When I mentioned in a post last Monday that our three older brothers were in “special” classes, I kept some information to myself. 🙂 They were actually on a field trip with the Prez in San Antonio. They saw the Alamo, went to a snake park, ate lunch with a large company’s VP and other high-ups (so proud of the report I received on that!), stopped by the Duck Dynasty, and a Civil War battlefield that happens to be in Vicksburg, Mississippi. In addition to all of this, I sent them with assignment sheets, and the reports are that they were actually able to get a lot done in a hotel room. I even heard something like “I was bored so I read a lot of my science book.”

Meanwhile, the three littles and I took advantage of Momma not having as many students this week, and we really had a great time of learning through focusing on penguins. I really need to do more of this themed learning. They really took to it. Ask them about the equator and why it is warm there and not at the poles. Or what type of animal a penguin is, and can they fly? Well, anyway, we learned a lot together. I took a few more pictures and I just had to share. (By the way, I hope to share some pics from the older boys’ adventures with the Prez once I get their photos downloaded from their cameras. Actually, I will be sharing some of their own words hopefully!).

First I have to share this iPhone photo. In another post I shared some ways we are using their new iPods for learning. How about for Bible study? Seriously, they are loving having a copy of God’s Word on their devices.

As for those penguins, we have been getting books from the library slowly. Apparently, others had the same idea! We continued reading today and learned that some penguins live in more temperate climates. I didn’t know that either!

Here they are with another Pint*erest find: Melting Ice Experiment. Which one will melt fastest? 1) Ice in tap water 2) Ice by itself 3) Ice in salt or 4) Ice in sugar.

They LOVED this. I really need to do more experiments.

This was so easy really.

They eagerly guessed and did they observe as well!

You are thinking the ice cube in salt right? Everyone they ask says this too, but it wasn’t that cube. And yes, the cubes were all the same size to start.

Li’l Bit was particularly curious about the salt and the sugar. 🙂

We noticed very quickly that one ice cube was melting much faster than the other three.

And that another one was going to most likely melt next.

And we observed some more.

It was so much fun! Like I said, note to self. Do more of this stuff! No mess even on this one and the payoff was immeasurable in terms of learning and growing.

As we observed, we were hard at work on some other learning activities. We continued using resources from my Penguin Fun Math Unit such as the “Count with the Penguins” interactive math storybook. They loved this too!

After we read about the lonely penguin who ended up with 19 other penguin friends, I gave them the blank lined paper and instructed them to draw a picture. I told them they could then tell me a story about it.

With the Charlotte Mason method, copywork is a huge component. Rather than allowing spelling errors naturally, we much prefer to encourage them to tell their story orally.

I write it out for them as they tell it, and then they copy it in their best handwriting. This way spelling errors are not reinforced, and they are able to focus on the TELLING of the story rather than the mechanics of it.

We are still working on our stories. I encouraged them to use numbers in their stories, and so far I am very impressed!

They begged me to use the number flashcards and matching ten frames again. So I obliged. They did GREAT with this. I sort of wish I would have started using these earlier (the ten frames), but at least I know they are more than ready for them.

I put the number flashcards in as before, but out of order and instructed them to put them in order from least to greatest. They say, “Mom, can we do greatest to least instead?” Um, sure! Seriously. Geniuses I tell ya!

One last activity we completed from the Penguin Unit is the “What’s That Number” half-page sheets. At first, they were not really sure about this. Admittedly, we don’t do a lot of worksheets around here, but I did feel like some remediation and evaluation was in order. When I created this resource, I had assessment in mind with this, and it worked out well.

I was so glad to see them write the addition sentence with ease. 🙂

We have a few more Penguin activities left to do and I *hope* to have an abbreviated literacy pack ready for next week. Hope you are having a great week of fun learning as well!

Click on the picture to check out my Penguin Fun Kindergarten Math resource in my TpT store.