Friday, April 5, 2013

Fun ways to learn American States and Capitals

 Fun ways to learn American States and Capitals:

We love this game: It has a card for each state that has the state, capital, state nickname, bird, flower, etc. and you do pick up a lot of information by just playing it.
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Scrambled States by Gamewright


There are 2 funny books, and a funny dvd that go with it:  Our library has the books and DVD that we check out periodically.  It is a little young, and silly; but we still find it fun.

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I am WANTING to put this in; but haven't YET!  We've heard it a few times; but I haven't put it in our rotation, iykwim.


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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Children's Museum Lily Theatre Tortoise and the Hare

Children's Museum
 Lily Theatre
Tortoise and the Hare


The Stage

The owl in center was a riot!!!

The Tortoise, giving us a thumb's up!


"Flash", the Hare on the left, with the big, bunny ears!



Waiting for the show to begin!











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Children's Museum Science Lab

Children's Museum Science Lab
Making CELLS
CELLS: BUILDING BLOCKS OF LIFE
April 2nd, 2013

John giving the lecture on cells



Below we are building an animal or human cell.  A cell is a jelly like fluid, called a cytoplasm, surrounded by a membrane. 


cell with a nucleus


  A cell is a jelly like fluid, called a cytoplasm, surrounded by a membrane.  The membrane lets good stuff in and keeps bad stuff out.   Floating around in the cytoplasm are the organelles doing their jobs: a nucleus, E.R., ribosomes, Golgi bodies, mitochondria.  The organelles work hard, making protein, turn food into energy, and get waste out.
 

A cell has lysosomes and peroxysomes.  Plants and animals, are made of eukaryotic cells, which means that their generic material is surrounded by a membrane.  Together the genes and the membrane form an organelle called the nucleus.  The other type of cell, prokaryotic, has no nucleus.  Genetic information in prokaryotic cells just sort of float free in the cytoplasm.



Most prokaryotes are single-celled bacteria, like Lactobacillus acidophilus, which is used to make yogurt.  In any different organism, different cells carry out very different specialized functions.  As a result they can look very different.  Cells can be star shaped-bone cell; muscle cells can be stretchy, and nerve cells can be really long.


Other cells like bacteria have little hairs growing out of it to help it move around, and red-blood cells are shaped like little bowls, and plant cells have a rigid cell wall that help them to maintain their shape.  


Inside the human body cells can vary in size from being microscopic to over a meter long.  We have about 75 trillion cells in each of our bodies, that is enough to stretch around the planet 47 times!!



Below, the cell shape has been changed from a circle into a rectangle, to help it become a plant cell.

 Then we turned the animal/human cell into a plant cell by adding vacuoles and chloroplasts organelles.



(If you want to know where I got the wording for my cell descriptions, I edited a cartoon on "Cells"; from a "BrainPop" cartoon.)

 



The finished product; ready to be hanged up as a decoration! (once the clay dries, of course!)



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Children's Museum Heroes Exhibit

Children's Museum Heroes Exhibit
April 2nd, 2013


Highlights from the Heroes exhibit---now that I have to compress my photo's I'm getting selective!


Hans Solo
Thunder bolt

Darth Maul


The Riddler




The Silver Surfer










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Children's Museum Gecko Exhibit

Children's Museum Gecko Exhibit
April 2nd, 2013

Here are a few highlights from the Gecko Exhibit!  We sure had a great time.  We listened to a short lecture and were given a clip-board and sent on a mission to investigate a specific gecko.  We had to find the details for our gecko--skin, eyes, habitat, etc. for it and put it all down in a folder given to us.  We had a lot of fun looking at the many cases of gecko's!!!!!















Monday, April 1, 2013

March 25-31st 2013 SL Core E, Week 21

March 25-31st  2013  
SL Core E  
Week 21

Another busy week, but these busy weeks will soon be coming to an end.  Spring is just when a lot of our field trips are scheduled and therefor our activities are multiplied. I hope everyone had a good Easter!  We sure did!  We had been reading and preparing for at least a week, which really helps us to mentally be aware of the real significance of it all.

A brief outline of our activities this week:

Monday-Snow Morning!! 7  1/2 inches of snow!! Dd played in snow for hours!!!-then lessons (after lunch).  We watched a church program from Annie's.  We watched a service called "Redemption".
  Tuesday- lessons & Swim & Gym (Life Guard, Jr. Training)

Tuesday afternoon:  Tea Party/Visit at L. friends house where Dd got to go for a nice walk in the snow, while I drank tea and chattedShe and R also played the piano together, which was lovely to hear!

