The walnut trees are beginning to change colors and drop leaves in Kentucky already. While they’re still full of nuts, I wanted our nature study time this week to focus on these trees. We used one of the nature notebooking pages from the Delightful Deciduous Trees NaturExplorers study to focus our attention.
Back at home, the kids tried their hands at Monet’s Impressionist-style outdoor art. They both found interesting places to sit and paint.
Beethoven’s Symphony #3 is our listening piece of the week. Something about classical music playing during work time really keeps them focused and peaceful. Hmmm….I may pipe classical music through the house at all hours of the day!
So here’s what I had envisioned. A peaceful day at the pond with children who ever-so-quietly and diligently explored life in and around the pond. Children who would pull out their nature journals at every interesting find, writing lovely poems and prayers. A day of discovery and awe.
Here’s what happened. Children racing around the pond, boys jumping in, muddy water, lots of laughing, and yet lots of exploring still. I’m not sure much nature journaling was accomplished, but most of the children went home with a cup full of nature to continue exploring. Their plan was WAY BETTER than mine! (Oh, and Colleene, SO sorry about the shoes!! )
The day started in my house with prayer, a little pond talk and the making of our underwater viewfinders. (These are easy. Cut the bottom out of an old container – milk, 2-liter, large yogurt. If needed, cut a bit of the top out, too, so you can easily look down through the container. Cover the bottom with plastic wrap, securing with a rubber band or duct tape. Submerge the plastic side into water and see what you can find under the water!)
Then, off to the pond we went. The kids had to first walk all the way around the pond, observing life on the edges. They were supposed to journal something they found. (Notice these are all girls!)
Then, they used the viewfinders to look down into the water. Again, they were supposed to journal something they found.
Finally, they used jars tied to poles to scoop water and life out for observation. Again, they were supposed to journal something they found.
Talk about hands-on learning. I think we might even be able to call this body-on learning. They had so much fun and I’m sure learned a thing or two in the process. At least that’s what I’m still envisioning.
We brought home a bit of moss and pond water. This morning, we were able to identify at least SIX different forms of life in about a cup’s worth of water!! For sure we have some tadpoles, water bugs and tiny snails. There are also tiny, tiny, tiny specks swimming around, tiny, tiny, tiny snake-like creatures and some oblong clear eggs with no observable animals inside. I can’t wait to see what grows!
Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems is a book full of pond poetry. Yes, I had even carted this to the pond thinking some sweet child would just love to write poetry in their nature journal. It wasn’t cracked open until later in the house! HaHa!
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Would YOU like to have wonderful pond studies? You can! Peaceful Ponds gives you all you need – except the pond.
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.
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.
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is a book full of pond poetry. Yes, I had even carted this to the pond thinking some sweet child would just love to write poetry in their nature journal. It wasn’t cracked open until later in the house! HaHa!
) (Sorry for the dark pictures. I keep saying we need a new camera and I really mean it!)
