That's A Wrap

Vania's " I Spy " Cookies
Can you find the cookie in the mound of sprinkles ?

Lots of little stuff to wrap up for Greece /human body unit. Not a lot of Greece activities going on these last couple weeks but lots of little science experiments. As you can imagine the human body study could go on for infinite. But i was trying to at least give them a brief overview of the major body systems with a few experiments to demonstrate how each work.


For the digestive system we did 2 experiments. First we took 2 clear jars and filled them with warm water. Next we added a TBSP of vegetable oil to each. In one jar we then added a few drops of dish liquid. Then stirred each. This was to demonstrate how our stomach acid breaks down food. Of course the one with just oil broke up into larger drops of oil. But the one with dish liquid broke the oil up into tiny particles and made the water cloudy.

Next we took a balloon, vegetable oil and a piece of bread to demonstrate how the esophagus moves food down to the stomach. That is the picture above :) We cut off the bottom of the balloon then coated the inside with vegetable oil. Next, we took a piece of bread and made it into a ball with our hands and put it into the mouth of the balloon. The goal was to work the ball of bread through the balloon to the end demonstrating peristalsis.

The Respiratory system was next on the list. They had a contest to see who could hold their breath the longest. Zane won at 1 minute . I also showed them how to count respirations using a stethescope before and after running up and down the stairs ( thanks Vania & Carson for volunteering ). We went over what a normal respiration rate was and why it was different for small children verses and adult.

The other picture above is Carson spreading honey on an index card. The honey is to demonstrate the mucus that lines our noses. Each kid took a card covered in honey and placed them around the house to collect particles of dust etc for a week. The objective being to see how the hairs and mucus in our nose help to filter the air we breathe in. We learned a valuable lesson with this one. Always let dad know what is a science experiment :) Within a week he had randomly discovered all 4 cards of honey in unexpected spots after throwing things on top ofthem i.e. groceries. The first one, hidden under the clock on the piano, he exclaimed "WHAT IS THIS !"Sounding as if he just discovered another bowl of food in the kids bedroom. " WAIT!....NOOOOOO it's for science ! " I yelled as I realized from the other room what he was talking about. I should've right then pointed out the other 3. But no...they were surprises too:)

We did a few Nervous system experiments but by this time winter break fever had set in so no pics. The best and simplest one was finding out which eye was our dominate eye. We took a sheet of paper and put a black dot the size of a quarter in the middle of it. Then stood back, stretched our arms out & formed a picture frame using our hands around the dot . Then you alternate closing your left and right eye. Whichever eye you can still see the dot in the frame with is your dominate eye. I think we were all left eye dominant. They all said they could see it with both eyes until we narrowed the frame down to just a peep hole.

To finish up before break we made 72 Christmas cookies to pass out to our neighbors. They had made Christmas cards the week before so we added these to our plates of cookies . It happened to be 60 degrees that day so Vania & Carson walked around and delivered the cookies in their wagon. Super cute. The coolest thing was for them to see how appreciative the neighbors were of their unexpected cookie delivery :) Never hurts to spread some Christmas cheer !


Lastly, I did manage to squeeze a little review of the body in with the Name That Organ Bingo. I've pretty much discovered that anytime candy is involved it motivates them. Isn't chocolate supposed to stimulate the brain ?

Well that's a wrap ! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year :)
Bambi

Greece Week 4 & 5

Yep, I'm behind again so this will be a quick overview of some of the things we've done in the last 2 weeks. If I don't get busy on this post I will be combining 3 weeks :)

This is what Calcium depletion does to your bones. This is the bone experiment we started in week 3. We soaked a chicken bone in Vinegar for 8 days. After 8 days the chicken bone was squishy & easy to bend. Kinda freaky :) A great lesson to refer to when the kids don't want to finish their milk.

I bought 2 bunches of asparagus to try as another example of Greek food. Not well received as you can see from the picture. I ended up eating both bunches for lunch last week. Good thing I like asparagus .


