(MFW-ECC) Exploring Countries and Cultures - Week 4

Our Week in Review

Art/Music


Tuesday was a bit of WAS a crazy day. We had to make 3 round trips to the High school all between the hours of 6am and 8am. My 14 year old brother is in cross-country and band, so when my dad is out of town for work (which is quite often), I get the honor of chauffeuring him around. I know, FUN, right?!?


My kids were not thrilled about getting up at 5:30 am, but I used this as an opportunity to point out all the big yellow vehicles (aka: the school buses) on the road off to pick up lots of other sleepy-heads just like them...and they do that EVERY DAY during the week. Needless to say, they were thankful for the times they get to sleep in because we home school. 


When we were out that afternoon, we saw those same buses dropping kids back off at home (around 3:30) and my kids said, "they keep them at school THAT long?!?"...ahhh, yet another reason they were thankful to home school on Tuesday :)


Now, for the art project ;) We chose to do the flip book. The kids had a blast!! I could not believe how long and hard they worked on them. Each video below is just a few seconds long and captures each of their creations. 

When Big J got home from work that evening, he decided to take it one step further and worked with the kids (and legos) to make a 'motion picture' using the camera and pictures. It turned out pretty good. What do you think?

We found our flip books at Hobby Lobby back in the arts and paints section...6 in a pack for $3.99...and of course, I used a 40% off coupon making them even cheaper ;)

Science

On Monday, in Prop. of Eco., I read the very first paragraph on page 42, then I focused on the orange words and briefly described deciduous forests, deciduous trees, coniferous forests, and coniferous trees. We also talked about the 'fun facts'. We finally brought out The Great Animal Search book and focused on pages 6-7. The kids *love* this book! We will have some fun and find a few animals each day this week. On Monday. we found all the animals on the left side of page 6. I had no idea there was a "real" animal called the Wolverine and it looked nothing like what I was thinking. I guess from the X-Men show, I was picturing something larger and more vicious-looking. Granted, they do have sharp teeth and claws, but I was picturing something totally different. LOL!

Geography


On Monday, we used our state place mats from last year to go over the interesting facts in 'A Trip Around the World'. The facts covered many states, so this also served as our review of state names. We did not do the 'Advanced' section. We also used out state puzzle throughout the week to review our state names and locations.


Near the end of the week, I brought out a blank map of the US and I was blown away by just how many states my kids knew. I guess they really ARE learning after all :)

Bible

On Monday, we read about the Navajo. Hogans are their traditional one-room homes. They are constructed of wood and mud or stone. The boys thought it would be fun during recess to try and build their own 'hogan'. 

The boys used dirt from our dirt pile, a little water, and mixed in lots of crunched up leaves and sticks.

A opted for some indoor play instead of building a 'hogan'

We also spent this week learning about Harriet Tubman. The last part of the story we read on Friday brought tears to my eyes. What an amazingly courageous woman of God she was! 


The kids had a blast making Harriet Tubman flap books. We haven't done anything like this in a while so they enjoyed all the cutting and pasting. Not sure if the boys will get around to the coloring part of it though ;) 

The end product is a cute picture book that tells the story of Harriet Tubman's underground railroad through 'hide-a-way' flap pictures. Click here to print out the free flap book to make with your kiddos :)

On Friday, I also read-aloud the book "The Night of the Moonjellies". The kiddos loved this book. They also had lots of questions the book did not answer, so we had some fun surfing the web for information and real pictures. After that, they made their own moonjellies. In the story, the little boy helped out at Mar-Gras, a hotdog and hamburger stand. So, we topped it off with hotdogs for lunch :)

Here is the link to the activity with directions and pictures on how to make these cute little moonjellies. (A word of warning though, be prepared to go back behind your kids are hot glue their ribbons on. This was the only way I could keep them from falling off.)


And in case you missed Week 3, you can find it here.

I hope you had a great week as well!

(This post has been linked up at 2 Ladybugs and a Lizard and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers)