Sky - Week 5

Theresa did this week's lesson about sky scrapers. What a fun idea! First, she gave the kids some sky scraping vocabulary and rules of the sky scrappers. 

Notice how none of the kids are sitting next to a sibling and that the boys and girls are segregated? 

We pretended her door was a sky scraper and talked about everything it must have in order to considered a sky scraper.

Then, she passed out pictures of different buildings a we voted weither we thought it was a sky scraper or not.

Then, we built our own sky scrapers out of mega blocks. First, we discussed which would be the best base to start with. 

 Each team was giving a different base and then set to work building.

The babies even got involved in this activity.

And lastly, we tried building sky scrapers out of marshmellows and toothpicks. It's harder than it looks. Remember those strong triangles.

We might just have some engineers in this bunch.

Sky - Week 4

The pictures from today are missing most of the girls from our group due to doctor's appointments and another not feeling well. :( Part of life, but still a bummer. 

Wendy taught our sky/art lesson today. She started off by reviewing the kids on the color wheel and the two sides it contains...Warm and Cool Colors. After a short review she had them place paint chips on the correct side of the color wheel.

After that she showed us a variety of pictures and paintings that either had primarily warm or primarily cool colors and had the kids tell her which on it was. There was one photo that we all thought was really awesome with both warm and cool colors.

We moved to the table for the next activity creating a warm and cool color window. There were a variety of colors for the kids to choose from. They tore pieces off and glue it on one side or the other creating a "cool" window pane and a "warm" window pane.

Wendy had us do another project with chalk pastels. There were puzzle pieces with a "C" or "W" to indicate if they should use a warm or cool color. The kids used a color(s) from the correct palette to add to their puzzle piece, then the used their hands to blend them and cover the piece. 

There was a little mess involved... their hands and noses aren't normally that color, I promise. :)

Here are the beautiful works of art they created when we got them all put together. 

(please pardon the blurriness of the warm color tree...I was trying to hold back my 16 month old from attacking it...real life here people)

I think it was a tie on which one everyone liked best.

Wendy had the kids come sit down to read a story about the artist Degas. I'm not sure what they were looking at in the particular picture. (possibly because I was distracted by my youngest son walking up behind them, sucking on a hand soap bottle...remember...real life). Anyway, their faces crack me up. Any idea what you were showing them here Wendy? 

Here are what the miniature homeschoolers were doing during the lesson. Kara was even reading to them, so sweet. Thanks Brandy for keeping up with them today!

Sky - Week 3

On week three of our sky lesson, we got to meet at the park for Cheri, our fitness expert, to talk to the kids about how our body uses the air around us. She passed out different respiratory vocabulary words printed on mini lungs. When she used one of the words in her lesson, the kids with that vocabulary word got to hold up their lung. 

(I really don't think Julie was confused. I think the sun is just right behind Cheri, making it hard to see.)

Next, we got to see who held the most air in their lungs by breathing into party blowers and seeing who could hold theirs the longest. Moms won that one. Must be because our lungs are bigger.

The kids felt the weight of a bucket of water. So what happen to our lungs if we go deep under water? 

True to her trade, Cheri had the kids measure their breathes before and after different exercises. Why did you breathe faster after you exercised?

Then Cheri spread out lots of red balls to represent oxygen. The kids had to pick up a red ball, run it to a bucket filled with blue balls (carbon dioxide), and swap out a blue ball for their red one. 

Couldn't end our lesson without a little teamwork hand huddle.