Meant To Teach

We learned about the Peloponnesian War this week. The girls really didn't like the Spartans. Their opinion of them was that they were very mean and had nothing to live for in their lives. However, they really enjoyed designing their own war helmet. This was such an easy, fun project for them. All it takes is a bicycle helmet, toothpicks, and play dough.

We started Chemistry this school year! The kids seem to be excited about it. We are using Bright Ideas Press Christian Kids Explore Chemistry . I already love it - its so Elementary, and if I'm honest with myself - I need that, too. Chemistry was never my strong subject. We did our first lesson today, but before we started off with the hands on activity that's at the end of each lesson - we decorated our own lab coats. This is such an inexpensive lab coat, because its made with one of the hubby's white t-shirts from his closet. We just cut it down the middle, made a name on the side along with a pretend pocket, and the girls decorated the back of their coat however they wanted. This will be our lab coat! They are very cute and I think the girls did very well at decorating. We'll put these on a little coat hanger in our school room.

This is a fun way to learn spelling! The girls wrote their spelling words with a white crayon. Then they took water color paint and painted over the words for their words to be revealed. They loved it. Its a pretty cool activity! Pictures below!

My youngest daughter decided to do her own leaf collection. She decided to do this on her own and we are done with school so I'm proud of her for always learning. Anyways, we found this pretty cool app where you take a picture of the leaf and it tells you what it is or could be (choices). Its called LEAFSNAP. Very cool app! Just wanted to share! :)

This has been one of my favorite projects I think, just because it not only fascinated my girls, but they were very responsible in making sure the task of watering their seed everyday got finished. We decided to do a CD case green house. You heard me right. I said a CD case. We simply planted a green bean seed in some potting soil in an old CD case. Make sure to put the potting soil at the bottom of the CD case where the opening is at the top of the case. I did put a little tape around the bottom to keep the case closed and to make sure that water didn't get out so easily when we watered it. We used a small dropper to fill water and put the water through the opening at the top of the CD case. We found an observation sheet to fill out here so they could record the changes everyday. And just watch it grow! We aren't totally finished watching ours, but when we are finished we plan on taking a sharpie and labeling our plant on the CD case starting with the roots and going up...

So my 7 year old already finished her 2nd grade math book and we have plenty of time until summer - so we decided to go ahead and start learning those multiplication tables. Its going rather well! She seems to be getting it easily. My oldest already knows her's, but this is a fun game that they got to play together. They have to draw two cards and multiply them together and if they get it right, they can color in the state once they say the capital of the state. At the end, whoever gets the most WINS! I can't really take credit for it - I got the idea from this site . But you can put your own variations to it. The girls had fun doing this.

We've started this week off with an Easter project or craft. Our first craft, an Easter wreath, is below. This is really so easy. You only need eggs, a ribbon, and maybe some super glue (just in case the eggs have a hard time staying together). All you do is clip the Easter eggs together by using two eggs and putting the bottom on the other egg's top and then vice versa. You keep doing this all the way around until you finally want to stop and clip the ends together. Then just wrap some ribbon around it of your choice and viola!