Science & History

We finished up our muscle unit with an episode of "The Magic School Bus Flexes Its Muscles". The kids really love this series. The point of this episode was to explain that bones, joints, and muscles are body parts that work together to allow us to move.

Jayden and I worked on a lapbook called Human Body: Muscles. It is a speedy lapbook from Currclick. We love speedy lapbooks. Jayden really loves lapbooking and the speedy lapbooks are short and simple, and not at all overwhelming.

In history we read about Sargon of Akkad, the first Sumerian dictator. We learned (yes we, because I learn too!) that the Sumerians were not united prior to Sargon's dictatorship and often fought one another. We also discussed military dictatorship.

Jayden is always incredulous when we discuss timelines. Whenever he sees dates like 3000 BCE I can see the wheels turning in his head. Caitlin doesn't get it quite yet, so I explain that this was over 5,000 years ago. I don't think she grasps just how large that number is, but she is always impressed with big numbers.

Week 5

Week 5 brought a new set of spelling words. Jayden has gotten 100% on every spelling test so far.

 In writing, Jayden worked on correcting choppy sentences.

In Grammar he is working on capitalization.

 Caitlin is still working on her sentences.

Her first two sentences tell what day it is, and her full name. Her final sentence says whatever she wants it to say. Beneath it she always draws a picture.

 She is still working in her math workbook, practicing addition.

Both J & C are working on greetings in Spanish.

Cait's worksheet came from here.

Jay's worksheet came from here.

Continuing on with the human body unit, we are now working on muscles. The children learned that muscles pull, not push. They also learned that as muscles contract they shorten. After our reading we worked on an experiment which demonstrated the muscles (the brown string) shortening as they contracted. The kids recorded their findings.

We also looked over our library books on the muscular system. 

Human Body

We are now working on one of Jayden's favorite topics in Science- the human body!

Our first lab had us constructing a human skeleton. The small skeleton that came with our science curriculum is super cute, but sometimes bigger is better! The day before we were supposed to make our mini skeleton, someone posted a ridiculously cute tutorial on Pinterest. Following the directions here, we made life sized skeletons!

 Here they are, hanging on our closet door.

 

Earlier in the week we borrowed some great books from the library: Skeletal System, by Sarah Tieck,  Bones: The Skeletal System by Gillian Houghton, and our personal favorite You Can't See Your Bones with Binoculars : A Guide to Your 206 Bones by Harriet Ziefert. The illustrations are really cute. There are actual xray images overlaying the illustrations, showing which bone is where, and what it actually looks like. The kids also appreciated the humor in the text. The last book is ours and it is called The Human Body: A Fascinating See-Through View of How Our Bodies Work. 

End of summer!

As summer comes to a close, we are determined to soak up whatever warm weather we can. After a quick library trip, we headed off to the park.

  Last week we enjoyed a gorgeous beach day. The weather was perfect!

 

The day was extra special because Juan joined us at the beach, which is definitely a rarity. I honestly can't remember the last time he joined us at the beach!

The kids found a huge hole and threw some sticks over it to make a ship.

 On the ride home this little lady knocked out!

Cells Part 2

Last week we finished up our plant and animal cell unit with an edible project. We used one round container (animal) and one rectangle container (plant) to act as cell membranes.We used jello to act as a cell.

Caitlin chose the animal cell and had the task of adding just a nucleus (half of a small orange). Jayden chose the plant cell so he had to add a nucleus as well as chloroplast (green grapes cut in half lengthwise).

Yum!