They really do change colors!

We decided to do the age-old "stick celery in colored water to see what happens" experiment. We had some wimpy/wilted celery in the fridge, which would be the perfect specimen for this experiment.

I asked Aikman what his predictions would be, which he said he had no idea. Hmmm... we definitely need to talk more about predictions! Anyways, we set the celery in the colored water, and let them sit. He patiently waited for about 3 minutes waiting for 'something' to happen. I reminded him that sometimes we have to wait a while to see what happens. After 2 days, this is what the stalks looked like.... just touches of color.

We investigated the stalks and leaves, and talked about how the veins take the colored water to the leaves. We pulled off the veins to see how they too are colored, and that there are not veins throughout the entire celery stalk (and thus, the entire plant did not turn colors).

In Teacher Tom fashion, I let Aikman decide if he wanted to let the plants sit in the water, or if it was time to toss them. He opted to allow them to sit longer. As a result, in a week's time, more than just the tips changed color....

Only the left stalk in blue water isn't obviously blue!

Pretty cool, huh?

Oh, and a "mommy note," if you get wimpy celery, just stick it in water for a few hours, and it is back to it's old crunchy self! Wish I would have known that before I trashed the rest of the bunch!

I'm linking up to Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

Trekking Across the US -- Florida

Welcome to Delaware, as we trek across the states! Our journey consists of Musings of Me, Montessori Tidbits, and Get Down and Get Your Hands Dirty. I'd like to give a little shout-out to Learning Curve, who also studied Florida this week!

Here's how we made Florida hands-on and exciting... (by FAR our favorite state to study!)

Studying Shells/Beach:

Exploring shells:

I redid our nature table, and set out some new items for Aikman to explore. He used a magnifying glass to look over the items and mentioned things that he thought were interesting on them. Included are several starfish, coral, sea "rocks," sand dollar, and an assortment of different shells. (Don't you love that look of ,"WHY are you taking another picture of me?")

Sorting shells using tongs:

4 different types of shells are sorted by their type.

Univalve vs. bivalve shells:

I've been waiting to do this with Aikman for some time, and was so glad that we got to spend this week studying univalve/bivalve shells! We first talked about what these 2 types of shells were and how they were different, and then I gave him some time to explore the shells. Above, he is investigating how the hinge of a bivalve shell works.

... and then I get a demonstration on how to properly sort the shells according to their type. "So, Mom, is this a 'unidoweled' or 'bidoweled' shell?" "Yep, you're right! It is bivalved!"

In a few weeks, I think I may pull out our univalve/bivalve shell cards from Montessori Print Shop. Thanks MPS for offering these as a free download a while back!

Sifting sand to find the shells:

Thanks Colleen at Sunrise Learning Lab for sending us some Florida sand in the Mondorfment summer nature swap. We added some tiny shells from an old necklace, and then covered them with the sand. Aikman then had to scoop and sift through the sand to find all of them.

Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico:

Using the sheet from here, Aikman painted Florida one color, and all of the water another color. We talked about how Florida was a big peninsula (which we need to talk more about, and I should have brought out our landform cards and trays!), surrounded by 2 different bodies of water -- the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. As a writing extension, the child can label the 2 bodies of water, once the paint has dried.

The Everglades:

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Everglades animal booklet:

On the spur of the moment, I came up with the idea to create a booklet with pictures to label for the Everglades. This was a huge success, and made learning about the animals very fun for Aikman. The above right picture is an image of the common animals (and one tree!) found in the Everglades.

Here you can see him concentrating on writing the word skunk....

You can download the booklet photos here.

Alligator family cards:

In continuation of our animal family series, I also made some alligator family cards for a study on the American alligator. These cards included the name of the male, female, babe, and group for the alligator. You can download these cards here.

Alligator craft:

Do you know the difference between an alligator and a crocodile? Well, one of the main differences is their snouts -- alligators have a broad, u-shaped snout, and crocodiles have a thin, V-shaped snout.

Lately, Aikman has been on a kick of tracing a folded heart and then cutting it out (ie making valentines). I followed this same format for making the crocodile. I cut out a tall trapeziod, with the sides tapering out as it goes up. Then Aikman traced the figure onto a folded piece of construction paper and cut it out, so that it made a wide snout that would open. He also cut out jagged teeth and a tongue, and glued them inside. (I'm not sure an alligator has a tongue, but he insisted that he needed one). Finally, we added 2 eyes on top.

Isn't he cute?

