Place Value Straws

So for weeks I have been lamenting about how I wish I didn't give every single thing I owned when I quit teaching. Sorry Lis, for all the whining I've been doing. 

But what's that saying, out of necessity comes creativity? I don't know, but either way, here's a great alternative for huge cubes, base ten blocks, hundreds squares, and thousands cubes.

First, mark all your straws, then group accordingly. I explained to my students how each cup can only hold up to 9, after that, they have to move to the next cup. 

Decide what numbers you want them to figure out. I chose 9's because it is our number for the week and the digital sum (adding the digits) of 9's are always 9! I love 9's, they are by far a great fact family to study.

 Then place in a cup and demonstrate place value. It can be done for review with any number. The key in this activity is to explain why we have another digit in our numbers. I don't expect to have my son memorize his 9's at his age, but I do want him to understand a manipulative that can show him large numbers.

Serving Up Some Invertebrates for Lunch

So this week I tried to think of something that would be true to form for invertebrates. We needed something that could harden if left out but not have a backbone. Of course there are so many more that can be shown. I'm not an artist, but thankfully my art is covered up by the play do. :)

I just looked up ways to draw any specific creature and wha laaa, they have directions for everything. Don't you just love the internet? 

Just don't get stuck on the details, they all get covered up by the dough. 

Of course the best part was the kids coming up to me, asking me if I'd like a _____ for lunch. It was easy and simple for them to do on their own, while focusing on the fact that invertebrates are spineless. 

Ideas for more easy to create with play do: 

spiders, beetles, butterflies, lobsters, caterpillars, worms (segmented, round, and flat), crabs, clams, roaches, jellyfish, stinging cell animals, and so much more! 

I hope we inspired some yucky lunches.

Have a great Thursday!

Also I added to our Reading Activities Link...
Check it out for easy tactile letters and for self correcting words with our leap frog jet! 

Starring...All thumbs!

So when you were a kid you liked making puppets and using them to tell stories, right? Well so does every kid. This week I was looking to make the Roman Republic, Pax Romana, and the split between the empires, and those German Barbarians a little more visual for our little CCers.

But by the way, this can be used for anything, and anyone wanting to teach or act out something. I can see the possibilities now! All history sentences will come to life in 15 minutes or less! 

Seriously if I can draw these, so can you and so can your kids!

The great thing is we don't need to sew for hours and we don't need to memorize any long play. It's literally right at your fingertips- or should I say thumbprints. :)

Here's what you need...

Materials: Ed Emberley's Complete Fun Print Drawing Book, Glue, Cleaner, scissors, ink pad, craft sticks, index cards, and paper towels. Oh year and the most important part... thumbs!

Step 1:

Step 2:

I cut out lots of little cards measuring about 3 in X 1 in. Then I gave them each about 8 and they stamped away. Literally five minutes later they were done and onto the next thing. Then it took me another 10 minutes to draw and glue to sticks.

You can use my examples or have them create their own... The only thing I ask, when referring to these masterpieces please give credit due. :) 

No seriously, hopefully this will inspire you to do so many more fun thumbprint plays!

The Punic Wars

  Label the bottom of each stick so you know which to grab... and your kids will know it when singing.  I labeled both the front and back. :)

 The Pax Romana! Don't they just sing happy Roman Peace?

The split between the West and East in 286 AD. I added numbers so they could practice learning those. :)

 Last but not least the Germanic Barbarians! Those are as barbarian as I could make them. :)

Don't forget to label, the bottoms!

Then put it all to work and make a memory sentence come to life!

 So my video is boring, as I'm sure my son's would be filled with fighting noises and such, but you get the idea. 

Have fun and please, please, please let me see your stuff if you do this. 

I read all the comments and love receiving them knowing these ideas are helpful or not to you. 

Blessings to you and yours!

-Crecia

Week 5, Getting in the jive...

So it's week 5 for us next week and I can't believe it. Hard to imagine it's been over a month of this and yet I'm so happy we made the decision to homeschool. If you are like me, you are just now feeling like we are getting into our groove.

When I was a teacher, we had a saying that we didn't really start teaching till October. The weeks prior were just getting into routine and training them procedures; ie: bathroom breaks, classroom management, homework return, etc. For most teachers, this is the time they actually sit down and assess the kids (right before conferences) to find out which kids go in which reading group. Sad but true, most just don't have time until then.

With that said, I'm so glad that we are not there. We are getting into our grove, but I know exactly where my children are academically and I know exactly what we have been doing for the last 5 weeks.

But- if you were to peek inside my house you would think we're a bunch of "messies." Except of course on Saturdays- which is when I catch up. From Monday to Friday it seems like a tornado hit. My house, my dining room table, my laundry room, all feel the effect of the week. So this week I'm posting ideas of how to stay organized during the day and how to get a good routine going throughout the crazy hours... afternoon and on.

Here's what we use posted on our fridge to help me stay organized. And before you read, yes it is super detailed. That's how I like things. I need to feel like I get a lot accomplished in an hour so I put down everything I did in a day, a week, and a month. You can customize it to whatever your needs are: carpooling, going to CC, practice schedule, etc. This is just for me to read, not my kid's chore list. I post that up too. I try to put the scripture and any fun pictures of the week to keep my mind and heart on all that really matters. The key is small manageable things to do each day that keep the ship running. :)

I changed the details as this is still the internet and want to be safe with what I post. :)

But regardless I think you can get the over all idea. It is made in Power Point, so if you want to use it, click save as and save it as a doc in powerpoint. I think this should work, if not comment and I will send you the file via e-mail.

