History: Map Work

Each of our chapters in history includes a map. This map shows the many empires and peoples who ruled the Middle East.

Cooper glues down a different color circle to represent each empire.

Princes in the Tower

After reading about the princes who were imprisoned in the Tower of London, the boys made a pop-up card. The boys were introduced to the story of the princes during our tour of the Tower last June and learned much more during our history lessons.

Knights

During our history study of knights and samurai, each boy designed a Coat of Arms.

Mass and Monks

In science, we learned that grams are used to measure mass. The boys used our balance scale for some practice.

 We learnt about monks and monastaries in history. The boys had a go at creating their own illuminated letter.

Roman Mosaics

A little history project...

Butterflies and China

After several weeks of waiting, our butterflies emerged from their chrysalises.

The butterfly (bottom left) has just emerged.

Cooper held one of our Painted Ladies.

 Our most recent history lessons have been on Ancient China.

Noah and Cooper using tangrams.

Caleb typically joins us for history.

We also made tea. The boys were not keen.

Fishy Fun, Body Parts, and Athenian wax tablets

We read Dr. Seuss's One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, and Lucy Collins' Hooray for Fish! Caleb completed a number of fishy projects as well as other "F" work.

We're now studying the human body in science. To get things started, the boys identified and labeled body parts. 

Caleb rolled the die and did some graphing.

Yesterday, we read about the Spartans and today the Athenians. The boys attempted to write on "wax" tablets. We all decided paper and pencil is an easier (and neater) option.

Photo Catch-up

Since I haven't posted in a while, here are a few photos of some of our recent additions/activities...

A history timeline now graces our wall.

After reading Nate the Great, the boys colored Fang yellow (like Annie) and then red (like Harry) resulting in an orange dog.  

Caleb waters our basil plant so the boys can observe water absorption.

Noah and Cooper examine soil from our garden.

This was an excellent read! Beethoven has been a favorite.

Another great read!

Black and white illustrations and excerpts of music are interspersed throughout the book.

We began investigating animals and their habitats last week.

The boys sorted land animals by habitat.

Making Mycenaean shields after our history lesson.

Phoenician Bread and Glass

Last week, we studied the Ancient Phoenicians in history. Here are some photos that I failed to post. Incidentally, the bread was made on the same day we watched Bama win the national championship. The individual breads were a great part of our game day spread.

Measuring and Mixing

Kneading the dough

Grated crayons for our pretend glass

Adding some color

Finished product

Preschool, Plagues, and Feet

Caleb has enjoyed using his new numbers workbook.

 After reading our history lesson on the Ten Plagues, we read the account from Scripture. The boys added (and removed) the appropriate plagues throughout the reading.

Cooper places the "Nile turned to blood."

Noah and Caleb added frogs. 

Cooper uses his feet to measure the hall rug. He then measured in feet using a ruler.

Headlamps, Pictograms, etc.

Here's a quick catch-up of some of our recent activities.

Caleb's work evidently required a headlamp.

We spent a week studying Ancient China. The boys created their own pictograms.

Cooper's first page of pictograms: Fish, Mountain, Bow and Arrow, House, Sailboat, Snow-capped Mountain

Cooper reviewed words with silent letters today by using sentences divided into subject and predicate. 

After reading each sentence properly, the subject and predicate were chosen at random. This was a favorite silly sentence: The crumb on the ground will save the king and queen from doom.

Re-cap of the last few weeks

Focused on their science work...note any similarities?

After French class, the kids lined up to watch the tow truck pick up Candace's car.

With the car safely towed away, we went to the park to gather leaves for Autumn crowns.

Caleb was very pleased with his "a" worksheets. 

Pictured here are two of my new favorite finds (thanks to Kirsty!).
Cooper and Noah have a Second Word Book and a First Word Book, respectively. Commonly used words are listed in alphabetical order with extra spaces to add more words. I can write a word once, and then it's available to be copied in the future. And, this is a great way to practice alphabetical order.
Here the boys are using their books to aid in the completion of a literature assignment.

More fun in nature. Kirsty led a study of twigs.

She prepared some fun activities for me to complete with the younger crew.

Getting crafty: All of the kids made lanterns using jars and twigs. 

They also made Maple leaf bookmarks.

 Yesterday...(which means I'm finally caught up on photos):

Cooper started our history lesson with Show and Tell. He was given some Egyptian papyrus, coins, and a Scarab beetle for his birthday.

Our resident expert wandered downstairs with the paper shown above. Line 28 is "Hammurapi" - that's not a typo, the "p" is correct. We've been studying Hammurapi and Shamshi Adad this week.