Posted in FIAR
|
Our Five in a Row group studied Madeline this month. To go along with our study, I decided to coordinate a field trip to our local kids' science museum. They have an exhibit right now called Grossology~The Impolite Science of the Human Body. I wasn't sure what to expect. It was a little boy's dream come true and my girls loved it, too.
Did you ever want to know the science behind a sneeze? Well, this exhibit not only explained the process but then the giant nose you stand inside of sneezes on you!!!
This lovely fellow explained all about allergies, sniffles, colds and anything else that can cause you to have a runny nose. Yes, his nose ran frequently! See what I mean about a little boy's dream....
The kids spent lots of time at the life-size Operation game. Remember that game? What a concrete way to learn where all the body parts go. It didn't hurt their eye-hand coordination either.
The girls could have stayed in the digestive system playground all day. Yes, they crawled through the whole digestive system. The joke of where they came out of the digestive tract was not lost on them either. Yucky!!
The skin climbing wall was loads of fun too. While they climbed along, they were supposed to guess if they were climbing over a pimple or mole or hair follicle. I did not take pictures of all the things to smell. Really gross things to smell. Aren't you glad this is not a scratch and sniff blog? LOL! Somehow I missed pictures of the statue that you crank up and make burp or the tooting machine. We will have to go back when it is less crowded. The exhibit just overwhelmed us and lots of the school groups were there, so we finally had to leave. All in all, it was a really cool and gross exhibit. Hey, IT"S GROSSOLOGY! Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in FIAR
|
I chose Owl Moon as our theme book for this month's FIAR activity group to read. We went to the WNC Nature Center with our Five In A Row special needs group to learn about owls. We had a wonderful class hosted by Timothy's boss, Keith. He did a great job of including all of the children regardless of their special needs. He even communicated with one child in sign language. I was very impressed.
We learned all about raptor birds. The kids were really engaged in the learning process and asked lots of great questions. There were lots of hands-on things to touch, including eggs, feathers and nests. The highlight was getting to meet a real live owl.
The kids learned all the body parts of owls, their habits, how they fly and how they hunt. Then they played a game based off of "rock, paper, scissors" to learn about the owl's food chain. We all started out as an acorn and went around saying, "I'm a nut" until we met another nut.
After our class, we had a picnic lunch and toured the rest of the nature center. I did not get many photos, since I was talking to other mothers. However, the otter was very entertaining and I did get a picture of her.
I am glad that our special needs group is starting to take off. It is wonderful to have a "safe" place filled with understanding within the homeschool world for our special needs kids. Even in the homeschool world, it has often been a challenge to "fit in" with the normal homeschool groups because of academic requirements or behavior requirements. This group is working out well and hopefully will provide a well-needed service in our area. Blessings, Dawn |
Then we would play "rock, paper, scissors" and the winner would become a mouse. We went around and around until everyone made it to a predator that could eat an owl. Did you know that crows will dive bomb an owl while it is sleeping and eat it? Owls and crows are lifelong enemies.
Posted in FIAR
|
We just finished our latest FIAR book, The Duchess Bakes a Cake. It was great. It is set in the Middle Ages, which we will be studying very soon in history. The basic idea of the story is that the Duchess bakes a cake with no cooking knowledge. Talk about a recipe for disaster.
The children made a lapbook from worksheets and mini books that I found at Homeschoolshare.com. They also illustrated their favorite part of the book. We also made a castle kit that I bought on clearance more than a year ago. I have been saving it for when we got to the Middle Ages but decided to pull it out a little bit early to go along with the book. Over the summer we had a math "map" on the wall for the kids. Each day we worked on a problem and put up a sticker when we worked out the right answer. The kids loved it. I wanted to include another math map in our schooling. I took word problems based on the story and placed them on a homemade chart. We used it for group math time. The kids liked working as a group. We also had our first meeting with our FIAR group. For this first time, I decided not to do a field trip. We had a meet and greet with some treats instead. The turnout was light, but I already have more families signed up for next month. We did several yeast experiments and made cake towers out of cupcakes. It was lots of fun.
