Week six in American History

This week in American History we learned about the Pennsylvania colony and William Penn of course :) We learned how the early colonists used plants for medicine and how some of these worked while others did not. The kids drew pictures of ones that worked, such as using the willow tree for headaches. The willow tree is how we get aspirin. They also drew pics of ones that didn't work such as children wearing wolves teeth around their necks for courage.

Then we had a "treasure hunt" of sorts and the kids searched our yard for plants that can be used for medicinal remedies and ones that they used in the colonial period.

Queen Anne's Lace: Named this because of it's lace like appearance and it was said to have one small flower in the middle that was a drop of Queen Anne's blood. Really God put it there to help bee's and other insects find it. Used for birth control and to get rid of intestinal gas and worms.

Doodlebug searching for Rosemary  (please use your imagination glasses while looking at our sad herb garden). Rosemary can be used for digestion, circulation of blood, as a disinfectant, and as perfume or ointment.

Here is our basket after coming in from the "Folk Medicine Treasure Hunt" :)

 We learned how the immune system works to fight a virus and how Cotton Mathers came up with the inoculation process. The kids watched a video on the immune system online and then played this game.

 Learning how the virus enters the body. In short...the T-cells then yell for backup. Followed by the B-cells which bring the K-cells to kill the virus and the antibodies are left behind to prevent the virus from making your body sick again.

 

Benjamin West was an artist and used the juice of various plants to add color to his artwork. We used lemon, orange, lime, strawberry, blueberry, and coffee for our pictures.                                   

The finished projects. Inchworm's, Pollywog's, and Doodlebug's.

The

Benjamin West notebooking pages.  

 Doodlebug has been reading James and the Giant Peach and loving it. 

Pollywog has been reading Pocahontas and the Strangers and loving it.  

 

We went on a leaf hunt after learning about leaf classification. The kiddos made leaf rubbings and them labeled the leaves as either compound or simple and then smooth, toothed, or lobed.

 

Nothing very exciting in NOEO this week. We have been reading about the scientific method and the kids illustrated their narration after one of our readings. The next step is to find something we want to ask a question about and then test with the method. Any ideas????

I thought this was funny since I have a picture of the same thing when he was about four months old :) So far our only thumb sucker and hopefully the last ;)

Doodlebug made a track for Inchworm to play with while we were schooling. They both enjoyed playing with it during their one on one time with each other. I'm so glad to have that time scheduled into our days.

This is how Inchworm chooses to do housework ... and from the picture you can tell it really needs it!

Pollywog took this picture of baby America because she thought he was just too cute for words. That is what she said anyways :)

 It was a full week and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves despite the sickness we are still fighting.

Week 5 in American History

This is Doodlebug's start to the week. We were getting a kick out of his morning do so we thought we would share it with you. ;)

 For art this week we made sand paintings. We used food coloring to die salt different colors. About half way through we ran out of table salt and had to use sea salt... it actually worked better so if you haven't done this project yet there is a tip for you. Doodlebug was a little disappointed in his finished project because you couldn't see his original drawing. They still had fun though and Inchworm even enjoyed it and had to show Daddy as soon as he got home.

Here are the finished projects.. as you can see Doodlebug improvised on his.

Here Doodlebug is working on his adventure story with items from around the house that he drew out of a mystery bag to kick off our adventure genre study with Drawn Into the Heart of Reading. He really enjoyed this activity.

In science we learned why so many of the colonists from early American history died from disease by covering our hands with germs (glitter glue) and then washing them in cold water with no soap. You could still see most of the germs on their hands and then we washed in warm soapy water and it took just about all of the germs off.

Here the kids are adding the Mayflowers journey to their map.

I loved their timeline entries this week. Not sure which kid thought of it first but you can see a tiny Myles Standish holding a big huge sword stabbing a native since he was hot tempered and referred to as Captain Shrimp for his small size. Also you can see Squanto added with a photo of corn and fish to represent him showing the settlers how to plant corn.

They learned that the colonists had to bring the bare essentials on the Mayflower as it was pretty crowded. So we did this page to show the difference between needs and wants... they had a hard time deciding if money was a need or a want so they put it on both sides.

Since Doodlebug wasn't feeling well this week I was only able to get Pollywog singing our hymn.. I will forever cherish this video!!! <3 <3 <3

I finally finished our wall timeline that I have been wanting to add to the stairway for a few years now. I am pretty happy with it. Here is a view from the bottom of the stairs.

Here are some of our pieces. I found most of them online by just googling the name of the person or event. On the bottom of the line are the books that each kid has read for the time period. These are laminated and stuck up with that tacky puddy stuff. Eventually I plan to paint the line on the wall but for now painters tape did the job.

