science and history X 2

Sorry, I just realized I had forgotten last weeks.

Last week in history we talked about hieroglyphs and papyrus paper. Quinn really got into how to write his name in "Egyptian" as they all called it and was still writing his name the next day! I didn't correct the terminology, I figured will help them remember the developing culture as time progresses. We never did get a chance to make papyrus paper though. Today, we reviewed hireoglyphs and went on to the mummies and tombs and pyrimids. They all really enjoyed the book "Mummies" and seemed to grasp everything quite well. After we were done with science we mummified those who wanted to be (Quinn and Harrison wanted nothing to do with it :) ) with toilet paper.

For science, last week we talked about molecules and atoms and how they moved in different states of matter. I think they all got it b/c we worked on the concept a few different ways: we showed it using our bodies, we put food coloring in water and made marshmallow models. As I reviewed it today they still remembered it all. Today we talked about mixtures and how you can take the parts out of the mixture to have what you had before they were mixed together.
We didn't have metal "filings", so I used paper clips in sand to have them remove the metal out of the sand with magnets. I was going to disect an old magna doodle, but when I opened it up, it was wet inside. I don't know if this is how they are made now, but, I got nothing. :( . We also learned how when you add air to a liquid, it becomes a solid. We used whipping cream and beaters. We shared turns so much that we ended up with butter in the end.

I got pictures of today and will have to share.

Cindy

Thurs.

Another busy, productive day. Taking school pictures took until piano time. After lunch the boys did History- we learned about the Dome that Brunechelli built in a Florence cathedral. They were fascinated with his story and paid attention very well. Cindy did a Language Arts activity with Josh,Ella,Quinn, and Nadia. Suzy did a bird craft with the little ones. We skipped recorder because of lack of time and will continue next week. This will give everyone an extra week to work on things. Drama went well. They were less rowdy this week. We played some fun warm-up games and then worked a bit on the first 3 songs of the play. We also read through the script a little bit. Swimming was fun and everyone got their energy out.

We are going to do a History on our own for 3rd grade. Rachelle-- I will the boys when Holden is at my house tomorrow, so don't worry about it.

Sept. 17 3rd grade science

Unit 3 lesson 1
Intro to Ecosystems -explained that an ecosystem includes all living and nonliving things that interact in a particular region. They needed to understand that we are not talking about just weather. We are talking about climate - which is the usual weather pattern in a certain area over many years. They colored a map which will be used in later lessons. I am making David work on the map some more to tidy it up. They did ask good questions when they were paying attention. I think this unit looks fun and it new information for them.

There is a Botanical gardens game in activity 2 the can do on there own. I was planning on doing the optional - The green house effect but they took until 3:30 to finish the lesson. (Rowdy boys!)
No free time today maybe they can do it during free time tomorrow?

Ranae are we going to the symphony on Friday. I assume no because you haven't mentioned it. But I thought I would check.

See you all tomorrow.
Suzy

Art Tuesday Sept.16

3rd grade art
Unit 2 lessons 3 and 4: Warmed up by coloring a mandala. Finished making an initial letter. Learned about artist Giott's paintings. He made humans look realistic by the use of shadows. He showed the illusion of space by over lapping and making the objects in the background lighter. We looked at many of his paintings and compared them to painting done 100 yrs. before.


1st grade
Unit 1 lessons 8 and 9: Read about art and artists Brueghel, Inness, and Bierstadt in the landscape book. I will have my video camera charged and ready for the next one we have great discussions. (Pages 8-12)

Made prints using found objects.

Look at lines in Matisse painting "The Purple Robe."

Thurs.

I thought I better post this before I forget. It was nice to have everyone back today. It was a great, exciting day. Here is what we did:

While Cindy taught the youngers and did circle time, I taught the 3rd grade History. We learned about Italy at the start of the Renaissance and how it was divided into 250 city-states. They all had their own government. We learned that the 3 largets and most influential were: Venice, Florence, and Rome. The traders would stop in Venice and Florence on their way to China and so these became prosperous.

Recorder: Holden was the only one with his stand. I threatened them that if anyone came unprepared next week, they wouldn't participate ( I wouldn't do that, but I think it scared them). We worked on scales, breathe support, and learning twinkle, twinkle from memory. I would like them to continue this at home and work on the next few pages. I marked them in their book.

While the boys worked on History maps with Suzy I took the youngers and we read some cute animal poetry. We then divided into boys and girls and had them write an animal poem about a snake with their group and draw a picture. They then presented it. This went over pretty well. Of course the girls had the advantage, but Josh helped the boys write theirs down. We will have to do more group work with them.

Drama- We played a getting to know you game, Zip,Zap,Zot, reviewed stage directions, and practiced some tongue twisters. We then worked on the Cinderella scene from our play. The girls all got to try out Cinderella while the boys sang the chorus. I am going to have CD's for next week. The new girls I think will be good examples of acting ( if I can get them to stop giggling)! I think it will be fun.. I am going to scour the web for some cute warm-up ideas.

Wen. Sept. 10 - Science and History

History Unit 2 lesson 9 - We finished the lesson but the optional : beyond the lesson looks like fun to do. You Know what I will read the poems to them on Thursday. If you want them to write a poem they can do that on there own. Do lesson 10 unit assessment on your own. Ranae will start unit 3 on Thursday.
Science Unit 2 lesson 4- We only did the student pages. They need to go over the lesson on line. K-12 was down. Do lesson 5 unit assessment on your own. We will start unit 3 next week.


