Memorial Day!

We talked about Memorial Day on Friday...how it started, what it means, why we see flags all over this time of year, etc. I also taught D about the different branches of the military and why we are so thankful for the hard work they do, the sacrifices they and their families make so that we can have the freedom we have in our country.

I had wanted the kids to make something...but wanted it to be something we could USE. I saw an idea for a fabric wreath online. We made this one Friday for $10 (maybe a little less)...
D had quite a bit of practice tying knots, though after we were only 1/4 of the way done, he asked me to do the rest. Oh well...it was fun to do 1/4 of it together. ;o) We watched a Bill Nye DVD on magnetism while we worked.

Supplies:
1wooden embroidery hoop ($3 at craft store)
1-2 yards each of red, white & blue, and/or designed cotton fabric (I used 4-5 yards total fabric)
1 yard each of red, white & blue tulle (89 cents/yard on sale!)

Directions:
Cut strips of fabric 1.5" wide and about 8-10" long using pinking shears (leaves zigzag edge :o) ). When cutting the tulle make it 2" wide using regular scissors for a straight, easy cut.

Tie fabric pieces singled or doubled around the hoop. Tied the tulle (doubled or triped) around the hoop, pushing fabric tightly together after knotted.

Time: 2-3 hours

Rain & Floods!

Today we read about floods and watched a Nova DVD on the flooding that happened during Hurricane Katrina when the levees broke. D is becoming a little meteorologist! I so wish we could get to meet one of our local meteorologists this week...I'm working on it. ;o)

We also talked about the water cycle using the book Down Comes the Rain. The kids drew water cycle pictures for their weather books.
Notice D's words on the page??? "water cycle" - he wrote in cursive!

D also alphabetized weather words and matched their definitions from a worksheet I printed from the web.

While D worked on alphabetizing, I read a few weather poems aloud. Their favorite was one about galoshes making splishes & sploshes in the rain. :o)

Here's how D's weather book looks so far...The fancy word "weather" was all his idea...
He messed up his first pic of a hurricane (top gray scribbles)...

He was afraid to waste pages in his book...so his tornado page went above weather ingredients, oh well!

Weather Unit & Worms

We're doing a WEATHER unit this week and LOVING it!

Lots of books from home & library... (with a few DVDs, not pictured)

Our verse for the week is one we've learned before..."When I am afraid I will trust in you!" (Ps 56:3) And we've talked about how some weather is really scary - we know that God is MORE powerful and always in control of it!

Yesterday D&K both created their weather books - to "journal" and draw in this week as we learn about different types of weather.

We learned about tornadoes Monday - watched a DVD about Extreme Weather that included a story about "The Monster" tornado that hit Oklahoma City in '99, read two books - Tornado Alert & Flash, Crash, Rumble & Roll. We also discussed what we do when we have tornado warnings in our area. K kept saying, "I'm thankful for our basement!" (ME, too!!!!)

After watching the DVD, D was amazed that some people choose to drive TOWARDS the storm! Whew, no storm-chaser in the making here!

D found a "twister" in a jar experiment from one of his storm books and so we did that today - a review from yesterday's topic. :o)The twister happened so fast that we caught just the end of it in the picture underneath the white bubbles...D thought it was pretty cool! I'll have to make the pop bottle one for him another day as I know it lasts longer. :o)

Today we read about Hurricanes and stopped frequently to point out various areas on the globe (D remembered a lot, I'm glad!). D & K made their own hurricane to observe the calm in the eye of the storm (idea from Janice VanCleave's book about weather). It was neat to see the paper clip remain still in the "eye" of the storm swirling around it (water & pepper).

D's "hurricane" as it looks on radar...

We also looked up the hurricane flag & D drew it into his hurricane page.

We learned hurricanes rotate counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere.

We also read through the list of hurricane names for the 2011 hurricane season - did you know the lists go A-W (minus Q & U names)? I love learning with the kids! :o)

Remember our worms project from 2 weeks ago? D took off the black paper today and found a tiny path through the sand with dirt from one of the worms he placed on top. He was hoping for a lot more paths, but still got the idea that worms move and move the soil around, so they're good to have in the dirt!

