Homeschool15: Healthy & Safety

Kyrie made this stethoscope using directions from a science kit.

Pages from Degen's journal.

This unit covers body systems, health (including dental health) and safety (including fire safety). It has been great to see how much the kids, especially, Kyrie have learned from this unit over the years. As with all our units, each year we go a little more in-depth and add to what we previously learned. 

During this unit, the kids learned about different systems in the body and how to keep themselves healthy & safe in a variety of situations. For Degen, there was a review of body parts and discussions about basic fire safety. He is doing a good job as we make another round through the alphabet. He is "reading" mini-books and identifying letters and their sounds. 

Kyrie spent this unit practicing reading, writing and math skills within the framework of the thematic unit. She learned French vocabulary for the body, created a fire escape plan/map for our house and worked on science activities, including making  a stethoscope and tracking her heartbeat (resting vs. active). We are doing more in-depth work with poetry this year, and she is doing well with writing poems with some guidance. She has completed cursive instruction for the lower-case letters of the alphabet, and I am now asking that she complete her spelling assignments in cursive. Her writing project for this unit was about healthy teeth. 

A sense poem by Kyrie

Kyrie decorated a passport for her "journey." She has stickers she can add to the pages along with any information she wants to keep.

This unit, Kyrie started her country study with China. This was complementary to her Girl Scout troop's booth at the Friendship Festival about China. She spent 2 weeks completing a variety of activities that helped her better understand and appreciate China and Chinese culture. This is a great addition to our Social Studies curriculum.