Thursday, February 23, 2006 - Paper Airplanes
Weaver Unit 4, Chapter 5 Transportation
We found a great book on making paper airplanes at the library. Since we're not working on the hot air balloon, I thought we would give our hand at making complex paper airplanes. It was fun, a bit hard for my 3 year old but she still enjoyed having me do it for her---and of she loved flying it.
When we took the planes outside for flight the learning continued.
From this project the kids learned: Basic parts of an airplane, uses of airplanes, aerodynamics, friction, wind effects...and probably other things I haven't thought of.
Kaden said, "This is the best homeschool ever!"
• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - More Boats!
We are studying Transportation as part of The Weaver Curriculum, Chapter 5. I was having a hard time figuring out the Hot Air Balloon pattern given with the materials so I decided to just let him build whatever type of transportation he wanted. He decided to build a "party boat." This boat has been named, "Kaden's Cruise Ship." Notice the Teddy Bear Counters strapped in to Geoboards in the white tub. The white basket turned upside down is the dining room. The pool area is the clear "meat" container complete with a beach, diving board, and roaped off area of deeper water.
• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
Monday, February 13, 2006 - Soap Boat Race
The kids carved boats out of Ivory soap and had a boat race in the bathtub. Kaden's sail caused his to tip over so we had to remove the sail for the race. He ended up winning by about 4 inches. Katibree screamed in retaliation.
Kaden used 3 bars of soap before he got it just right. The first two ended up breaking because he couldn't determine a good whittle-stopping point before it was too late. Once I showed Katibree how to whittle a little at a time instead of trying to get a big chunk off at one time, she really did a good job. Kaden had more fun making the sail or mast than the actual boat I think.
Also, we had fun talking about friction today, especially with the great examples provided by the Olympic games (Aero-dynamic everything to reduce friction). We froze a sheet pan of water to see if his hot-wheel car would be able to roll across it. We raced cars on different textured surfaces. Then the kids made up their own ice skating event with GI Joes on the sheet of ice. As the ice melted, they added ice cubes...and pretty soon it was a war zone complete with bunkers...it entertained them for about an hour.
In math today, Kaden did a worksheet of addition doubles (1+1, 2+2...) in random order. He got all 25 right and did it in 2 1/2 minutes. Math is definitely his thing.
