Weeks 6 and 7- Wicked Good Fun!

So, no pictures from week 6 of our school year.  It was a quiet week with more study of Ancient Egypt and the usual 3 R's.  Week 7 detoured from the lesson plan book and leads up to the Ultimate Field Trip!

 I heard an ad on the radio for a special  Wizard of Oz exhibit celebrating it's 75th anniversary at a (somewhat-not-local) art museum.  But with friends, the hour and a half drive wasn't so bad.

 All the characters were there. Mister refused to have his picture taken with any of them, including the scarecrow, tin man,and lion.

Even the rest rooms were reserved for either the "wicked" or the "good".  You see where I ended up.

I'm so proud of the kids! This was their first visit to an art museum and they did an amazing job.  Yes, it was hard for these tactile learners not to touch, especially when the paint was textured or the sculptures were lifesize.  But it was hard for me too.  We weren't able to take any photographs of what we saw, but favorites from the Oz exhibit were the ruby slippers, Lollipop Guild character costume, the hourglass, and an original screenplay.  The other exhibits were wonderful too.  We saw a few of Andy Warhol's works and lots from Andrew Wyeth and the other two Wyeth artists.   I loved the discussions we had and the kids' comments.  I love that they appreciate art.

The second part of our field trip was visiting a light house that was near the museum.  We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. Honestly, it's been the perfect fall. We didn't even need jackets. We had a picnic lunch and kids collected shells and snails.  They were tickled that some of the snails came out to visit.

To get to the lighthouse, we had to walk down a mile long breakwater.  We saw lobster traps, crabs, and even a sea star on our journey out.  We saw a school of fish when we got to the lighthouse.

On the way back we saw this sea gull eating a sea urchin.  So we considered this a day of Art Appreciation, Marine Biology, and PE.  The best kind of learning is by experience.

Week 5: Fall All Around

I love seeing each week of school pass by in these posts! Five weeks into the year already!  It's funny how I'm always so anxious to start school, but then I love counting down our days too.  I love the feeling of accomplishing something and making progress, I guess.

This week of school wasn't very exciting. We continued our study of Ancient Egypt, primarily pyramids, and I've been reading The Golden Goblet aloud to the kids.  We are all enjoying it, but it is a book we all have to reach for. It's not the easiest for me to read aloud and there is a lot to pay attention to when listening. But they beg for more, so it's worth it!

The real excitement this week was the weekend. On Saturday we attended a fun Harvest Party and on Sunday we went to the corn maze and enjoyed all the other great stuff they had to offer!

Most of the kids at the Harvest Party- complete with costumes, sweet treats, and pizza, plus some really fun games!

Is it any surprise that Miss Petite's costume was Minnie Mouse????

A classic game was rediscovered- bobbing for apples. So much harder than it looks. Believe me, I tried!

And I did it! I got one!

Our group of kiddos at the corn maze. I confess, we didn't make it through. We couldn't find the fourth post no matter how hard we tried.  So we took a short cut and quit. I think part of the fun is getting lost... the kids don't!

All aboard the cow-train!

Rubber ducky races were a hit, as well as the giant jumping pillow (I was jumping too, so no pictures of that).  It was THE perfect fall day.  I even stopped at my favorite apple orchard and bought honeycrisps, fresh homemade donuts, and fresh pressed cider. Any guess what we had for dinner?

That's my quick wrap-up of school week number five. Cause school isn't just in the classroom during the week!