School Work Roundup

Sight Words Activities

We are working hard on our three "R"s, reading, writing, and arithmetic! 

I am on the hunt for fun ways to teach the reading part. 

Boys are notorious for being less than enthusiastic about learning to read, and I don't want to poison the well with well intentioned nagging. 

So, I am doing my best to make it fun and pressure free, but we still have to get it done! We are all readers and I can't wait to share that love with each of my kids. 

Here are a couple fun activities I have mined out of a google search and created for us in little to no time! 

The first is an egg flipping game. You flip the egg with a spatula once you have read to word. 

I used clip art and self sealing laminate sheets to quickly create a super fun sight word game. 

You can write in the back with a magic marker and then erase it when you want to change words by stibbleing over it with an erasable marker. 

I am also planning letter pancakes for Lillybug's preschool work. 

The other activity, sand words, is pretty straight forward. 

It will be wonderful for sight word reinforcement in a very tactile way. I like to try and create activities that stimulate all the ways of learning; visual, auditory and kinesthetic. 

Huntsville Botanical Gardens

Trip to the botanical gardens in Huntsville.
James and Lillian when to a class about Dinos, then we walked the gardens.
They aren't the biggest botanical gardens I have been to, but the children's garden is the bomb! (Pardon my 90's expression)
It is fairy tale themed and super cute. It has lots of fun things like mazes, paths, a rainbow section, water play areas, and a butterfly garden.
I got in some trouble with the kids because I didn't know about the afore mentioned water play areas and didn't have our suits.
Next time!!

South Africa

We are having so much fun learning about different cultures!
Last week James and I spent probably 20 minutes on YouTube looking at Chinese dances, and he really enjoyed comparing a picture of a rooster and a picture of China and pointing out the similarities.

This week is South Africa!

South africa is located on the southern most tip of the continent of Africa. 

The largest city is Johannesburg which started as a gold rush tent city. Another famous city is Cape Town. It is known as the mother city and was the first western city in South Africa.

• South Africa has 11 official languages Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Xhosa, Zulu, Sesotho (Southern Sotho), Sesotho sa Leboa (Northern Sotho), Setswana, Swati, Tshivenda, and Xitsonga  
• English, afrikaans and Xhosa are the most widely used. 
• Here is some Afrikaans to try out!

• Good day - Goeie dag

• My name is ... - My naam is ( sounds like: may narm is...)


• Mom - ma


• Dad - pa


• Teacher - juffrou (yifrow)


• Food - kos


• I am hungry - ek is honger


• Thank you - dankie


• Yes - ja


• No - nee
• 
  

Chalk South African Map



















Fun African Folk Tales

 

 

South African Foods

 

Biltong - Jerky

Rusks - crisp type of convectionery often eaten with coffee and given to teething children

Bovril - beef extract spread for bread

Ptjiekos - a casserole prepared on a three-legged pot over an open fire

Braai - chops and sausage on an open fire

Melktert - milk tart

 

Easy Buttermilk Rusks (kids can help with this)

Ingredients
1,5kg self-raising flour
375ml sugar
a pinch of salt
500g margarine/butter
500ml sour milk*
Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 180oC.
2. Mix all dry ingredients together.
3. Rub in the margarine.
4. Add sour milk and mix thoroughly.
5. Roll into balls and place in greased bread pans.
6. Bake for about an hour. Remove from pan and break or cut into pieces.
7. Place on a rack to dry in a ‘cool’ oven.
*Add a table spoon of lemon juice or vinegar to fresh milk if it is not sour.

Around the World this Summer - Lesson One China

This summer we are going to be learning about a new country every week. This week we will be studying China!
Follow along and have fun with us.
Feel free to comment your ideas for learning about China!!

China

Find China on a mag or better yet a globe.
Notice how it looks like a rooter! The northeastern tip being the head and the western side being the tail feathers.

Google pictures and videos of elements of Chinese culture; Chinese New Year, dragons, The Great Wall, cultural dances and The Forbidden City.

