Being a homeschooler stuck in a dining room for a classroom, I totally envy those adorable elementary school classrooms with their walls full of colorful posters and artwork. ***turning a little green here*** But I realize that I can't have it all (although I'm still hoping!). However, there are a few visuals that I consider pretty important, and a Word Wall -- a permanent display of sight words -- is one of them. But this is usually pretty big, and I couldn't quite think up how to make it work.
Until I stumbled on the idea of using a semi-permanent display that MM could look at during our school hours, but that could disappear when the frozen pizza... erm, homemade lasagna... hit the table.
I used a foam display board (the kind that can stand up against something and not bend) and spread out the letters (the rest are on the back, and I combined X-Y-Z). Under each letter I put a strip of Velcro. I found a great list of Dolch sight words from Have Fun Teaching and laminated the sheets, then cut the words apart and decided which ones MM already knew. These I put on the Wall. Each week I choose three more for her to learn, and on the Word Wall they go! As she learns certain easy words more fluently I'll take them off to make room for more.
Another benefit to having Velcro-ed the words is that I can take them off and have her alphabetize them, which she thinks is great fun... not. I wouldn't say that MM is as thrilled as I am to see the Word Wall come out every morning!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
What's That? A Variegated Fritillary
This beautiful little guy is a Variegated Fritillary Butterfly (Euptoieta claudia) found across most of the U.S. It prefers open areas like pastures and fields. I found him in a wildflower meadow in the Midwest.
Week 1: The Earth
Last week was our official start on our Creation Curriculum. Now, I'm aware that technically God first created light, and last year we started off with light, but I wanted to do something a little more concrete this year, and the Earth seemed like a good place to start.
Project 1: After reading a bunch of books and learning about the layers of the earth, we made an Earth Bowl. Ours didn't turn out exactly "earthy," (more like yucky!) but what did the kids care? They had a blast pounding the graham crackers and watching the jello slip down the sides. Plus, it was their snack for a couple days, and what beats jello and graham crackers? I explained the whole "cutting the earth in half" concept by cutting an orange in half.
Project 2: After reading a book about the types of terrains on earth, the kids each chose a terrain and created it using colored tissue paper. MM did a valley, and V-Man did an erupting volcano. Shocking. Then we talked about what types of plants and animals you would find in each (answer: none, in an erupting volcano! That was easy).
Project 3: I cut four different-sized circles out of construction paper, and the kids layered them to represent the crust, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core (yeah, my proportions are a little off). Then they drew houses around the crust (and a flag for the North Pole).
Project 4: The Earth is a giant magnet (I don't think I knew that!). We did a basic study of "What's magnetic?" and talked about why, and then used a compass to find the North Pole. The kids wanted to try walking there, but I had to cook dinner. Spoilsport.
Finally, on their own the kids asked for chalk, and when I came out on the back deck they had drawn their own earth and atmosphere, complete with clouds and stars. That's how I know when a unit has sparked their interest -- they play with the concept long after school is done!
What we're reading:
"Earth: Our Place in Space," by Seymour Simon
"Planet Earth/ Inside Out," by Gail Gibbons
"Ask Dr. K. Fisher About Planet Earth," by Claire Llewellyn
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Recreating natural disasters
V-Man has discovered the books by Seymour Simon, in particular his books about tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes and lightning. And in his pursuit of education lately he has been inflicting such natural disasters on his sister's dollhouse. But like I said, it's educational.
Anyway, to follow his line of interest, I found a great activity for demonstrating the concepts behind some of these natural disasters. An earthquake is easy -- you just tape together two sheets of cardboard as the plates, attach string through the holes, build a city (ours was a city of Polly Pockets and trains) and EARTHQUAKE! Even more fun than tipping over a dollhouse of sleeping Barbies.
The tornado project was surprisingly... um... what's the word I'm looking for? It worked -- that's what surprised me! These mix-type projects never work for me. I can't even make bubbles. But you just take an eight-ounce jar with a lid, fill it 3/4 with water, add 1 teaspoon each of vinegar and dish detergent, and then glitter if you want to demonstrate the debris. Then you shake it, and it actually produces a bona fide funnel cloud.
