Nano Science, Leprechauns, and Wolves, Oh My!

Wow, what a fantastic week!

This week we went out of our normal "comfort zone", and went out on a Monday!  We went to the Wescott Library for a class called "Nano Nano: The Science of Small".  It was pretty good.  Millie liked it a lot, but most of the class was over my head.  Can I admit that?  Yes, my 3rd grader is starting to do things, and becoming interested in things that I can't teach her.  Thank goodness we live in an area rich with outside classes that she can participate in!!

Let's see, what else did we do this week?  Well, besides the normal math, cursive, piano, reading, spelling, etc, Millie also did some creative writing.  Her assignment was to write a lyric poem with a rhyme scheme.  Here's what she came up with:

A little baby bumble bee, 

Is busy drinking a cup of tea.

And along came a bunny,

who said "here, have some honey".

On that note, I will also mention that I've made the executive decision to switch back to Bob Jones for English next year.  I like that it switches between grammar and writing.  I'm afraid we're not doing enough writing, and I'd like to "bump it up" a little for next year.  I think she'll be old enough to handle the rigors of Bob Jones next year, in 4th grade.

We can't forget to talk about what little Elise did this week in preschool!

Our theme for the week was St. Patrick's Day.  We read a few good books, practiced writing the letter Q, practiced drawing animals, and made leprechauns from our Wee Folk Art curriculum!  It was so much fun!  Here are some samples of what we did:

To end the week, we went on a field trip with Millie's National Homeschool Book Awards book club group.  They're currently reading Summer Of The Wolves , and for their field trip, they went up to the Animal Science Center in Forest Lake.  We'd never been there before.  It was sooooo amazing!  Hands down, the best field trip ever.  We got to learn about and see wolves, bobcats, mountain lions, foxes, a lynx, and a screech owl.  It really was fantastic!  Not for the weak stomachs or super sensitives though, as there was a pile of dead deer by the entrance as we approached (road kill that was being fed to the animals).  The wolves were very proudly carrying around deer legs in their mouths ;)  We found it to be very interesting!  Millie now wants to be a wildlife biologist...

Wolf girl checking out the wolves

Screech owl.  The cutest owl EVER!

Explaining how to tell the different breeds of fox apart.  Red fox have white tips on their tails.

Mountain lion. I can't believe we have these in the wild here!

So proud of her deer leg!

Elise just danced...

...and danced.

Aaaaaaand, afterwards we went to McDonalds because the girls were DYING to have a Shamrock Shake. I caved.  Who am I to deny them this once per year indulgence?  The person working was nice enough to split a small into two cups so my girls could share one :)