Jocelyn's blog

Sep. 18, 2007

Night at the Museum - 14 September

On Friday, we went to a "Night at the Museum" outing. It was not night and it wasn't a museum but it was a lot of fun!! (oh, and ahem! educational too).

We had to choose a character and come dressed as that person from the movie. We also had to have 3 facts about our character to share with the group for a quiz. So, we watched it and the boys decided to be the following:

Zac was Jedidiah (a cowboy).

He told me that cowboys like to settle disputes with guns, live and work on ranches, and go to rodeos.

Stevie was Octavius and so was Micah.

He told me that Octavius was Julius Caesar's nephew, beat Antony and Cleopatra, was called Caesar Augustus in the Bible and brought in the Pax Romana. All of those facts were not in the movie but are true to this historical character. He had remembered them from when we had studied Roman times and also from his reading.

Adam was Dexter, the monkey.

We didn't know much about him, so we looked up some pages online. Dexter is a Capuchin monkey, he's found in South America, has a black tail and black and brown/grey fur. In the movie, he's loving and giving when treated well and very cheeky!!

Mark was a Roman foot soldier but didn't want me to take an individual one of him...

So, we turned up, had lunch and then got into some games. The children had to put the characters in chronological order, run to the continent listed on the wall to say where someone came from and play bingo.

Yes, she's playing bingo with M&Ms for markers!!

After that, we all got a well-earned rest and watched the movie together. Apart from the technically-induced intermission, it went smoothly.

I'll just put a few more piccies below:

All the characters, even Texas, Teddy Roosevelt's horse.

Easter Island Statue

Skeletal Rexxy

Attilla the Hun, a Ninja and Ahkmen-Ra

History certainly came alive and we had a great time! Thanks for organising it, Donna and thanks to all who made it a wonderful day.

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May. 29, 2007

Sistine Chapel Drawings

Posted in History Happenings

It's hard to know what category to put this under! It could go under Art as we did some drawings (though they were a little wobbly). It could go under read-alouds as we are reading a book on Michelangelo called Wings of an Eagle but I'll put it under History. I love being able to integrate our learning across many areas and History serves as the framework for that.

We followed a suggestion given by a friend to tape some paper under a table and draw like Michelangelo had to for the Sistine Chapel. We were only doing it for 15 minutes or so and the boys were complaining of sore arms. It did provoke the response I thought it would, "How did Michelangelo do this for 4 years?!"

Poor Adam strains to reach the paper!

Adam on his knees, still having to reach up to the paper!

Giving a quick demo...

I drew a section of a tree trunk for about 5 minutes and then my arm got a little sore.

Zac drew a ringtail possum. He did really well with this. I think he was pleased with it, don't you?

Stevie drew a man and he was rather large! I thought he did a great face and love the expression in it. Unfortunately, Adam got a bit silly with his and scribbled over it.

On the whole, they learned a lot doing this exercise and, apart from a slightly sore arm, enjoyed the challenge.

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Sep. 23, 2006

Medieval Madness!

Posted in History Happenings

We had a Medieval Day today with our homeschooling group and it was fantastic.

Here was the invitation:

We are holding a special day on Saturday 23 September to celebrate Medieval times.
From 10am to 2pm
We encourage you to come as a family.

What's the rough format?
We want to start at 10am and give children the opportunity to try lots of activities/crafts - some will be compulsory but most will be chosen by your child before the day.

After a general intro, we will have the etiquette class. Then we will divide the children into groups and they will go to one activity "station" and then make their way through all the others they have chosen for the morning.

Activities include:
Weaving
Knight's Pouch
Letter illumination
Piqued hat making
Stained glass
Archery
Trebuchet
Stab the Dummy and
Knight's Challenge (eat some gruel, storm the castle, rescue the lady)

Here's some photos of the events:

Piqued hat making (Abi poses) Stained glass window craft

Letter illumination

Archery Knight's Challenge- storm the castle

Zac with his knight's pouch Time to eat the gruel!!!

At around 12noon, we want to get things set up for a medieval feast.