To see more great Friday Show and Tells, hop on over to Mary's. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in FIAR
|
This week we stepped away from SOTW to concentrate on a FIAR book. We did The Little Red Lighthouse and the Big Gray Bridge. This is a great book with several themes to follow. We chose to study New York City, lighthouses, bridges, compound words and boats. The kids also made a lapbook about the book. The kids loved making lighthouses out of cups, paper plates and lots of paint.
Then we studied bridges. What can you do with 300 tongue depressors and a glue gun?
Make a bridge of course!
The big teen joined us on this venture. Of course, after you have made a bridge it is time to walk on it.
Looks safe enough for a 4 year old.
Hmmmm!
I'm not sure about this bridge....
Yikes!!!! Remarkably, the bridge did not break, but we decided it was a proper bridge for Playmobile figures, not real people. LOL! To see more great show and tells go to Canadagirl. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in FIAR
|
We had a great time reading and doing a mini-unit study on Stellaluna. For math the littles learned about pairs, counted by two's and practiced counting past 50. They also tested their senses by smelling fruit with their eyes closed to see if they could figure out what it was. Also for science they learned about Carnivores, Omnivores, and Herbivores and the Anatomy of bats. THey learned more about continents as they trace fruit bats around the world. The kids really liked working on their second lapbook for copywork. I love the way lapbooks reinforce what the kids have learned and give them a permanent record in a nice book that they can look back at. Here is a look at our latest lapbook.
We are doing The Grouchy Ladybug next week. I can't wait to see that lapbook. BLessings, Dawn |
Posted in FIAR
|
The kids had a great time with our most recent book.
Before I get into what we did this week, I have to tell you about this site I found. It is called Homeschoolshare. I spent hours wandering around this site and used up all of the ink left in the printer copying off loads of great activities to go with more than a dozen books sitting on my shelves
For science we learned about conservation and the affects of an oil spill on ducks. We cut ducks out of wax paper and put them in a large bowl of water. They floated around just fine. Then we added dish soap and they sunk to the bottom. It was even faster when we used veggie oil. THe kids got the importance of taking care of birds during an oil spill and I had almost no clean up. (I didn't get a picture
The tip where you see the yellow is were the water is erupting from the straw. The kids are also enjoying there vocabulary cards. I found these on homeschoolshare and printed off all the ones from the books we have done this year.
To finish off our book this week we are going to make Boston baked bread and Boston baked beans tomorrow. Yummy... I haven't been baking with the kids much lately and they are really looking forward to it. I am looking forward to staying home for a few days. Blessings, Dawn |
. THey have a huge amount of unit studies and a whole section on FIAR books. One of the great ideas I got off of this site was to use Draw Write Now books with FIAR books. We happened to have book one and the kids loved drawing ducks and swans out of it. 
) One science project is never enough for Tom Sawyer so we did one that he wanted to do (nothing to do with our book). We used a bowl of boiling water and added a sealed bottle of cold water and watched the pressure make a fountain. It was more impressive in the picture in the book but here is what we got.
Posted in FIAR
|
The kids had a great time doing our latest FIAR book, Harold and the Purple Crayon. My son Tom Sawyer especially enjoyed how the lessons revolved around art and being creative. The kids each illustrated and narrated their first stories. I really was impressed how they all stuck with it and gave me complete stories about what/where Harold was going. You can tell that the dog bite I recieved earlier and all of our ER visits are having an impact on their lives. All of their stories involved either a dog bite or ER visit.
