Drama Project (Part Two): Middle Earth Adventure

Drama Project: Stop Action Lego Hobbit Movie (Part One)

Yesterday and today, Gabe and John and I worked on a Drama project for this term. I decided to take the stop action Lego route inspired by this blog. After a bit of a struggle, we finally decided to do something Hobbit related, as the boys have been getting a bunch of Hobbit and LOTR Legos from their grandparents.

Yesterday, they built their characters, monsters, Hobbit house and mountain. Today, we got down to work seriously. I talked a bit about the parts of the plot diagram: introduction, problem, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion.

Then I divided a long strip of paper into six parts to match the different parts of the plot diagram.

Then we talked about what is going to happen in the movie, one section (scene) at a time. The boys illustrated each cell on the strip.

We constructed our set with a tarpaulin backdrop, set up our iPad camera at a good angle, and got to work filming each scene. We moved the character a little bit at a time, taking photos as we went.

Tomorrow, Gabe and I will work with iMovie to put the pictures together. Then we will overdub our dialogue and music. Phew!

John Recites the Caterpillar Poem

Lily's Inca Timeline in Meograph

John Explaining the Broody Chicken

Gabe's Sound Wave Experiment

More Summer School: "Creature Care" Camp Workshop

This summer John was involved in a "Creature Care" workshop at his Church Camp. He learned about living things and discussed his experiences of a variety of living things. Then, with the teacher's guidance, he went on to learn that God created living things out of loving delight, to teach us selflessness, and how we need to treat living creatures with the same love and delight in imitation of God and the fulfillment of our "royal priesthood."

John then applied these ideas and beliefs to specific creatures: reptiles and amphibians. He learn about their characteristics--cold blooded, egg-laying, breathing underwater, and so on. The teacher demonstrated and then John practiced how to catch each creature in a caring way, learning why each method work. For instance, the frog's motion is based on movement, so if we block their eyes they won't jump, and snakes have elastic backbones so we can step on their tail without injuring them.

John learned a lot about animal behaviours, such as why we find them sunbathing, what they eat, how they reproduce, etc. He assembled habitats based on the animals' needs as living things: water, food, shelter, sun, and moisture. He learned how and what to feed them.

He learned about how to wash hands before and after handling, and why. Finally, he learned about invasive species; habitat destruction, realistic needs for human beings to co-exist and share space with animals.

All in all, it was a comprehensive study of animals that met many of the outcomes for Science this year.

Summer Learning: Vancouver Aquarium

School was still in session for those in public schools and so a sunny, weekday afternoon was the perfect opportunity to visit the Vancouver Aquarium before the summer crowds.  We were able to catch three presentations, and had a good view for all of them.

John's favourite was the Pacific White-sided Dolphin.

We also learned about Beluga whales, even getting a bit wet.  And lastly, we caught the presentation on seals and sea lions.

Then we went to the 4D theater for the show about salmon.  It was fantastic, highlighting all the animals that are dependent upon the salmon as well as the salmon life cycle and habitat.

On our way out we caught sight of the display with the giant Pacific octopus where he was hanging out on the glass - such a rare opportunity to see one out of the cave.  An aquarium employee was nearby and John engaged her in conversation about the octopus!

End of the Year

I'm finding it very ironic that the last time I posted was the beginning of the winter school term!  Our little school kept me very busy these last few months.  Nearly doubling our numbers, even for two days a week, made a significant difference to my days!

I always find at the end of the school year that I am both tired and very ready for a break but also excited about the coming year and making plans.  So this week, as I've been wrapping things up I've also been planning for the fall.  This past weekend I purchased our math, grammar and general reading for the coming  year and started getting notebooks  ready to use. Adding to my excitement is the further development of our Orthodox Homeschool Co-op and the new families.  I really love helping other families get started and this year is the most exciting ever as I approach entering UBC in September and received confirmation of a job with TLA the following September!

Back to School

This term our class has expanded to included Simon and Sina.  We are all really excited to have them join us two days a week.  The plan is to study grammar, reading, science, math and art together!  I think this will really help me to plan art lessons once a week and to (hopefully) do more hands-on science. 

 We are going to be working through Art Treasury for our art lessons.  The book presents famous paintings, gives a brief biography about the artist and information about the painting.  Then it gives instructions for a project based on the painting.  The projects are not exact replicas; they incorporate strategies used in the original.  This week the painting we looked at was Starry Night by Van Gogh.  The kids then created their own swirly landscape with acrylic paints.

Today we studied animal tracks and other traces of animal's presence and then went exploring to see if we could find any.  We found puppy tracks (Daisy) and our own tracks.  Although we had seen both the cat and squirrels in the yard earlier their tracks had either been covered in new snow or blended into the surroundings.

Pronouns

Simon came over to play today but I wasn't ready to release Gabe to play so after a short break I gathered them together for a language lesson.  We are going to start doing school together two days a week and Simon and Gabe are working through the same grammar book but Simon is a couple lessons behind.  So today I had Gabe do a few handwriting exercises while I taught Simon the lesson on pronouns.  Then they did the dictation exercise together and the above pronoun exercise on the whiteboard.

