I also made a "travel brochure" template, which can be used for this book, or for anything else. In Mr. Popper's Penguins, Mr. Popper dreams of travel. So one of the activities we did was to design a travel brochure. This template is a blank that has some info for kids to fill out to create there own. This would also be a good one if you are studying a particular country, city or area. Travel Brochure
Most of the activities we did are up in the templates link, but here is one we did on Penguin Beaks. We learned that penguins have a rubbery grip inside their beaks to help them hold onto slippery fish. We folded a model of a beak, and then did some experimenting. He had to pick up a slippery chapstick tube using chopsticks, and then we added rubberbands to see if there was a difference.
Another experiment we did was to find out about penguin feathers. They are covered with oil. So I put some olive oil on his hand to see how the water beaded up.
And here is the finished lapbook, it is many pages long!
On the right is a map activity I found someplace, its Halloween theme, but oh well!
On the left is the back of a page where he chose pics from National Geographic magazine to cut out. On the right is a made up pet.
This is the travel brochure he made.
Copywork, all is from Draw, Write, Now.
His handwriting is literally better than mine already!
This was another LONG unit, but he really likes the book, so it was fun for him! I try and go deeper into the topics he is most interested in, and just cover the basics on ones he isn't as into.
Last week, Zach had no school, so he was with us more than usual. This gave us the chance to do some fun art projects! One of them was a great mixed media spring craft. I think they came out really cute!
These don't have to be strictly Easter, the birds could even be blue birds instead! So here is a quick tutorial:
You need:
elmer's glue
paint (brown, + whatever colors you want for your birds, we used orange/yellow)
tissue paper
brown paper
colored paper (bird colors and background color)
sticks/leaves/feathers etc.
scissors
toilet paper tube or similar
What to do:
mix a squirt of elmer's glue, a squirt of brown paint and a little bit of water in a container.
scrunch the tissue paper and lay it on the brown paper. Paint with a generous amount of the brown paint mixture, scrunching and laying out the tissue paper to make a textured look. Let this dry. Other thin papers will work too, even paper towels or toilet paper.
Meanwhile, use the toilet paper tube dipped in paint to print the circle shapes on colored paper. Use the back of a paintbrush to dot on eyes, and glue triangle or diamond shaped scraps of paper on for beaks.
Go on a nature hunt and find some sticks and things while all that finishes drying!
Cut a nest shape from the brown textured paper. Cut out the birds leaving the paint circles inside your cut-outs. Glue to a background. Now decorate with your elements from nature.
That's it! Hang up and enjoy.
Now, onto the Easter stuff.
First, Levi got some new clothes (as usual).
A funny Easter shirt:
And a romper, this one is the St. Patty's one, reversed!
We dyed eggs. This year we tried out the liquid water colors as dye, they worked quite well, although the brown and black dyes were not very attractive. (note that Nai Nai has her glass of wine, all set for egg dying!)
Levi could not make a normal face for pics.
Then the next day, he got to hunt for them, along with a zillion plastic eggs that we have collected from previous years egg hunts. They were hidden outside in the front and back, and all over the house.
We tried to go to an egg hunt at the park, it turned out to be a very graphic church service. We had already attended our service at the UU church, so we skipped it, and caught a quick train ride on our way out.
Levi's Easter basket had pinwheels, seeds for the garden, bubbles, egg shape chalk, a rainbow spinner, purple socks, and some putty that makes fart sounds (big hit!)
And his favorite, a fun glasses shaped straw! He tested it out with some diluted cranberry juice (he doesn't do well with drinking actual juice, but I added a splash to make the water red, more fun that way!)
Levi went to a golf tournament with his grandparents, so of course I made him an outfit to wear.
When I was already done with the shirt, my dad called up and asked me to add this text to it. So I did, using a simple freezer paper stencil method.
I did 6 different embroidery designs for this outfit. All are from Lynnie Pinnie embroidery, they are all such fun designs and sew up so nicely! Unfortunately, my brand new embroidery machine decided to poop out on me in the middle of these, so you can see some sewing flaws in some, particularly the golf ball. The last one, the golf bag I ended up having to sew on my regular machine, so its not as neat and perfect as it would have been on a properly working embroidery machine.
I really like this shorts pattern. This is the same pattern I used for the Little Monster outfit I made as a first b-day gift a while ago. In fact, its even the same size! (yep, my 5yr old can wear clothes sized for a 1yr old, I did add length). Its interesting because it has front yolks as well as back, which gives a nice finish to the top of the pockets. Its also super easy and fast to sew up, which is good when you are spending so much time embellishing (and yelling at broken embroidery machine!)
He got a ton of compliments at the golf tournament. Levi is a character all right, he had people trying to take him home with them and paying more attention to him than the golf. One lady spent half an hour talking to him about polar bears and the arctic, a nice review of his arctic unit by a total stranger.
Now, if I could just get my embroidery machine back online, I can make more fun outfits like this one!
We are going to a Dr. Suess event this afternoon, and they have a costume contest! I got to make a costume in March, instead of October for once!
Levi chose to be a Star-Belly Sneetch.
Ta da!!!
I made the poster while he was in music class.
