December Newsletters
Posted by Cindy on December 19, 2007
Here’s the latest edition of the Westward Gazette.
Astronomy Final Projects and Notebooks
Posted by Cindy on December 14, 2007
We finished our astronomy unit this week! The kids spent a couple of days preparing final projects and presented them in front of the video camera on Thursday. They were able to choose whatever astronomy topic most interested them. It’s no surprise that Caleb chose astronauts as his topic. Mahayla focused on stars.
Caleb’s presentation included a talk about astronaut suits (see his helmet and jet pack?), space shuttles, rockets, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, dehydrated food and thrust.
Mahayla’s presentation included information about the sun, other notable stars, constellations, how to use an astronometer to tell the brightness of stars and some information about light years.
We used Exploring Creation With Astronomy as our main text, and also added in a few lapbooking activities and lots of hands on projects. I put what we had into modified lapbooks. The lapbooking activities were glued on the first flap, while the notebooking pages were simply stapled together at the top of the other side.
Our trip to the Answers In Geneis Creation Museum’s Planetarium earlier this year was a great addition to this unit!
Here are a few of the fun website games the kids enjoyed during the unit.
Ancient History Final Projects
Posted by Cindy on October 23, 2007
Last week we wrapped up a very fun Ancient History unit. After learning what history is, we spent about a week on each of the following civilizations: Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Israel, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Ancient China and Ancient Aztecs.
This past week, I asked them each to choose the civilization that was their favorite and create a presentation about it. They could choose to present their information any way they liked and we video taped them.
Mahayla created a poster with information about various aspects of the Ancient Greek lifestyle. She made a discus, drew a wonderful picture of a horse and chariot, set up a book for a visual and dressed in a Greek fashion of the time. She really took this project seriously and made a great presentation. 
) (Sorry for the dark pictures. I keep saying we need a new camera and I really mean it!)
Caleb also created a poster, but his was mostly pictures he (we) found on the internet that he labeled. He made a clay model of the Geat Wall of China, dressed in a robe and served us hot tea. I thought it was excellent for his first-ever presentation like this.
I really liked doing an end of the unit project and I think the kids did, too. I think we’ll make these part of each unit this year. Here are a few pictures of the notebooks we worked on throughout the unit.
Next stop: Space!
The Latest Newsletter
Posted by Cindy on October 18, 2007
We’re having such a good time creating our monthly, er, every six-eight week newsletter! Here’s the latest installment…..
Yes, as you can see we do trick-or-treat. I know it’s a controversial topic among Christians, but I hope it won’t become controversial here. Our children enjoy dressing up and eating candy. That’s all. No more, no less. :)
Our Field Trip Notebooks
Posted by Cindy on October 3, 2007
After coming back from Michigan with 100 pictures, several brochures and tons of memories, I racked my brain for a practical way to put it all together. Then I remembered Sheri’s blog and the notebooks she uses with her Five In A Row studies. Perfect!
I found the 10×10″ spiral notebooks in the scrapbooking section at Walmart. The covers are plain and colored, so they will decorate nicely when we get around to it. Inside, there are 50 card stock, archival quality pages just the perfect size for a memories journal.
I copied several pictures from the trip in wallet size. Then, gave the kiddos the pictures, some brochures, scissors and glue sticks, and let them have at it. The only thing I asked was that they write some of their memories on each page. How’s that for a secret writing lesson?
They loved this “assignment”! We all agreed that we should try to do a page or two for each of the field trips we take this year. What a great keepsake these will make!