Bridge Building

We started an exciting new science unit this week -- bridges!  I had originally planned to cover this topic with just the boys but due to a delay in resources Lily has been able to join us. Lily completed a unit on electricity at the TLA Surrey campus and as I don't have any specifics planned for her this month she's joining in.  We had so much fun on Monday that we decided to invite Justin, Simon and Sina to join us for the rest of the unit.
Lily reviewed some bridge building basics with everyone while I made playdoh --one of our building materials for today.

Lily and Justin testing the strength of their bridge

John and Sina retired to the living room for a game of chess after building part of a bridge with playdoh.

We learning about "The Amazing Arch" today and built (or began to build) bridges from two different materials.  They first made piers, beams and arches from the playdoh.  These are still drying out in the oven.  Then moved on to building a cofferdam from popsicle sticks (it didn't quite work out).  Then onto building arched bridges with cardboard and comparing the same bridge with and without abutments.

Here is the book that we're using, Bridge! Amazing Structures to Design, Build & Test  Don't be deceived by the childish cover-- it covers the topic in depth!

Gabriel and Math

As we pulled out math today, Gabe started grumbling.  So I decided that it might be a good idea to find out if he just didn't want to do math or if there was some other reason that we could find a solution for.  Turns out that he's bored.  I have been aware that he can pretty much do his math without help and I haven't had to actually teach him a lesson for awhile but I've been reluctant to just jump ahead.  So I found an assessment about 25 lesson ahead of where we are and worked through it with him today.  The examples above are just two of the questions.  We worked out the problems on the white board so that I could see that he actually understood the math.  The only part of the assessment I knew he wouldn't be able to answer from memory were the multiplying by seven equations.  However, I do know that he understands multiplication and he knows how to find the answer.  Those particular facts just haven't been memorized yet.  So, following today's lesson we agreed to jump ahead in his math book (from lesson 35 to lesson 60) but that we'll need to focus on memorizing the times 7 facts.

Water Wheel Experiment

Gabe really likes experiments and crafts so I'm making an effort to do more of both and let him choose an experiment.
This was easy and fun!  Afterwards we watched some videos on how water wheels are used and the development of their technology.

Week of September 24-28

I was a little slower embracing the world in the mornings this week due to a nasty cold but emerged one morning to the wonderful site of Lily doing her math at the kitchen table.  She was soon joined by Gabe and John set himself up at the counter while I made muffins. My homeschooling dream come true - only took 7 years!
Lily has shown a lot of maturity this year and has been much more self motivated than I've seen in the past.  There are several subjects that she can  work through on her own (math, French, editing, reading assignments for history and science) and has really shown initiative this year.  She's finished reading most of the novels, histories and fun science books that I bought for this year. 
Gabe and John are making very good, steady progress at their reading and have launched right back into math and spelling with very little review needed.

They've been going on nearly weekly outings with Grandpa Rene to the beach to both explore and draw their observations.  This has been a wonderful bonding time for them and art lessons to boot!

I don't have to make any concerted efforts to make sure they get physical activity. They spend hours outside every day biking, jumping on the trampoline and tramping through the woods.

Hiking at Lynn Canyon

2 hours round trip hike and then a visit to the ecology center on the way back to the car.

Hovercraft Project

The first step was to gather recycling. I gave them some general ideas and sent them scouring. (Fortunately the recycling truck hadn't come by yet!)

Lots of trial and error finding the way to cut the plastic.

And testing them with a race!

Gabe's didn't get any further than this :(

Afterwards we compared everyone's designs to decide what worked best and they spent some time making modifications trying the blower dryer to move them and even the shop vacuum.

First Day of School

Lily swimming (Brr!) with her new friends

John, enjoying his sandwich between running around and digging in the sand.

Ahh, the beach!

We enjoyed the sun and sand at TLA's annual "Hit the Beach" first day of school.  The weather was gorgeous and my nose got one last sunburn.  No pictures of Gabe because he was too busy running around with new friends.  I was really proud of him.  No clinging to me, no waiting around saying he was bored.  He participated in the games (organized by Richard!) and made friends with no prodding from either of us.  We have worried about his shyness in the past but I think we can put that aside for now.
We started slowly with academic work just easing into math and language arts.  We've done a few day trips that could be considered field trips, including a fun day at Fort Langley which I'll post pictures of.  We started, as is my new tradition, with Who Am I? worksheets from Life as Mom.  It makes a great cover for the school work from the year that I want to save and is so fun to look back on.  Last year John said he wanted to grow up to be a man.  Hilarious.

Gabe and John's Food Web

The boys had fun with this simple activity.  Lily drew the cow after seeing my pathetic attempt and Gabe drew the pig. Both boys came up with ideas about how we use both cows and pigs in our daily lives. 

Learning: Beach Style

View from the parking lot of the Astoria Column

After visiting the Maritime Museum we drove up the hill to the Astoria Column. It was gorgeous day to enjoy the view- in years past we haven't had a clear day. Lily, Gabe and Grandpa climbed all 164 steps to the top while John and I enjoyed the view from the lawn.

Flying a kite

Playing catch

Letters in the sand

Flying a kite