Monthly Archive: March 2013

Happy Easter! 0

Happy Easter!

Somehow Easter arrived faster than it should have for us.  The kids and I really didn’t do any crafts or special Easter-themed school activities, though you can see my Easter and Spring Units post from last year that will take you to some free materials. Meanwhile, this morning (Saturday) Hubby and I stuffed over a hundred Easter eggs for a community egg hunt we’re helping to organize/run later today.  I...

0

Isn’t This a Crazy Spring? The Kids Love It!

  What a wild week weather-wise, wasn’t it? (And how’s that for some alliteration!)  The kids go out to play pretty much every day… and the weather this past week went from this…  to this… critter hunting just a few days later! We spent a long time looking at the creatures the kids found.  The small critter in the middle had all these hairs sticking out of its side that...

3

West African History – Free Notebook Pages, Africa Picture Books

We have spent two weeks learning about the history of West Africa.  The kids did a lot of different West African art projects and while they worked on those, I would read aloud to them. After the camel was introduced in the 7th century or so, West Africa began trading more and more with North Africa. West African gold, salt and slaves moved north, while goods, ideas and Islam came down...

3

Geography of Africa–The Countries and Physical Features

Once again, we brought out our pin maps as we learned about the countries of West Africa. We used the flags of Africa from Montessori Materials  to create country pins for our pin map (African Flags-page 1;  African Flags-page 2). You can download and print out the map from the African Learning Pack I made back in September. I used a plain cork board underneath the map. As we were talking about the trade between...

3

Earth Space Science: Topographic Maps

We read the second chapter in the geology book we have from Real Science 4 Kids.  It talked about the different tools that geologists use — including topographic maps.  I wasn’t sure the kids thoroughly understood how the maps worked and looked around for some resources to help them understand. I found a couple of wonderful activities! We actually started with this topographic map page from the USGS: I thought...

7

Making Measurement Man – Our Measurement Unit on Gallons, Quarts, Pints, etc.

Last week we spent the week doing a brief unit on measurement — the imperial units.  We didn’t touch on the metric system at all.  I wanted the kids to come away knowing the basic facts like 16 tablespoons in a cup and 4 quarts in a gallon. Day 1: I brought out a number of different bottles, cups and measuring spoons and the kids and I went over what...

2

African Art Projects – Moroccan Tiles, African Masks, African Music

This year we have been studying world cultures focusing primarily on Africa.  We started out with some basic facts about Africa and then moving on to Egypt including a study of Ancient Egypt.  From there we studied the Islam and its history.  We learned about the spread of Islam and moved on to a study the countries of northern Africa.  We looked at some of the beautiful examples of Moroccan...

6

Grammar Practice: Possessive Nouns and Pronouns

A couple of days ago I went over possessive nouns and pronouns with the kids. This is a practice sheet I made for them. The second page has a couple of interesting tidbits about Australian wildlife that I thought the kids wouldn’t remember (the kids were all born in Australia). I shared a little bit about termite mounds, the cane toad and quolls… all critters you don’t hear that much...

2

Minerals — Our Hands Activities, Seeing the BIGGEST Diamond in the World and more!

We finished up our close look at the three types of rocks and moved on to minerals. Last summer I bought a couple extra bags to pan for rocks and minerals when we were at an amusement park.  I saved it just for this unit and the kids loved it!!  It was a bit chilly out, so we had to use a big plastic bin in the bathroom rather than...

7

My Awesome 1/2 Marathon Weekend in Washington DC

While last weekend was terrific because of all the things I accomplished inside the house, this weekend was wonderful because I reached a big personal goal… I ran a half-marathon down in Washington D.C. It was SO fun!  Plus, the family did some fun (educational) sight-seeing. I ran the Rock-n-Roll 1/2 marathon.  It was jam packed with people and music and had bands and cheering people all along the course...

6

Being Realistic about Spring Cleaning – Chores and Organizing

This past week we’ve done a heap of fun activities, but I’ve been spending most of my spare time — not blogging — but doing some spring cleaning and organizing.  I was in the mood to put some music on and clean… but to be honest, I get overwhelmed by those long, long, looonnnnngg spring cleaning lists.  To make sure I’m feeling good about the process I make sure I...

4

Metamorphic Rock Activities

We brought the rock portion of our unit to a close with a look at metamorphic rocks.  The kids had a tough time deciding which rock sample was marble and which was quartzite. We also did the melted-crayon version to show how metamorphic rocks form under heat and pressure. Okay, so really we just made rainbow crayons, but the kids *said* they understood how the rocks can change because of...

11

Learning about the New Catholic Pope

I felt it was important to talk to the kids a bit about the newly elected pope, Pope Francis. We’ve been listening to the news and talking about it a bit, but I wanted to go into a little more detail tomorrow morning and made some pages for them to add to their history notebook. We are not Catholic, but Grandma is. My Mom died a couple of years before LD...

1

Preschool Math Activities (K4) – Montessori Math and More

It has been ages and ages since I’ve written about ED’s math activities.  A lot of ED’s math happens naturally over the course of the day — counting objects in a picture book, counting by 2s, 5s and 10s when we brush teeth and do dental floss, counting money together, looking at numbers at the store, in books, etc.  Numbers are a part of daily life and we take advantage...