Medieval Times Unit Study

We finished up our unit study on Knights and Castles.  It was a lot of fun. During this unit we took a break from lapbooks and the kids made a notebook instead.  They really liked this.  Each one of them used a white 3 ring notebook.  They created a cover then all their papers were put into sheet protectors in their notebooks.  I found various activities and worksheets from a couple of different sites such as homeschoolshare and dltkcrafts.  The kids made a picture time line, a dot to dot of a castle.  We did a study on the Armor of God.  They learned about a knight's armor and the parts of a castle.  They built a castle and we celebrated the end of our unit with a feast. 

Working on their armor of God pages.

After completing their pages we played this game.

Here are some books we used during the unit.  We really enjoyed The Magic Tree House Knights and Castles and our other favorite one was A Medieval Feast by Aliki

We were discussing what to have for our feast and Joshua wanted try rabbit.  He wanted to hunt for one so this was our compromise.   Jay and I joked that if we were a "real homeschool family"  We would have went hunting for one and built a pit in the back yard to roast it in. 

Jay took the kids to Lee Lee's market which is a field trip in itself.  It is a local Asian supermarket that sells everything (live fish, frog legs, duck, duck tongue, rabbit and much much more)  Well they walked in and immediately the kids in a not quiet voice said "yuck what is that smell".  Anyways, they managed to get over it and look around.  They found a rabbit and some frog legs.

Our Feast

Jay preparing the rabbit

We learned that they didn't have plates but used bread so we made our own bread plates.

Here is our feast....rabbit, lamb, carrots, potatoes, bread, fruit, vegetables

Everyone trying the rabbit.  (Yes, we did use some plates but we all had to eat with our hands.) 

 

 

 

I must say the rabbit was really good.  It is actually healthier for you than chicken and turkey. 

It was a great feast!

Ocean Unit Study

We are having such a wonderful time with this unit study and the kids are learning so much!

I am amazed at what we have completed this first week!  (It is going to be a two week unit).  We are using  Hands of a Child  lap books; Ocean Habitats for Anastasia and Under the Sea for the other 3.  This is the first time I have used thier project packs for all four at the same time and I love the way the two work together and I can do age appropriate activites for all.

Of course I have to add more to it ! The units themselves are not lacking I just always keep searching for more info and lessons.  I just need to know when to stop!! 

I have an inflatable globe (ball) that we tossed around the first day learning the names of the oceans.  They loved that!

We are also making the mural from learningpage.com

It's all colored now we need to add the animals as we learn about them.

Also on that site they have great themed worksheets so I printed off the PreK and 1st grade ones put them in a folder and Savannah and Joshua work on them during workbox time.

My favorite activites this week have been the crafts and we did quite a few:

They made an Ocean Collage picture.  We took blue construction paper, yarn, and green paint.  They dipped the yarn in the paint and laid it on their paper then gently folded the paper.  This made it look like seaweed in the water. Then they glued on different ocean animals.

I just realized I didn't take a picture of them completed yet.

Joshua wanted to make a notebook page showing the food chain in the ocean.  He thought that was really cool.  Anastasia is learning about the different layers of the ocean and what lives where.  She is drawing those layers and writing about them.  (She doesn't want me to take a picture until it is all done.)

Story Time:

We read "The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister and the kids created their own Rainbow fish complete with it's own shiny scale.

(Joshua's fish was out swimming somewhere in the house and couldn't be located for the picture!)  We made these 3D like and are going to hang them up.  We stuffed the middle with newspaper.

We also read "Starfish" by Edith Thacher Hurd.  The kids glued on Cherrios to their starfish to give it some fun texture.

Now for my favorite book this week.....I am a huge Eric Carle fan but had never read "A House For a Hermit Crab" even with Anastasia having hermit crabs we just missed this book.  It was so much fun to read!!  It follows the time line of the months of the year and the hermit crab looks for a new house.  He finds his shell but it is plain so he goes along the ocean floor and finds different things to add to his house till it is all decorated.

So the kids sponge painted their own "shell" (paper plate) made a hermit crab and then added the objects to it.  I printed them off and some were in color and some they colored.  They cut and glued them on.  These turned out so cute!!

If you want more specific on any of these crafts just ask I would be glad to share.

More Fun With Our Five Senses

Today we focused on the sense of touch.  I filled a paper bag with objects and they had to reach in for one item and figure out what it was.  Before they could just name the object they had to use a describing word such as it feels....smooth, bumpy, hard, soft, etc.  They were so excited about this that after we finished I let them each fill their own bags and they took turns guessing.  This kept them busy for almost 40 min!! 

They also made another activity for their lapbook: It is matching feely cards:

We should have the lapbooks complete by next week and I will share pictures.

Our Five Senses

Along with our workboxes the little ones have been working on a lap book about their five senses.  We just started this week and after our first experiment even Alexa knows all five.

I gathered them around the table and showed them two plates.  Each plate had white crystals on it.  (Before we started we of course talked about how they could only do this with mommy or daddy and they never touch or taste anything when they don't know what it is).  One plate had sugar the other salt but they did not know this.  We went thru all the senses; what does it look like, sound like, feel like, smell like and last what does it taste like.  I had them each lick their finger to get it wet and then rub it on the plate.  They all tasted at the same time.  Joshua got a mouth full !!  See picture below:

He immediately ran to the sink!  The girls were a bit more careful but not much. They were all leary to taste the sugar.  LOL

The next day our activity focused on our nose and sense of smell.  It tied in nicely with our reading of Homer Price and his pet skunk named Aroma.

This activity was really cool.  We made scratch n sniff paint from kool-aid.  I bought lemon, cherry, grape and strawberry kool-aid so I printed off a lemon, strawberry, grapes, and cherry pie (I just googled black and white clip art).  To make the paint you dump the packet of kool-aid into a bowl and just at a tiny bit of water maybe 1-2tbsp.  You don't want it too watery.  Then they paint the picture.  Some stayed really sticky but smelled great!!!  When I cut them out to put in a booklet for thier lapbooks I covered the pictures with saran wrap.  They can lift up to smell and the pages won't stick together.

I got this idea from www.Perpetualpreschool.com check them out for lots of great ideas. 

This next week we are going to make the following.  I will let you know how it turns out.

KOOL AID PLAY DOH --Smells Yummy - Tastes Yucky :/

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup salt

2 (1/4 ounce) packages Kool-Aid

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

2 cups boiling water

3 tablespoons oil

Directions

1-Mix the dry ingredients, then add the boiling water and oil. Be careful-this is HOT!

2-Stir until it thickens, then knead until smooth.

3-This smells so good!

***I blend all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl & add the boiling water and oil in a and use my pastry cutter to blend. It is our fave play doh recipe. We store in fridge.

 

Can you say Paleontologist?

The kids have been learning the names of dinosaurs, how they are like reptiles, when God created them and all about their bones. Today we read Curious George's Dinosaur Discovery (Joshua loves Curious George). George went to a site to dig for dinosaur bones. After the story I told them they get to go hunt for dinosaur bones in our backyard. They were so excited. Anastasia even wanted to get in on the action. They all found a hat to wear and got their tools and off we went.

Wow look at all those bones!

Fitting them all together

Here are their discoveries: