Nature Hike – Lots of Critters

We took advantage of a break in the rain clouds this weekend and went on a Nature Hike. Lots of critters greeted us along the way.

Butterfly Garden Field Trip

Our Homeschool Playgroup went on a field trip to the 4H Butterfly Gardens just after Easter. The presentation itself was a little below the group… there wasn’t a question the lady asked that at least half the group couldn’t answer. But everyone had a good time and enjoyed the warm sunny day in the butterfly house and in the children’s garden after. Unfortunately due to unseasonably cold weather in the south this year, there were not very many chrysalis available to the garden so there were not swarms of butterflies like we have seen in the past.

Easter 2010

This year the kids decorated Eggs with Gammy and Othy and I don’t have any pictures… maybe Gammy does. I will have to ask. We did an easter egg hunt at church… unfortunately I forgot my camera and only have a couple poor quality cell phone images and then silly me I never got pictures of the kids in their Easter outfits. LOL… I really dropped the ball on this one. BUT I did get the basket photos!

Triumphal Arch Relief Sculture

Another project we completed while studing Ancient Rome was making relief sculptures. We looked at relief images found on Rome Arches. Afterwards the kids made their own relief images. Using modeling clay, the kids made animal reliefs by rolling out a flat piece of clay, scratching an image into the clay and then pushing the background down to make the image pop. Fairy’s made a mouse, Bug a dragon and Pixie had me help her make a bear. The kids want to paint their reliefs… we just have not had a chance to do that yet.

Roman Gladiator Shield

Bug decided that he really wanted to make a Roman Gladiator Shield. I cut out cardboard rectangles for the kids. They then looked at images of roman shields and painted their shields. After the shields dried, we taped handle straps to the back of of the shields. Bug’s turned out awesome.

 

Egypt Journal Pages

 

Here are a few of Bug’s Journal Pages on Ancient Egypt. I keep finding more and more drawings like these all over the house. In some he has devised elaborate pyramid tomb raider defenses… mazes of hallways, trap doors, hidden monsters (scorpions and such), fake rooms, etc. He has definitely embraced ancient history.

Barn Fever

This weekend I couldn’t take the icky, mucky, no fun to play outside, weather any more. It has been cold without good snow (I’m all for sledding and building snow forts), leaving our backyard a slushy, muddy mess not suitable for any real play. When the sun decided to come out from behind the clouds, I had to get outside. So we bundled up and headed to the farm. The wind was pretty fierce but we could duck into the barn, chicken coop, etc when we needed to warm up. AND I got to see when the Sugar Shack was planning to open. Just a couple more weeks… 🙂

There was a litter of 1month old piglets that Pixie fell in love with.

Fairy worked out on the pulley demonstration lifting 20lbs again and again.

And Bug was enamored with Jazzie the Bunny.

The highlight… Mr. Rooster. I think he felt as cooped up (ha) as we did. He was strutting around making as much noise as he could. Every time he squawked, it startled the kids but they laughed and laughed. He was very entertaining.

Theatre Masks and Togas

It has been awhile since I’ve tried to tie a Toga… (like since Senior Year Band Camp). It all came back to me though ;). Here are the kiddos doing a little history dress up.

Greek Pottery

 

While watching a documentary on Ancient Greece the kids became enthralled with the pottery and asked "Can we do that?" As it just so happens I had a 5lb block of self hardening clay that I ordered recently with a bunch of other art supplies. It was meant for something else but heck… we can make Greek Pottery today and I will just have to order more for later.

They were surprised that it was much harder that it looked. Clay is a very different creature than play-dough or salt dough. BTW – it took about 48 hours to dry enough to paint. We used both orange and black paint because the kids wanted theirs to look like the greek pottery in the show which was made with a red clay.

Pixie, who loves play-dough, enjoyed the different texture.

Fairy painted a picture of Athena on her cup.

Bug really wanted his to look like a vase and spent a lot of time shaping his.

Egyptians, the Watercycle, Snowmen and Imaginative Painting

Long time, no post. We had a wonderful Christmas and lovely break. We’re back in the swing of things school-wise now and have revisited some of the curriculum that wasn’t working back in August. The kids are loving it now and we are looking forward to a lot of fun with ancient history this winter.

Some stuff we’ve been working on lately…

In Science we have been talking about the water cycle. We have completed a couple labs…

States of Water

 

Recycling water through evaporation

 

In History we have been learning about the Ancient Egyptians.

Cardboard Pyramids

 

Toliet Paper Wrapped Doll Mummies

 

Lego Pyramid

 

Peg Dolls Pharaoh & Mummy (for more details check them out on Wee Folk Art shortly)

 

 In art we have completed a few projects from Artistic Pursuits Book 1.

Artists Use Their Imaginations – Water color penicls

 

Books we are reading…