At around 1pm, we are thinking of having a jousting tournament. All families will gather to take part and spectate and cheer.

Here's a couple of photos from that:

Junior jousting

Without the helmets

In one of the helmets...

Here's some general shots too:

The parents and children who dressed up.

Mark and me

One of the dads is really amazing and makes his own armour, weapons, shields and came up with those brilliant jousting lances which retracted on impact and were nice and safe. The shields at the start were his and here's some more of his handiwork:

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Sep. 4, 2006

Knightly Concertina Books

Posted in History Happenings

We are now in the world of knights. Studying the Middle Ages feels like a whirlwind this year. I have cut a lot out to just focus on some key things but we are moving at a far clip!

We did these little books to talk about some of the things a person does from being a page to becoming a knight. It's only a small selection and we had fun making it up into these little books.

I got some great paper from the craft shop. One is medieval music, one is the fleur-de-lis of France and on the flip side is the lion of England.

At the end, is a knight's code of honour which took up a little bit more room...

In the background, you can see a map. I have a map of Historical France on the table right now. It's between some thick plastic and the table.

A close up of one of them.

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Jul. 7, 2006

The Roman Shields - May 2006

Posted in History Happenings

After spending a good couple of months finishing our studies of Roman History, we decided to make some shields.

Drilling and cutting the shields to size - 4 May

The Asterix-Roman Shield - 17 May
This was the style the boys really wanted to make!

The symbol on Constantine's shield - 17 May
After writing about Constantine for the Knowledge Quest book, I really had to do this style and Adam did one too.

The boys get in some practice!

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Jul. 6, 2006

How to make the shields

Posted in History Happenings

I was asked for some instructions on one of the homeschooling boards, so I've written it down. I have backdated it so that you see the shields first and then the instructions underneath. Hopefully, it's very clear...

The shields were very easy. I got some project board at a hardware store (900x600x3mm) and then ruled it in half and sawed it into two equal pieces. I measured each boy's arm against the shield and pencilled in four holes for the cord to go through. I then drilled the holes - as seen in the photo

We then got a little foam roller and a paint tray and painted all of the shield in red.

A few days later, we pencilled in the design for the front and then painted it in gold folk art paint with normal art brushes. Once that was dry, I got some strong cord/twine and put it through the holes. They are knotted at the front of the shield and each length was measured against the boy's arm so it would be the right size. They have one loop (top and bottom holes) for their arm and one loop (top and bottom holes) for their hand to hang onto the shield. If you look back at one of the photos of the shields, you'll see the knots in the front.

My apologies to any Americans - you'll have to convert the measurement for the board into inches. Perhaps you already have a ready-made size?

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Aug. 11, 2005

The Greeks!!! Don't you just love these guys? :)

Posted in History Happenings

In August (2005), we had a little bit of fun after learning about the Greeks. We did these theatre masks

and had some fun building some slab pots. Mine was of Athena and the kids made up some stories to go on their ones.

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May. 11, 2005

The Trojan Horse - What an Epic!!!

Posted in History Happenings

Last year's major feature was the construction of a Trojan Horse out of fridge boxes. My dear friends, the Inghams, came over and JI, who loves horses, did a fantastic job on the horse. Her Mum and I played a secondary role in the painting.

Then onto the production day! I played the role of narrator and we had a small group of homeschoolers around to take part in the capture of Troy. All the girls got dressed up, the boys had a great battle and we had lunch afterwards. It was a great day. Thanks everyone!

Here's two more pictures:

Reading the story.

The Greeks "steal out" of the horse....

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Oct. 11, 2004

The Chicken Mummy - October 2004

Posted in History Happenings

Way back in 2004, we used Story of the World and did the chicken mummy activity. Well, I must say that it is one of those experiences you only go through once! I did find it to be a worthwhile experience but I don't think I'll be choosing it when the younger boys get up to it. It involves 6-8 weeks of work, constantly re-checking the chicken and re-salting it so that it will continue to dry out and not smell.

All wrapped up with the jewels

Ready for burial

Buried in the backyard...

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