Besides the fun weather books, activities & reading, D&K are keeping up with the their Singapore Math and HWT. D's cursive is just amazing to me...he's so anxious to learn all the letters.
K had fun using clothespins for math today to see that adding horizontally is the same as adding vertically. By the end of the paper she wasn't using clothespins anymore...kept saying, "Mommy, don't look, I can do it." She sure did it...they were all correct!

Whew!

We've had sunny, warm weather, playdates with friends, rain, more mud, a broken arm, blogger issues and a fussy toddler in the past week which has kept me from blogging about school.

We did a mini unit on Birds/Worms last week since we've been seeing/finding a lot of them in our backyard. The kids enjoyed it. We even made a "worm farm" using a 2-liter. We open it next Monday...

K's job was to add the sand...
D's job was to add the dirt (mud) and worms...

The layers weren't as straight as I'd like them - but you can only do so much with MUD!
The container is covered with air holes, surrounded in black paper and stored in the garage. D is watering it everyday (or trying to remember to do so!).
K wrote a lot of her capitals she's learned so far and circled the one she thought she made the best!
While learning about birds, we discussed symmetry because if birds wings aren't symmetrical, they can't fly. K made shapes and used another band to make two equal/symmetrical sides.
D's grasshopper project last week (we opted not to make edible play dough as written in the guide). He used green playdoh and green pipe cleaners instead and did a great job!



Math from early last week, prior to the cast...
K's markerboard drawing today - not related to "school" but just a fun, bright flower! Thankfully the arm she broke wasn't the RIGHT one!
Carefully doing her math paper...coloring mugs for math facts that add up to 8, with a little help from some M&Ms. :o)

blocks, dots & money

For the remaining 3 days of last week - we fit school time between play time. The sun finally appeared on Thursday & Friday so the kids spent a good portion of time outside. I love to watch them play together. I let D have my camera for awhile and here are some of the many pictures he took outside. I think we'll have to do a photography unit soon!

Can you guess what this is?

Mud caked to the bottom of one of K's shoes!

He did a great job capturing the leaves of this plant...

He climbed the tree and was looking down on the girls for this pic...

A shot of C and the blue sky & tree leaves! He captured all the angles!

D re-discovered his bristle blocks during the week and decided to make a large structure on wheels. He then used my camera to capture these pics since he was an expert at using it after the photo shoot outside...What a face!

K enjoyed playing a game for math one day last week. We each took turns rolling the die and counting out foam shapes. Whoever had the most shapes after 5 turns won the game...K beat me twice!


We played a money activity Thursday (don't you just love her crazy outfit?! We didn't have anywhere to go that day so I let her choose her outfit). I set out various snacks, a sweet and a toy. She had to purchase them using pennies and/or nickel. She counted out the pennies correctly!

Holding a coin in her hand...
I involved C in an art project last week...dotting blank cards to send pics to the great-grandparents. :o) She LOVED it and had fun taking off the caps, too!

Hard at work...

Real Butterflies

(2nd post of the day - scroll down to read "Fake Butterflies")

We went to a Butterfly Show today at a conservatory and so the first room we walked through was the CACTUS room. The kids did NOT touch them...though C tried a few times as they were near the path!

These prickles were so LONG!C obeying & not touching...

D is such a ham...the cactus behind him makes him look like a crazy peacock!
He was amazed how tall this cactus was...all the way to the ceiling of the glass room!
We saw butterflies hatching from their cocoon/chrysalis...D said it looked exactly like the picture in the book we read yesterday!


The butterfly garden room it was LOTS of fun! The butterflies were all over the place and would land on your arm, head, back, stroller, etc...

In each of these pictures the kids are holding a butterfly...

Tiny black one...
A monarch - we read a lot about them yesterday! They travel 2000 miles!

A really detailed one...not sure of the name...

A tiny black/yellow one on C's leg...she LOVED it!
K showing one off to C...
K standing next to a plant with PINK leaves! Though it looks dark red in the pic...

It was a fun experience!