We then worked on mixing shades of purple together by melting different shades of purple crayon. The kids liked that. We also worked on learning how to count by 2's. The kids got the concept really well and enjoyed counting several things by two's over the week. We finished off the week by having an all pie dinner. In the story Harold makes and eats nine pies (with help from a moose). Since I lack a magic purple crayon and a moose to clean up the left overs we had six homemade pies. We had strawberry, Apple, ice cream, cheeseburger, quiche, and montgomery pie. YUMMY!!!
Another great FIAR book down. I have found that doing our core lessons sometimes get behind during a FIAR book so we have been going back and forth every other week. We continue doing reading lessons and math with our FIAR book but tend to drop music, spanish, fine motor, art~picture studies, and history. So having a week that we concentrate on these things without a new book is helpful for me. Sometimes I (as I bet most of us do) get overwhelmed with all the things I want to teach and all the tools that I want to use and forget to pace myself. This technique has helped alot. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in FIAR
|
We had a great week with our latest FIAR book, Mirette on the High Wire. The kids really enjoyed doing our science project with the book. They learned how to clean copper. We tried two different ways. We soaked 6 pennies in lemon juice and 6 pennies in vinegar for 24 hours. Hmmm, the vinegar one ruined the pennies. However, the lemon juice worked great.
(dirty pennies)
(Pennies in vinegar and lemon juice)
(the result of the ones soaked in lemon Juice)
(Yikes!!! Look what the Vinegar did!) They also enjoyed working on their balance beam work on the little retaining wall outside our home. They walked forwards, backwards, and blindfolded (holding moms hand).
To finish off our study of Mirette on the High Wire we made omlettes and crepes. Unfortunately, the crepes just did not work out at all. But the omelettes were wonderful.
We also counted up the coins the kids had saved for Heifer International. We used the big teens new money bank that counts for you! Yes, I know that counting all the coins would have been very educational but $30 in mostly pennies would have taken forever. THe kids really wanted to buy honeybees for a poor family and they had just enough (after searching the house for an additional dollar in loose coins
In the kids spare time this week Tom Sawyer decided to make a tv set. The kids had a blast sitting inside being their favorite tv shows. One or two kids would sit outside with a cardboard remote and yell, "Bob the Builder" and then the one inside would sing the theme song. It was really cute.
Last but not least I would like to ask for a small prayer request. I was bitten by a dog that had no proof of Rabies vaccine so now I have to go through the rabies shots. I started the protocol on Friday and shots will continue every few days until early February. I am not really worried about the shots but they are just a hassle in an already very busy schedule and I have to go to the ER each time. Please say a little prayer that the wait at the ER is short each time and that all goes smoothly. Thanks so much. I hope you all have a blessed week! Dawn |
). 
The question is who is going to put all those coins into those little coin rolls. Do I have any volunteers?
Posted in FIAR
|
We had a super time doing our FIAR book this week. It was~
THis proved to be a long undertaking. First you shake the cream then roll the the cream container across the room, then shake, then roll, shake, roll, shake, roll! Ok, after about 45 minutes of this we had something that looked like whip cream. But no sign of whey and butter. Because the kids and mom were impatient we cheated and used the mixer. THe cream seperated into whey and butter very quickly. THen we washed the whey off the butter under very cold water. The kids thought that was so much fun.
THe butter was so good on homemade biscuits with homemade apple butter. Next we made cinnamon. We ground cinnamon sticks down. The girls thought this was great and much easier than making butter.
Of course, this book would not be complete without APPLE PIE!!! YUM.
As if we did not have enough sweets with the pie the big teen made a four layer edible earth. It consisted of inner core made of gray ice cream with m&m's, outer core of caramel sauce, mantle was made of rocky road ice cream and the crust was crushed cookies and green ice cream.
Well, now that you all gained 5 pounds just reading this entry feel free to go search your kitchens for something tasty to eat. Blessings, Dawn
|
What a fun book this was. The little ones had a blast making the ingrediants to go along with this book. First we made butter.
We also attempted to evaporate salt water into salt and we are still waiting to see some salt two days later. I guess this should be done in sunny weather.
