Using power point

This week the children have being doing lots of activities and projects about a variety of things! At the beginning of the week Judit and Sarah were learning about angles in maths, they learnt about an acute, obtuse and a right angle. After they had learnt the information they were then given worksheets to complete. The worksheet tested their knowledge about the information they had just learnt and identified any of their weaknesses which we could then work on.

Sergi has been learning the colours this week, we used coloured cups as a fun way of trying to remember them. He´s getting really good at remembering blue and purple now! Sergi has also been doing a lot of counting, he´s been repeating the numbers 1-10 after me. Jordi has also been going over his numbers this week. He gets confused between the numbers 8 and 9, so we´ve been trying to learn these so he gets them correct. Jordi has been using worksheets to do subtraction and addition, as well as using objects such as pencils, bricks and counters to help him count.

Judit and Sara used PowerPoint on the computer to create a presentation on a science topic of their choice. Sarah chose to do ´under the sea´ and Judit chose to do ´all about animals´. They used the internet to research for information, picking out the most relevant to present on the PowerPoint. On Friday, they then presented their final PowerPoint on the projector, they were really good!

Also this week, Judit and Sara created a poster on rivers and plants. They enjoyed reading about the information before they wrote the information down on the paper. Jordi also created a book where he drew a picture and then wrote the word underneath. This improved his writing skills as well as making sure he knew what the object was in English.

Taller de física y química

Uno de los ejes transversales que trabajamos con los niños es el reciclaje. Es un problema real que los seres humanos generamos un kilo y medio de basura diaria. Claro que la culpa no es toda nuestra, no ayuda mucho que la mayoría de productos que compramos al supermercado va envasado. Lo cierto es que en una sola ciudad cada día se acumula toneladas de basura que hay que eliminar. Nos reunimos con una cuantas familias que también educan en casa para que un técnico nos explique cómo funciona la planta de recuperación energética  de residuos, en otras palabras, el basurero. ¿Porqué energética? Pues por qué aprovechan los residuos para generar electricidad. El técnico a través de un power point, unos experimentos prácticos y una buena dosis de humor nos explica con palabras de niño su funcionamiento básico. La próxima semana iremos “in situ” a visitar el centro de recuperación energética, eso sí, nos han dicho que huele mucho y muy mal…
 

 

 

Healthy lifestyles

This week has seen some progress in punctuation, identifying letters and words, project making and design.

After focusing on prefixes and suffixes, we have been learning about and then using apostraphes. We started with some examples, then learnt what they are used for and how they can benefit your writing in ways such as shortening sentences and making Language more fluent. Afterwards, one stage at a time we did sets of qüestions that included putting apostraphes in correct places, learning when to use and when not to use them and making our own examples. Everyone showed great understanding and managed to make the association with when they are used in speaking.

We have also worked on a number of projects this week, which would include Picking an end subject- for exemple healthy lifestyles, then Picking a way to present it such as a poster, followed by identifying the correct books and using the internet to find information. Research is an importat skill, as is identifying the most relevant information and putting i tinto your own words for presentation. We did this really well and ended up with some nice booklets and posters, including pictures and information.

Jordi and Sergi did some focus on identifying words and letters in word search paterns. Sergi showed some skill in identifying letters, such as E, I and A, which is impressive given his age and the amount of other letters on the page. He would also be able to pronounce them when he found them. Jordi showed some good work in identifying words and working on pronouncing them, and has developed a lot over the past few weeks. He is also very efficient at copying down words and letters in his own handwriting, and is becoming very fast at doing so. More importantly, he shows enthusiasm when doing these exercises. Sergi also did a lot of drawing shapes and colouring, and Jordi has been joining in on the projects.

Every morning we have worked through maths, science and grammar text books. The most recent maths work included using coordinates as well as long division. Sara and Judit have been exceling in Ggrammar and show an interest in science.

We have also read parts of the History Encyclopedia. After reading though, we would write our own summaries and then read them to one another. We would also draw pictures, this has helped show memory skill and reinforced the learning. Our focus in history was in early human beings and their origins.

The girls have also shown keen interest in multiplication quizzes, where a card would be read out and the first person to call the answer would receive the card. The one with the most cards would win. The games were always very close and exciting, and very much enjoyed! 

