::Magnet Science::

Week 18

I realize we haven't been putting our weekly reports on here this year.  So, I thought I would share this weeks report.  Maybe I will remember next week.

The Prophet-Grade 8

I learned about how I can use factors to do division problems.  I learned about density and about upthrust. When something pushes into water it comes back at it.  That thing can't float unless it's density is higher or the same as the water.  I finished my introductory paragraph for my Jump-in Writing assignment.  I worked on my cursive handwriting.  I did copywork on paragraphs about animal kingdoms and subgroups.  I answered questions about a picture in my Language Lessons book.  They were questions about what the people were doing.  Then I did a quick story about one of the characters from the picture.  I chose the boy in the picture because he seemed to be the most interesting to me.  I went on a walk.  It made my day start better.  

The Peacemaker-Grade 5

I did my Fizz Wizard and Jammin Jelly reaction kit for Science.  I did a soda pop reaction.  I put magic coloring crystals in water and it turned light purple.  I added baking soda and it bubbled.  I tasted it.  It was ok in the beginning, but the aftertaste was bad.  I, also, did a lemon juice reaction.  I did the same thing as the first experiment, but I added lemon juice.  It fizzed and turned the light purple liquid pink.  It tasted better than the first one.  In Math, I did long addition.  I added 84 + 45 + 60 + 25.  In the BFG, the little girl Sophie was hungry and the only thing she could eat was Snozzcumbers.  I read about the Mexican Revolution.

The Warrior-Grade 2

The first electric kitchen had a dishwasher.  It looked like a trash can with a lid.  People used the icebox refrigerator.  It had a giant block of ice in it.  The ice kept your food cold.  Then they started using the electric refrigerator instead.  I did some addition this week.  We read about Chief Crazy Horse.  They are making a giant mountain.  They are blowing up with dynamite.  Then a design is there.  There is his face.  They put the design of the horse on the side of the mountain.  I did some science.  I took a little plant pot. Then I put it in a plastic bowl.  I put some water in the little round weird looking bowl.  It soaked up the water.  It is clay and it doesn't have any paint on it.  So, it soaked it up because it had little tiny holes in it.

This is the new language program our oldest is using for the rest of the year.

A Peek into...the kitchen table.

We have an eat-in kitchen.  Since, it has a washable floor, that is where I make Science happen. Well, I don't make it. But, I do allow science things to happen in there.



One kid had stuffed piled up that was non-messy.  Messy stuff was on the uncovered side.  Not sure if that would have helped in case of a spill.  If you click over to flickr you can see notes and stuff.

Fizzy Foamy Science

Fizzy Foamy Science

Clash of the Powders

I took a plastic cup and filled it up halfway with water.  Then I put a teaspoon of citric acid.  Then I mixed it around till it dissolved.  Then I put a teaspoon of baking soda and it started foaming a whole bunch for about 30 seconds.  

 Fizz goes the Acid

I took milk, tabasco sauce, and apple cider.  Then I put baking soda in three jars.  Then I put milk in the first jar, it didn't fizz or foam at all.  Then I put Tabasco inside the second jar and it foamed and fizzed a whole bunch, it was red foam.  Then I put apple cider in the third jar and it foamed for about 5 seconds and it stopped.  

This year I vowed science would get done and we would have fun. Our box from Home Science Tools arrived today!  The first kit they chose was

 

We did the first two experiments.  They were really fun.  We did use a few things around the house, but our choices were pretty open ended.  We just need household liquids from the kitchen.  Since we were already in the kitchen it was not difficult.  We did not have vinegar.  But, we did have Tabasco which is vinegar based and it worked great.  

Week 34

Grade 1

I did reading lesson.  I used a little book.  I read Pig Wig and Cat.  I figured out what a question mark is.  You put a three on a six.  Then put another three on it.  Then you write a three on the line.  Then a two, then a 6, and a 1.  I watched Bill Nye the Science Guy.  He says everybody needs water.  He make a cloud from water and matches.  Then put the little pump on it for a lid.  Then it pumping a little bit and he count to three.  Then he take lid off and it make a giant cloud.  I have a new PE class.  I have a new teacher.  His name is Matt.  I miss my other teacher, kind of.  I have the same teacher as Porter.  I play crab soccer just like Porter did.  

Grade 4

We are studying Ecosystems, Habitats, Cycles and whatever else we encounter in this lesson.  He played a food chain vocabularly game.  He read about Food cycles.  

