Science - Week 7

Our Science Curriculum for the year is Considering God's Creation. This week, we were learning about the speed of light, sound, and wind. This lesson was pretty simple so there wasn't too much to do.

J began the lesson using the mini flip books that I created for the lesson's vocab. I always like for her to look up the definitions in the dictionary for extra practice.

J then worked on her notebook page for the lesson. We talked about how long it took light to reach the earth. Since last week, J has been interested in tornadoes so .....

I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for her to do a mini-research paper on them. J checked out a few books from the library and read through them to determine what facts she wanted to add.

Here is her all-most finished tornado. I only asked for four facts plus a topic sentence as well as a closing sentence. I really want her to write more so we are starting slow. She wrote her paragraph in a tornado shape and added houses and a flying cow! Loved it.

This last week, we were able to visit our local electric company for a family day. The DH and kids had the opportunity to experience the hurricane tube! Pretty cool (and timely). A simple week for Science. It was nice to have a mini break:) Hope you are having a great week.

Links

Polka Dot Firsties - has the free downloadable printable tornado writing package that I used for J.

Trunk or Treat

One thing that my kids have been able to participate in since we are in the states is Halloween. I am not a fan of so much of the Halloween "stuff" that is out there. But I was excited when a local church had a trunk or treat this week for Halloween. It was family friendly, just my speed.

Here are my guys.... a pretty pink princess, "Dark" Vader (as Kaleb calls him), and Yoda. Pretty cute, huh? Hope you have a safe Halloween:)

American Artists - Fredric Remington

Our artist this week from Great American Artists for Kids was Fredric Remington. He was well known for his paintings of the Wild West.

J read a book about Fredric Remington and lis life.

She completed an artist page for her American Artist notebook.

She added him to her timeline book.

J wrote a mini notecard for our artist wall. I like to use this wall to review the artists and allow her to see how far we have come.

The artist project in the text was to do a face cast. But I thought it would be fun to create sculpture like those of Remington's. We started with a sheet of tin foil and I drew the diagram to break it up. She began to fold and crunch to make her body.

This is her final project. She struggled with this and she was not happy with her final results. And I thought the project in the book sounded hard! Oh, well. You can't win them all. It's a person jumping, in case you were wondering:) See you soon.

Links

Remington Museum - has a flier site with pictures of his bronze statues.

2 Peas and a Dog - has an idea for tin foil sculptures.

Artolazzi - another site with an idea for tin foil sculptures.

Mrs.Knight Smartest Artists - has another tin foil sculpture idea along with a diagram to break up the tin foil into parts for easier sculpting.

Art Curator for Kids - has a free printable for a painter study.

Happy Scribbles - has some more info to read about Remington.

Tot Tuesday

We recently return from a walk and look at my tuckered out little boy. He fell asleep while eating his snack and drinking his cup. He has the death grip on the cup! What a cutie!

Character Training - Contentment with free printable

Working through our Virtue Training Bible and our next characteristic is contentment. This virtue is one that I have personally been working on :) J loves her Virtue Training Bible, the only thing that we struggle with is lining up the tabs with the main card. So, ours doesn't look quite like the one you see.

We start our lesson on contentment by looking up the definition in her dictionary. She writes it under her contentment heading in her notebook.

J looks up several bible verses based on contentment and highlights them in her bible. For each verse, we place a sticky tab on the page so she can find them later.

We discuss ways we can be content and add them to her notebook.

She colored her contentment ring card to add to her other virtues.

Here is her notebook page (front) for contentment with the added tab. The mini book at the bottom contains more verses for the virtue contentment plus room to add her own verses that she likes. The back of the notebook contains the checklist and more room to write her favorite verse.

Here are her virtue ring cards. On the back are verses to practice all week.

Her craft for the week was to make a "Be Content" bracelet using pony and alphabet beads. She designed the bracelet herself.

Meaningful Mama (link below) had a game using this bracelet. If she noticed her children were being discontent, she would ask for the bracelet. It was a challenge to see who could keep the bracelet the longest. J and I didn't play this game but if I had Kaleb working through the curriculum as well, I might have. She just wore her bracelet all week to remind her of being content.

If you would like a copy of my contentment notebook pages, link below. I hope these will help you in your own character training. If you have any questions, please let me know. And I would love to hear from you if you are using these in your own training.

Download Contentment Notebook Pages HERE.

I think my favorite part of this curriculum is the fact that she is working through the bible, learning so many verses. It is definitely teaching her how to study the bible. I love that. See you soon.

Links

Meaningful Mama - has a cute bracelet craft to remind your children to be content as well as a game to go along with it.

Our Family for His Glory - has a neat lesson idea using two balloons to  teach contentment.

His Sunflower - has a coloring page and mini bible lesson on contentment.

Science Week 6 - Weather and Clouds

We are currently working through Considering God's Creation for our Science this year. We learned about weather and clouds and since there was so  much information, we took two weeks to work through the lesson.

We started this lesson by looking up the definitions in the dictionary. She is writing the definitions in the mini books I created.

She drew a recipe for weather on her weather recipe card (in the text).

She worked through the notebook page for weather.

We went on to learn about the different types of clouds. We looked at pictures of each type of cloud as J wrote what they were.

She made a mini cloud finder. It turns and gives a description as well as a picture of what each cloud looks like.

J then went outside to see if she could identify the clouds in the sky that day.

I pulled out a special thrift store find - a tornado tube. J has bugged me to see it since I brought it home. Inside, there was the tube, a DVD, and some small items to put in the tube. This mesmerized even Kaleb, who joined us for a mini lesson on tornadoes.

J played with this tornado tube for the rest of the week, playing "Science Fair" and she wanted me to be the judge! She experimented with many items to see if they would travel in the tube and such. She still won't let me put the tube away. If you would like to make a tornado in a tube, Just Another Day in Paradise (link below) has an easy version.

If you would like the pages I created for Considering God's Creation, please contact me and I will send them to you. I made several mini vocab books as well as photos for the Scientist pages, and review questions. Let me know. Have a great weekend.

Links

Alisha Harkins TPT - free cloud viewer printable.

Midwestern Moms - has the free printable cloud pages.

The Wise Nest - has a video and free printable for types of clouds craft project.

Just Another Day in Paradise - tornado in a tube project using 2 two liter bottles.

Social Studies - Week 6

We are currently reading through Sonlight Core D - American History and with it, we are working through New World Explorers by Homeschool in the Woods. J wanted a more hands-on approach and she missed the "Fun Stuff."

This week, we read The White Stallion. It was a short story about a little girl who was moving west with her parents. They were traveling in a wagon. I found a simple paper wagon for J to make.

J's wagon - we made it with brads so she could move the wheels. It will be added to her tipi's for her Playmobiles.

Last week, we worked on Leif Erikkson and Brendan the Navigator. This week, we finished Columbus. She mapped his four voyages for her notebook.

She wrote about him on her notebook page in cursive writing!

J added Columbus' voyages to our world map.

Our map has Leif Erikkson and Columbus' voyages drawn on it. We will add as we learn more explorers.

She added to her Explorer journal. If I can get her to write one entry per week, I am happy. Some suggested activities in New World Explorers are to write an Explorer newspaper along with the explorer handwriting sheets plus any hands-on activities as well. I thought it was too much writing so I just have her write a journal entry.

Her journal - "Today we had clam breezes and warm weather. There was quite a commotion on the ship. Sailors thought they saw a mermaid but it was only a manatee. One sailor said "It is as ugly as a manatee!" I think he drank too much sea water!"  Love it:)


Links

Education.Com - has a free printable covered wagon craft. We adjusted the craft because J wanted a wagon that moved so we used brads.

American Artists - Audubon

Every week, we choose an artist from our art curriculum - Great American Artists for Kids book. We are studying American History through Sonlight and it seemed logical, to study American Artists. This week artist was John James Audubon.

We started the lesson by reading a book from the library about Audubon. It talked about his love for bird rather than business.

J worked through a notebook page for the artist to add to her book. She dictated what she wanted to write for the artist, I write it on a mini marker board, and then, she copies it.

J added Audubon to her timeline. Many times, Audubon would sketch birds in the wild. The original idea was to google an image of an animal for J to draw. But, I changed my mind last minute.

I thought it would be a great idea to sketch the ducks in the pond near our house. So, we packed up with our art supplies, some snacks for the baby, and off we went.

Look who we met! This guy hung around long enough for J to sketch him. He just stood there...waiting for her to finish her drawing. That was awesome! Considering that I had a 5 year old and a baby sitting right close.

Here are my two, sketching and coloring away. I love this photo because they are actually getting along right now:)

J's final project. She sketched several of the birds along the pond using the oil pastels that we just bought. I love this just as much I love the birds of our  lake:) I can truly see why Audubon sketched in the wild. J has asked several time since this lesson to sketch more animals outside. I even gave her a journal to draw her animals. I love when she really connects to what we have learned! This is one of the reasons I love homeschooling :) Have a great week....and go wild!

Links

Exploring Florida - has a few reading printables for Audubon.

Main Lesson - has a mini story about how Audubon came to know about birds.

Jimmie Lanely - has a set of free note booking pages for Audubon.

Art Smarts 4 Kids - has a cut paper bird project for Audubon.

Calvert Canvas - if you scroll down some, there are some cute ideas with leaves and cut paper birds. Since it is fall in some places, I thought this would be a good project to do.

Elizabeth Williams - has a photo of a cute bird project. I love the detail on this project but there are no directions, just a photo.

Homeschool Share - has a free printable lap book on birds, if you would like to explore birds more.

Homeschool Share - has a free study on The Boy Who Drew Birds book that we read.