Manatees:

We didn't actually study these in detail this week, but I've seen a LOT of people study them. So, I wanted to add some information about where you can find additional information about manatees... Homeschool Share has a free lapbook about manatees (scroll down the page to find all of the resources). Here's a link to the anatomy of a manatee. Here's a manatee coloring book. Can you knit? Here's an etsy shop that has a manatee knitting pattern. Here's a link to a 3-D manatee craft.

General ideas for Florida:

Quarter rubbings/quarter hunt: (download here)

Originally, Aikman was very interested in doing quarter rubbings, but no so much anymore. So, instead I am printing off the quarter sheet, and then having him hunt through the quarters to find the one with Florida on it.

Locate and label abbreviation: (a favorite work at our house)
Label the state with its abbreviation. We've added a printout that has each state shown on the map, with its abbreviation, so he can practice finding and labeling all previous states as well as the current state.

Connect the dot page that form the state (dots go from 1-25)

This is the FIRST activity my son chooses each week, as soon as it is set out! You can download the page from makinglearningfun here.

Trace the state (download from here)

Aikman asked me if he could trace the states. I honored this request, using some leftover tissue paper, tape, and the printed map.

Major cities in Florida (download from here)

This one wasn't chosen during school time this week... too many other fun activities!

Count the bordering states

We look at the map, find the state, and then count the states that surround it. We've added a graph to keep up with the number of bordering states.

Graph the number of bordering states

After the number of bordering states is counted and written, it can be added to the graph. You can download this graphing sheet here.

Make the state flag

We were so busy with all of the shells and Everglades, that we ran out of time to do the flag. If you'd like a coloring sheet for the Florida flag, you can find one here. If you'd like to be crafty and create it yourself (as we typically do), you can look at the Florida state flag here.

Other ideas:
- Pinpushing (map found here)

- see, trace, make state name worksheets at Musings of Me.

- Adventures of Mommydom also has studied Florida, and created a symbols of Florida printable for you to download.

Are you singing the 50 Nifty US states song yet? It's found here on youtube! It is helping us remember the states names.

Don't forget to venture over to Musings of Me and Get Down and Get Your Hands Dirty to see what they did for Delaware too!

I'm linking up to Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn for their Geography/History meme.

Trekking Across the US -- Delaware

Welcome to Delaware, as we trek across the states! Our journey consists of Musings of Me, Montessori Tidbits, and Get Down and Get Your Hands Dirty.

Please note that the week we completed these activities, we spent all 3 of our "school" days at doctors' appointments, so Aikman did all of his schoolwork in waiting rooms. So, there wasn't a lot of time for us to do much hands-on. :-(

Here's how we studied Delaware, in the little bit of time that we did have...

Studying Horsecrabs:

Okay, so the picture above ISN'T a horsecrab, but instead an oyster with a pearl inside. Seems that in my birdbrained-ness, I confused Connecticut and Delaware, and actually meant to do this craft the week before! Oh, well! Sorry any fellow Delawarians... you got shafted on crafty ideas for this week!

However, when you DO study Delaware, you can get additional information about horsecrabs here, including a wonderful printout of the "parts of a horseshoe crab" as well as other activities. This link has a dot-to-dot and puzzle pieces for the horseshoe crab. Into origami? Well, make your own horseshoe crab out of a dollar bill.... here's the video. ... and if that wasn't enough for ya, here's one more link that shows you how to build your own paper 3-D horseshoe crab.

Hopefully that makes up for my mistake this week!

General ideas for Delaware:

Quarter rubbings/quarter hunt: (download here)

Originally, Aikman was very interested in doing quarter rubbings, but no so much anymore. So, instead I am printing off the quarter sheet, and then having him hunt through the quarters to find the one with Delaware on it.

Locate and label abbreviation: (a favorite work at our house)
Label the state with its abbreviation.

Connect the dot page that form the state (dots go from 1-25)

This is the FIRST activity my son chooses each week, as soon as it is set out! You can download the page from makinglearningfun here.

Trace the state (download from here)

Aikman asked me if he could trace the states. I honored this request, using some leftover tissue paper, tape, and the printed map.

Major cities in Delaware (download from here)

(Note, we didn't get to this one this week, as I had left the stickers at home.) Place stars on the major cities in Delaware. Then he writes the capital city at the bottom of the page.

Count the bordering states

We look at the map, find the state, and then count the states that surround it. We've added a graph to keep up with the number of bordering states.

Graph the number of bordering states

After the number of bordering states is counted and written, it can be added to the graph. You can download this graphing sheet here.

Make the state flag

One of our highlights each week is creating the flag. (Note there is more to this flag... primarily the wording at the bottom, which he chose to leave off. So, please don't use our flag as your example.)

How it was set up:

- 2 sheets of construction paper -- blue and orange (diamond already drawn)

- printout of the flag from here

- crayons

- glue

What he did:

1. Color printout of the people in the center of the flag, using the flag control (or you can look at pictures, such as this one)

2. Cut out people/animals and orange diamond.

3. Glue people/animals to orange diamond, and then to blue construction paper.

4. Write words on the bottom.

Other ideas:
- Pinpushing (map found here)

- see, trace, make state name worksheets at Musings of Me.

- Delaware is the first state -- discuss other firsts!

- Adventures in Mommydom also studied Delaware, and made a horseshoe crab, and she also shared 2 printables -- one for the state symbols and one for the horseshoe crab.

Oh, and don't forget to be singing the 50 Nifty US states song, found here on youtube! It is helping us remember the states names, in order.

Don't forget to venture over to Musings of Me and Get Down and Get Your Hands Dirty to see what they did for Delaware too!

I'm linking up to Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn for their Geography/History meme.

Fabulous Finds Friday!

Yep, we've been back to that new favorite thrift store (which Aikman calls the "new junk store"), and I feel like I've found some awesome 'new to us' finds!

First, I found this lovely felt board set for $1. Okay, so it's a little girly, BUT I think it's gonna be a lot of fun to explore, even if it is used only a couple of times.

Then, I found this little grab bag, that has some wonderful items that will be added to our sound bins. (Don't you just love that handpainted wooden egg???) Seriously... well worth the $0.50!

... and then the math teacher in me kicked in, and I just about fell over when I saw these....

What kind of person would donate 20 sided dice? Or 12 sided dice? or 8 sided dice? Or that cool looking 6 sided football-looking die? I CANNOT tell you how excited I was... I literally just about dropped everything -- purse, keys, phone, and the above mentioned knick-knacks, just to grab these!

So, have you found any great educational finds this week?

I'm linking up to Thrifty Thursday at Tales from Bloggeritaville

Our favorite pancake recipe

(Today's post is a little off-topic, but I wanted to share this with you....)

YUM! This is my favorite pancake recipe, which I adapted from fatsecret.com. So, not only is it extremely tasty, but it is also low fat/low calorie! (Makes 8-10 medium sized pancakes)

4 large egg whites

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 3/4 - 2 cups oatmeal (recipe calls for 1 3/4 cup, but it always seems too runny for me, so I add more)

1 tsp baking powder

2 TBS sugar

3/4 cup skim milk

Put oats in blender and blend until they are smooth (you can leave them whole, but we prefer the fine texture over the lumpy 'whole oat' texture). Mix all ingredients together to form batter. If the batter is too runny, add more oats. Spray cooking spray in pan or on griddle, and cook on medium heat. ENJOY!

For toppings, you can use traditional syrup, or for a low calorie topping, you can use mashed strawberries, crushed pineapple, applesauce, or yogurt.

Fabulous Finds Friday!

I've found a new thrift store in my area, and it has quickly become my new favorite. Not only does it have a wide selection of items, but it also is clean, well-organized, and doesn't have that funky "Goodwill" smell when you walk in the door. (What IS that smell anyways?? They ALL seem to have that funky smell -- no matter which store you go in!)

While we were waiting for swim lessons to start, we ventured in to see what new items had been put out since last week. Goodness! I couldn't believe me eyes! I was seriously 'ten kinds of excited.' (Sorry Abby for stealing your phrase, but its the only term that seems to best describe how I felt!)

So, what did I find that was SOOO rocking (at least to me)?

- a "Scrambled States of America" game

- a magnetic US puzzle, which I didn't realize I stuck it upside down in its packaging before I took this picture... as you know, you just can't have enough US puzzles, especially when you're trekking across the states!

- a small hexagonal container -- perfect for those open/close activities, storing math counters, talking about shapes and geometric solids, or the container for a transferring activity, Yep, this is the same container that I used for the gold transferring work in my California post.

So, have you found any great educational finds this week?

I'm linking up to Thrifty Thursday at Tales from Bloggeritaville

Field trip to the symphony

One of the best things about living outside of a large city is that there are lots of really cool (and typically free) field trips. The Nashville Symphony is a wonderful field trip that we always enjoy attending. We signed up to see several of their free performances. A few weeks ago, we attended their Peter and the Wolf performance -- the first performance that we've attended at the Symphony Hall since the flood last May. (The pool of water that you are seeing is the Cumberland River, that is typically several blocks away from the Symphony Hall.)

Here is Aikman, sitting in his balcony seat...

... and the Symphony warming up before the performance.

I was hoping that they would have puppets for the performance, much like the DVD they sent for us to preview before the performance. Instead, they only had a narrator for the story, while the orchestra played.

After the performance, Aikman went to work on "his (imaginary) band,"for which he plays drums and sings lead vocals. He made these posters to represent what was happening.

The above sign says that there are 20 seats available for the performance..... (I love how he drew rows of red auditorium seats!)

... and a note to the other (imaginary) members in the band: "The concert is in 3 days."

If you need 3 part cards for orchestra instruments, check out Counting Coconuts post found here for a free download.

Trekking Across the US -- Connecticut

Welcome to Connecticut, as we trek across the states! Our journey consists of Musings of Me, Montessori Tidbits, and Get Down and Get Your Hands Dirty.

Please pray for my dear friend, Michelle at Musings of Me, as she is dealing with a miscarriage right now. :-( So, she doesn't have anything up yet about Connecticut, and this state study should definitely be the LAST thing on her mind right now.

Here's how we made Connecticut hands-on, with lots of fun activities...

Robins (and other birds too...):

Make a robin's nest:

I saw this idea off of an email from one of my yahoo groups. The recipe we followed was super easy (and didn't call for a double boiler), and this time of year is PERFECT to make these, as the candy eggs are readily available in the seasonal Easter candy section of most stores. (We bought the mini eggs that came in a little milk carton.)

Here's our recipe:

1 bag of butterscotch chips (11 oz.)

3 TBS peanut butter

1/2 package of chow mein noodles (6 oz)

candy eggs

Melt butterscotch chips and peanut butter for approx 2-3 minutes. Stir mixture at each 1 minute interval. After the mixture is melted, add chow mein noodles. Place spoonfuls on wax paper. Add egg(s).

Parts of a bird:

Aikman preferred to write the parts of a bird, so I printed off the sheets from here. One has blanks, and the other is the control.

Make a birdfeeder:

There were so many ideas that I had for this state, but we just didn't get to do them this week. One of these ideas was a birdfeeder. This will definitely be something that we will do this week.

Bird identification checklist:

I'm also planning on making a bird identification checklist for this area, but *sigh* that too hasn't been made for this week. However, I was inspired by my dear friend Karen's blogpost about how her class studied birds, and I think I may just print those bird/egg cards!

Yankee Doodle:

We listened to Yankee Doodle on this youtube video, as it is the state song. We didn't talk about the meaning behind the song, but that is an idea for those of you who have olders and are studing along with us.

General ideas for Connecticut:

Quarter rubbings/quarter hunt: (download here)

Originally, Aikman was very interested in doing quarter rubbings, but no so much anymore. So, instead I am printing off the quarter sheet, and then having him hunt through the quarters to find the one with Connecticut on it.

Locate and label abbreviation: (a favorite work at our house)
Label the state with its abbreviation.

Connect the dot page that form the state (dots go from 1-25)

This is the FIRST activity my son chooses each week, as soon as it is set out! You can download the page from makinglearningfun here.

Trace the state (download from here)

Aikman asked me if he could trace the states. I honored this request, using some leftover tissue paper, tape, and the printed map.

Major cities in Connecticut (download from here)

This is becoming a personal favorite that is repeated several times over the week. Aikman places stars on the major cities in Connecticut. Then he writes the capital city at the bottom of the page. Eventually, I plan on adding more city names, but for now, I don't want him to lose interest in this work by having too many cities to label.

Count the bordering states

We look at the map, find the state, and then count the states that surround it. We've added a graph to keep up with the number of bordering states.

Graph the number of bordering states

After the number of bordering states is counted and written, it can be added to the graph. You can download this graphing sheet here.

Make the state flag

One of our highlights each week is creating the flag. I had to get a little creative this week, as I wasn't sure how we would "create" the shield.

How it was set up:

- 2 sheets of construction paper -- white and blue

- printout of the flag from here

- crayons

What he did:

1. Color printout of the shield, using the flag control (or you can look at pictures, such as this one)

2. Cut out shield and glue to blue construction paper

3. Cut thin strips of white paper for the ribbon at the bottom of the page. (I actually did this part for him, as we were running out of time this day.

4. Write words onto the ribbon.

Other ideas:
- Pinpushing (map found here)

- see, trace, make state name worksheets at Musings of Me.

- Connecticut is the 5th state, so you could do an ordinal number activity, maybe with Colonists.

- study oysters and whales

Oh, and don't forget to be singing the 50 Nifty US states song, found here on youtube! It is helping us remember the states names, in order.

Don't forget to venture over to Musings of Me and Get Down and Get Your Hands Dirty to see what they did for Connecticut too!

I'm linking up to Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn for their Geography/History meme.