...and in his own words

I read James and the Giant Peach.  James crawled into the Giant Peach and found a whole bunch of giant bugs.  Then they slept inside the peach.  The bugs started gnawing on the stem of the peach tree that was holding the peach.  Then they went rolling.  In Math, I'm still regrouping and multiplying.  It's getting easier.  I did three pages of Italics and they are all cursive writing.  They were just letters.  We watched Bill Nye the Science Guy, The Water Cycle.  He made a cloud with a jar. He put water in it.  He put a pressurizer tube on the jar.  Then he pressurized it.  And, it didn't work. So, he lit matches and put them in there for dust.  Then he tried it again.  He counted to three and it made a cloud.  In PE class, I did a whole bunch of warm-ups and then we played crab soccer.  My dad and me looked out at the rotting log.  We lifted part of it up and found a snake skin.  We found this little duck fuzz at the pond.  We, also, are hatching chickens with our Grandma.  We put chicken eggs in an incubator.  

Grade 7

Well in reading I read to chapter 19 in Oliver Twist where Fagin and Bill Sikes were planning on how to break into a house and Bill Sikes needed a small boy and Fagin suggested Oliver.

In math I used the multiplicative inverse to solve for the unknown and I guess its sorta like algebra or pre-algebra and I also am going to try out teaching textbooks but since I have to do this report I will tell you about it next week.

In jump in I did skill 5 which was about the introduction of my opinion paper and I did 2 pages of italics.

In science I watched bill nye which porter pretty much did my report on it for me:D

In P.E. we did a TON of warm ups then we played crab soccer which left my wrists pretty sore(if you want to know what crab soccer is you have to crab walk and play soccer).

Week 30

G-Grade 7 aka The Prophet

This week in math I did lesson 22.

In hand writing I did 2 pages.
I read a retelling of oliver twist by eyewitness in reading.

In writing I got a new writing book called jump in writing and I did most of the intro part.

In grammar I memorized prepositions.

E-Grade 1 aka The Warrior

(Swimming Lessons) There's a girl in my class called Tabitha.  She mostly goes first.  My teacher put us down in deep water.  We climbed on the side of the wall to the deep water.  She put a pole in water.  Then I grabbed it and climbed all the way down and sit on bottom.  

(Science) First I got a box.  Then I got two rubber band.  Put it on box.  Take pencil and stick it under the rubber bands.  I make low pitch and high pitch.

(Math) I counted to 100 with Mom.  Mom count with Me.  

P-Grade 4 aka The Peacemaker

In PE class we played flag football.  

Our butterflies hatched out of their cocoons.  They are drinking sugar water and eating oranges.  

My math is getting hard.  

I'm reading James and the Giant Peach.  I like it.  

In Science, we made rubber band banjos.  We studied pitch.  We put rubber bands around a box.  We stuck a pencil underneath the rubber bands. 

I did First Language Lessons.  I'm studying prepositions and prepositional phrases.  I circled prepositions in sentences.  

week 29

This week was a bit laid back.  We had to get back into a new schedule.  After a few weeks off, we are back at the YMCA for a new session.  We are really enjoying our classes.  Our YMCA is wonderful.  Everyone is very kind and the environment is so nice. It's a nice place to hang out between classes.  The rest of our year should be a lot of fun. We got in new curriculum and supplies from Waldorfsupplies.com, Delta Education, and Rainbow Resource.  We are going to start having chalkboard drawings (I'm a bit nervous since I'm not very artistic), a new writing curriculum for the Prophet, Hooked on Phonics for our youngest boy, and three Science in a Nutshell kits from Delta.  I've been looking for science projects or kits that actually include everything.  The Nutshell kits look awesome.  They have enough stuff for three children and they include everything.  They even come in a great storage box.  They contain and activity guide and a journal for the kids.  I'll definitely do review posts about this.  

E-Grade 1

I did Explode the Code.  I write the letter i.  I colored matching words.  I write the letter a.  I read fan, mat, gas, cap, tag, and nap.  

On the Banks of Plum Creek.  Grasshoppers ate all the fruit, plums, corn, grass.  They ate all Pa's wheat.  

We read about Johnny Appleseed.  I did a map of where he went.  I made some cards.  I have to put them in order.  It's how an apple tree grows. First has a seed.  Then a sprout. Then a seedling.  Then a tree. Then blossoms.  Then Apples!

