This was a fun, busy week of school! We had a lot of work to do because of our upcoming vacation, and we also had some extra stuff to do for St. Patrick’s Day. We managed to get everything done, though, and had a lot of fun in the process!

Turkey and Bunny continued working on fractions in math. They’re still adding and subtracting unlike fractions, and have added mixed fractions, as well. They both continue to do really well with this area of study, and they’re even remembering to reduce their answers (thankfully!). On Friday, we had a brief introduction to decimals, and how they relate to fractions.

Ladybug worked on the letter “l” this week. Her reading is really improving, although I have to remind her that she doesn’t have to sound out words she already knows! And she will literally sound out everything, if left to her own devices. Her reading is improving, although she is still mixing up “d” and “b” occasionally, which I assume is a normal mistake at this age.

In history, we learned about the beginning of World War II, which was both interesting and depressing. I didn’t much enjoy having to teach the children about concentration camps. Turkey and Bunny were both baffled and outraged at the idea…fortunately, I think it mostly went over Ladybug’s head. We also learned about Pearl Harbor, and how America finally entered the war after a period of isolationism. After our vacation, we’ll learn more about America’s role in the war, and how it came to an end.

We finished our lesson on the integumentary system in science this week, and got to do a few fun experiments to go along with it. We made a glue dot braille alphabet, which was particularly fun, and also used paper clips bent at varying widths to see how sensitive our hands, backs, and arms are. We only have two chapters left in our science book…I think we’re all going to be sad to be done with our study of human anatomy!

Our read-alouds for the week were all St. Patrick’s Day related. We finished the book we started last week, Shamrocks, Harps, and Shillelaghs, and also read Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland, our favorite leprechaun legend from the Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book, and The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day (that last one was just for fun). I also put another favorite St. Patrick’s Day book, in our book basket…there just wasn’t time to read them all out loud!

No holiday would be complete without some crafts. I saw these adorable St. Patrick paper bag puppets on Oriental Trading’s website, and I thought they’d be fun, so we each made one (I gave mine to Moose…he loves it!).

Since there were 12 kits in the pack, we also made a few St. Patricks that could be hung up. Still cute, even if they’re not as “playable!”

I found these little fuzzy guys at Michael’s, and since I’m a sucker for fuzzy crafts, the children made them, too. Not too sure where they’re going to end up, but they’re adorable!

During Turkey and Bunny’s math test on Friday, I also made some shamrock cookies for our St. Patrick’s Day tea party…that counts as school, right? Turkey and Bunny seemed to enjoy trying to steal the cookie dough while I was correcting their tests, anyway!

I’m looking forward to our vacation, even though I have so much stuff planned in the next two weeks, I’m not really going to catch a break!