Archiving ideas

We’ve had several co-op days where I recreated and expanded on some unit studies I did back when Lance and Ivy were little. To save the work of researching several years from now when I need to do it again, I thought I’d post what we did:

Three little pigs

This was a new unit I created which turned out to be a lot of fun!

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First we read the story, then built the three types of houses. The boys did the heavy lifting on the brick house.

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When houses were complete, I used the blower to test the construction. Only the brick house survived the huffing and puffing!

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Next we did piggy bank math – stacking the proper amount of pennies on each numbered pig.

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Made pig-in-a-blanket for snack – they thought this quite funny.

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While we waited on the snack to bake we acted out things that pigs would do – here they are eating the toy food.

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We also painted “mud” onto pigs. We ended with a yummy lunch of pig-in-the-blanket!

Dinosaurs!

Last week we read about dinosaurs. Most of my previous activities couldn’t be replicated for our class so I chose some new ones. The book I wanted on a dinosaur dig wasn’t at the library so I just read one of the silly ones, “How does a dinosaur say goodnight.” The kids liked it but it left my projects somewhat unsupported. Oh well.

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Here we used macaroni to make a dinosaur skeleton. I had to set rules on how much pasta could be eaten.

 

We made dinosaur feet from paper bags and danced to the “fossils” song from Carnival of the Animals by Saint Saens.

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Then we split up with half working a dinosaur puzzle…..

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…and the other half digging for salt dough fossils and bones (yes, it’s more than half but this was at the trade off point).  This was very popular with everyone!

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Final activity was a baking soda and vinegar volcano along with the older kids who had studied that very subject in their class. Plastic dinosaurs were properly buried in lava.

That will do for now. I’ll try and post two more classes soon.

A little project

Katie wanted to help me out last week and when our first project (finding and assembling the crib in the barn loft) fell through due to lack of hardware, I had to come up with something else.

There was a little table I had been thinking to make for our entryway and now seemed as good a time as any. So while Katie cleaned the shower (which had been bothering me for a while) I drew up the plans and cut the boards.

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I finished cutting about the time she finished cleaning and together we  assembled the table.

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Start to finish it took about two hours and supplies cost me nothing – just boards from a fence my brother took down and whatever screws I could scrounge. Amazing to me is that it sells for $100 on etsy. Felt like I had earned money that afternoon!

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Here’s the whole entry way for perspective. Supposedly guests could put their shoes there. It was a fun little project.

A moment

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This is a picture of a perfect school moment. I was in the middle of it and realized that all were busily doing what they were supposed to and so I wanted to document the moment. Because “a moment” is  a good description. I was playing a sight word game with Lance and Ivy, the two younger girls were working on scissor skills and Iris was exploring her connecting blocks. It was a good moment and it’s going in my thankfulness journal!

Random events

Here’s a few fun things we have experienced recently!

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Big Event – about 15 college students came and helped us move dirt, clear garden space and split wood. The kids kept them well entertained at lunch and the big guy on the left was Eden’s special buddy the whole time.

Livestock show: Cousin Connor was showing his meat chickens so we went to watch and experience the atmosphere.

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We observed the cows

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Said hi to the pigs and watched them get a bath…

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And played in the sheep and goat scale. You can squeeze 6 kids in at once!

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On Easter, we went to my parents church and enjoyed some beautiful music. Then everyone went out to watch a helicopter drop Easter eggs.

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Here they come!

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The actual hunt was a mob scene but that didn’t seem to bother the kids. The fact that they got to wear their most beautiful dresses that morning was an added bonus to the day. Afterwards we enjoyed lunch with my parents.

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AWANA drive in movie night. Were given a cardboard box and told to create a car. Lance wanted a fast car with fire, found a picture online and we copied it. Ivy had a host of ideas and things changed as we went along until we ended with a sort of camper. Her car was awarded the title “prettiest orange car” while Lance got “coolest hot rod” – which in my thoughts is sort of an oxymoron.

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New grass planting requires watering – a perfect spot for fun on a warm afternoon.

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April showers bring…..muddy children! These two have some incredible leg muscles; they played in the squat position for over half an hour! Mom and Dad read a book while watching from the garage.

 

And this is what the big kids enjoyed during that time. This came after a walk where we saw the neighbors enjoying water on a trampoline and that made everyone “so hot” that we had to do the same!

Flower pictures

Well, here we are, enjoying spring time and the flowers that come with the season. The morning was overcast so I thought we would gather ourselves together and take a few pictures.

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Well, apparently it takes awhile to gather ourselves and it was sunny by the time we arrived at a bluebonnet patch. The kids were good troopers though and managed to pose a decent shot.

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Iris

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Eden

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Flora – my little flower.

We then went shopping and were headed home when I passed another spot with better flowers and by that time the sky was party cloudy so I decided to try again.

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Ivy

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Lance

It was lunchtime and we had after shopping attitudes, but bribed with marshmallows, and coached by Aunt Katie we managed another few group shots.

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Waiting in the shade for a cloud to cover the sun.

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Cuties

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My little clan.

So there you have it folks, yearly tradition checked off the list!

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