Maine

 Last week we learned all about Maine, another addition to our post card project.

 

On the front: 

State Flag of Maine, "Where in the United states?" mini book, and the state quarter.  

 On the back is a lighthouse, labeled with all of the parts of a lighthouse.   We spent some time looking at photos of real lighthouses and comparing them, noting their similarities.  We also discussed what lighthouses are for.    To demo the concept, we used a dark room for night time, a flashlight to represent the light house, a box for a ship, and pillows for rocks.   The ship crashed into the rocks without the lighthouse to guide it!

Inside:
Left side has a Maine layer book, a map of Maine, and a coloring book page showing some things found in Maine including the state bird and tree, a map, and a lobster (if we weren't vegetarian, that would have been a fun cooking lesson)
Middle: our Main postcards - we got 2 of them and they both happened to have maps on them!  They also have lots of tiny pictures of all kinds of things found in Maine.  We spent a long time studying these.
The folded page is a compound word worksheet.   "Lighthouse" is a compound word, so that led us to explore other compound words and practice writing them and saying each part of the word.
The boat cards show all kinds of different boats, because there are a lot of boats in Maine!  We used these for various activities: classifying and sorting boats by size, mode of propulsion, function, etc. 
Right: Map of Maine (lots of maps this time), showing the state capital, Augusta.
And a Maine geography activity.  We looked at a map and learned how to use the compass to determine North South East and West

 

And lastly, is Levi's moose!  The antlers were supposed to be oak leaves, but he chose these from a bush in front of our house.  Levi it out on his own, and then decided to make it into a mask by adding eye holes. 

Massachusetts, and other things we have been up to

Today we learned about Massachusetts.

 

We used some books from the library

 

Front of the lapbook: A map of Massachusetts with Boston labeled.   

"Where in the United states?" with a map inside of the U.S.A, he colored in Massachusetts.  

 Inside:
On the left is the state quarter.  We discussed the image including what a minuteman is, and "The Bay state".  Levi didn't know what a "bay" was, so we talked about that too and looked at pictures.   Under that is the state flag which he colored.   Its a mini book showing whats on the flag:  A star representing that Massachusetts was one of the original 13 colonies, a native American with their bow and arrow pointing down, representing peace, and the state motto. 

In the middle, is the postcard we received for our postcard project.  A mini book (with the state flag, bird, and flower inside), and a "draw and write" of the Salem Witch trials.

On the right, is a "secret code" I wrote using Morse Code, which Levi had to interpret.  (it says "I love you", and under that is the Morse code Alphabet.  At the bottom, Levi wrote his name in Morse code. 

 

Here is his Salem drawing, we read a book on the Witch trials (its an easy reader, so not too detailed with the graphic material).  He dictated the bottom portion which his Nai Nai (grandma) wrote down for him (he was a bit tired of writing at this point).

 

The inside of the Morse Code flap.  The page for this comes from a Massachusetts printable from here

And some other things we have been doing:

 

I was planning on doing this on for our study on Alaska, but I forgot about it in the freezer.  Is a frozen chunk of ice with some plastic creatures hidden in it.  I left it up to Levi to figure out how to get them out, his weapon of choice was a fork.   This was a fun and easy project,  I'm sure we will do it again with other surprises hidden inside.

 Some busy work - sometimes I just haven't got a lesson plan together, so I pull out some busy work.  Levi likes to do worksheets, and the Kumon ones are great for reinforcing all kinds of skills.  This one is a simple word writing one, with the letters placed in boxes.

 

We found this little guy on our front door.  In Florida there are all kinds of critters around, giving lots of opportunities to spot and observe living things.  

 And another living thing we found this week - in our garage!  Levi and Nai Nai left the garage door open when they went for a walk, and when they came back, there were two doves inside.   The two of them just did not want to leave.  We tried everything we could think of (even googled it), including making a handmade bird feeder and hanging it in the garage opening, shutting off all the lights, chasing it with a laundry basket and a broom, and just leaving it alone with all the doors opened.   They would flit around making little squeaking noises if you got too close, but never tried to fly out.  Finally, Nai Nai managed to gently pick one up when it was perched on top of one of the bikes, and let it outside.  The other one stayed over night, the next morning we left the garage open for a while to see if it would go out, and it must have flown off when no one was looking, because when we checked again, it was gone. 

