The Homeschool Den

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Wonderful Valentine's Day Math Activities (for K or 1st)

I've come across a number of beautiful Valentine's Day math activities that I plan to use this week with DD. They are so pretty and well done, I just had to share in case someone else might want to incorporate them into their week! I wish I had the time (and health!...I still have a vicious cough from the pneumonia.) to be making such beautiful things, but at the moment I just have to be grateful to those who have shared with the wider world. Thank you SO much!!

This first one on the above and below is an addition sorting game from the beautiful Valentine's Day unit made by Michelle at Musings of Me. The packet has 154 pages of gorgeous activities. And, she shared this with us for free! I'm so grateful for her generosity!

ED just got this cardboard playhouse that she can color for her birthday. It has a cute "mail slot" and I thought I'd "mail" these addition problems to DD. I think that'll be a hit!

These cute owl addition problems were from Oceans of First Grade Fun. Sorry the picture is blurry. I printed out two pages on each sheet (but haven't had a chance to cut them apart yet.) The game is called Hoo Loves You and you can download it and print it out for free. Thank you so much Ms. A! I thought we might use these with a homemade board game that DD enjoys playing and if someone gets the "Hoo Loves You" card they'll automatically win!

In this board game, the player draws a card and move forward that number of spaces (3+4). You continue round the track (following the directions on each square such as "Go Back 1 space," "Double Move" (so with the 3+4 card, you'd move 14 spaces) or "Draw Again" until you can't move anymore (such as a blank space, "stay put" or "lose a turn"). Then it's the next player's turn. The first person to land on one of the "Win" spaces wins the game.

You can see our board game is pretty wrinkled and beat up. It's been a huge hit this year! This board game idea came from Peggy Kaye's fantastic book, Games for Math.

I thought these sequencing cards would be good practice for DD. It's an activity she can easily complete on her own when I'm wrapped up with the other kids. I'll just have that in her workbox for her. This is yet another activity from Michelle at Musings of Me from her Valentine's Day Unit.

These bingo cards are from The Idea Room.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Some of LD's Activities (2nd Grade)

Science: Obviously we're working on our Earth Science Unit and that will probably continue for at least another month. We are also working through the Real Science-4 Kids Chemistry book Pre-Level 1. I really like these books and recommended them to my sister (they homeschool) back a couple of years ago. Her kids are older than mine and she went through the Pre-Level one books and then continued on with the upper levels she and her kids liked them so well. I know they're using them this year, but didn't ask her what levels/subjects they are on. (Her kids are now 9, 12 and 13.)

In talking about how molecules react, we talked about some of the science experiments we did last year that show that two chemicals reacted. Of course, just talking about the Bubble Bomb wasn't enough so I promised we could do that again.

Here are the ingredients, in case you haven't done this with your kids. Baking soda, vinegar, a ziploc bag and a tissue. Pour the vinegar in the bag, zip it most of the way. Pour baking soda on a tissue, fold of the ends and hold it in one corner. Zip the bag closed, drop the tissue into the vinegar, shake, drop it and watch it POP!

Math: LD has nearly completed his 2nd Grade math workbook. He continues daily practice on addition and subtraction (multi-digit... so often working problems such as 621-388, for example). As you may have noted he is just beginning to work on multiplication (2s through 6s).

Language Arts: This semester we are taking a break from our daily work with Handwriting Without Tears (we'll do it once or twice a week; he works on cursive) and instead are doing some daily language arts work. He does two pages a day and it covers things like compound words, f sounds (gh, ph), syllables and things like that. He hasn't done any work like this and it's been a good addition to our curriculum. It goes over some good spelling/phonics rules.

Read Alouds:

LD and I still read aloud together even though he reads 4-10 chapters on his own each day. We are currently reading two novels; we're about half-way through each of them. We're reading Charlotte's Web because we will be going to a theater production of Charlotte's Web in a few weeks.

We've also been making our way through the wonderful Magic Shop Series. We are on the last one, but LD would heartily recommend them! He has thoroughly enjoyed them all.

The Monster's Ring is the first in the series.

We are currently reading Juliet Dove.

Music: LD continues to learn the piano. Once we're healthy enough we'll resume our world music classes with friends (we're on Europe), but we've all been so sick that we've haven't had classes with our friends since December!!

Geography: Having been a history teacher and having enjoyed living and traveling abroad so much, geography is just a natural part of our life/curriculum. Last semester, we had a world map place mat and I often asked the kids where certain countries were as they ate breakfast or lunch. Ever since we had company, our world place mat has gone missing. I've searched high and low, but have been pleasantly surprised by LD's passion for finding the 50 states. As I'm cooking and he's waiting or eating, he'll demand I quiz him. In fact, today he said it wasn't challenging enough so I'm asking him what the capital of Arkansas or whatever is!

Going along with our study of the Middle Ages, I've had LD identify and locate some of the physical features of Europe -- seas, mountains and a couple of rivers.

