As we started into our history lesson Monday Kaitlyn asked, "Are we doing any projects today?" And of course we were. After reading about pyramids I asked the kids to build a lego pyramid. Simple right?
No. Because they both needed the large green platform and there was only 1. So they decided to work together to build 1 large pyramid. It sounded like a great idea to me. They could work on their teamwork.
After 20 min of work this is as far as they got. They decided they wanted a hollow pyramid so that you could see the mummy On the ground next to the mummy are the canopic jars and in front of the mummy you can see the lid ready to placed ontop of the mummy. This is where I decided to stop this project and I thought maybe we would come back to it the next day and work on it again.
Tuesday began and Kaitlyn asked again,"Are we doing any projects today?"
We were in fact. In a combined history/art lesson we were going to make our very own canopic jars.
Making your own canopic jars turns out to be very messy.
- We had to tear lots of newspaper into small pieces.
- We then put the newspaper in the blender with water and blended it to a pulp.
- After it was all pulpy we had to strain the excess water out of it.
- Then we mixed the pulp mixture with glue.
- Now you can actually begin sculpting.
This process took awhile and it was messy and so therefore I didn't get a picture of Samantha working on her jar because she finished to quickly. But here are the few pics I managed to take:
This last picture is Kaitlyn's jar. She is molding it into the face of a baboon which was one of the Egyptian gods. I know you can't tell from the picture but it actually looks quite a lot like the picture she was copying. Next week we will paint it and hopefully the details come out more clearly.
Wednesday Kaitlyn asked again, "Are we doing any kind of special projects for history today?"
And that is when I realized we had trouble.
Somehow I had managed to set the precedent that we would do a project everyday.
But we aren't going to do a project everyday. I would like to but time and budget only allows for so much. Somedays I wish all we needed to study was history. I love history. I find it fascinating! Unfortunately math, reading,spelling,etc are important to so we can't just read history books and do projects all day! But we will do a project every week. Kaitlyn was not happy with that answer. She is a hands-on, project kind of girl but sometimes we just have to compromise.
We did however watch a documentary on Netflix created by National Geographic called, "The Secrets of the Pharaohs". I personally learned a lot of new information watching it and we even got to watch a man actually mummify a person!
Music
We are still listening to Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint Saens.
This weeks section was the tortoise.
The kids really enjoyed listening to the slow moving music and imaging a turtle crawling about.
Math
I cannot tell you enough how much I love Right Start Math! I love its hands on nature. It is so great to memorize facts through the playing of games. Right Start also makes use of its own version of the abacus. This is a 2-sided abacus each side with its own purpose. Last year Matthew begged and begged to be allowed to use side 2. I'm not sure why, he just did.
Well today he finally got to flip the abacus over and use side 2! he was so excited. The main difference is that when you use side two you actually turn the abacus sideways and it has headings: 1000, 100, 10, 1. Who would have thought a kid could get so excited over an abacus!
Kaitlyn is working on fractions right now. Here she is putting together her fraction chart:
Kaitlyn is working on fractions right now. Here she is putting together her fraction chart:
I really like this puzzle-like chart. It has really helped her visualize the fractions and she even enjoys putting it together! Win-win!
Co-op Day
A favorite day as usual here are a few pictures of what the kids did this week in their classes.
You may be wondering how I get pictures of my kids in their classes since I am not actually in all of their classes with them. Many of the teachers take pictures during their classes and upload them to our facebook group. They don't always have time to take picures but I always appreciate it when they do!
Kaitlyn in recyled art creating a pantyhose and coat hanger sculpture.
Here I am teaching my afternoon tots. We are singing "Going on a bear hunt". Some kids are singing, some are playing in our "bear cave". If you can't tell we were having a bear themed day. The book for the day was :
There were tons of fun activities in the morning class but since I teach in the afternoon I only have pictures of some of the afternoon activities.
The kids built patterns with bear counters.
They hibernated in our "bear cave".
We colored bear pictures.
We played with our bear sensory bin.
We even ate bear shaped snacks.
Candy Science:
Matthew in his candy science. Today's experiment used Sprite and Pop rocks. I must admit I am not entirely sure what they learned. Matthew said something about the pop rocks causing the Carbon Dioxide to be realeased from the soda into the balloon. Someone with a chemistry background tell me if that is right. Kaitlyn's class did the same experiment but I don't have any pics of her.
Apple picking field trip
Friday was our 1st field trip of the year-Apple picking!
Beleive it or not I have never actually taken my kids to pick apples. I'm really not sure why. So when the co-op sponsored this field trip I thought we should go.
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Selfie on the apple wagon |
Matthew and Samantha took off into the orchard filling their bags as fast as they could. Samantha especially thought it was fun because she could actually reach the apples herself and did not need any help.
Kaitlyn on the other had painstakingly searched the trees for the largest most perfect apples. It took her awhile to fill her bag but her apples were large and perfect.
After we rode the wagon back we were told to leave our apple bags(labeled with our names) piled on the grass while we went to enjoy all the other activities the farm had to offer.
Matthew hand feeding the cow.
Samantha and her friend riding on the tractors.
I cannot remember this guys name but he sure had a funny routine with these pigs. All the kids were laughing!
Enjoying some yummy apple cider slushies! I've never heard of an apple cider slushie but I thought they were pretty good.
Of course after playing and exploring the farm for 2 hours we were ready to go home. I went into the store and bought a gallon of apple cider and some apple cider doughnuts to take home.
Upon arriving home I started unloading our van and realized that I never stopped back over by that grassy spot to grab our bag of apples! I was so upset! Kaitlyn was planning on making caramel apples with hers, I thought we could bake an apple pie, and then of course we would have plenty to just eat and enjoy. The apple farm was 45 min away so there was no way I was driving back to get them.
Oh well we still had a fun day and at least we still have apple cider and apple cider doughnuts!
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