And you can't do that to a dollhouse.
What we're reading:
Lightning by Seymour Simon
Tornadoes by Seymour Simon
Volcanoes by Seymour Simon
Earthquakes by Seymour Simon
Anyway, to follow his line of interest, I found a great activity for demonstrating the concepts behind some of these natural disasters. An earthquake is easy -- you just tape together two sheets of cardboard as the plates, attach string through the holes, build a city (ours was a city of Polly Pockets and trains) and EARTHQUAKE! Even more fun than tipping over a dollhouse of sleeping Barbies.
The tornado project was surprisingly... um... what's the word I'm looking for? It worked -- that's what surprised me! These mix-type projects never work for me. I can't even make bubbles. But you just take an eight-ounce jar with a lid, fill it 3/4 with water, add 1 teaspoon each of vinegar and dish detergent, and then glitter if you want to demonstrate the debris. Then you shake it, and it actually produces a bona fide funnel cloud.
And you can't do that to a dollhouse.
What we're reading:
After the earthquake! |
Tornadoes by Seymour Simon
Volcanoes by Seymour Simon
Earthquakes by Seymour Simon
M&M Math
I discovered something today. If, at the usual math lesson time, you pull out a bag of M&Ms and announce, "This is our math lesson," you will be hailed a conquering hero by your kids (at least until the M&Ms are gone).
This week our focus is graphing, and I found these awesome M&M graphing and sorting worksheets at http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/3165. The kids could not have been more delighted. First they sorted their candies by color, then counted them, wrote the numbers and graphed them. The only problem was the graph only went up to ten, and it turns out the average bag of M&Ms has a lot more than ten of each color. Yes, I gave them each their own bag. Hey, I never said I was brilliant!
This week our focus is graphing, and I found these awesome M&M graphing and sorting worksheets at http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/3165. The kids could not have been more delighted. First they sorted their candies by color, then counted them, wrote the numbers and graphed them. The only problem was the graph only went up to ten, and it turns out the average bag of M&Ms has a lot more than ten of each color. Yes, I gave them each their own bag. Hey, I never said I was brilliant!
Giant Leopard Moth
I found this while I was out running at dusk. It was already dead, but untouched by ants or birds. You can see its size relative to my shoe in the picture.
Turns out it's a Giant Leopard Moth (what a cool name!) and it has a wingspan up to three inches.
Beautiful, beautiful!
Turns out it's a Giant Leopard Moth (what a cool name!) and it has a wingspan up to three inches.
Beautiful, beautiful!
The Day of the Cicada
Lately we've been finding cicada shells on our pine trees, which is a completely delightful discovery for the kids (see picture at right) but I didn't know enough about the insects to tell them why. Well, now, I do, because we declared yesterday The Day of the Cicada.
On our morning walk we found a beautiful dead specimen, which of course we brought home and drew in our nature notebooks. I'm always surprised at the level of detail the kids use in their drawings (and their pictures make me chuckle, too. See the pic below of V-Man's Evil Cicada). Then we spent a while on this site at National Geographic learning about cicadas. One of the more interesting facts is that some of them have a 17-year life cycle, but they spend most of it underground, emerging at last to shed their skin one last time on a nearby plant.
After completing the drawings, we did a reconnaissance mission in our backyard and found no less than four cicada shells on our trees.
Nature is everywhere -- you just have to look!
On our morning walk we found a beautiful dead specimen, which of course we brought home and drew in our nature notebooks. I'm always surprised at the level of detail the kids use in their drawings (and their pictures make me chuckle, too. See the pic below of V-Man's Evil Cicada). Then we spent a while on this site at National Geographic learning about cicadas. One of the more interesting facts is that some of them have a 17-year life cycle, but they spend most of it underground, emerging at last to shed their skin one last time on a nearby plant.
After completing the drawings, we did a reconnaissance mission in our backyard and found no less than four cicada shells on our trees.
Nature is everywhere -- you just have to look!
