Week 34-35

 Craft Club- Making native bee homes

Science- Planet Earth 2 

LA- Descriptive writing. Without saying what it was, the kids had to describe a noun.

A's

Its roar reaches high in the sky.

When it stomps, the earth shakes.

With its long nose, it sniffs out fresh meat.

Its short arms and long, powerful, tail help it swim.

Its teeth, the size of bananas, help it crush bone.

The ancient mighty king reigned with terror.

J's

I am a collage of orange, black, cream, and brown.

I purr, meow and patter about.

I hunt silently, a shadowy figure in the night.

I am silky with pointed ears, and I smell like a warm furry blanket.

My eyes are the color of the ocean water.

 I am ferocious one moment, and cuddly the next.

Who am I?

Math- Adding money and a review

Social Studies- The physical characteristics of the US.

Exploring Tech- A new Kiwi Crate showed up

All About K and A2

Kinetic sand, making bee homes, and, thanks to my brother, a Kiwi Crate just for them about things that float.

Week 33

This week the kids were sick, which isn't too surprising since our field trip last week was playing in germ infested museums. Still, we got a good number of things done.

Math- A is learning about money.  He set up a mini store with J to practice making change.

Can you tell which flavor they value the most? :)

Language Arts-Lessons on imagery, personification, metaphors, and similes. They began writing descriptive pieces. 

We also finished Little Town on the Prairie. J is still very much interested in the series with Almanzo coming into the picture. On the other hand, all the growing up stuff caused A to lose interest in the story after the perilous Long Winter. After this series, we may move back to Harry Potter.

Science- J wanted to mix two cake mixes together. It was a new experience for everyone.

We have also been watching our plants grow and comparing those in food coloring to the one without.

Lastly, A and I are watching Blue Planet, a documentary series on the oceans.

Art- By the end of the week, J was feeling better to go to craft club.  Galaxy in a jar. 

Music- A is enjoying learning the piano though an app. Lots of Let it Go and Halleluiah.

Exploring Tech- Mark Rober put out a new YouTube video on drones.

Social Studies- I civics is still a favorite.

PE- learning proper stretches from the neck down to our toes.

Health- Lessons on body changes for J. We've always been pretty open about answering questions the kids asked. When I was pregnant with my youngest, J was old enough to ask a lot of questions. Additionally, one of our favorite shows, Relative Race, also brought up questions, such as how a dad might not know he had a child. But over the past little while, we dove deeper into many changes teens and preteens begin to experience, physically, socially, emotionally, and mentally.  It's a lot of change!

All About K and A2

When not wiping their noses, we read books, had sensory time with dried beans and then play dough, danced to music, and played many round of the game Outfoxed. 

Week 32- Field Trip!

 The highlight of this week was another field trip to the Salt Lake Area.  

Thanksgiving Point Museum of Ancient Life

Clark's Planetarium

For PE, we got in some good snowshoeing before and after the trip. My kids learned some snow science by observing what a difference a week (and some rain) makes in snow pack conditions. Monday it was snowing with powder, then we got rain and by Saturday the trail was closer to a sheet of ice. Perfect for sledding.

Week 31

Science- We set up a science project with a few seeds to answer one of the kids' stay curious questions. They know if you put food coloring into the water of a white carnation, the flower will start to change into that color. So they asked- What happens if you put food coloring into the soil where seeds are planted?

Stay tuned to find out. 

We also set up an experiment with apples to answer the question- Which method best prevents apple oxidation? For the experiment we used one Red Delicious apple peeled and cored.

We had a control group where we did nothing to the apple slices, a set of apple slices soaked in 1 cup water plus 1 tsp lemon juice then rinsed, apple sliced soaked in 1 cup water plus 1 tsp salt then rinsed, lastly, we had a few slices left in a cup of room temperature water. The kids already knew what method I preferred to use so they had a good hypothesis of what would work best...at least when apple slices are refrigerated. For this experiment, we left them all out on the counter. Top left-plain, top right-lemon juice, bottom left-water, bottom right-salt water.

10 mins

1 hour

24 hours

Conclusion- by the end, all the apples were looking a little brown and only the apples sitting in water were still crispy. So if you're going to cut apples and leave them sitting out, stick them in water. However, if the apples had been refrigerated, the results would have been slightly different. We have kept apples soaked in salt water, then rinsed, a good color and crisp in the fridge for over 24 hours. It is also the preferred way if you are traveling, as it keeps the apples fresh without the mess of water.   

Other Classes:

Tech- coding

PE- tag with friends

Social Studies- icivics, government crash course

Math- J did ratios and angles. A finished a review and started learning money addition.

LA-  Abbreviations, conjunction, commas (part one), and the kids polished their opinion pieces. Final drafts published below.

A's: 

Blue

Did you know blue is the favorite color of most people? Blue is the best color because it’s the color of the clear sky. It is also the color of water and I love swimming. Also, when water turns to ice, it appears blue! Another reason blue is a great color, is blue is the color of my eyes. In conclusion, blue is beautiful, which is why it is my favorite color.

J's

Cats Make Wonderful Pets

Did you know that cats have been household pets since ancient Egypt? It’s true! I think cats make excellent pets.

I think cats are adorable. For example, they purr and can have many fur colors. Another reason is that their fur can make unique patterns.

I think kittens are entertaining. For example, they do little tricks to catch a toy, sometimes bolt through the house, and sometimes jump at nothing.

In my opinion, cats are intelligent. I think this because they know how to catch mice, have their own language and are clean. For example, they bathe themselves and poop in a litter box instead of spreading it all over like a dog.

In conclusion, if you’re looking to get a pet, you should look into getting a cat. They are cute, energetic, and smart. If this sounds like a good pet for you, adopt one at your local animal shelter.

All About K and A2

We played Perfection- K is so good at matching shapes. 

And built a tower out of some of our food storage. (Who says you can't play with your food?)

We also did a lesson on apples. Did you know if you cut and apple in half around its middle (like an equator), you get a star? 

Week 30

When you can make a snow angel in the driveway (that you shoveled clear the night before)

PE- We should count shoveling snow as our work out! The kids mainly romped in the snow (which is a work out, too) and we did an indoor obstacle course. The kids also invented a game where they blew up a balloon and used pool noodles that had been cut in half, to keep it in the air.

Math- J learned ratios and A learned skip counting forward and backwards by 5's and 10's.

LA-Opinion writing

Social Studies- icivics and Government Crash Course

Tech- Coding.org and Kiwico Crate- this month is was circus themed. 

Science- Learning about animals from books and Wild Kratts. Their stay curious question of the week was, "What was the first animal to be kept as a pet?" As far as we can tell, it was the dog, which is believe to be the first domesticated species as well.

The kids were delighted to find sugar candy in the bottom of the syrup bottle. So we learned about how sugar crystals are formed and how to prevent them from growing in things like homemade syrup in the future.

More Science/Tech was all this kids in town were invited to make and race pinewood derby cars.

J made a cat bus and A made a dragon car. They both did extremely well in the racing, which is surprising since J's was literally designed to be a bus. J took first in every race, except the first time when they raced her car backwards. In that case, she got second and A's car, who happened to be in the same heat, took first. His car had a crash in the second heat when the car next to his had its wheels fly off.  They didn't re-race that run, so it was a third place then and the race after. But a little adjustment to the wheels and he took first in his final race. 

J won the award for "Most Improved" but really it was the award for standing closest to the stage when the organizers realized they had one more award to give away. We'll  enjoy it anyway.

All About K and A2

Painting

Stickers

And Kinetic Sand