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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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. 

Fort Clatsop

Lily with Sacagawea

Traditional Clatsop dugout canoe

Lily finding all the specimens for Plant Bingo along the Lewis & Clark River

John working on his word find back at the Visitor Center

Lily and John trying on the authentic explorer clothing

We spent the morning at Fort Clatsop, just minutes from Seaside, learning about the winter that Lewis and Clark spent on the Pacific Ocean.  It was fascinating to the kids that the Oregon coast has elk just like the Kootenays.  And in fact, Lewis and Clark choose to make camp on the south side of the Columbia for that very reason.  We actually saw a herd of elk on our way home from visiting the fort.
The State Parks have a wonderful Junior Ranger program which we finally took part in on this outing.  They each had to complete a certain amount of activities in a workbook specific to the State Park (see John & Lily above) and visit at least two historic sites.  At the end of our visit the Ranger checked their work, filled out a certificate for each of them, and administered an oath.  They each received a badge, a stripe with the level they completed and a ranger pin.  Awesome!
While at the Visitor Center we watched a wonderful video made by the Clatsop people about the arrival of the explorers, Lewis & Clark's winter at the Fort, and the experience of the Clatsop people in relation to all of this.  It was very interesting to have the familiar story told from the Native perspective.

Orbitting Fun

Week of November 6

We started this week with an appointment with the speech therapist!  Lily definitely needs to work on /s/, /z/, /sh/, and /th/.  The boys will also need to work on /s/.

Lily and Gabe organized a Lego contest with their friends complete with judges and prizes.

We made continued progress in math, spelling, language lessons.  We read about the Indus Valley in history and did some map work and narration.  This week's big project was biome poster for science.  We read about four major biomes (grassland, desert, polar regions, and forest) and made posters of each.  John made one poster with living things for his project.

Volcano Project

Our paper mache volcano. The didn't want to paint it, usually they can't wait to wait things! Oh well.

And it erupts!

Earthquake Experiment

After slight earthquake

Before slight earthquake

After moderate earthquake

Before moderate earthquake

After large earthquake

Before large earthquake

After moderate earthquake with a new kind of building

Before moderate earthquake with a new kind of building

The modification of the building from blocks stacked to a shaped with large base and tapered top was the kid's idea based on the previous experiments.

Earth & Moon Update

Lily and Gabe had fun painting their Earth and Moon creations after struggling with perfectionism and embracing the fact that it won't look like the globe!  Looking at an example picture helped.  Although they each made a form for both the Earth and Moon, Lily's got crushed.  It probably worked out for the best as Gabe painted the Moon and Lily the Earth.  John is working on a robot there in the corner.

Spider Observation

This spider has made a large web is the corner of our garage door.  We have been watching him off and on for a couple weeks and yesterday the kids noticed that he'd trapped a bee and was wrapping him up.  Lily took these photos and all three watched as the spider had been for lunch!

Butterfly Project

Our butterflies emerged from their chrysalis' this week. Two emerged on Thursday and two on Friday. Lily had to help the first one get onto his feet as his chrysalis was not hanging and he couldn't stand up. It was so exciting to watch the miracle of larvae grow into fat catipillars who became pupa and then finally a beautiful butterfly.
We are currently keeping the butterflies in a mesh bag with greenery, flowers and q-tips of sugar water. The weather has been on the cold side so we will delay releasing them until it warms up.