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
The Very, Very Hungry Caterpillar
A few days ago we were playing outside when the kids discovered a green, black and yellow caterpillar munching away on my parsley. These little guys show up every year and devour the herb down to its stalks, but this year I figured that if they were going to snack on my garden, by golly, they were going to give us the benefit of watching them turn into butterflies. So before Captain D could gleefully stomp on it, I scooped up the caterpillar and the parsley and dumped them into a small glass insect jar.
There, we watched him munch away on parsley for the next few days. And let me just say, that guy could eat! We ran out of our homegrown parsley so I had to dig into the stash in the fridge. He just kept on munching... until one day he climbed up on a twig and turned into a chrysalis. Sweet.
After a little research we discovered that this was a black swallowtail caterpillar, so when he grows up he'll look sort of like a dead butterfly we found this spring. Notice the "swallow" tail, how it's forked like the tail of a swallowtail. Pretty cool.
How I love watching nature at work!
What we're reading:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman (Let's Read and Find Out Science
Butterfly Eggs by Helen Frost
Good Night, Sweet Butterflies by Dawn Bentley
There, we watched him munch away on parsley for the next few days. And let me just say, that guy could eat! We ran out of our homegrown parsley so I had to dig into the stash in the fridge. He just kept on munching... until one day he climbed up on a twig and turned into a chrysalis. Sweet.
After a little research we discovered that this was a black swallowtail caterpillar, so when he grows up he'll look sort of like a dead butterfly we found this spring. Notice the "swallow" tail, how it's forked like the tail of a swallowtail. Pretty cool.
How I love watching nature at work!
What we're reading:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman (Let's Read and Find Out Science
Butterfly Eggs by Helen Frost
Good Night, Sweet Butterflies by Dawn Bentley
Friday, August 5, 2011
A surplus of envelopes & Capri Sun boxes equals...
... a really fun project! I'm not crafty by any means, but it was easy enough to spray paint a couple of Capri Sun boxes bright blue, cut holes in them and call 'em mailboxes! This worked great because all three kids (ages 6, 4 and almost 2) had fun their own way. MM wrote her spelling words (under duress, haha) on "letters" and put them in envelopes, and then she practiced writing her name and address. It wasn't all drudgery, though, as she also decorated the envelopes. Tonight we'll open them and she can read her words (ooh, I bet she can't wait!).
V-Man had the most fun, I think (that kid could have fun with a spot on the floor). He wrote letter after letter, all of which spelled something along the lines of IHIOOOHI. But I got him to write MOMMY and DADDY on the envelopes, and we had a long conversation about how letters get from here to there... which involved a discussion of airplanes, which necessarily led to his favorite, the Blackbird, which can cross the US in one hour and is used for TOP SECRET MISSIONS ONLY, as he reminds me about once an hour. So I checked, and I can definitively state that postal workers do not use Blackbirds to deliver our letters from Nonnie and Grandpa.
When Captain D woke up (what, you think I do stuff like this when he's awake???), he immediately set to task inserting the letters and pulling them out. That kept him occupied for all of 33 seconds, and then he decided to rip all the stamps off, which set V-Man to screaming, so then it was popsicle time.
It's popsicle time a lot around here.
V-Man had the most fun, I think (that kid could have fun with a spot on the floor). He wrote letter after letter, all of which spelled something along the lines of IHIOOOHI. But I got him to write MOMMY and DADDY on the envelopes, and we had a long conversation about how letters get from here to there... which involved a discussion of airplanes, which necessarily led to his favorite, the Blackbird, which can cross the US in one hour and is used for TOP SECRET MISSIONS ONLY, as he reminds me about once an hour. So I checked, and I can definitively state that postal workers do not use Blackbirds to deliver our letters from Nonnie and Grandpa.
When Captain D woke up (what, you think I do stuff like this when he's awake???), he immediately set to task inserting the letters and pulling them out. That kept him occupied for all of 33 seconds, and then he decided to rip all the stamps off, which set V-Man to screaming, so then it was popsicle time.
It's popsicle time a lot around here.
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