Now, I never have had one week where I accomplish everything on my lists. But this just helps me stay organized and keep the housework manageable. For those of us that have adult ADD, this is a great way to keep me moving and feel that sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. Hopefully it's a blessing to you and hopefully this just gets us all into a better groove for the rest of the stuff that we are in charge of.

I also post a menu for the week on the fridge, which I will post up next. When I can follow both lists I am rocking! Hope you have an awesome week!

Blessings to you!

Lazy Saturday Mornings...

So if you are like me, you love your Lazy Saturday Mornings...

We usually do a nice breakfast on Saturdays as to have a little quality time around the table.

One thing we love is making pancakes because everyone can get involved. Here is my latest great recipe find. I changed the flour content to a little more whole wheat and added extra liquid and whalaa... these pancakes were awesome! Today I did it just as the recipe called for... I had hoped for super high pancakes, but my sweet little helpers turned the mixer on high speed. :) Gotta love the hands in training. So the lesson is move the helpers out of the kitchen when about to mix. 

I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fluffy-pancakes-2/

Many blessings!

(A little different kind) of plant cell...

Ok, so truly if you aren't doing CC, you might think I've fallen off my rocker teaching my kids about cell structure. But in any case they are getting something... :)

Here is the adaptation of concrete objects for plant cell.

 

Ok, so this took me the longest to figure out. But alas, it finally came to me! I love both examples. Whichever you have is great. I love that the lunch box is the shape of plant cells as well.

It's fluid and surrounds the cell. Any blanket will do. :) We run around the room and call it's name while making it fluid.

The "brain" holds all the DNA or information for the cell. We act like computers when talking about the nucleus.  We define the nucleus in a robotic voice. 

Much like the blender it takes sugars and turns it into energy. It even has lines on the outside like the diagrams of mitochondria. When talking about this, act like you are spinning and turning into an energy drink in which you drink in the end.

The CARbohydrates and proteins (trains). We lay on the ground in curves and have the kids run the trains or cars over them. They love acting like golgi bodies.

Different from the animal cell, it is much larger than the nucleus. So I combined both clean trash and food storage for this one. We act like we are a big container and act like you have food and trash inside of you.

It absorbs chlorophyl and redistributes it to the rest of the cell. I thought sponge would work as it absorbs and releases well. Lay down on the ground and act out absorbing and releasing.


When you are done teaching all the parts of the cell, do the motions and show the objects faster and faster till the giggles come out. Make it a contest to see who can keep up mom or kids?

This is by far their favorite part of the cell to act out, so I just had to show them doing it! Oh how I'm so blessed to be teaching them today. :)

Animal Cell Brought to Life!

So as the kids were jumping on the trampoline today for their break, I thought we could utilize that big round circle and make it an animal cell giganticized!

Here are the relation components that make cell work a bit more comprehendible to a 3 and 4 yr olds!

The brain or DNA- equivalent to a computer!

That are like train tracks that carry proteins (trains) and carbohydrates (cars). 

Storage containers for food and waste. 

 

They take sugar and make ATP! I explain it's like how we take yogurt or ice cream to make something in the blender. :)

And what do you have? An animal cell with all it's parts! Yeah! 

Who says this is too high for preschoolers? I think I now have a better understanding of these components than when I was in school. Hopefully this activity will help them relate it in a way they can truly comprehend. :)

We ended the activity with making the all too famous jello and candies. Of course if you were to ask them which one they like better I'm guessing they'd say Jello! 

Have a great day~

Please send us some pictures if you can. I'd love to see and post some concrete cells in your home! :)

King Tony and King John!

So today we learned about the Nile and the Delta. I never knew the history of the kings let alone the connection they had to the Delta and how they looked at flooding as a blessing. How different is that for us now a days? Just thinking of the damage Isaac caused over in my neighboring states.  I guess we haven't learned their lessons of living further away from the water.

Back to what I was saying, I mean did I go to school at all? I question my memory loss. You would never have known that I had a great private education and even have a college degree. I must have been asleep when they were teaching all this. Sorry mom! :(

In today's reenactment you will see Tony and his friend, John, with their crowns signifying the King Narmer, who combined the red and white crowns to show he was ruler of all.

 The boys enjoyed sliding down the river from upper Egypt (aka my ottaman and a table leaf).

  They had to use all their muscles to get the ship going. :)

Tony fell in the Nile and had to get rescued. It was by far his favorite part of the journey. :)

Hope you all have a great week!

Math Times by 3!

So one of the things I love about CC is that we teach skip counting by memory from early on. As stated earlier I normally have Tony work on some activity while I teach Lucy, and vice versa. Today's activities kept their attention for a long time!

We started with just empty cups and a bucket of cubes. 

I wanted Tony to understand the reason behind skip counting and how they correlate to repeated addition.

If I did this again I would make the numbers thicker. But he saw them just fine. 

I had him connect it in only groups of three.

Then we pulled them out and counted them up to make sure they were right. When I asked him to do it again he didn't count by ones, but instead counted groups of three and caught the pattern. And momma thought, "YES! Goal accomplished!"

These are great because you can use it for all sorts of skip counting activities and make it easier for younger siblings. Little prep, great outcomes. My kinda day!