Posted by Cindy on September 3, 2008
Fine Arts Tuesday was another hit this week. I don’t think any of us are going to get tired of it anytime soon!
Early morning nature study was a summer scavenger hunt made by Amanda at Hearts and Trees. Thanks, Amanda! We were able to check off everything except a ladybug. 
)
Art and classical music were combined this week. I’ve done this activity with the kiddos before, but was reminded about it at Barb’s previous blog earlier in the summer. It’s a fun way to really listen to classical music. Basically, you play a piece and let the children use whatever art medium they like to express the feelings evoked in the music. We chose to use watercolors and listen to several compositions from Beethoven. The kids did some pieces of art using lines only - long, fat lines that swirled for slow parts of the music and happy colored, choppy splotches when the music picked up the pace. Other times, they painted pictures that showed the feeling of the music. My favorite of these was Caleb’s picture below. The blurs are supposed to be Tom and Jerry in the middle of a chase! )
Finally, tea time was later in the day than usual, so we decided to have a muffin tin tea/lunch. This type of lunch isn’t just for wee ones – even my hubby took part in the fun!
Oh, I almost forgot – our Book of the Month Club started this week, too. Mrs. Lisa gave each of the children a cloth bag to decorate as a kickoff craft.
Posted by Cindy on February 6, 2008
Here are some ideas for a scavenger hunt at the library. Questions can easily be altered for younger or older children. This was planned for my 5th grader and it will probably take a couple trips to finish. (By the way, the librarians will love you for this!) 
If you’d rather see the printable version, it’s located here.
Library Scavenger Hunt
How long may books be checked out from the library?
How long may DVD’s be check out of the library?
Use the computer catalog to search for a book about horses, Daniel Boone and New Zealand. After finding the books, write the title, author and Dewey Decimal numbers for each book.
What’s the difference between a book labeled with an E and a book labeled with a J?
What does JB stand for? And how could you find a book on Abraham Lincoln without using the catalog?
What is the charge for an overdue library book?
What is the charge for an overdue DVD?
Find the section of books about medieval times. What are the Dewey Decimal numbers?
Find a Newberry Award book. Give its title, author and Dewey Decimal numbers.
Find a Caldecott Award book. Give its title, author and Dewey Decimal numbers.
Name two magazines your library carries that interest you.
What’s the difference between a book labeled J Blum and J 545.23?
Find a book about an artist. Give its title, author and Dewey Decimal numbers.
Find a fairy tale. Give its title author and Dewy Decimal numbers.
Locate a book about China. From the book, write the page number you find each of the following.
Title page -
Copyright -
Table of contents -
Index -
Locate a book from the Juvenile Fiction section. Find the following information and put a check beside each after showing your mom.
Book description –
Introduction -
Dedication -
Author description –
Illustrator description -
What can you do if your library doesn’t carry a book you really want to check out?
Does the library offer books on tape or books on CD for children? Name one you would be interested in listening to.
What does your librarian like most about her job?
What does she like least about her job?
What are some of her responsibilities?
What opportunities are available for a young volunteer at the library?
Find out the title, date and time of one special event the library is offering soon.
Where does money come from to buy books for the library?
What happens to books and magazines when the library doesn’t use them anymore?
Posted by Cindy on February 1, 2008
Last week we finished up a short, but successful unit on our state. I think all involved liked the change of pace this time around. Mahayla practically completed her readings, worksheets and projects on her own, while Caleb and I tackled his work at our own pace. Here are just a few highlights. (By the way, the camera that died recently revived itself to coma status. It will charge enough to take two or three pictures as long as there’s plenty of sunlight. Until we can buy my new camera, I’ll take coma over death!)
Completed notebooks.
A scavenger hunt of our county. (I had a picture here and then realized that it gave too much information about us. Sorry!)
This was fun. Basically, I just wrote down facts concerning our county that I wanted the kids to know. We went to the courthouse, city building and tourism office asking different people to help fill in the facts. Afterward, we visited the cemetery to learn more about some noteable people buried there and attempted to visit our local museum. (They were closed this month.)
Here are the scavenger hunt items:
*Name three important historical sites.
*Find the names of two famous people from ___ County. What made them famous?
*What important invention came from ___ County?
*Who holds the following offices?
Mayor
Judge Executive
Chief of Police
Sheriff
District Judge
Curcuit Judge
State Representative
State Senator
*What is the purpose of the tourism department?
*What offices are located in the Court House?
*What is ___ County’s largest industry?
*What are three natural resources found in ___ County?
Field Trip Journals from Mammoth Cave.
They each had to learn about an animal native to KY. Mahayla chose the raccoon and Caleb chose the black bear. After preparing a diorama including the animal in a complete habitat, they had to give an oral presentation telling everything they learned about it.
They also had to research a famous Kentuckian and give a first-person report. I know you’ll have no problem figuring out that Mahayla is Jenny Wiley, a pioneer woman taken captive by indians, who bravely escaped. One of our state parks is named after her. And of course, Caleb is Daniel Boone, the explorer who basically paved the way for pioneers to settle in Kentucky.
After a week’s break to catch up on some artist and around the world studies, we’re off to medieval times next week!
Posted by Cindy on May 2, 2007
Yesterday was science. Today is HISTORY!
Tip Of The Day: Go On A Cemetery Scavenger Hunt
Eeeewww! That’s what you might be thinking, but this is a REALLY cool activity. And, like yesterday, it’s a great way to keep learning while enjoying the great spring weather.
Why the cemetery? It’s chock full of history!
What in the world do you do in the cemetery? Lots!
*Do rubbings or drawings of the symbols on the stones, then research the meanings of the symbols when you get home.
*Find the oldest dated stones. How old is the cemetery?
*Find ten stones of men from a certain time period (say 1850-1900) and calculate hoe old they were when they died. Do the same for ten women of the same time period. On average, who lived longer? What were some possible reasons? (war, childbirth)
*Write down the longest, shortest, most interesting, funniest, most inspiring…..epitaphs.
*What were the most common names during a certain time period?
*Find a stone that’s unreadable and do a rubbing to see if you can figure out what it says.
*Measure the tallest, shortest, longest….stone.
I hope your mind is rolling with more ideas! If not, I’d be happy to send you a copy of a scavenger hunt I made for a group field trip we did this past fall. Just email me at cindykwest@hotmail.com with the subject of cemetery hunt.
Related Tags: cemetery, scavenger hunt, history, outdoors, learning
