Social Studies - Week 4

We are on week 4 of Sonlight Core D. J is loving the chapter books that we are reading. J requested more hands-on projects so we began New World Explorers by Homeschool in the Woods. I thought it was fitting since we are learning about the Indians and the New World in Sonlight. Here are some of the fun activities we worked through this week.

Last week, we made a journal out of tea dyed paper. J loved her journal and she was actually excited to write in it. She dictates what she wants to write and I write it for her on the small white board. She then transfers it into her journal.

Her pictures are so funny! Here her ship is falling off the edge of the earth and her sailor is hugry! Haha.

We are currently reading through The Sign of the Beaver and in the book, he ate Johnnycakes. So, we had to eat Johnnycakes too:) J is making the dough ready for frying.

Kaleb decided to help as well. He insisted.

They were "thumbs up" as reviewed by Kaleb. He loved them so much that he took them for school snack. We all liked them and ate them for breakfast.

We learned about Navigational Equipment that the Explorers used. J made a wheel for her lap book.

Here is the wheel book for her Explorer lap book.

She also wrote about the Navigational Equipment for her notebook.

We made a homemade compass using foam, a magnet, and a needle.

We also made a quadrant from a yard stick, some string, and a magnet. She practiced using it around the house.

Our state of the week was Connecticut. She practiced the capitals and states that we have learned so far.

She worked on her scrapbook pages for her state notebook.

She drew the official animal of Connecticut - the whale, for her book. We are ready to learn about the explorers now starting with the Vikings. Hope to see you next week.

Fall Craft Fun

J did not have her Friday School this week due to a band seminar. Because we typically work through school Monday to Thursday, we used Friday to do some fall crafting.

We started by dying some coffee filters with food coloring to make some pretty fall leaves. I love the way these leaves turned out.

We placed them on wax paper to aid in the drying. Wait until they are completely dry or you may end up ripping them.

I added the leaves to my front door for a cute decoration. I all most wish we made more.

I found this cute idea from Enchanted Homeschooling Mom (link below). Hers turned out so cute....ours not so cute. We started out with watering down the glue and then, thought it wasn't enough. So we used straight up glue. Then, we waited a day for them to dry. When we deflated the balloons, the pumpkins deflated as well. I just threw them away. Pinterest Fail:(

Another project we worked on was a cute pumpkin lantern made from a pickle jar and cut-up tissue paper. We had glue left over from the balloon project and covered the jar completely with glue. J added bits of tissue paper and a cute pumpkin face. Add a battery operated candle and you have a cute fall lantern.

J asked to make a few more of these to put on our steps outside. Now, I just need to get some more jars.

Another project we worked on was this cute leaf. The idea behind it was to practice patterns and such. But it ended being a family tree leaf. J added the names of people in our family and colored each section. She added this to the front door. This idea came from The Crafty Classroom (link below).

This little beauty came from a craft day at the library. It was made with tissue paper and toilet paper....yes, an actual roll of toilet paper! Cute and functional:)

Links

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - has the yarn pumpkin project.

Real Life At Home - has the mixed media pumpkin project.

Fun At Home With Kids - has the coffee filter leaves craft.

The Crafty Classroom - free template for leaf art project plus a few more ideas.

American Artist - Gilbert Stuart

We are on our third artist from Great American Artists for Kids - Gilbert Stuart. Stuart was a portrait painter of the New World. He painted many of the key players and founding fathers of new America. One of his most famous paintings is that of George Washington.

We started our art lesson by reading about Gilbert Stuart and writing a notebook page for her artist notebook.

We added him to our timeline.

The art project was to draw a portrait of any person and color it with crayons.

My sweetie drew a picture of me-the best mom :)

After drawing and coloring her portrait, J was supposed to crumple it up and then flatten it out. Then, she was to paint a thin black wash over the painting. We had several mishaps with this art project though. First, J chose a type of off white drawing paper instead of white printer paper or art paper. The paper, as you can see from the left hand corner, actually soaked up the black paint. Second, I think the black wash was too thick. When we washed it over with the black, I was worried that we ruined the drawing (which I think is super sweet). But, after awhile, the painting dried and ended up looking ok.

This art project then prompted another....

