Monthly Archive: January 2010
Part II: DD had to sort her hard hat animals into different colors.Then she had to put the letters in the right order tomake the words house, flower and teddy bear. LD had to take his letters, make as many words as hecould and write them in his notebook (men, cent, pin etc). He’s been unhappy about his journal writing, but hereally enjoyed this activity.
Here are some quick online games LD has played to review his math facts the past few days (some are pretty easy, but some such as ghostblasters, you can work on any sum up to 50). Addition Games http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/ghostblasters2/gb2nores.html http://www.mathmastery.com/cyberchallenge/http://www.coolmath4kids.com/addition/number-monster-addition-basics.htmhttp://www.coolmath4kids.com/addition/math-lines-10.htmlSpace Shuttle Addition:http://www.playkidsgames.com/games/shuttleLaunch/shuttleLaunch.htmMore Easy Addition GamesColor a butterfly with addition:http://www.kid-adventures.com/Game3_1.htmlBirthday Party Present Math:http://www.kid-adventures.com/Game4.htmlPop the addition balloons:http://www.kid-adventures.com/Game5.html
Sorting/tonging for EDKanoodle (a brain teaser) for LD – a big hit, thanks Auntie CStamping for DD (upper/lower case letters)
LD also built his robotic bird. He loved it (thanks forthis too Auntie C!)
Here’s our craft table all set up with a science station. Theseexperiments have to do mostly with magnetic attraction,although we have one on particle attraction as well. I also have the magnetic maze (a gift from a formerkindergarten teacher/friend) and a craft on the milky waygalaxy.
This is a simple lesson that shows how particles areattracted to each other. Just have them drop paper intostill water (don’t blow or move the water around) andwatch the bits of paper move toward one another. We used bits of paper from my comb binder, but anysmall pieces should work. I’ve heard that you could alsosubstitute talcum powder or baby powder, but we did nottry this.
LD and DD just played around with a magnetic set we’vehad for years. They also tried an experiment to see if heat or cold affectedthe magnet’s force. (education.com)
LD had more fun with this when I told him I was timing him. Thesecond time round he had to see if he’d beat his previous time(and he did 1min40 down to 57seconds).
We studied the Milky Way Galaxy and planets a bit lastyear, but since this was covered in the Montessori “FirstGreat Lesson” that we presented (in our own version)over the weekend, I thought the kids might enjoy doing acouple pictures related to what we talked about. Links about the Montessori Great Lessons (geared forearly elementary aged kids): http://www.moteaco.com/albums.htmlhttp://missbarbara.net/greatlessons.htmlhttp://www.montessoricentre.com/GL/The%20Great%20Lesson%201%20-%20secular%20version.htm
We did two art projects to show the spiral shaped, MilkyWay Galaxy. One was simply sparkles and shiny starspasted onto black paper. For the white pictures, the kids drew the Milky WayGalaxy with a white oil pastel. Then they painted overtheir drawing with black paint. We found that white oilpastels worked MUCH better for the kids than regularcrayola crayons.
We’ll be posting more about science experiments for the next few weeks (after all that’s makes for better pictures), but we are more or less back into the swing of things with: mathhandwritingjournal writing (or preschool activities for DD)German (review: greetings, numbers and animals)reading (them reading to me)book time (me reading to them)art (daily crafts/drawing — if not multiple times a day!)the kids have also been doing mazes and dot-to-dots...