I've been considering buying this wooden map of Europe for the longest time. I decided to go ahead and get it since we're studying Europe with our world music class and because we're studying about the Middle Ages. I am really impressed with the quality of the map. I love the size. And things the labeled control map really adds a lot to this. I bought ours from Kid Advance (Montessori materials shop) online.

I'll be doing separate postings about our Middle Ages unit sometime soon.

Friday, February 4, 2011

A few of DD's Activities (K)

It turns out that DD has pneumonia and an ear infection as well. She's been sleeping LOTS these past 10 days. Only today did she show interest in resuming work on her penguin lapbook. But she's been pretty amazing -- and has kept up with her reading and math most days despite being sick. She's to the stage that she picks up books to read on her own as well.

Anyway here are a few photos of the activities I mentioned the other day.

This cute penguin blend activity is from Mrs. Lee's Kinder Kids.

Here is the sequencing math activity I mentioned the other day. It is from Oceans of First Grade Fun.

DD wanted to play "War" with her princess subtraction cards. She still needs to use manipulatives, but we played three full games today. Good practice!

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P.S.
If you haven't seen this fabulous unit already, BE SURE to check out the Valentine's Day Unit at Musings of Me. It includes 154 pages of activities!!!

A Few of ED's Activities (Age 3)

ED turned three this week! Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

ED still enjoys this math activity. She does it with snowflakes and Christmas trees -- now I've made up the same activity with heart stickers and beautiful heart erasers from Oriental Trading. She really gets the one-to-one correspondence now.

We play many, many rounds of Cariboo together. This game is just perfect for her. Each card has a shape (triangle, square or circle) a letter (A,B,C) or a color (red, yellow, blue). She turns over a card and has to open the appropriate door. If there's a ball under the door, it goes into the slot at the right. Then it's my turn. We are working together to open the treasure box and reveal the treasure.

ED absolutely loves coloring these church stained glass windows. We did this for our Middle Ages project (I'll share that in another day or so), but ED still asks to do a couple each day!

This "Roll a Rocket" game came from a fantastic space unit that can be found at Musings of Me. If you haven't already, be sure to rush over to Michelle's blog to check things out!

ED has also really, really been enjoying play dough. Today we made a bright purple batch and again she played for over an hour!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Earth Science: Plate Movements & Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Mountain-Making

Here's our hands-on studies of tectonic plate movements, 2nd grade style.
We used:
a tray with a thin layer of chilled jello (jelly)
graham crackers for the earth's crustal plates
colored icing (green-continents and blue-oceans)

You can see LD putting the continent and ocean onto his plate (ie. graham cracker).

We read about the plates and tectonic plate movement and looked carefully at this map. We talked about how when earth was one giant super-continent (Pangaea), India was actually tucked in close to Africa, Australia and Antarctica rather than being a part of Eurasia. This fact is rather important as you'll see later below.

We put two crustal plates directly onto the red "mantle." Then I pulled the plates apart and asked the kids what they saw. Obviously they saw the red "lava" and I talked about how new rocks are being formed all the time under the oceans (the Mid-Atlantic Ridge). I read that section from one of our science books. As Gardner's book put it, "When two plates separate, there is a weakness in the Earth's crust. Hot magma from the Earth's mantle may come up between the plates. As the liquid magma cools, it adds new crust to the plates." (p. 32, Earth Shaking Science Projects About Planet Earth)

Next, we pushed the plates together and showed how at times the magma is forced up between the plates... ie forming volcanoes. We looked at a map that shows the Pacific Ring of Fire (the ring of volcanoes in the Pacific Ocean region). Here's an example of the Ring of Fire.

We took two graham crackers and placed them on a plate with a bit of water. Before they became too soggy, LD and I pushed our crustal plates (ie graham crackers) together. This, I told him, is what is happening in India as it pushes into Eurasia. "COOL! Mountains!" LD exclaimed! And do you know what mountains this would be? the tallest ones in the world? "Oh yes, the Himalayas." What a terrific teaching moment!

Here were some of the other activities we did for Pangaea and Plate Movement (included in our Earth Science Packet below):

Don't miss our latest plate movement activity with sponges: Earth Science: Plate Movement Activity over at our new location, homeschoolden.com

Be sure to check out our 150+ page Earth Science Packet! Our Earth Science Unit (post) is here to find out more!!

Here is a Quick Preview of the Earth Science Packet.

Learn how to make a earthquake shake table, more than a dozen hands-on activities on the layers of the earth, plate movement, convection currents, earthquakes, volcanoes, and more!

Topics include: Solar System, Layers of the Earth, Earth’s Axis and the Seasons, Latitude and Longitude, Plate Tectonics, Faults, Earthquakes, Earthquake Waves, Volcanoes, 4 Types of Mountains

We have a 150+ page Earth Science Unit!