I love sharing these because I'm always amazed at the immense amount of learning that takes place when it's all child-led. And my nerdy, academic self gets so excited seeing it all detailed according to the required NYS "subjects."
Second Quarterly Report
2015/2016
Helena Aviles
5th Grade
Hours of Instruction: 225 +
Helena has made satisfactory process in all subject areas.
Math:
- Redstone in Minecraft
- Attended a Little Bits electronics maker’s workshop at the Gravity Tech Center
Spanish: Spanish games club weekly at Yacon, a variety of active games that allow for usage of basic Spanish vocabulary such as greetings, directions, prepositions, places, animals, actions and so on.
Second Quarterly Report
2015/2016
Helena Aviles
5th Grade
Hours of Instruction: 225 +
Helena has made satisfactory process in all subject areas.
Math:
- Life of Fred math books 4 and 5
- Began playing the advanced version of DragonBox, a game that teaches algebraic concepts.
- Watched a kid’s intro to algebra on youtube that explained how algebra originated in Iraq
- Watched more MathAntics and BrainPop math videos, particularly on the subject of fractions
- Geography of Asia based on a business trip to China that her dad took
- Sent Panda (stuffed animal) to China and looked at photos of Panda in various Chinese locations
- We made a large map of Asia and put it on the fridge and marked some of the cities Panda visited
- We read off the nations and capitals while locating them daily; Helena now is very familiar with the basics of Asian geography
- Made a humorous “scary” film while pointing to nations/capitals in Asia with a knife and threatening the viewer to learn their lessons well!
- We watched some of the Netflix documentary mini-series Wild China and learned all about the geography and natural history of various regions of China along with the cultures of various people groups native to those regions.
- Learned all about the culture/lifestyle of the Puritans through listening to the classic The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare.
- Watched My Friend Martin, a kid’s movie on MLK; watched two other short videos on MLK
- Discussed civil rights issues in light of current events and politics
- Attended a choreo-physics performance at U Albany by Sinopoli modern dance company; pre-performance we watched Youtube videos and read wiki’s on physics concepts; learned about the physics of dance with concepts such as cat-righting reflex, vortex shedding, echoes, waves, force, and Newton’s laws. Went up on stage as a volunteer during the performance - in a theater full of high school and college kids - and answered question about force, to which the director replied, “That’s a perfect answer.”
- Explored electricity:
- Redstone in Minecraft
- Attended a Little Bits electronics maker’s workshop at the Gravity Tech Center
- Continued to study botany and herbalism and Latin names of plants as well as their uses.
- Made herbal remedies and used them
- Read Ranger Rick magazine
- Visited the Utica Zoo
- Watched a documentary on pandas in China
- Weekly Chemistry Club where she explored the periodic table of elements, solutions, and other basic chemistry concepts
- Studying ornithology in local birding club
- Daily reading
- Read a graphic novel of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, amongst other books. We’re going to see a kid’s play of this at Proctor’s soon.
- Spelling and punctuation and grammar are attended to in real life scenarios; lots of practice as we edited her novel
- Learning cursive writing with iPad app
- Writing club at Yacon, with Jennifer Roy, local, award-winning children’s author and homeschooling parent; received excellent feedback on her writing skills! :)
- Wrote several chapters in a novel she's creating; started other stories as well
- Took notes, made doodles, made crafty inventions/props, looked up names for characters and lots of other prep work for a novel she began writing
- We continued to discuss how the subject and verb must agree in number and how “there” and “here” are not subjects; special note of subject/verb agreement in sentences beginning with “here” or “there”
- Classic literature The Keeper of the Bees by Gene Stratton Porter; The Witch of Blackbird Pond by E. G. Speare; A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle; read or listened to audio of many other books as well, especially fantasy fiction genre such as Spirit Animals series
- Read portons of Writer to Writer to her by Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine, a book about the process of writing good fiction, developing characters and settings that are realistic and so on
- Talked about similes and metaphors and pointed them out in writing; talked about the difference between first person or third person writing
- Hiking
- Began taekwondo and fell in love; taking two weekly classes
- Yoga classes
- Talking about health continually
- Daily meditation practice
- Read and discussed an article on phytochemicals and the number of plant material our ancestors ate, which prompted a goal to eat many colorful fruits and veggies.
- Watched the documentary Hungry for Change on food production, food additives, and nutrition
- Choreo-Physics performance
- Keyboard/piano lessons at Yacon weekly
- Playful Performing Arts classes
- Took a multiple week music appreciation and theory class at Yacon
- Pottery classes
- Taught herself IMovie software and made several short films
Spanish: Spanish games club weekly at Yacon, a variety of active games that allow for usage of basic Spanish vocabulary such as greetings, directions, prepositions, places, animals, actions and so on.
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