Capital: Beijing
Fourth Largest country (after Russia, USA and Canada)
 

Flag craft!

 
 



Supplies:
-cardstock
-mod podge
-red tissue or construction paper (or both)
-gold paint


Yummy Chinese food!

Hit up your local Chinese restaurant or try your hand at a dish together!

Easy Chinese Moon Cakes Ingredients:  • 1/4 cup sugar  • 2 egg yolks  • 1/2 cup salted butter  • 1 cup all-purpose flour  • 1 cup strawberry (or your favorite) jam    (traditionally red bean paste is used so    if you want a more authentic version,    you can use a can of red bean paste    instead of the jam). Directions:  1.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  2.  Combine the butter, sugar and 1 egg yolk      and stir.  3.  Mix in the flour.  4.  Form the dough into one large ball and      wrap it in plastic wrap.  5.  Refrigerate dough for half an hour.  6.  Unwrap the chilled dough and form small

balls in the palms of your hand.  7.  Make a hole with your thumb in the center of each mooncake and fill with about half a teaspoon of jam.  8.  Brush each cake with the other beaten egg yolk and place on a cookie sheet. (We didn't have a brush to      do this, so skipped the brushing step)  9.  Bake for about 20 minutes or just until the outside edges are slightly brown  10. Makes 24

Activities!

Make a Chinese Lantern

You will need

• A4 size card or paper
• pencil
• glue
• scissors
• sticky tape

Activity

• 1. Fold the card in half lengthwise.
• 2. Starting at the folded side, draw pencil lines across it, not all the way across, on which to cut. Make sure the lines are equal in length and evenly spaced.
• 3. Cut along the lines carefully.
• 4. Unfold the card.
• 5. Take the top and bottom ends of the card, overlap them and paste them together to make a cylinder.
• 6. Cut a strip of paper and attach it to make the handle.
• 7. If you make more than one lantern, hand them on a string across the room.

Variations

• 1. Decorate the card with crayons, glitter, sequins, etc before making the lantern.
• 2. Alternatively, paste cellophane paper onto the inside of the card after cutting the slits. This will create a colorful effect when the sun shines on the lanterns.

Write some Chinese characters
















Books to Check Out

My favorite part of learning is always reading, a new book can give great understanding into subject. Especially when you are learning about a new culture. Seeing pictures and your child seeing a country from the familiar perspective of a child can really cement his understanding of the place.

Here are some books worth a look...

 

 

Follow this link for even more books featuring Chinese culture. 

Amazon Books About China

LaGrange Civil War Reenactment

We had a fun Saturday at the LaGrange College Park.
There were venders, folks dressed up and neat learning opportunities for my crew!
All in all fun ^_^

Salty Art

Needed:
Glue, dark paper, paintbrushes, salt and water colors or food coloring.

Use your liquid glue to create a picture then sprinkle it with salt. Let it dry then create some salty art!

We started out using watercolors and that worked fine, but it had to be super wet in order to work correctly and that was proving difficult for my little dude. I switched to water and food coloring and that worked great!

Dry and ready to go!

Voila! Masterpieces!

Letter Eggs

Easter themed learning activity!
James is doing really well with the sounds of the letters but is still having trouble recognizing the uppers and lowers as the same letter.
This activity is great for learning which letters go together, patience, and a dash of color matching! 

Lillian has a better idea as to how to play this game!

Dr Seuss Birthday Week

In honor of the great writer and illistrator that we all have learned so much from, we are having a Dr Seuss week of crafts, stories and learning games topped off with a party at the Shoals Children's museum.
I think Dr Seuss has a place in everyone's heart! He is a wonderful artist and writes deceptivly deep liturature. I know I want to collect all of his books for my kids to enjoy and learn from.

Our own finicky fish in a bowl will be watching over our Seussian mayhem!

 

One fish, two fish hands

Seuss inspired rhyming match game.

 

Truffula tress using tissue paper and stickers and a fun game of magnetic fishing!

 

 

 

If you are in the area join us at the Children's Museum of the Shoals for Dr Seuss Birthday Party!