P-Grade 4

I'm in lesson 23 in math.  I'm still working on multiplying.  One of the chyrsislis looks like it's going to crack open soon. In PE, we played elimination.  Elimination is where there's four goals, four teams, and one soccer ball.  If the ball gets in a goal it looses a point.  It was really fun.  We went swimming last night as a family.   I did a spelling Test.  

G-Grade 7

In spelling last time i missed alot of words in group 32 so i had to redo it.
In History i read a book called johnny appleseed the story of a legend and did a outline on story of the world about the Maori people of new zealand.

In math i did 2 pages of lesson 22.

In italics i did 2 pages.

Week 27

This is week 27 for us.  Doing this weekly reports was a bit painful at the beginning of the year.  It's sometimes still painful for the youngest boy.  But, our oldest-The Prophet-pointed out that we had done a lot this year and it was nice to see how far we had come this year.

The Prophet-Grade 7

In history I outlined pages 340-341 which was about the factory workers of the industrial revolution and pages 350-351 which was about how the U.S.A. expanded In the 1800s and the pages were in the usborne internet linked encyclopedia of world history, I also colored the haiti flag, read chapter 30 which was about the haiti revolution and did map work in story of the world.

In math I did lesson 19 which was reducing mixed numbers.

In Italics I did pages 49,50,51.

In spelling I did spelling tests 32 and 35.

In science we read about the comparison between blood In living beings and sap in trees and plants In a book (I forgot its name) and I did picture of the comparison.

The Peacemaker-Grade 4

In Story of the World, I colored the Haitian Flag.  The African slaves rebelled.  The Africans called it Haiti.  

In Math, I did lessons 21 and 22.  

The owl babies are big and fluffy.  There is one more egg left.   

We got Painted Lady Butterfly larvae.  They are already growing.  They are making some silky stuff.  

I am on chapter four of Superfudge.  Fudge is Peter's little annoying brother.  

The Warrior-Grade 1

We learned about our eyes.  They can't move in different directions.  They can't move this way and that way.  Our pupil is dark and it turns bigger so you can see better in the dark.  Then it's in the sun.  It turns small.  

I added tens.  It's hard!

We got caterpillars.  They will turn into cocoons and then turn into butterflies.  

3rd or 4th week of March 2010

I'm looking at the calendar.  Month of March is almost gone....

Monday morning my Grandmother turns 88.  So, this weekend the boys will be busy making some cards for her.  We are just starting a study on owls which coincided nicely with the birth of Molly's babies.


Next week we will be having some fun dissecting owl pellets. I love dissecting owl pellets and I realized (while ordering science supplies this fall from Homeschool Science Supplies) they had never done it.  We have a ton of library books to read.












We broke out this really fun art spinner kit. I remember doing this type of thing as a child.  I had purchased it at Christmas time.  But, I guess it got shoved to the back of the kids closet.  They didn't seem interested in it.  This past weekend E got super duper bored and broke it out in desperation.  Needless to say, everyone had a blast.

Porter

In PE we ran the track.

In water PE, we played water polo.

I multiplied In math.

In Handwriting, I'm writing cursive.

Escher

I played bowling scooters.  I put myself on the scooter.  I pushed myself into the bowling pins.  

We read books outside in the sunshine.  We read about the five senses.  We closed our eyes and we can hear stuff louder.  We heard people and animals.  We heard birds and a frog.  

Gibran

I watched owls on a live webcam this week http://www.sportsmansparadiseonline.com/Live_Owl_Nest_Box_Cam.html

At the YMCA i walked on the track in P.E. and in water P.E. I played water polo.

I did a outline of my history encyclopedia on the industrial revolution.

I did math and handwriting.

I have some pictures, but the husband keeps running away with the camera. I guess it's probably time to get my own camera or he his own camera...which ever fits.  My phone takes ok pictures...but I have some strange guilt about taking less than perfect pictures.  But, isn't a mediocre picture of our kids better than none at all.  I have some of the goofiest pictures of my childhood and they are such great little treasure. I don't need a million perfectly crafted and scrapbooked pics.  