 

And lastly, Buddy took Levi to the Arnold Palmer golf tournament. So of course, he got a new outfit for the occasion - a pair of golf shorts, and a v-neck polo.  The back says "Arnie's Army".   They had a good time! 

Next up, some real dinosaurs! 

Alaska!

We learned all about Alaska! 

 

We learned about aurora borealis, the Northern Lights.  There were some amazing videos on YouTube with time lapse pictures that we watched, and I also found a Christmas card with a photo of the Northern Lights.   Levi did some finger painting to create his own version. 

 

 And then we cleaned up, which led to a water fight.

Next, we learned about the Iditarod, which Levi was very excited about.  We read a book that his great grandparents got for him when they went on a cruise to Alaska.   We also read about sled dogs, and then practiced some of the commands (I don't know how accurate we were, but it was fun!).  

 

Books we read, "Granite"is all about sled dogs, and the other two are from the library. 

Lapbook:

 On the front:  A map of Alaska, and the state capital, Juneau.   A map of the United states, showing where Alaska is located.  We also looked at a map of the world, and talked about why Alaska is shown under California on maps of the U.S, when its really not there!     Under that is the state flag, and a constellation experiment we did (more on that later)

 

On the back of the lapbook is Levi's painting of the Northern Lights, the crayola finger paints have a translucent quality that gives a nice effect.  Usually I make finger paint instead of using store-bought though. 

 

 The inside:  At the top is sled dog commands, with what they mean on the outside and the commands under the flaps.  Next to that is a quiz that we used to discuss facts about Alaska.  

In the middle are the two Alaska postcards we received, one is the oldest church in Un-Alaska, and the other one is Alaskan bears.  Levi loved the bear one, b/c on his first camping trip we saw a real bear (up close!).      Next to those are two mini books with the state capital, flag, state bird and state flower.  

At the bottom is the christmas card of the Northern Lights.

This one shows what they look like opened up!

 

Another thing that we did was introduce cuisnaire rods.  We are just starting to use Miquon math, which is a very different approach to teaching math.   I'm not a math person myself, and Levi is much more interested in books.  We have a bunch of different math manipulatives, but we didn't have these, so I ordered them from Amazon.  For today, I just let Levi play with them on his work mat.  He made them into shapes!

Lastly, right before bed we talked about Alaska's flag again, which shows the Big Dipper.  We traced the circle of the flashlight, and then poked holes in the shape of the Big Dipper.  Next we taped it to the end of the flash light and tested it out.   This picture was taken with the flash, but in the darkness it was fun to see the constellations on the ceiling.

Kites, syrup and Vermont

We have had a busy week!    On Wednesday, Levi went to his "Mr. Science" class.  The kids learned "How to Take over the World", using balloons to represent their own world.   We went to the park afterwards as well, and as usual, Levi had a great time.    In the evening, we went to a local park for an evening of listening to music, and looking though some amazing telescopes.  We could see Mars, the moon, a star nursery and a lot more in incredible detail.   Levi also got one of the musicians to play "Oh Susannah" and sing along with him, its still one of his favorite songs.
Thursday we went to story time at the library and listened to some stories about spring.
Friday we went to a MOPS meeting, Levi got the chance to hang out with some friends while I had some mom time.
And Saturday was back to the library for an etiquette class and a book sale (we came home with 22 new books and have read half of them already)

Its been windy this week, so of course we took the opportunity to test out Levi's new kite. 

For our postcard project this week, we received two postcards from Claire from Vermont.

First of all, we located and colored in Vermont on our map of the United States and then looked at a map of Vermont and labeled the capital, Montpelier (which I still can't pronounce).

Next, on the inside of our lapbook from top to bottom:
Top: A picture of the state flower (red clover) and state bird (hermit thrush), a mini book where Levi wrote the capital, bird, and flower, and some green mountains, for the green mountain state.

