New Activities

 Here are some new works on our shelves this week! I also included a few small group activities I will be doing with the children this week.

Using blocks to form the words on the cards by matching letters and colors.

                                               Spiral art.

                                  Matching hearts by colors.

                                              Using a dustpan.

           Tonging rose petals. The petals smell soo good!

                          Using the hearts to make patterns.

  Practing one to one correspondence by placing the penguins on the dots using craft sticks.

                                Sorting peguins.

Small group activity. We will be reading this book, learning how to use a stethoscope.

 Learning how to find our hearts, check our pulse and the parts of the heart. I am using this book for the parts of the body for the children to color. We will trace our bodies and the glue the part on the correct location once it is colored.

              Coloring sheet of the parts of the heart.

  
This page will become a part of their Human Body Journals. It has information about the organ that is in a lanugage they will be able to understand.

 Language work that I found on the website Homeschool Creations. The child names the pictures on the left and uses the dry erase marker to trace the beginning letters. I put book rings on this because there are three pages. The first page is capital letters, the next page is lowercase, and the last page the child writes on their own without tracing.

   Reintroducing weather words with a weather wheel color, cut, paste activity.

                            Our weather puppet.

  Make a snowman. I got the idea to add the letters to this work from the blog JADA ROO CAN DO.

                                                                      

Lets' Rock N Roll !

I purchased a Rock Tumbler sometime in October when they had a sale going on at Micheals. I finally pulled it out for my kids to give it a try before I did this project with the preschoolers. The process of rock tumbling is not a quick one. In fact we are still working on this project.  In effort to keep my post short this will be part one of this project. The question that was asked to me by the children is What other things can you use  rocks for?

                                          Step1: Starting to Tumble

The stones that came with the rock tumbler. Also a small chart was included to help identify what type of rocks they are.

                                  First rinse the stones.

                              Fill the barrell with the stones.

                                     Add step 1 grinding powder.

           
                                    Cover the stones with water.

                       This is what it looks like inside of the barrel.

 Now the  rocks will tumble for two days. I want to share with you that this rock tumbler was relocated at least three different times due to the noise it creates. If you plan to do this for the first time I suggest you find a place where noise won't be a factor. DJ wanted this to be in his bedroom, he quickly requested it to be removed .

                                                                
                                        Step 2: Continuing to Tumble
                                                                     
Pour the contents out of the barrel. It best that you use a strainer, but after looking at this I kinda was turned off to use my strainer. I didn't know if I would be able to ever look at my strainer again the same way. Lol!

                               
                                  Rinse the stones.

                       Place the stones back in the barrel.

    Add step 2  Fine grinding powder. Select four days for your rocks to tumble.

                                                                            
Now we are on Step 3 Polishing. I think by next Sunday we should have some beautiful rocks to show you and  wonderful examples to show how we can use rocks. To see other activities that children have been doing with science pop over to Science Sunday hosted by Adventures In Mommydom.

Afterschooling: Weekly Wrap Up #7

The kids are excited about going back to school today. They had two snow days this week. Ken is especially happy because today is the first day she has been to school all week due to strept throat and a runny nose that was dripping every minute. Michelle has been working on her science project for her science fair coming up in March. Michelle is going to be researching the Mozart Effect. I can't remember right now what exactly is her question, but she has been preparing a worksheet for the preschoolers to use over a course of time to use while they listen to Mozarts'  Twinkle Little Star and they are going to complete it when they are not listening to the music. Michelle also brought home some information from Kens' teacher about Ken having to do a science project for the fair. Ken is undecided today but has to have her questions turned in on Monday. DJ 's participation in the fair is optional, but of course he wants to do it!  So far DJ wants to do his project on the rock cycle. So look forward to some exciting postings involving science.

                                                           Ken
Not so many pictures of Ken in action for the most part she was making up school work she missed at school. Ken started a new book Addy Saves The Day and is really becoming more and more interested in the civil war from Addys' perspective.

                                       Making a parts of the flower book.

                       Solving division and multiplication story problems.

                             Learning about the digestive system.

                                                 
As a family we watched this dvd.  The dvd was awesome! We have watched it more than once. They kids loved the game at the end where they quiz you on the information in the dvd.      

                                                           DJ
My oh my!!  I really wish that there was a Montessori elementary school that was affordable for my budget for my little guy. He just thrives so much when allowed the freedom to follow his interests and given uninterrupted work time.  He has a love for all subjects with a special love for geography. His reading is improving daily and still loves the Magic Treehouse books. DJ says he will read all of the books before he moves on to different kinds of chapter books. He is currently reading Eve of The Emperor Penguin and the companion book.
                                                                      
                                               Anartica map work.

                  Using the dictionary to find the word determination.

                        Working with the volcanoe tray.

                  Observing the rock tumbler. More about this in another post.

                                       
                                       World flag puzzle work.

                                                                                            
                                             Michelle
Jack of all trades and is becoming a teenager very soon.  Her new elective in school is Advanced Technology. Now I may have to share my computer. Lol. In class they have started blogs and she is so thrilled about this. Whenever it appears to her that I am not using this computer she is constantly wanting to work on her blog. O.K so can anyone offer advice on this " What do you do when you have two bloggers in the house using the same computer"?  I think I know the answer but don't want to accept it this week. I guess I have to model sharing huh?

           See I do share!! Michelle working on her new blog earning extra credit.

                                        
                                           Flag work.
                   

                                 
                                  Silk screening tee shirts.
                                       

                                                                              
                           Spanish phrases with the moveable alphabet.

                                                                               
 Monday is Michelles' 13th birthday!!  I had her write me a list of things she would like as gifts. O.K are you ready for this?  I have never heard of these shoes until last night.


                                      Nike Xbox 360 High Dunks

 Here is the part that lets me know that in order to raise a teenager you must keep a sense of humor. The cost $2500.00. LOL!! Ha! Ha! When I saw the price all I could do was laugh.  Michelle didn't really know the cost of these shoes until I showed her the price. Michelle started laughing too! The beautiful thing about this is before she went to bed she crossed it off her list and said " Personally I would never spend my money on a pair of shoes that cost that much" and we laughed again and I said "Me neither".
                                                                            
                                                                                
 Thank you for all your kind comments! Thank you for reading what the kids have been up to this week!  Enjoy your weekend!!

He Did It!! (1000 Chain)

 DJ completed the 1000 Chain! DJ is so happy that he did this work all on his own.  It wasn't about learning to count to one thousand because he has been able to count to 1000 for quite awhile. It was more for him being able to perform the one to one correspondence that is required to complete this work. DJ stayed focused and didn't get bothered by any distractions which is what always happened when he would decide to choose this work.

                                 Sorting the arrows by tens and hundreds.

                                                     Getting started.

                                                       Half way there.

                                                   1000 baby!!!

                                                                      

Snow Day!

Old Man Winter is in his glory today ! Between last night and this morning Michigan has received over four feet of snow. Schools are closed . But guess whose open? Yup your right I have four children who had to still come today because their parents still had to work.  Luckily for me I am blessed to not have to go anywhere today.  Michelle stayed commited to her chore of shoveling the snow and DJ was eager to help. Ken is enjoying the company of her brother and sisters since she has been home from school the last couple of days due to strept throat.

                                                                                        

                                                                            

Dry Pouring Extension

I put a new pouring extension on the shelf and the kids are really having a great time working with it. It consist of three large tubes in a rack, a funnel and the materal for pouring is sand. Once the child fills the tubes up they then take each tube out and then pour the sand back into the glass. A lot of steps but they were more than ready for this work. This work has been repeated numerous of times and when a child chooses this work they usually spend about thirty minutes with this. They love watching the sand come down into the tubes through the funnel.

    Mumble spends a lot of time with this and he says " I am ready for six tubes"!