Each kid made a bowl or cup out of red clay to demonstrate how the Greeks made pottery. After they dried a couple days we sprayed them with a glossy finish. Now they adorn the top of my kitchen pantry out of harms way. I love to look around the house and see the projects we've worked on :)


We've added a "Christmas " day to our week where we talk about the history of Christmas and do some fun holiday stuff. I look forward to this day of the week. Especially with all the hustle & bustle it's nice to have some scheduled down time to enjoy the holiday. Last week we made hot cocoa mixes and put together a Christmas package for our pen pal in Rwanda.

Only one more week of regular scheduled school time and then we will take a break until the new year. Change is on the horizon & schooling will be a little different for the new year. I have found that trying to meet all 4 of their individual needs/wants has not been successful with the unit study approach. The older 2 want to be more independent & the younger 2 need more of my undivided attention. So, it is in the works to make that happen. Divide & conquer :)

Greece Week 3

Wow, last week was a blur due the holiday ! I had to look at the pictures we took to remember what we packed into MTW.

See this gross disgusting "thing/things " growing in this jar ? That was from our smelly feet project we did week 2. Originally we were supposed to see results in 4 days. We let it fester twice that and got some rather yucky results. Now every time I see their smelly feet on my countertops I remind them of this experiment :)Zoe was the winner,that blob up front. I wish we had a microscope!

We started going over the skeleton system, demonstrating the strength of the hard outer part of the bone using a toilet paper roll & talking about what makes up the softer inner part of the bone.

These are our cool skeletons which took a little bit of work. The ribs were a little time consuming but it was definitely a cool demonstration of the major bones of the body.

This is an ongoing chicken bone experiment. We are to soak a chicken bone in vinegar for 8 days. Changing the vinegar every couple days. The vinegar reacts with calcium in the bone. With Calcium loss after 8 days we are going to see if our chicken bone is bendable.

Moving on to Greece........We dressed up Greek style. Zane was not at all interested in this :) The girls used our shear curtains & Carson our bedsheets. It was like a moment from Sound of Music when Julie Andrews uses the curtains in her bedroom to make play clothes for the kids. Carson wore his all day. Vania tried until it came undone in her booster seat :) Zoe complained about the fabric itching so hers immediately came off after I "made" her take a picture.


Lastly, we made necklaces using copper wire & small stones to go with our Greek clothing.


That's our weekly wrap up. On to week 4 !

Greece Week 2

It seems that I only post about the projects we do for history & science. But that's not all we do .For math we use Teaching Textbooks a program on CD with a workbook. Zane & Zoe prefer the workbook. I have Carson do his on the computer.

Language Arts is covered using the literature we are reading at the time. Right now we are reading Aesop's Fables , parables from the bible + lots of books on Greece /human body from the library. Next up for this unit we will be reading Classic Myths To Read Aloud.

Learning Adventures has student pages for purchase that cover language arts activities for the units which Zane & Zoe use. For Carson I supplement activities for his age as closely as I can to what the older kids are working on. The only huge difference is Carson has his own spelling list & spelling activities + I work on his reading by having him read aloud to me.

They all use Rosetta Stone French I. Zane & Zoe can do this totally independently. I usually sit with Carson for moral support and to keep his clicking ( before thinking through the answer )under control :)

Her's a little of what we did this week.....

We learned about the muscular system & what stretching does for your muscles. The kids sat in a chair with their backs straight and feet planted on the ground, arms folded and tried to stand up. They could only do it if they bent forward which changed their center of gravity.

We talked about the circulatory system and I taught them how to take a person's pulse . Then we recorded their pulses before & after running up & down the stairs. They also mixed up some fake blood.

For history we read about Pandora's box , then made our own. Once we made our boxes we wrote down things we would like to get rid of to put in the box. It was suggested I put Wii & X Box in mine :) And I did.


