School time...

...for our elementary class! Tyler is in 5th grade, Kailee is in 3rd, Alyssum is in 2nd, and Adams is in Kindergarten. There is never a dull moment around here, especially when it comes to hands on learning.

For Thanksgiving these four decided they wanted to put on a play for everyone...to entertain the guests! Steve and I challenged them to have a specific theme and write a script. Tyler really took the leadership role and organized everyone, although Kailee was in charge of writing the script. I heard comments later from the younger ones that they really like doing something with Tyler in charge because he does such a good job of getting it all organized and they have fun too!

So they performed a short play about the first Thanksgiving with Tyler and Kailee being Pilgrims and Adams and Alyssum were the Indians. They helped each other figure out the costumes with a few suggestions from mom when they were stumped. They even had tickets with tear-off stubs for those that were going to be watching! Such fun!

Science...Zoology II: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day (by Apologia). We were learning about sea turtles, so we made an outline of a leatherback turtle to give us an idea of how big they really are! This one might be slightly bigger that it should be, but not too far off from what a leatherback turtle can grow to be...quite an amazing gentle creature.


Lego Education: Simple and Powered Machines. "Enables children to work as young scientists, engineers, and designers providing them with settings, tools and tasks that promote design technology, science and mathematics."

These Lego science activity boxes have been a great hands-on tool for learning how machines and tools work. Here Tyler and Kailee worked together to make a fishing rod that uses mechanisms-pulleys and levers, and investigated a pawl and ratchet.

Adams and Alyssum have their own Lego Education box that teaches Early Simple Machines. Here they had to design a bridge that was 8 inches long or longer, at least 4 inches above the water, safe, and could withstand a fair amount of weight. They both had fun with the bridge project and learned a lot in the process! We all look forward to Fridays when we can dig into our Lego Education boxes!