Day 1

Today's Activities:

• Read aloud of Millions of Cats by Wanda Ga'g

• Reading

1. ME -- First chapter of 4 Newbery books (Great Gilly Hopkins, Homesick, Abel's Island, Shiloh) with typed review and preferences.
2. C & C - Read Blueberrries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. Practice handwriting and discuss through, though, and thought.

• Family Inquiry

Our first family inquiry is about food! One of the girls' collective assignments each week is to prepare one breakfast, one lunch and one dinner for the family. The first round was very successful!

We want to further investigate food and nutrition. The first question we're addressing is where does food come from. Today we went on a field trip to our local market to investigate all the places our produce comes from. Madelyn recorded the different foods and where they are grown. When we came home she made a T-chart of the produce and origin of it. Then she made a bar chart representing her data. We were happy to learn that more food came from the USA than any other place. Madelyn looked on Google Maps to learn where the other 7 countries were that she found produce from. I think she was more excited about learning to 'add destinations' and 'get directions' than in the countries themselves.

While at the market we also picked up a new food for each child. Madelyn selected a pummelo, Catherine chose a papaya, Chloe chose a golden delicious apple, Seth chose a granny smith apple, Sam chose a grapefruit and Harrison chose a pomegranate. When we came home each child explored and recorded information on their fruit using four of their five senses. We are planning a tasting party for tomorrow as we ran out of time today.

• Arts & Crafts at Community Center - the girls had a good time painting and the boys and I had a good time playing at the local McDonald's Playplace.
  

Favorite Things and What We Learned:

Madelyn: "I learned what verdure means and I also learned about produce and where it comes from. I liked reading because I got to use my favorite toy (Netbook) and I like to read."

Catherine: "My favorite part of the day was the art class. I learned what a papaya smells like and feels like."

Chloe: "My favorite thing was reading today because I liked the books. I learned what a yellow apple smells like and sounds like (a drum)."

Mommy: "My favorite thing about today is that we started our adventure in learning as a family. I no longer feel like a secondary teacher. I am the primary teacher. It was so great to give learning context with the food inquiry and to share some great books with my kiddos. I also enjoyed giving the girls a chance to meet new people and to operate independent of me in their arts & crafts class."