At the end of last week I began a massive, huge, palpitation inducing, find-yourself-surrounded-by-piles-of-paper-in-a-panic undertaking. I tidied out the workroom. The children helped by consigning cardboard models, drawings and paper creations to the recycling bin and by Sunday evening we had a boot full of rubbish ready to go the tip. We went through all of their work from June last year until June this year and neatly placed it into a special box which will remain discretely under the desk for a few months incase we need to refer to anything after which it will be moved to the loft.
We bought a new set of drawers for the room - 2 for Theo and 2 for Tristan. The drawers house their excercise books and project work for next year, text books, workbooks and a set of stationary each. I sorted out the craft box, the paper box, the pencil box, the paint box and the book shelves ( this took a very long time). The entire process was incredibly cathartic and despite having aching shoulders and a bit of a stuffy nose because of the dust I am feeling very excited about the next academic year.
I will write about our plan for next year soon - it is still in progress but it is coming together nicely. It takes a while as I have to differentiate the work for a 4 year old and a nearly 10 year old whilst making sure that they are both going to be engaged and happy. I'm am really enjoying the process especially as some of my amazing new resources have arrived - woo hoo!
As I sorted through Theo's work I jotted down questions about each topic and compiled an end of year quiz. The aim was not to make him break out in a cold sweat at the prospect of some kind of test but just a bit of fun so that I could assess his retention of the subjects he has studied. He was enthusiastic about completing the quiz although he did get a bit too giddy towards the end writing 'They use chopsticks' as an answer to 'give me an interesting fact about China' and responding with 'acid - giggle, giggle' when asked to give an example of an acidic solution. It was useful for me because I could clearly see which areas need revision next year namely formal division and fractions. He impressed me with his retention of scientific and historical facts - it is satisfying to know that he has understood and retained so much.
I have written down everything that we have covered this year as I think it is helpful to have it there for future reference. I know that there are other things we have done along the way which I will add on as I remember them. I have learnt that I really need to keep more accurate notes for next year so that I don't forget what we have done.
As it is I had to go through all our books to compile the list of what we did this year. Theo has sprinted through a fantastic amount:
MATHEMATICS
Place value
Counting in 100's, 1000's and binary
Addition, subtracting and problem solving
Inverses
Multiplication, tables & by 1000
Division by 1000 - formal and informal
Functions - inputs and outputs
Negative numbers
Sequences & missing digits
Money
Fractions - improper, mixed numbers, fraction and division, ordering & LCM
Decimals
Scales and estimating/rounding
Metric measurement
Lines
Position and coordinates
Angles and direction
2D& 3D shapes
Symmetry & reflection
Perimeter and area
Tessellation
Nets
Division Explorer book
Origami
Worksheets & puzzles
SCIENCE
DNA - model making, extraction and study. Fingerprints and genetics.
Water density
Alkali & Acid - PH scale
Periodic Table - studying the elements - ongoing
Life cycle of frog, dandelion.
Pond life.
Trees and plants - age of trees, annual rings,
Making a Herbaria
Weather - water cycle, barometer, taking temperature, wind direction, clouds.
Light and shadow
Habitats - food chains, Producers & consumers, teeth, different habitats, making a birds nest
Flowers - parts of a flower, seeds,
Cells- celery experiment - transpiration
Microscopes - how to use, examining slides, pond water, celery, cells
Crystal making - safety with equipment, chemicals
Evolution - Darwin, Peppered moth study.
Solutions -dissolving, suspensions
States of matter - experiments
Environmental - green house gases, heat , pollution
Particles and atoms- what are they?
Scientific terminology and report writing.
Identifying insects, animals, birds, plants and trees
Witnessing the seasons - changes in our environment
ENGLISH
Personal reading - extensive. Mainly teenage fiction and young adult
Book reporting
Creative writing based on woodland experiences, favourite fiction, Doctor Who
Blog writng
Poetry writing - based on experience
Shakespeare - A Midsummer Nights Dream, read, watched and discussed.
Common & Proper Nouns,
Adjectives
Types of sentence
Verbs
Punctuation
Common endings
Missing letters and apostrophes
Onomatopoeia
Aliiteration
Personal pronouns
Possessive pronouns
Collective nouns
Speech marks and direct speech
Prepositions
Adverbs
Capital letters
Similes
Compound sentences
Comprehension of various texts
Speaking and listening - through presentations to family
Spelling - introducing again in 2014/2015 from year six+ lists
Writing for different audiences
GEOGRAPHY
Improving the environment
Bins and recycling
Landfill visit
Tip visit
Litter hunt
Bin design
Damage to habitats and how to stop it
Greenhouse gases
Clouds project
China
Japan
Countries and continents
World flags
Populations
Oceans
ART
What is art?
Looking at a painting and appreciation
Visiting galleries
Painting based on gallery visit
Picasso
Self portrait - pencil and paint
Sculpture
Pottery making
Andy Goldsworthy
Creating natural outdoor art
Leonardo da Vinci
Mondrian
Colour theory
Paint mixing
Landscape painting outdoor
Watercolours
Woodland drawings
D T
Making a castle and moving drawbridge
Making a trebuchet
Building a moving car - cardboard, ply wood, and a kit
Bin project
PSHE
All about me project - personal history and who I am.
Children in other countries - how they live/ how it makes me feel
Donating items to charity - why?
Raising money for a charity - setting up, organising and collecting. (NAS)
IT
HTML basics
PHP basics
CSS basics
3D Animation basics
Introduction to Python
Blog writing and posting
Minecraft - (hosting/administering servers, ip addresses, firewalls exceptions etc.)
Scratch
In Design
Word
MUSIC
Violin - graded exam last year prep for exam Nov 2015
Music theory and composition
Piano - for recreation ( dropped graded approach on his request to concentrate on violin)
Orchestra
Concerts - performing in orchestra, solo and watching
COOKERY
Pizza making course
Sushi school
Recipe following
RE
Buddhism
Ancient religions - Sumer , Greek, Confucianism
FRENCH
About France
Numbers
Colours
Days of the week
Months
Shapes
Foods
Greetings
Features of the face
Introducing oneself
HISTORY
What is history?
Personal timeline
Primary & secondary sources
Dinosaurs
Stone Age - in depth
Ancient Mesopotamia - in depth
Bronze Age
Ancient Greece
WW2 - evacuees experience
As of yet I have not written a list for Tristan. Technically he is only starting home-schooling from September as he would begin reception in school at this point. This year he has studied the same topical studies as Theo but I will post a separate list for him later this week.
It has been a great year for Theo and despite appearances we have been very relaxed. On his request next year will be more structured for him. He has sneaked a peek at my planning work and is very excited by the topics we will be studying which is making me eager to get started.
No comments:
Post a Comment