from each continent that I call out.



In science this week, we learned about ocean currents and whale blubber. Here he is with his paper boat making currents with a small dropper. By the way, the dropper was too small and the index card boat became water logged too soon. We got out a small plastic boat and used a turkey baster to make the current and we sailed the boat around the bathtub.




In Beyond, you start building a timeline. The curriculum suggests taking a piece of paper and creating a grid of centuries and then drawing a picture for each point on the timeline. Instead, I had this drawing paper and decided to make a more longitudinal timeline.  Comedian R is not an artist and does not like drawing pictures. So, when we can, we will find pictures to put on the time line. His brother (Creative C) helped him with the fort drawing on the timeline this week.


The last activity of the week (Day 5), we were to make a coat of arms. As it happens, I will be teaching a class on medieval times in co-op this semester so I had a book just on coat of arms. I took some thin cardboard and traced an outline of the shield. We cut it out and then traced the shield outline on the piece of construction paper. Then cut that out and glued it to the cardboard. Using just water colors we used stencils to make the figures to create the coat of arms. We glued an empty toilet paper roll on the back for a handle.

We also had a breakthrough this week. My guy tied a shoe for the first time. FINALLY! Admittedly, I haven't had him work on this as much as I should as he doesn't wear laces in his shoes at this point. Overall, it was a great week.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am visiting from the HOD Blogroll and wanted to share a weekly HOD Highlights meme that I am starting to inspire and encourage others using HOD.

I hope that you will share your HOD posts and link up with others. I am looking forward to seeing how everyone is using Heart of Dakota.

Many Blessings, Tamara
http://allofakindfamily.blogspot.com/