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Sunday, May 31, 2009

My newest spelling creation

Hi all,
Since I have no weekly reports to do lately because we've been on vacation I decided to share a new project I worked. I have decided that even though I love All About Spelling and will continue to use it next year with Annika, that Everett needs to move a bit faster and since he loves taking quizzes (not sure about why) that we're going to try Phonetic Zoo for him next year. Well in looking things over I loved the idea of creating a "Zoo wall" but we don't have the space for one, nor do we have the space for the poster they show in the Teachers resource guide, which is like a large trifold diplay. I decided to go with something I know the kids enjoyed in the past, Lapbooks! Well over the last day I made a Phonetic Zoo Lapbook. Here's a slide show of it along with some simple instructions of what I did.



I started by folding 2 standard manilla file folders in a shutter fold manner. Then I glued the two together joining them at one of the small flaps.

I then cut out the referrence things I wanted from the printable pages that came with my PZ teachers guide download. I also cut some pieces of contruction paper slightly larger than the referrence items, this isn't necessary but since I was just using plain folders I decided the colors would help brighten things up. I folded up the lapbook and glued the title to the front, then I opened it so I was looking at the folder on the left and glued the rest of the referrence items in where I thought they fit best. I didn't use all of them, but you can if you'd like and just fit it all together in a way that's appealing to you. I then opened it so I was looking at the folder on the right. I taped 2 8.5x11" pieces of colored cardstock to the top and bottom to make the flaps. I then used those flaps and the folder itself to glue the "cages" to. The only cages I had to cut apart were the Personal Spelling Victory ones. Those I glued to the smaller flaps on the right folder.

That's all, now I'll have my son use Animal stickers to decorate the cover and any areas in the referrence area that look bare to him. As we go through the program he'll now have a place to build his zoo.

Annika can't wait until she's older and get her own zoo. We'll see, I'm not sure if it would be a fit for her, and we have something that works for her now, so I may have to find another way for her to create a zoo.

Hope you all enjoyed a peak at my latest foray into the lapbooking world.


Monday, May 25, 2009

Our 3 day Field Trip to Washinton DC

Hi all,
We're back from Washington DC and had an amazing time. The kids had a blast and thought everything we saw was great fun. They all wanted to stay longer, and maybe next time we will. There were so many things we didn't get to see this trip, but the ones we did see were all definately worth the 3.5 hour drive.

Here's a few slideshows of things we did and saw.







I hope you all have a wonderful summer filled with fun things to do.


Thursday, May 14, 2009

Fawkes Academy has Finished the 08-09 School Year!

Yes you read that correctly. We are finished with the 2008-2009 school year. The kids pushed hard after getting back into a groove at the beginning of the year and we wrapped things up today. We'll be taking 2 weeks off and then we'll do some light Math and Language Arts work over the next few months just to keep things fresh.



Our official start date for 2009-2010 will be July 27th.



I will do my best to keep updating here with some of the fun things we'll do this summer.
We're kicking off this Summer break with a trip to Washington DC. I'm sure we'll have plenty of pictures from that.



So until next time, Have a great summer.