It has been a nice week, enjoying the beautiful 80-degree days here in Eastern Washington.  Almost all the schoolwork goes on outside, at a big table set up in the sunshine.  (That's why the kids are usually shirtless in their pictures)  Here's a bit of the fun and learning that went on this week:

Smiley is learning letters B and C.  He learned a butterfly poem and made B's into butterflies.  In addition to writing and drawing, he cut out C's shaped like crescent moons to hang in the window.

Caleb is learning to write paragraphs and use proper punctuation.  He wrote about the Jolly Robin story we are reading and practiced writing words with the digraphs PL and CH. 

The boys continued to be outside observing nature.  Smiley heard a caterpillar story and we found some caterpillars to watch.  Caleb heard an ant story and he collected ants to observe.

The boys worked together doing a skit that went along with one of the Chinese legends Caleb is reading about.  Caleb decorated a mask he made last year, to be the Chinese Goddess of Compassion, Guan Yin.

We kept reading out of the books we're working on.  Caleb reads aloud from Ben and Meg, and I read aloud from the others.

We went to the river a few times and Caleb practiced in the deep water, treading water and swimming with Dad.  Smiley is getting more used to being in the water too.

Caleb worked on place value, when writing and reading 3-digit numbers.  He also reviewed addition facts he learned last year.

The boys also painted with watercolors, played bingo and lots of other games at their friend Alyssa's birthday party, played cards (great intro to Caleb's next math lesson, greater than/less than), did art projects and danced at a fun block party in Chewelah, made smoothies, explored the creek, and lots more!