Moment of the week

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bragging rights for a .18 win for my team

Week 4 

air dry clay

Our monk supper, lentil soup, bread, and apple cider (Nate had milk)

I see 10

Light Box Project

Our science curriculum started off the year with a project to build a light box.  I was really wishing it happened later in the year, so Dave could be here to make it.  The directions were to use a box lined with tin foil with a light socket inserted in the top.  I was already imagining my paranoia over the fire hazard.  I also kept thinking back to the growing racks we had in Mrs. Brown's fourth grade classroom, and I wanted to do something more like those. 

So last weekend we ran around town collecting what I needed for the thing in my head.

There was a point when I realized I would need quite a few tools, that I thought about how easy the cardboard box would have been.  

But it turned out.  The small shelves were 13 bucks at Lowe's, the light was 10 bucks at Walmart.  I bought a couple bucks worth of chain and it was a success.  

 Lining it with foil was a pain in the arse.  I recently bought silver metallic poster board for a history project and I wonder if that would be better.  I'll wait until the foil gets ripped and really messed up before I upgrade it.  I also thought maybe I could take duck material, serge the edges and then stitch tin foil down on one side so it would drape better and be reinforced.  

Any recommendations would be appreciated.   

Our book had directions to making a good potting mix, but I bought the stuff I have great success with every spring. 

We planted some seeds on Friday.  Herbs mostly.  I haven't found anyplace that still has seeds.  I wanted to get mint and rosemary and try some other herbs, maybe I can find them online.  We planted lavender, parsley and basil. We also planted cosmos.  I am hoping I can get them to grow indoors so if we have an early snow we will have flowers inside to study. 

Nate is pretty excited about having to water and take care of them.

I'll be sure to keep you updated on our success, or lack there of, with this light box project.  

Celtic Warrior Reenactment

I beyond love our history curriculum this year! 

The small book is what I read to Nate.

The big book is FULL of ideas and activities. 

 Inside, each chapter has review questions, additional reading lists, crafts, map work, cooking activities, and coloring pages.

This week we learned about the Celts after the fall of Rome.  How one of the Celtic kings, Vortigern,  invited two barbarian tribes the Angles and Saxons to come to Britain to help him fight to keep his kingdom safe.  These barbarians liked it there and decided to settle.  Some Celts, didn't want to live with these barbarians, so they moved on up to what is Scotland and Ireland.  The Celts that stayed intermingled with barbarians and became..... Anglo-Saxons.  

Seriously.  

I learned so much this week.  

Did you already know all that? 

I had never in my life heard anything about this and I found this very interesting since so many of  my ancestors come from these areas!   

Anyhow, back to what I was talking about-  The activities are really fun.  

We read the story of Beowulf, did our map work, Nate colored a coloring sheet.

We made a Celtic double-headed war axe.

Then we did the Celtic warrior reenactment. 

Painting terrifying blue swirls and marks all over his chest and face.

Isn't he the cutest scary warrior you've ever seen? 

I will print some of the photos from this activity so we can add them to our history notebook. 

After all of this we topped off our week by watching Brave.

Next week we will learn about Augustine coming to England and the Medieval Monasteries.  

I know nothing of these things.  

Do you? 

I do know we are going to make a monk's supper of lentil soup, and a monk's cross with air dry clay.

By the time we finish second grade history I think I will kick ass at Jeopardy. 

Moment of the Week

24

The Second Week of Second Grade

 Things went really smoothly this week.  

I'm so incredibly pleased, and I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.  

These fun hands on activities seem to make a huge difference.  

I love q-bitz because it feels like quilt blocks.  

Getting into our Botany lessons went well.

History was a piece of cake this week, since it mostly reviewed the Roman Empire, which we learned last year.(Now we start with the fall of Rome.)  Nate gave thinking putty a try while I read to him.  It was pretty much a huge hit.

The workbox system is amazingly helpful for me.  

I can easily get prepared for the next day, and see where we can throw something fun in. 

I feel like I failed at this last year, big time!

I am also finding it easier when I set up the workbox to throw some fun learning toy in there.  

Today the scrunch map was in the box with our geography book.  

Nate thought it was a diaper.

He was pretty impressed when I pulled out the map.  

These first two weeks we have been doing really well on time.  

Finishing with plenty of time to do something fun before lunch, today we did a science activity to demonstrate how nonvascular plants absorb water.  

And he enjoys a daily art activity. (I drew this bunny)

  

Friday we had time to put together a puzzle. 

A successful week.

Moment of the Week

It has been incredibly hot all week, so we've mostly been home staying cool.  

We did stop for ice cream one afternoon.

  And the cherry tomatoes are perfectly ripe.

23

Also our second week of school was awesome, and Wednesday Night Live at church started back up, which makes mid week more interesting for sure.  And makes the whole week go by much faster! 

Toy Taxonomy

Last week since I wanted to ease Nate into the school routine I decided to wait a week to begin some of our electives, like science and history.  So yesterday we started Botany.

Today part of our lesson was learning about the way scientists classify things so we can understand a little better the different classifications of plants.  Our book suggested we do this at home with shoes, but we did a way more basic type of sorting back in kindergarten with our 'imagination' toy basket, so I thought we should use them again with this exercise.  

First we decided on our kingdoms.

  

Then we started sorting them into the phyla, classes, and orders.  

It took us awhile, but I had fun.  Nate said it was hard not to just start playing, but he isn't as interested in organization as I am.  

It was a fun.  I am looking forward to lots of fun science activities and experiments.