Middle: the two postcards we received, the first showing Burlington, and the second showing Mount Mansfield. 
On the right is a mini-book with the state quarter on the cover.  Inside Levi drew pictures of the process of making maple syrup.   We watched a video on youtube about the process, and checked out some books from the library to read about it. 

Bottom: The Vermont state flag, which we looked at a picture of and talked about all of the symbols on it. 
And on the right, is a recycle symbol -  whats that for?   We learned all about Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream!   Ben and Jerry's is the only ice cream place Levi can eat, there are 2 flavors there that he isn't allergic to and they have 'non diary scoops' to prevent cross contamination from the dairy. 
Ben and Jerry's is a great company, based in Vermont.  One of their focuses is helping the environment.  On their website we learned about their efforts to "reduce, reuse and recycle". 
Did you know that they feed their food leftovers to local pigs?  And the pics don't like the mint ice cream, but will eat the cookies out of it!  

And of course, we had to have maple syrup on waffles for breakfast:

Because it was the last waffle, I had Levi write "waffles" on the grocery list.  I think I'm going to put him in charge of "the list" because he seems to like to practice his writing for practical applications like this one, and I can have him read his writing to shop at the store later.    The only thing is, we will have a much bigger list with the size of his handwriting!

More postcards arrived in the mail today, so on Monday we start our next postcard!

The Post Card Project - Oregon!

As one of our homeschool projects, I thought it would be fun to learn about all 50 states, and hopefully some other countries too.  I requested postcards on car-seat.org, and got a lot of people willing to send them to us.

Our first arrived on Saturday, from Boring, Oregon.  Which is not actually Boring, its just named Boring.     We spent today learning all about Oregon, and making a lapbook (our first!).

Here is what we did:

Front: A map of the United States with Oregon colored in, we talked about where Oregon is in comparison to where we live (Florida)
Next is a map of Oregon state, he practiced his handwriting again here and labeled the state capital, Salem.

Inside-
Top: Oregon State Quarter.  We looked at a picture of the quarter (I need to find an actual one!), and then looked online at a video of how Crater Lake was formed.   Levi then re-told me the process, and I wrote it down for him.  He illustrated each step in a mini-book.
     1. It was a volcano with lava under it and stones.
     2. It exploded
     3. Lava drained out
     4. The volcano splatted down
     5. There was a crater and rain filled it up.

Finally, we made our own playdoh (which is a cooking/measuring lesson in itself), and then used that to make a model of a crater and then of a volcano.   Its whole wheat flour, which is why its brown, and Levi is allergic to dye (and vinegar for that matter) so no red food coloring in the baking soda/vinegar volcano.  But it was still fun!  We even added water to the crater, to show how it filled up.

Middle:
On the left is the postcard we received from Boring, Oregon (Thank you Elizabeth!).  Its a picture of Mt. Hood, and Lost Lake - so pretty!    We put it in the lapbook so that you can still flip it over to read the back.  On the back, Elizabeth wrote about having a miniature sheep farm - a miniature farm, with miniature sheep!  Levi thought that was great, and I had to pull up pictures of miniature sheep for him online so he could see what they looked like.   Then he made his own little sheep with cotton circles for the fluff.

Next is the Oregon flag.  Did you know it is the only flag that has a front and a back?  The back has a beaver on it!
We looked at a picture of the flag, and talked about what each symbol on it means.   There are more than this, but these are what Levi included in his mini book:
Ships representing trade
33 stars representing the 33 States in the Union
Wheat/plow representing farming
Covered wagon representing the Oregon trail
Elk representing the abundance of game
Eagle representing the United States.

Bottom -
A picture of a beaver, for "The Beaver State", and with that, we made a model of a dam and discussed how that works:

Based on what Levi seemed to be interested in, we may do more detailed studies on volcano's, and the Oregon Trail.


And as for sewing projects, I finished up a pair of cargo pants style sweat pants that I will take pics of tomorrow!