Parachutes

We are down to our last week of school. :)

Today we learned about air and how it pushes up on objects as they are falling towards the ground. We made homemade parachutes out of plastic grocery bags, thread and a willing plastic toy. :) We had fun building it and watching it drop.

Well I tried upload a video but it just would not work. I will try to post later with help. I am not computer savvy. :)

Caterpillar update: They have continued to stay on the bush where we first spotted them and they continue to eat the shrub leaves and grow. I hope we get to see one make a chrysalis. The kids have been checking on them each day to make sure they are doing well. Yesterday Ashten checked on them before we had to go to Grace's ballet lesson and in the car Grace spotted a stowaway on Ashten's shirt. :)

Caterpillars and a school update

Today we got an unexpected treat in the backyard. Ashten and Grace discovered caterpillars hatching and coming out of their web. It was so neat to watch explore the web and then move down the branches of the bush and then start munching and crunching on some leaves. We spent about a half hour watching the beginning stages of their little lives. They will eat and eat and eat some more and then metamorphis in to a moth. After watching them and taking some pictures I looked up what they might be. I think they are Eastern Tent caterpillars. We are hoping to see a cocoon and see a moth in a few weeks. :) This of course led us to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. The pictures did not come out that great but you get the general idea. ;)


Now a little school update. At the end of this week we will have 3 full weeks left of school. YAY We are excited to be nearing the end of a wonderful school year. Grace will be graduating 2nd grade and Ashten will be graduating kindergarten. The last few weeks have been full of learning about the Transcontinental rail road and the pioneers who ventured west in covered wagons. We finished Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The book gave us a great picture of growing up in the 1800's and what life was like on a farm. We have learned about 38 states so far and will finish up with Hawaii. I sure wish we could finish the school year on the beach in Hawaii. ;) We hope to do a driving tour of the US in the coming years to see and experience many of the places we have learned about. It has been a year full of history!

Looking forward to a summer filled with learning and growing and having fun exploring the world around us.

I leave you will silly pics of Grace and Ashten. ;D

Our homemade cell

Not sure if this will come out very well but we make a cell with a ziplock baggie, jello, clay and some beans. The baggie represents the cell wall and the jello the cell membrane, clay nucleus and the means the organelles. A great hands on project!!!! Taking microscopic a reality!

New Year 2011

Happy New year a bit late!!!! It has been a great start of 2011 as far as school it has had many starts and stops due to illness and just trying to get back on track after a long Christmas break.

We have finished our study of the first 13 colonies which then became our first 13 states. And now we are slowing down our study to move on the the rest of our great 50 states. We are currently reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. What a great perspective it is giving us on how people used to live on a farm. It has been an inspiration for work ethic in our family.

This week began some fun science experiments we are going to be building a cell model using jello! FUN FUN FUN!!! That will be today and pictures to follow. Tomorrow will be watching bacteria grow with milk in two different locations over 7 days. That aught to smell great!!!! Thankfully they will have lids on. We will report in 7 days.

We also learned about Eli Whitney and his invention of the cotton gin. What a neat invention. We did hands on learning with a cotton ball spread out and us adding green seeds and then making them into a ball again and pulling out all the seeds one by one. This was a great way to see what it must have been like before the cotton gin was invented. What slow hard work. Makes me thankful for all our modern amenities that we have today.