Solar System - Beyond Our Imaginations

Well, it's been awhile since I've been able to get back here! We studied animals after the plants and then went on to the solar system, which was a month long unit study. It truly is astounding how incredible the universe is! Have you ever really thought about it? I love studying along with the girls because it ignites my own passion to learn! We began by learning about the stars, the sun being the closest one to us. Then we went on to planets, the Milky Way system, the moon and so on. Just the little bit we touched upon left me totally in awe of God's creation. We did something different at the end of this unit, something I've been wanting to do for so long. It's called a lapbook.

I first heard of lap/notebooking a year ago when I decided that the workbook approach to learning was just not up to par. The curriculum that I was using was very "workbook" oriented. Then someone told me about lap/notebooking. After some research, I decided I loved this hands-on approach and knew the kids would, too. Then, in order to keep things structured, we went with a new curriculum that would allow me to incorporate this type of learning. However, as things go, we rarely had time (or so I thought) to actually do it. So, I determined that with this last unit, we were going to take what we learned and apply it to a lapbook and here it is! Grace now wants to end every unit with a lapbook! Emily, I think, has her reservations. It's a little more hands-on work than she would like. Emily learns a lot just from reading and listening. Or being outside! Grace is my crafty one. I knew she would be hooked! By the way, in case you were wondering -- yes, we did include Pluto as a planet. When I told the girls that scientists were now no longer considering Pluto a planet, they rebelled! "That's not fair! Pluto's so cute!!" So, we included Pluto and deal with that when they're older and more mature :)

So, we completed our year and are looking forward to a nice break. We do our official promotion tomorrow. Grace is promoting to 3rd grade and Emily to 1st. I'll post again for the promotion and then we'll send you more updates on the family page of what we do this summer!

Green Thumbs!

Plants were the theme of our latest unit study! What a fun unit. It took me a while to get into this one; we did a lot of reading and we watched a great Magic School Bus video on plants but for a subject that has so much potential for hands-on study, I just wasn't getting into it! I think because I haven't ever been much of a green thumb. My grandmother was the greenest thumb I knew and I supposed I just didn't inherit it. I certainly have had the desire but I guess maybe I was afraid things would DIE! But I've managed to raise a few children and if I can help make them grow, certainly a few little plants shouldn't intimidate me. So I jumped in and we began to do some work! We were blessed to be loaned a really cool microscope that let us get up close and personal with some leaves and we made some pinecone bird feeders. Then we planted some live plants and even some seeds. We'll have to wait and see if they will live. But if they don't, we won't give up! We'll just plant some more. Grace and Emily loved planting and I think they will be fine little gardeners some day. Maybe Gram passed her green thumb on to them!


One thing that inspired me to get a move on was the morning Grace decided to go out early in the morning and "study plants". Emily joined her a little while later and I could hear them talking about having a "Science Plant Club"! Cool! They were actually learning and trying to apply it themselves. They brought some notebooks, rulers, pencils and a magnifying glass and started documenting their findings all on their own. I didn't even tell them to do it! So they have pages and pages of plants that they drew, measured and labeled! A defining moment for me, to say the least. Just when I have been discouraged, God gives me a glimpse of their progress and encourages me to press on.

We made peanut butter pinecone birdfeeders laden with birdseed and hung them out, then waited for the birdies to come. Didn't happen. But about a week later we went to check them out and saw where their little beaks had been pecking away at the treats! Smart little birdies! We actually caught one in the act this week but because of where the feeder was hanging, it couldn't really find a place to get to it. So we relocated it. We have a whole jasmine covered fence that serves as a condo for a ton of little sparrows, so I'm surprised the feeders aren't totally stripped!

Finally, a friend loaned me a great microscope so Grace and Emily went out and found a bunch of samples. It was so amazing for the girls! They loved it! It made the Magic School Bus video come alive! Also, we purchased a bunch of plants for the backyard and planted them. Then the girls picked out some seeds that we planted in peat pots. We are also waiting for an avocado seed to sprout and some apple seeds (which may never sprout!).

Ocean Murals

We ended our unit study with ocean life. Here the girls created their own mural. We found out that the ocean contains many zones and the farther down it goes, the darker it gets and the animals that live in each zone vary, including the way God created them to live in those zones. We found a really cool website that allowed the girls to play a game where they descended gradually in the ocean called Journey to the Deep. They started out by picking which creature they wanted to be: a fish, a seal or a whale. At each level they learned things about the creatures that lived there and answered a question after 60 seconds of exploring. Then they were able to descend to a lower part of the ocean. It was really neat. The girls actually got a little intimidated when it got to the lowest zone, sometimes reffered to as the Aphotic Zone (but I found that there are other names for it as well). It was really dark and some rather strange creatures lived there! We also watched some on-line video on different creatures that live in the sea and there were many that we have never known to exist! God is very creative!













Grace and Emily especially like watching video of sharks! There was one where a great white actually leaped out of the water to eat a sea lion! Emily didn't want to watch that one but Grace was very intrigued.














The girls love to do anything that involves crafts, especially painting! They don't get to do it as often as they would probably like because I don't always feel creative :) but it's a great time for them when they get to. They put their all into it.

At the Pond

Jesus said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water I that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up unto everlasting life, John 4:13-14

For the past two weeks, we have been learning about water. Rain, God's blessing to man; famine, life without water; the water cycle; Why we need rain; Ponds, rivers and lakes; Ocean life; Jesus is the Living Water. We learned that rain can be a blessing but at times can be a curse. But God causes rain to fall on both good and evil man, providing for all no matter if they believe and love him or not. Areas have been stricken with famine from the times of Abraham, yet God still provides for His creation. We have the opportunity to help those in areas of famine. Grace thought of some ideas to raise money to send to those areas; selling lemonade (always popular with the younger set), a yard sale and a "skate-a-thon" at the ice rink (look for info of this coming your way soon!). We visited a pond and checked out the many critters that live in and nearby. This was a fun trip. We are going to visit the ocean once the weather clears up a little. This has been a fun unit and we wanted to share a few things that we did. Next unit is about plants!

A heron, called a Snowy Egret. We watched it look for food as it walked along the banks. We found out that it has bright yellow feet! It's very beautiful when it flies.

There were lots of mallard ducks, as well as a few other types and lots of geese, including beautiful Canadian geese. We watched as a mallard couple flew straight for the water and at the last minute, the female spotted a turtle in her path and slammed on the brakes, sending a spray of water into the face of the turtle! We laughed over this and imagined what he would tell his family when he got home! This picture was a funny one taken while the mallard boys dove for food.





This was the turtle, right before the ducks flew in. We were so excited to see turtles! There were several more laying on a log a little further down.







Dayna enjoyed our little jaunt, too! She kept up with us as we traipsed all over the place. There was a moment, though, when a dog covered in mud up to her chest came running straight for Dayna and I. As I picked her up, expecting the worst, the silly dog quickly changed course and headed for the pond to play some more. I seriously think the dog was laughing at us!

When we first got to the park, the geese surrounded us - greedy little birds. Actually they are quite large! They are at just about eye level with the girls. This had happened once before at another pond and it really frightened Grace and Emily, so they were on edge before we even got out of the car. I showed them that if you just stomp your feet and say, "Shoo, shoo, shoo!", they would slowly retreat. So here they are, showing the mean faces they would give the geese. Aren't they intimidating? (Disclaimer: No geese were injured during the making of this field trip) What a fun day!