Proyectos Noviembre

Nos reunimos más de 15 familias para presentar y escuchar los proyectos de los niños trabajados este mes de Noviembre. Judit y Sara nos hablan del calendario del huerto, las verduras de cada temporada, cuando plantarlas y cuando recolectarlas. Jordi nos enseña su máquina de copiar y sus dibujos. Marta nos habla de los delfines, Ariel ha investigado el mundo de los gatos, Josué ha elaborado un proyecto sobre el río Noguera Pallaresa, Esdras nos habla de la máquina de escribir, Iona nos impresiona con un proyecto sobre los dientes muy visual, Erik nos habla del rugby, Estel ha estudiado los rayos, Miquel nos habla de sus dibujos favoritos, Romina nos interpreta al piano una de sus canciones preferidas de la bella y la bestia, Sara nos toca la flauta junto a su  madre que toca el piano y Rita nos presenta un proyecto sobre los planetas. Pasamos una mañana muy educativa rodeados de las demás familias, intercambiando opiniones, ideas y recursos.

Wild weather

The children have learnt lots of new things this week! We finished reading the BFG and started reading a new book by Jacqueline Wilson called ´Best Friends´. We would read a chapter of the book and then have a discussion about what had happened to check their understanding. Also, Judit and Sara would write a review on each chapter to ensure that they understood what happened.

In maths, Judit and Sara have been learning about rounding. They have been rounding a number to the nearest 10 and 100. They rounded a variety of different skills to test their ability and strengthen their skills. Jordi has been practising adding and subtracting, he´s especially enjoyed using the bricks to help him! The girls also had lots of fun drawing to large scales and placing the numbers 1-10 in the correct section. The sections were 2 times table, 3 times table, both or neither. This was a fun way for the girls to check their knowledge involving the times tables.

Additionally, in science Judit and Sarah used their workbook to create a large poster on the topic wild weather. They had fun learning about the differences between a hurricane and a tornado. Also, they learnt lots of interesting information e.g. why a tornado occurs. Judit helped Sara understand the information by explaining it to her, which also helped Judit understand the information.

Sergi has been learning colours this week. I would ask him to go and collect an object of a certain colour and then he would go off and collect it. He was able to identify the colour red and blue by himself and the others with a bit of help. Sergi has also been using flash cards to count the pictures. Furthermore, Jordi has been learning about the time. He enjoyed using a worksheet to match the picture with the writing, he was very good at it!

Aprendizaje autónomo en comunidad

El Homeschooling fomenta un aprendizaje autónomo en comunidad. Es un aprendizaje que fomenta la autonomía porque es  básicamente a través de la lectura que los niños acceden al conocimiento con lecturas de todo tipo, libros de texto, artículos educativos, novela científica, blogs divulgativos, etc. Es también un aprendizaje en comunidad porque son los niños, con la ayuda de los padres, los que deambulan por el entorno próximo haciendo un trabajo de campo en contacto directo con el barrio, los expertos, las fábricas de la ciudad, las bibliotecas, los museos, las organizaciones sociales, participando activamente en la sociedad desde edades bien tempranas para aprender a vivir y convivir con los demás.

Para fomentar la lectura y la lectoescritura y conseguir más autonomía, Jordi ha fabricado con la ayuda de su padre, una caja mágica. Reciclando una vieja caja de madera, insertando una bombilla y modificando la tapa por un cristal, conseguimos una herramienta ideal para fomentar el trazo, el control psicomotriz fino que permitirá a Jordi y a su hermano Sergi conseguir dominar la escritura. Es una herramienta muy polifacética, pues fomenta también el arte y la creatividad, aunque lo más importante es que disfrutan y aprenden a través del juego.

 

 

Spin off stories

This week has seen a variation of activities. Jordi started by showing his skills in subtracting and adding. He helped demonstrate these by using his manual calculator, as well as other objects such as counters from game boards. He has proved to be great in this area and does so with confidence.

Meanwhile, Sara and Judit have been focusing on a varied learning of science, maths and grammar each day, focusing particularly on grammar. We have learnt how to define a ´suffix´and a ´prefix´, and Sara and Judit have proved through exercises that they can identify each and provide examples. They had four worksheets to work through and eventually needed no corrections. Learning these had a side effect of improving their vocabulary, for example learning that using certain prefixes can form the opposite of a verb.