Also in history we talked about Greek houses and how they created mosaics using 4 sided shapes to decorate floors etc. Then they made their own from construction paper. Unfortunately, I decided to laminate them to try to keep them from falling apart and it made them a little dull looking.

Last week ended the fall co op session and this week they had a showcase to show off all they've been working on. An estimated 150 kids were part of this particular co op this session. Awesome!

Zoe's choir performance

Carson's recorder performance

Zane & Vania did not have performances but displayed some of the work they did in class.

Zane's Civil War Class

Vania's Geography & Culture Class

Short week next week ! Have a Happy Thanksgiving :)
Bambi

Greece Week 1

Last week was our first week of Greece. The week started off rough following a week of review & testing but we were able to pull it together by the end of the week.

The first day we spent tasting tasting some Greek foods. We had an olive tasting and by far the green olives won out :) They tried feta cheese spread on crackers and sprinkled some on their salads. I personally love feta cheese. They were just okay with it :) Of course we always love grapes so that was a freebie. And lastly, we made little english muffin pizzas which they had no problem devouring .

Did you know that the Greeks were the first to eat pizza, using it as a bread plate to pile food on top of ? The tomato sauce came later. They just used olive oil. But we decided to stick with the sauce:)


We also started a unit on the human body. right now we are briefly going over each body system. Last week it was the Integumentary System. We made fake blisters, looked at our hair under a magnifying glass ( need to invest in a microscope! ) and are in the process of our "smelly feet" project in which we are growing microbes from their dirty feet in gelatin.

This is our jar of gelatin for microbe growing

Vania collecting swabbing her feet for the gelatin jar

This week was also the last week of fall co op which I am sad about :( I will really miss getting together with our friends. On the other hand I am excited to see what classes we will be taking in the spring !

Our Week In Review

Last week was a week of review and testing on unit 1 . I decided to make tests for Egypt and the desert using classmarker.com . No testing is "required" but I felt the review was for their benefit after covering a lot of info. & the testing was for my benefit to see how much they were retaining & how I can improve my teaching to meet their learning styles. These will also go in their portfolios since there is little paperwork and mostly hands on projects for science and history.
We also reviewed geography and map skills. The kids individually indentified certain locations on the globe and filled in a blank map of Egypt using a word bank at the bottom of the map. These will also go in their portfolios.

We used board games to review Egypt/Desert
& BINGO for desert vocab.

For the final day of Egypt we had our version of a passover meal to celebrate God leading the Israelites out of Egypt. We had matzah ball soup , potato krugel, roasted turkey and grape juice in our "fancy glasses".

These are 2 more fun projects the kids made for nature enrichment using certain knots they have been learning to tie ;

Carson's spear

Zoe's loofah

And last but not least, we took our last fieldtrip of the unit to the Cleveland Botanical Garden. This is a picture of the kiddos in the the Madagascar Desert Ecosystem.


Tomorrow we move onto Greece :)

Pyramids & Plagues

Okay, we have discovered that we are NOT the best pyramid builders this last week. The kids worked all week painting and decorating their pyramids only to discover that the paint had warped the cardboard which made our pyramids difficult to put together. And we were only able to get three sides to fit together. But..... it was still fun . I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for the Ancient Egyptians & how much skill & hard labor it must have required. Maybe that is the lesson here :)

We also wrapped up the story of Moses in Exodus & covered the Ten Plagues of Egypt. The vote is in & by a land slide BOILS was the most gross & disgusting plague !

Then Friday we took a field trip to General Sherman's House in Lancaster. Unfortunately we were not aloud to take pictures inside of the house. The boys liked all the Civil War memorabilia which was cool for Zane to see since he is taking a Civil War class in Co op.

Zane started guitar lessons at the YMCA Thursday. So far , so good . He woke up Friday morning grabbed his guitar & started practicing the chords ( even before X BOX ). Life is good :)