This costume has 3 layers. First is a yellow jumpsuit, then is a "fat suit" (with a padded bum and belly), and last is the bubble romper type thing made from a towel! He also has a white collar, striped neck (snapped scarf), hat, pointy shoes, and 3 fingered gloves.
The jumpsuit took the longest out of everything. Its been cold here (for Florida anyways) so he can wear it for lounging or pj's, or music class, or whatever! Its a loud color, but that suits my crazy boy!
These are some of the elements included in Levi's lapbook:
Inuit definition: Inuit simply means “The People” in their own language, refers to the indigenous people of the Arctic.
Scrimshaw definition: The Inuit engraved pictures that told stories in ivory walrus tusks and whale bones. When their engraving was completed they rubbed the carving with lampblack to make their picture stand out.
These tusks depicted stories of whale hunts, dog sledding, caribou, and other various animals and people. Carvings The Inuit are famous for their soapstone, bone and ivory carvings. Most carvings were pieces used to tell legends or small figures that served as toys for children.
The Inuit also carved and decorated their handmade tools. Pieces were often of animals, especially polar bears, seals and walruses, as well as people and other wildlife.
To replicate Scrimshaw, Levi carved a bar of soap using a wooden stick. When he was done carving, we rubbed the soap with black paint and wiped the surface to leave the paint in the groves.
Inuksuk: An Inuksuk is a monument made of un-worked stones used for communication and survival. They have been used by the Inuit as guides and markers, pointing out trails, nearby people or even the migration routes of caribou.
These markers have been vital to the Inuit, marking landscapes that would be otherwise indistinguishable, and constantly changing because of ice and snow. Inuit tradition celebrates the importance of and forbids the destruction of these monuments.
Levi did a Inuksuk puzzle and we also looked at real photos of them
We listened to throat singing: Throat singing is usually performed by two women facing each other, but recently men have begun to take part as well.
It is not traditional singing; it uses the voice in a different way. One singer will make deep breathy sounds and produce a short rhythm that she repeats with small breaks in between. The second singer responds during the leaders breaks and they engage in a sort of competition. There are a bunch of youtube videos of this, its really interesting sounding. Here is an example:
Musk/Ox push game: The Musk ox Push- With both players on their hands and knees, and heads bent down against each others' shoulders, they attempt to push each other forward out of a designated area. Hands must be kept on the floor.
He did a simple coloring page of Inuit clothing. Clothing was an important factor in the ability of the Inuit to dwell in such a harsh environment.
All clothing was made from various animal skins and hides. In winter they wore two layers of caribou fur clothing- with the fur on the outer layer facing out and the inner layer facing in for ultimate warmth. Their outer garments were hooded fur jackets called parkas which we still use
commonly today. They also wore jackets called Atiqiks. They were made with goose down from
geese that were hunted during the spring months.
Snowshoe experiment How do snowshoes work? We put a polar bear in flour, pressed him down gently and noted how deep his feet sunk. Then made some "snowshoes" with cardstock and tape, and tried again. This time, he was much harder to press down and didn't make much of a dent!
We then discussed how Inuits use snowshoes and looked at photos of real ones, both Inuit made and modern ones.
Inuit diet: Because of their food source (only what they killed) the Inuit diet is very high in protein and very high in fat- 75% of their daily energy intake is from fat.
It is not possible to cultivate plants for food in the Arctic; the Inuit have always gathered what is naturally available. They collect grasses, tubers, roots, stems, berries and seaweed. They preserved these depending on the season and their location. Because it is much harder to get food in the freezing winter months, the Inuit will dry large supplies of fish in preparation.
What they eat: They hunt whales, walruses, caribou, seals, polar bears, muskoxen and birds. In the winter they would hunt seals through their air holes in the ice. They would stand above the holes, harpoon in hand and await the seals return to their breathing hole. In spring the Inuit were able to navigate the thawed surface and hunt for food in their one-man kayaks. Caribou are an important source of sustenance for the Inuit; they are used not only for food, but their skins and antlers are used for clothing and tools as well. They hunted with bow and arrow, harpoons, fishing spears and traps. Today the Inuit use modern fishing rods, hooks, nets and traps as well as firearms.
Komatik: a sturdy frame on runners with reins attached to multiple huskies was the main mode of transportation for the Inuit. Today many dogsleds have been replaced by snowmobiles.
Qujaq: means hunter boat, was an Inuit invention that is still widely used today. It was traditionally a one person boat made of a light weight driftwood or whale bone frame, covered with stretched animal skins, and finally made watertight with whale fat. The hunter would fasten his outer layer- an annuraaq made of seal skin around the cockpit to seal out any water.
Igloo: The word igloo means any type of house, not just a snow house. Snow block houses were never used in Alaska. Alaskan and many Russian Inuit lived in cabins made of driftwood covered in soil. In Greenland, Inuit often lived in permanent stone houses. Some Inuit did live in snow block houses during the winter, but moved intoanimal skin tents during the short summer months. In recent years, many Inuit homes have become more modern. Prefabricated wooden houses with heat provided by oil-burning stoves are common. However, Inuit housing styles continue to vary greatly depending on location. We did an Igloo craft
We also did a snow/ice sensory bin, which included crushed ice (snow cone texture), and small arctic animals (toobs)
This is what T does when you ask her to smile!
