Spring has arrived with style! Blossoms, bulbs, bees, birds, babies; it's such a lovely season. I must admit when I was younger, I'd always be eager for Spring to hurry along into the long days of Summer, probably because in Australia, Summer means Christmas, school holidays, family holidays, camping, long days at the beach and warm summer evenings. I still do love all of those things, but as I've gotten older, I appreciate the 'in-between' seasons so much more more. Spring is such a beautiful, delicate time of reawakening. The world seems new again. The garden springs into life with such a sudden rush. The sunshine is warm and delicious and doesn't burn you like the harsh Summer sun does, and while many Spring days are windy, the wind is cool and sweetly scented with wattle blossom, unlike the scorching, dry, northerly Summer winds which bring the risk of devastating bushfires. We are out in the garden most sunny afternoons. On the warmer afternoons baby, now approaching 4 months old (!), is able to kick outside with bare legs, and the Winter warm woolies are slowly being discarded, replaced with lighter clothing. Oh, and the days are getting longer again! <3 Mr Second Grade begins his second Maths block this month. This month will start with a review and deepening of First Grade concepts such as the Four Processes, Odd and Even, Greater Than or Less Than, Addition and Subtraction Math Facts, and we will develop a deeper understanding of the sense of numbers, mental arithmetic and start to move from skip counting to formally learning the multiplication tables. Week 1 Snippets from our week... As usual we started the new month reading the monthly entry from our seasonal books , and , and Mr Grade 2 completed his September calendar entry. Form Drawing We then began our form drawing exercises from the wonderful book , Mr Grade 2's form work is steadily improving. At the end of last month, I began using colour in the chalkboard examples and had Mr Grade 2 use colour also, and I think this really helped him visualise the progression of the forms. It was a real breakthrough in his form drawing, so we will continue to use colour in this way. Mr Grade 2 is really enjoying the lessons from this wonderful book. I could recommend it highly enough! Week 1 Main Lesson - Grade 2 We began this block with a retelling of a fable found in the Second Grade curriculum book . It is a very funny trickster tale from Mexico called 'The Wolf and The Lamb'. I used this story to revist the notion of Greater Than or Less Than, which we'd touched on in First Grade. It was a great fable for this math topic. Mr Second Grade really enjoyed playing the 'Greater Than or Less Than' card game with the hungry wolf mouth. Circle Time is becoming more focussed on math games and rhythmical skip counting of tables - this week we introduced the 11x table, and continued practising 2, 3, 5, 10, and 20. We also continued with counting forwards and backwards to and from 100, with movement. This week we playing 'What's the time Mr Skip-Counting Wolf', the wolf would answer with things like "It's 12 O'clock, skip counting by 2's", which was lots of fun. Week 1 Main Lesson - Kindy This week we read a picture book as our weekly Kinder story, the delightful Spring story by Elsa Beskow. It is not only about the steps that go into making a new suit, from shearing his pet lamb to carding, spinning, dyeing, and weaving the wool, but it is also about the cooperative exchange of skills and labor. This story tied in nicely with Mr Second Grade's discussion from Lesson ** of the Oak Meadow Second Grade curriculum about cooperation between animals and humans. Science & Social Science Continuing our introduction to Habitats study (Oak Meadow Grade 2, Lesson 21), and using the same Biomes resources listed in , Mr Grade 2 continued to study the Forest Biome this week. We previously discovered there are 3 main types of forest - Tropical Rainforest, Coniferous (also called Boreal or Taiga) Forest, and Temperate Forests. This week we focussed on the Coniferous Biome which mostly comprises of the evergreens - pine, spruce, hemlock, larch and fir. Tying nicely with our Main Lesson story this week, we discovered the is found in this habitat. During afternoon rest time one day this week, the boys watched another episode from the excellent BBC documentary series narrated by David Attenborough. The series focuses on a different habitat or biome each episode. This week we watched Episode 10: 'Seasonal Forests', which is about the both the Coniferous and Deciduous Forest Biome. Mr Grade 2's Forest Habitat display Mr Grade 2's Coniferous Forest Biome drawing Creative Writing Artwork This week we continued our art exploration with graduated tonal exercises, this week using crayon and pencil. Mr Grade 2, who can tend to be very heavy handed with his drawing and writing, found these exercises quite helpful in learning how much pressure to apply to the page. Other Happenings... Another lovely day with our playgroup friends! Week 2 Snippets from our week... Form Drawing Week 2 Main Lesson - Grade 2 Week 2 Main Lesson - Kindy Week 3 Snippets from our week...