May 1, 2010

Discussed the boys' goals in Paddle to the Sea and drew pictures representing our dreams to send for the unveiling of the Paddle to the Sea park in Nipigon, Ontario.

Mineralogy and Geology; gardening

A geologist from the University of Florida talked for thirty minutes today to "K" and "P" of the different types of rocks and minerals and how they form. "P" was able to identify the difference between internal and external in relation to a diagram of a volcano. They were able to hold and feel rocks and minerals of various types, look at them with a magnifying glass, and then drew their own volcanoes and rock formations.

After this activity they helped to pick ripe vegetables in a community garden, and to tell the difference between zucchini that were ready to harvest and which should be left to ripen more.

Almost Molecules

P and I had a brief conversation about molecules, and how these things are connected, but he just wanted to try it out for himself. I guess not quite ready for organic chemistry.

Circle Camp Finale

After two weeks of our peace talk-themed summer camp, the kids put on an amazing performance complete with drumming, dancing, singing, and skits. Lots was learned in terms of talking with others compassionately and getting to feelings and needs instead of blame and hurt.

AT-PT Transport

AT-PT Transport



TIE Fighter

International Year of Astronomy

K and P attended a presentation by the Astronomy Department and the Santa Fe Planetarium on Galileo and his discoveries.

Hoggetowne Medieval Faire

Visited the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire today. P and his dad participated in a fencing tournament, which P won. P and K rode the hobby horses and looked at dioramas of medieval life. We watched demonstrations of weaving, armor-making, using weaponry, and acrobatics.

NUU Years Eve

On New Years Eve, P and K participating in an arts, crafts, and activities evening. P played chess, and P and K took turns playing dress up. Crafts includes collages and making representations of themeselves by having someone draw their outlines on oversized sheets of paper which they then colored and decorated

Winterfest 2008

Lubee Bat Festival

Today we attended the Lubee Bat Conservancy's 4th Annual Bat Festival, and enjoyed learning about bats, what they eat, how they echolocate, and about the water cycles in general. We saw the bats in the conservancy and both P & K remarked on the smell. They also created their own bat art.

Scissors and Art

P made a representation of a train, including engine, coal car, and caboose while K practiced with scissors.

Warhol Art

Today, we were talking about Modern Pop art, and found a fun project to do that mimics Andy Warhol's work over on Art Projects for Kids. We started with me drawing their outlines, based on a photo onto transparency paper, and they colored it with Craypas oil pastels.

P then wanted to draw his own outline and do an additional one.

Drawing Play

P and K both decided to make some art today based on some of the creative play they had been involved in this morning.

P's drawing involved rolling hills, trees, houses, and an airplane.

K's drawing was of a cactus in the desert.

Alien Names

Based on an entry off of the Art Projects for Kids website, we created "Alien Names" for both P and K, which they then colored in to make their "aliens". We used both watercolor crayons and oil pastel crayons.

Number Love and Workbook Fun

Today, P decided on the way to go swimming to count from 100 to 200, and did so with no problems. After returning from swimming (where we spent about 2 hours in the pool with both P and K learning to kick), P started turning over pairs of Uno Hearts cards and adding them together with the use of Math-U-See manipulatives.

We then started looking through the stack of Brighter Vision Learning Adventure workbooks we've collected, and both P and K started working through pages of them. K stuck mainly to coloring via a color-dot method and practicing letters. P followed a chart to color images, worked some 2-digit equations, some word finds, decoder puzzle (where you use a code and then write the word based on it), logic puzzle, mazes, and search and find pictures. We also did a word page that emphasized the consonant digraph "wh". P did skip-counting by 10s and by 5s (using nickel examples).

1+10=11

July 10th

P drew a tree after observing another child drawing the same subject.

WALL-e drawing

K has mastered drawing WALL-e! We only saw it once, and she's got it down. It is one of her favorite things to draw now.

July 3rd

Looked at Hawaii, salt flats of Bolivia and Chile, discussed volcanoes, heat, and the way lava flows and plants reclaim territory.

P displayed understanding of sun's role in illuminating atmosphere.

July 2nd

Blueberry Farming

Discussion of space station concepts, (L5). Spanish for butterfly (mariposa).

June 29, 2008

Today P and I looked at the weather in Florida and discussed how to read a radar map and tell where it is raining the hardest. We then looked at an equivalent map that showed ice thickness and coverage at the North Pole. We then looked at the South Pole and the various research stations on the continent, and watched a time lapse video of the seasons in Antarctica. We discussed the differences in temperatures, the aurora australis and what causes it, and what an ice breaker does.



In the afternoon, we went to wee WALL-e. Afterwards we discussed the idea of living on a spaceship and what things you could do or can't do in a sealed environment.

In the early evening, P, K and I did a preliminary lesson from the Drawing With Children book, doing some repetition of basic shapes. Later, we did the volcano science experiment in the tub again.

Resources:
Google Earth
Panoramino
The Cryosphere Today
Drawing With Children
Wall-E