Tuesday

Tuesday
Originally uploaded by OakBlossoms

This is our Tuesday block. Bottom to top. Real Science For Kids Biology Chapter 5. People say they speed through this book. I knew it would take us the entire year to get through. We love Nature but turning it into a textbook isn't a fun thing. We read a few sections each week, discuss it, work on the experiment and that's it. It doesn't take us long. But, we like to spend our Science time outside. Italics Handwriting workbooks and Chinese jumprope

Winter Books

Tracks in the Snow by Wong Herbert Yee

We love this book!  It's small and perfect for little people.  The illustrations are beautiful and really pull you into the story.

Week 5

We read the book Corn is Maize.  Then we found some things around our house that contained corn.

Gibran Week 5 Report

This week in math i learned how to use overlays to solve fraction problems.

and in history we learned about the mayflower compact and the pilgrims and we did our timelines.

in grammar i did 2 worksheets.

in spelling i did 2 spelling tests.

in science we learned about corn and the different types of corn.

The older two, starting their timelines.

Porter's Week 5 Report (typed by mom again this week)
Did my Math early.  I finished it all by Sunday.  Mostly multiplying by 3.
(In First Language Lessons) Trying to memorize The Land of Nod poem.  I'm, also, doing diagramming.
(In Science) I'm doing this tree thing.  The first page, how you can tell how old is a tree.  Counting the rings inside.  We read a book about maize. The real name of corn is maize.
I drew the Mayflower.  We did our own Mayflower Compact.  Squanto showed how to grow corn.  You fertilize the ground, and put a seed in there.  They put a fish before they put the maize seed.  Then the fish the rotted.  
We slept in the tent last night, Gibran and me.  

Escher Week 5 Report (typed by Mom)
Squanto was a person, an Indian. I learned about people names.  I learned about branches and leaves.  Putting fish in ground and bean then squash then it turn in corn.  We found chips and popcorn and babypowder and soup. Me write my name. 

Here is the link to the coloring page. I sure wish I could get him to draw more for History. He draws a lot otherwise. But, I hate coloring pages.

We spent today at the Zoo. Every time we go to the zoo we learn something new. How can that be? The boys thought there was a toy scorpion in the exhibit and were surprised to see it move. They had a black light on them and one was right under the light. It was a beautiful turquoise.

We fed the budgies. E screamed horribly when 5 or 6 of those guys flew into his face and landed up his arm. He was so brave.

Mutant Daisy

This shows the top of the daisy.













Isn't it cute. It makes a little heart.








The boys are always outdoors and finding things. It's been a blast this year. We moved to my parents house and they have 5 acres. I hope I can photo document more of it this next year.

My mom loves daisies and the animals don't. So, they are all over the property. Yesterday they found this lovely mutant daisy. It seems to be two daises that grew together. So the top bends over. There isn't a bottom, just two sides. We tried to show the side. I know it looks like the bottom, but it isn't. It has two sides that look like that.

Mid-week Update

The boys let go some frogs this week. Those amazing creatures have done very well indoors. We haven't had any luck keeping frogs in the past. I think the smartest thing they did is to bring in a big ball of pond weed and all the scummy stuff that was attached to it. The tadpoles/frogs and snails ate it all up. They happily ate the fish food, as well.

We finished up the first two chapters of King Arthur by Howard Pyle. It's in the Ambleside Year 5 schedule, but I've been including all the boys. The younger two did wander off a bit during the second chapter today. It's a lot to take in. I did stop and ask questions or point things out. I have Prophet do mini-oral narrations every page or so. He doesn't realize it, but I'm sneaky like that.

They have done Math and Italics everyday. Prophet did some Grammar this week. Peacemaker has misplaced his Explode the Code book, but he has been doing reading practice. Warrior has done some readings from AO Year 1 with me. He is enjoying Pocahontas and the Aesop Fables. He has done amazingly well with oral narrations. I'm so happy to be starting this at a young age. I mean this is the kid who couldn't speak and still has a hard time pronouncing things.

Frogs, Apples, & Kittens Oh My!

This little frog has gigantic back legs already. The Peacemaker caught this guy among many others in the pond. These are the kinds of things they get to do now that they have more area to roam. It's a positive thing from our move.





We have, also, made apple ciders and pies from the trees. My Dad has the apple press that was used when he was a child. He has had some work done to it and new barrels made. But, isn't this great. It really does make the best cider ever. I'm trying to convince him to set it up at the farmer's market next year and press organic and/or local apples .




Plus, a litter of new baby kittens was recently born.
Here is a kitty from the previous litter.