Jordi has also been developing his own skills by helping Sergi to learn new ones. They have been working hard on word searches. This helps develop their ability to identify individual letters, which is especially effective when surrounded by a variety of other letters. Original confusion between D and O, for example, began to iron out over time. Furthermore, the size of the font became smaller and the quantity of letters on the page greater.

Judit and Sra have been avidly listening to the BFG, continuing from last week. They show keen interest in narrative and they prove their listening by summarising the chapters they have heard. This would be done in two ways. They would take notes during the readings, helping to develop speed writing and key words. After they would also write a detailed summary by combining memory and their notes. We would also write some ´spin off stories´, such as what they imagined a dream to be that was left undescribed in the book, or what could be done if ´invisibility´was a possibility, as it is for one character. They would write these in short story or letter form.

We have also began to develop a new vocabulary sheet which will be cut up to use as learning cards. Jordi has been helping and has been developing his own writing of words, which he has done by either copying existing words on a page or looking at an object and writing it´s name. Sergi has shown interest in these areas, often watching or making his own puzzles using shapes and colours, and using language learning games to look at letters.

As well as written work we have also been discussing subjects, giving the group the chance to ask questions about certain subjects they are interested in and discussing them in detail. Some prompts came from encyclopaedias. This gives the opportunity to develop conversational English as well as some general knowledge. Hopefully they found it enjoyable as well!

Calendario del Payés

A los niños les encanta observar los árboles y el huerto en busca de fruta y verdura para recolectar. Esta vez hemos cogido chirimoyas, algunas eran bien grandes. También hemos observado las peras, aunque todavía les falta un poco para madurar. En el huerto observamos las patatas, que ya pronto las recolectaremos, las judías verdes, los pimientos, los guisantes y las habas como van creciendo, las coliflores, las lechugas, las escarolas, las coles,  pero ¿qué más podemos plantar en noviembre? El afán de los niños es plantar y plantar.  Para eso Judit y Sara han elaborado un calendario del payés. Han preguntado al abuelo y han buscado información por internet. Han recopilado toda la información y contrastado su veracidad. Mes por mes han ido escribiendo qué verduras y hortalizas hay que sembrar o plantar y qué pueden recolectar.  Hay algunas que se pueden sembrar prácticamente todo el año, como las lechugas, la zanahoria o la escarola, pero la gran mayoría solo se pueden sembrar durante dos o tres meses. Si compramos el plantel, entonces hay más flexibilidad con los tiempos. En Noviembre toca plantar ajos, cebollas, lechugas, habas, guisantes, rábanos, acelgas, cebolla, escarolas, espinacas, puerro, col, apio y melones. Durante el invierno, sin embargo, apenas podemos plantar nada, así que hay que aprovechar Noviembre, ¡manos a la obra, si no plantamos, no comemos!

Measurement activities

This week we have been very busy and the children have learned lots of new things! This week we focused on measurement and the children have been doing measurement activities all week. Judit and Sara measured 10 items and then put them in order from the smallest item to the largest. They also have been converting measurements, for instance converting cm into mm. Jordi completed a worksheet where he had to cut out a picture of a ruler and then measure the pictures. He had lots of fun and was very good at measuring the pencils

Jordi and Sergi have also been singing the song ´Five little ducks´ this week, which they have really loved. Jordi and Sergi counted how many ducks were on the screen and Jordi was able to say how many ducks were left once one had swam away. Also for maths this week, Jordi has been doing lots of subtractions, where he´s been using wooden bricks and beads to help him. Additionally, the boys have also been learning about the sounds z, j, ou and ng this week.

The children have also been reading the story ´The BFG´ this week. After listening to a chapter, Judit and Sara would then go and summarise in their own words what had just happened. They would then go and complete a worksheet which had questions on to check their knowledge and understanding of the book. On one of the days Judit, Sara and Jordi wrote a letter for the BFG and asked him questions about information they would like to know.

To end the week we all had a game of the garden version of ´Snakes and Ladder´. Jordi and Sergi enjoyed counting how many dots were on the dice and how many steps they had to take. Judit and Sara worked together to make sure Jordi and Sergi understood the rules f the game and that they took the right amount of steps!