Here are our the pieces for each of our sweet blessings. I had to blur the names though for safety reasons. I am working on adding our wedding piece as well.

For goody bag this week the kiddos got a Halloween activity book and they have been well worth the money.

Here is a picture of why my post is late this week. When we started HOD I only planned out six weeks because I wasn't sure we would like it. Well, we have come to the end of the six weeks and are still loving HOD so I went ahead with the next six weeks. These are the accordion folders I use to put all our materials for the next six weeks in for each kid. Then each week all I have to do is transfer it to the kids' binders. Saves me SO much time.

For Inchworm's school this week he learned how to wash potatoes with Mama :) AND

We attempted to teach color sorting.. I think we may have to try this at a later time as all he wanted to do was make vrooming noises and crash the cars off the table :)

He also played for a very long time with this plastic ping pong ball and two T.P. tubes taped together.

I love this sweet face!!!!!!

And this one too!!! :)

Hope you all had a great week last week and a happy Sunday to start this week.

John Smith and Pocahontas Week 4 in American History

This week was a fun one in regards to history. We studied the story of John Smith and Pocahontas. Here's a picture of the kids learning what it was like to trade with the natives.

Pollywog... considering the offer.... will she accept???

Looking promising.... and

Yay! The trade is made.

Copying weekly science Bible verse.        Pollywog's character Bible verse for the week.

Speaking of the weekly character trait, we have been using these character trait cards that a sweet friend over at the Monarch Room was so kind to share. I use one to mark my spot in my guide during the week. It has our weekly character trait and Bible verse printed on it. When we are done with the week we hang it on the wall behind the kitchen table for review throughout the school year. Here is a picture of the weeks we've completed below.

We were supposed to use graham crackers and bite out the shapes of the continents to place on construction paper this week, but I had heard other HOD families say how it was really hard to make it work so we switched it up a bit. Here is our continent cake. We made one last year with MFW ECC as well but the kids enjoyed doing it again and even got to review the continent song.

Here is Doodlebug copying the continents onto an old cereal bag that we cut open.

Then I cut them out and we labeled them and Doodlebug put them on the cake in the correct spots.

Here is a video of the finished continent cake with the kids singing the continent song. I was happy to see they remembered it from last year.

I think we may need to move Doodlebug up in dictation a level. It seems to be a little easy for him. Did any other HOD mothers notice that? Anyways, he likes me to leave these little notes on his page :)

Our art project this week was to make an "Indian blanket" We had fun doing this and it was neat to see the kids get more creative as they went.

 Science! We learned that some fish and sea plants have an air bladder that helps them to float. The kids saw how this worked with a medicine dropper in a pitcher of water.

 

In NOEO this week we read about how farmers used to believe that if they threw a dead snake over a tree branch it would bring rain in "How to Think Like a Scientist" So of course we had to test this theory and figure out how rain is made. And no it isn't God's tears although that is what I thought as a child :)

I love this one because of Pollywog's face in the cup :) It makes me smile.

In conclusion we learned that no, throwing a dead snake over a tree branch doesn't bring rain (don't worry Granny we didn't actually try it). Rain happens when molecules gather together in the sky and when the clouds get too heavy with water molecules or vapors the rain comes. This is also why rain clouds look darker than other clouds.

Nine year old boys! ;)

Also in NOEO this week we read how its important to be careful as to how you use information because different people although seeing the same thing may interpret it differently. The kids are loving this book.

After reading the assigned pages I had the kids draw a picture of two people seeing the same thing but getting something different from the information they were taking in.

This is what Doodlebug came up with. Although he didn't draw "people" I thought it was very creative. This kid is obsessed with Bionicles.

Spelling Power review quiz. I need to cut his nails again lol

Playing balloon toss. I had no idea how much EVERYONE would enjoy this game or I would have done it ages ago. I couldn't get a photo with the balloon but you get the idea.

Below are some pictures of Inchworm and his "schooling" this week.

Outdoor painting with the cheapo white board that we got for AAS (which wasn't a fit for us) and I have finally found a use for.

Lid sorting :) Love this kids faces!

 

Vroom vrooms ... notice teddy getting a ride. :) I didn't notice until editing the picture.

Polka dots.

To end the week Pollywog is having her first friend sleep over. It is so fun seeing how differently girls play than boys. Doodlebug has had sleepovers before and let me just say it is an entirely different experience to have a boy sleepover. lol The girls are so much more mellow.

Since someone made a super mom comment on my last post I thought I would post a picture to disprove that notion ;) Here is a photo of how our house looks on most school days... some days are even worse. If you look closely you will also see pinto beans all over the carpet :) Keeping it real!