V week lesson plan... Well I am never able to write our lesson plan before we begin it - so I thought I could write it for you after we finished it. The following is a summary by keyword of topics we covered and studied this week (to varying degrees). Some subjects we simply discussed what they were or looked at a picture or read a book about it. Other subjects we really delved into like volcanoes: making one, reading several books, discussing them, searching the internet for them and incorporating them into the kids play. We looked at art and listened to music from several artists this week while continuing our study of Monet and Vivaldi. Everything on this list we spent at least a bit of time on. I do not claim my kids understand all these concepts - nor will they retain all the knowledge they received this week - but I want them to be exposed to as much as possible and start creating those mental hangposts to later put the knowledge on. I am also always amazed at how much they truly do retain. It was an interesting and fun week and I was surprised at how much we were able to pull out of the letter V.

ScienceVolcanoes, Vultures, Vegetables, Voyager Space Probe, Venus, Violets, velociraptor,

Geography Vietnam, Venezuela, Virginia, Vermont

History Valentine's Day, Voyages (Magellan and Christopher Columbus), Vikings, Vespucci,

The Arts: Music, Art, Poetry Vivaldi, Van Gogh, Vermeer, Child's Book of Garden Verses, Roses are Red, violin,
valentines,
Math: vertical lines, volume,

PE/Health Dr's visit, vegetarian, vegan, vetrenarian, vitamins

Misc: Volunteering, Vacations, Video Games (Educational), Darth Vader (star wars), vehicles, vowels, vacuum, bible verse memorization

Literature Related to V (aka our partial reading list):

A Castle on Viola Street by Disalvo (nice book on volunteering)
Eva's Summer Vacation:A Story of the Czech Republic by Jan Machalek
The Best Book of Volcanoes by Simon Adams
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
Volcanoes:Nature's Incredible Fireworks by David Harrison
Mary Veronica's Egg by Mary Nethery
Strega Nona Takes a Vacation by Tomie dePaola
Vultures by Lynn M Stone
Vincent Van Gogh by Jen Green
Vegetable Garden by Douglas Florian

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by eric Carle
The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
Winnie the Pooh's Valentine by Bruce Talkington
Johannes Vermeer by Mike Venezia
The Vikings by Peter Chrisp
The Voyager Space Probes by Dennis Fradin
My V book by Jane Belk Moncure
Valentine's Day by Miriam Nerlove
Valentine's Day by Gail Gibbons
Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert

The Skywalker family albulm by Alice Alfonsi (darth vader)
The Star Wars Storybook by Geraldine Richelson
Magellan A Voyage Around the World by Fiona McDonald
Welcome to Vietnam by Yumi NG
Virginia by Gina De Angelis

Non-V related activities: Addition, Subtraction, Number Recognition, Shapes (ciaran), reading bob books and primary phonics and dr suess (rhiannon), scavenger hunt, baking cookies, playing math games, bible study and the other things I can't remember.

Peace,
Tenn