Wednesday-lessons

Thursday-LHE field trip downtown, we rode with the G family to the Ruth/Eli Lilly Health Center.  We had a 1 1/2 hour interactive program (4 parts) on the various elements of the Human Body.  The part on the Immune System was WAY cool!  They had a 3D movie (we got to wear the fun 3D glasses) on the immune system.  Our teacher, Cathy, did a great job talking about nutrition and vitamins, minerals, bones, food choices.....too.  The kids got to participate in various ways, which were a lot of fun.








Thursday night, Dh, Dd, and I went with the G family to their church to participate in a SEDER DINNER! We (DD and I) "youtube.com'd" a few different episodes on "Seder Dinner" or "Seder Meal" to watch ahead of time.  It was very interesting to watch those. Wow! was that really interesting!  It was a reenactment/education on how Jews preform the Passover meal.  They explained how Jesus's last supper would have gone and what the symbolism for each thing was...we had lamb and a good meal as we participated.  What a fun thing we did as a family-and the church was so warm and welcoming to us!


Friday-Lessons and we watched another sermon from Annie's church-called "Good Friday" -this one had Annie in it!  Wonderful to hear Annie's testimonial and get to know her better.

Saturday-I got glasses for the first time in my life..."oh bother"--says Winnie the Pooh.  Saturdays are my clean my house like a crazy hen with her head chopped off day.  And I cleaned until 10pm!  Boy, did I have a lot of cleaning and tidying up to do! 

Sunday-EASTER!! He Has Risen!  up at 5:30am, leave at 6:30am, sunrise service at 7am, b-fast, Sunday School, Service, home, NAP, Giz and Grampy arrive for a few hours visit, Eat, Easter Egg Hunting begins!!! bed!  Glory, He Has Risen!  What an Amazing Day.  We did get to sing In The Garden today...DH and I just love that hymn--and we got to sing it on Easter.

Our lessons this week:

Bible:

We read from the book of Hosea--I'm not positive how many chapters, b/c we read more than we were suppose to --at least Chapters 8-14.

 Apologia-Who Is My Neighbor-(pgs 238-239)
 Product Details
"Simon & The Cross" I found the chapter that would match up with Good Friday and Easter to add into our family devotions.  It also had us add in Matthew 27: 32-54--Mark 15:21-38--Luke 23:26-49




History:
The World Wars pages 14-57

Product Details

The World Wars: An Introduction to the First & Second World Wars by Paul Dowswell, Ruth Brocklehurst and Henry Brook

 

History Add-in: Into the West by James M. McPherson
We finished this book. It was a great add-in b/c it covered a lot of things that SL didn't really cover enough of--a lot of details that might have been missed this book pointed out.  I'm extra glad I added this book in! 

 

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Into the West: From Reconstruction to the Final Days of the American Frontier by James M. McPherson

 

Read Alouds: (on audio)

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry- Chapters 1-3
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Reader:

 The Wright Brothers--SL  Reader--Dd is really liking it!

 

Science:

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Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day -- Young Explorers Series (Apologia Science... by Jeannie Fulbright

Pages 42-51  We are really loving this book.  This week we learned about birds feathers.  Did you know they have 5 different types of feathers?  Dd did a Diagrammatic drawing of a bird feather.

Math:
Math U See: Epsilon: 16 A, B, C, D, E, F
MUS Worksheet Generator: Extra division of Fractions-5 questions per day extra.



Language Arts:

AAS 4: Lesson 14-passed

First Language Lessons: level 4: lesson 54

WWE 3: Week 5, day 3 & 4

IEW: Paragraph on Ants "Miss Ant"


                                                      Miss Ant

All the ants in a colony are female.   Females which are called “workers” are the workforce for the colony.  Because ants are so talented they only take a short break each day.  Even though workers are female, they cannot lay eggs.  They usually live one to three years, and are smaller than the queen.  If you find an ant, you probably found a female worker ant.


Fix-It: Week 8

Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children's Poems:
3 poems this week.

 

Extra FUN Readers:
Disney Fairies: Beck Beyond the Sea by Kimberly Moss
Disney Fairies: Silvermist and the Ladybug Curse by Gail Herman
Disney Fairies:Dulcie's taste of Magic by Gail Herman
Dd reads a lot, but I managed to get these 3 books that she read and finished this week.  There is always more; but I don't see them.  I know she has had a lot of her big Star Wars books and American Girl craft/cooking books out too this week.   
  Dvd:
(from the library)
Magic School Bus: Plays Ball, and Works Out

The Man From Snowy River


   Audio:

Product Details

The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, Book 2) by J.R.R. Tolkien and Rob Inglis 

  *finished this audio and ordered the next one/final one (The Return of the King)

 Activities:
Chores, Painting, Piano...lots of reading and making stuff.  Bow & Arrow was back out again this week, working with the bird feeders a lot outside-lots of interest in the birds outside, chasing off the hawks, and wanting to plant (actually did plant sunflower seeds which is not a good idea this early...)