What We're Doing – Week 13 Links & Ideas

History – Encase rocks spray painted gold in “treasure rock” mountains.  I know some little boys who will just love hammering into the mountains like explorers to find gold.  I am also hoping to spray paint some dry beans gold and place in a shallow pan with sand.  I’ll equip my littlest with a sifter (aka colander) to find the gold in the pan. I have a feeling this is an activity they will all like and will revisit throughout the week.  We will also use toys we already have, like lincoln logs, to discuss how trade works.  Thinking of trade play, made me think of Settlers of Catan, but we’ve never played the junior version. Have any of you? Would it make a good connection to this week’s lesson?

Latin – Using the review flashcard for the week, copy the latin chart for the week.  Place copywork in notebook.  Simple and effective.

English – Using homemade laminated train engines and train cars, we’re going to write one word from the helping verb definition on each car.  I’ll mix them up and ask them to return them to the correct order.  We’ll continue to use these laminated train cars throughout our learning of the helping verbs.  In case you’re curious, to my mind, the way trains couple was a good picture of how helping verbs work.  I know it’s not a perfect analogy, but I thought it mostly made sense. : )

Science – We’re going to have a few different activities for this memory work.  

1) We’ll be doing a version of the hard-boiled egg visual shown here.  Essentially, using a hardboiled egg which I’ll slice in half, we’ll discuss the various layers of the earth; core – yolk, mantle – white, crust – shell.  I’ll probably actually have 4 eggs, so each child can hold and pick at their own earth model.

2) Watch this Bill Nye the Science Guy video about the earth’s crust. (I have not  watched this full video yet, so please use your discretion!)

3) Using six construction paper circles of increasing sizes and differing colors, we’re going to make a model of the parts of the earth.  Core – yellow, mantle – white, crust – brown, hydrosphere – blue, biosphere – green, and atmosphere – light blue or white paper.  We’ll assemble them using a brass brad in the center and label each one while discussing their traits. (Once we do it, I’ll post a pic!)

Math – Print this gallon man pdf for each child to color for their notebooks while we review it.  Also, invite them in one at a time to cook or bake with me on different nights for dinner and help me to measure. They love doing this!

Geography – Using Crecia’s geography cards to visualize the locations. Print this Africa outline map and fill in with legos.  Of course, review by identifying the names and locations on our maps and trace the locations on our maps.

Fine Arts – Check out Brandy’s Great Artists Study post for some great links for plenty of ideas over the next few weeks. For Giotto, we’ll be doing the fresco project found here. It is the simplest version I’ve seen and we have all the materials on hand!

Ready to get back to it? Here we go again!