The boys were glad to be together. Welcome home Gavlinski family! your were missed.

Suzy

9/10 science and history

Today was a good day overall. It seemed that everyone was glad to be back together after a couple weeks of missing someone.

Science - another rewarding experiment dealing with melting. We tested to see if butter or ice cream melted first (ice cream) and then tested 3 flavors to see if they melted at the same rate. Vanilla melted slower, I think just b/c it was the middle flavor in the container. We also watched water boil and learned that the little bubbles on the bottom rose up and popped, turning into vapor. Then we watched vinegar boil too, and was able to see how the vapors traveled across the room to allow us to smell it.
The kids then took the discussion to the dishwasher and talked about how the water vaporizes as the heat dries the dishes. Then we talked about how the same thing happens in a dryer. I explained the dryer vent and talked about how you can smell when your neighbor is doing laundry b/c of the vent taking the vapors out the dryer through the vent.

History - we continued with Egypt and a couple of the stories about gods- Isis and Osiris (god of the Nile), Amun-Ra (god of the sun). I explained and emphasised how the Egyptians made up these stories to help them explain the mysteries of how things happened. I don't think the stories sunk in too much. For their history records they all stuck with talking about the Nile River and some drew a person in a boat (I don't know if they connected Osiris in the coffin as this- don't think so, or Amun-Ra in the boat going across the sky). I was impressed that although they couldn't remember it's name, they then drew the delta at the end of the Nile.

Cindy

Tues. Classes Part 2

Music- We continued learning about Appalachian mountain music. We listened to a recorder of a story with the dulcimer used for the animals noises. They seemed to really like this. We learned to strum with a pick and learned how to play an 'f' by pushing down on the blue dot. We reviewed some notes (I was surprised that they remembered a lot of them) and reviewed our dance to 'Old Lady No Nose'.

History- We learned about life along the Nile river and how it flooded every year leaving behind the fertile silt for the farmers to plant their crops. We flooded the Nile in Cindy's backyard.

Rachelle- we miss you and the kids, I hope you had a good trip. I think we may have gotten 1 history lesson ahead in first grade. by doing one today--oops. We are lost without our secretary :-).

ART Tuesday Sept. 9th

1st grade - Unit 1 lessons 6 and 7 They had a great day! They learned about imaginary lines in artworks. (a line suggested by the the arrangements of objects in a work of art) They all did well picking out imaginary lines in the print and from the gallery on line.

We read about artist Jacob Lawrence and look for imaginary lines in his art work.
He used diagonal lines to show movement.
He was born in New Jersey and moved to Harlem when he was about ten.
He went to museums and libraries to study art.
He used bright colors
His style of painting is flat and bold.

3rd and 5Th grades - We learned about illumination. A picture, design, or decoration drawn on a manuscript page. They made a drawing of the first letter in their name. They will finish next week.

Read the book, Illuminations by Jonathan Hunt. They looked at decorative letters for ideas for this project. Best class yet, they are settling in.

See ya all tomorrow,
Suzy

9/3 science and history

Sorry, I keep going online to do this, but get sidetracked.

I have pictures of history on my phone, if I can get them off to an email I will.

History - we continued talking about the nomads who settled in the Fertle Crescent and became farmers. We compared how they were used to getting their food to the new ways that allowed them to build houses and stay in the same spot. We talked about ways that they got water to their crops and the first farm machine that was developed to help. We made "bricks" and this week they can go outside and build with them.

Science - we started talking about the three forms of matter. Quinn and Nadia remembered some of this from last year. They seemed to be able to know the difference between all three. The biggest concept to get is that air is matter and that the air in a balloon has more mass than a balloon with no air.

Science

School PIctures

I will be doing school pictures on Thurs. I would really like everyone to wear a white shirt and denim on the bottom--either shorts, skirt, or jeans. I think it would look really nice for the group shot if we are dressed the same. Let me know if you need to borrow anything. I have extra shirts and bottoms.

We miss you Rachelle!

Halloween

I am desperately trying to finish this scrapbook. Here is the Halloween page. Bring back memories?? It will be here before we know it.

Tues. 9-2

Ignore my other post and chat amongst yourselves about what lessons will be taught next week :)

It was a good day today. HISTORY 1 went very well. They really liked hearing the rest of Tarak's story and I think they really understand how life changed for the nomads when they settled in the fertile crescent. SCIENCE 3 - They had great questions and Isaac seemed to really pay attention during the lesson. I think they know the basic differences between invertebrates and vertebrates, and amphibians and reptiles. It's a fun unit so far.

See you all next week.

Rachelle

MY TRIP INFO.

When I come back, on Wed. 9/10 I'll be doing History 3 Unit 2 Lesson 9 and Science 3 Unit 2 Lesson 5. Cindy will be doing History 1 Unit 2 Lesson 5 and Science 1Unit 2 Lessons 3 &4. So however you guys want to do the lessons you need finished by then, that's where we'll be when I get back.

Thanks for all your support. It means more to me than I can adequately express.

Rachelle