J drew and colored a complete set of family portraits. I love them! I am planning on framing them for the family room, I think.

This one is my son Josh with his beard. Loving it! This time, though, no black wash and no crumpling. These are definitely keepers. Another great artist and another great project.

Tot Tuesday - Look Ma!

Look Ma! I knew you wouldn't believe it without seeing it! Riley finally learned how to hold his own bottle. 

Jesus and His Family Tree

Our Bible lessons are continuing with Telling God's Story Book 1.  Our next lesson was Jesus' Family Tree. This was a s simple lesson with few activities.

We started this lesson reading it in the Bible while she colored the coloring sheet.

We decided to make a 3D version of a family tree that I found at She Knows (link below). We talked about the members of our family and I wrote the names on the mini white board. This was to help her spell the names correctly - she didn't want to misspell the names of her family.

She included several members who are deceased, she insisted. We started with brown card stock but had to glue the brown to some card board to make it stand up.

I love the way this turned out. It is sitting on top of my bookcase in my living room, just in time for fall! A simple lesson about Jesus' family and a cute craft for ours. Love it.

Links

She Knows - has the idea and template for the 3D family tree craft.  She also has a few more craft ideas for family trees.

Crayola - has a cute idea for a family tree made with buttons. If you have any extra buttons, this would be fun to do.

Home Grown Hearts Academy - has free family tree printables complete with questions to ask each family member.

YZ Alphabet Review Pack - free printable

I am so excited! A reader asked me about my Y&Z review pack. It was just what I needed to get moving on it. I finally finished it. I know that I have been dragging my feet on these printables and it was weighing on my mind. (I do not like things undone on my list). I finally found the time to finish my Y&Z Review pack and I can check this off my list! (next will be the rest of my interactive notebook files for the alphabet).

It is jammed packed with activities. I included play dough pages for the letter Y and Z.

The focus or sight words that  I wanted to highlight in this unit we number words one through six. I included a mini book to make to practice the words as well as sight word puzzles and word searches.

I also included strip puzzles and roll/graph activities. It is 58 pages of alphabet review and I am happy to offer it to you. Happy that I made it through the alphabet:) I hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions or problems, please let me know.

Download Y & Z Alphabet Review Pack HERE.

Social Studies Week 3

We just finished week 4 of Sonlight Core D. We are reading a ton of books which J loves but J was missing the hands-on aspect. So, we began New World Explorers by Homeschool in the Woods. This week, we worked on the lessons - the life of a sailor and sailing vessels.

After reading the lesson, J worked on her Ptolemy map for her notebook.

One of her projects for the lessons was to make a flag. J made a girlie pirate flag...ARRR!

We tea-stained some pages for a journal. This journal will be used through out the unit and she will write about her adventures.

The pages didn't turn out as dark as I would have liked them but we loved the sound they made...all crinkly. We bound the journal with a rubber band.

We read about the different type of sailing vessels explorers used in their adventures. She labeled a ship diagram for her notebook.

We worked together on her explorer journal. She was concerned with her spelling so she dictated what she wanted to write and I wrote it on her dry-erase board to copy. First, she wrote her entry in pencil and then traced it in black marker so it would look like black quill tipped pen.

This was her entry, complete with ink blots (love it!). She drew a picture of her as the captain and me as the first mate (aka mom).

Her last project for the week was ships in a bottle craft (links below). This was an easy craft using a 2 liter soda bottle and some print-out ships. J added some shredded paper for water and ribbon to finish it off.

It turned out cute. While she was making this project, we watched a video on how they get wooden ships in real glass bottles and listened to some sea shanteys. (All links below.) Great week, loving this!

Links

Sheringham Shanteymen - has a youtube video of an old sea chantey - Blow the Man Down.

The Muppet Show - has a cute version of a sea chantey from one of its old episodes.

The Curiosity Show - has an informative video on how ships end up in glass bottles.

Noggins and Nonsense - has the free printable ships in a bottle craft that we did. It included the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria.

Crayola - also has a ship in the bottle craft but you make your own ships.

Food 52 - has a no corn meal recipe for Johnny Cakes (I did not have corn meal on hand and didn't want to go out and get some!). This is for Sign of the Beaver - Matt mentions eating Johnny Cakes.