The day in pictures

Early doctor's appointment

Excitement at Tera's workplace

Schoolwork at the library while Tera and Daniel were collecting for a used book drive to benefit our local Boys and Girls Club.

Soaking up the warmth and sunshine

Karate

Whew...it's Friday!

The weather finally feels like winter.  We are hanging in there school wise.  The weeks have been quite busy, especially for Tera and myself.  Next week is quite climatic activity wise.  Logistically, I think I have every thing figured out.  Let's just say, it required a pencil and paper to map everything out.  But I'm feeling okay and we'll make it through!   February is on the horizon with two birthdays, three parties, Valentine's Day, science bowl, a music festival for Daniel and lots of other fun (and maybe some not-so fun) things.  

More dragon drawings.

Michael started working on his posters and wrote the speech portion for his 4-H demonstration coming up in a couple of weeks.  

A fun night out with friends...

More Victorian Britain projects...

So glad it's Friday!  I'm catching up on blogging and assignment sheets while my crew is at fencing club.  I'll have their French bread pizzas ready when they get home and then the weekend begins! 

Fun Fridays: The Cay and Saint-Saens

Our Bible lesson this month is on self-control.  Our Scripture passage was Titus 2:1-12.

For the past 2 weeks, the boys have been reading "The Cay" (pronounced "key" or "kay" according to the dictionary).   Today, we went chapter-by-chapter discussing the book.  Such an emotional story that both the boys enjoyed.  Michael was quite moved by the climax of the book.  "The Cay" opened up quite a lengthy discussion on prejudice.  

We had snack in the middle today instead of at the end.  It is always easier to switch gears when there is food involved.

I love music day!

Today I introduced the boys to Camille Saint-Saens and his piece, "Carnival of the Animals"!

Resources:
Camille Saint-Saens bio
Classics for Children:  Arthur Fiedler
Playhouse Square:  "Carnival of the Animals" teacher resource guide
Squilt Music:  "Fossils" and "Introduction and The Royal March of the Lions" listening maps
Those Amazing Musical Instruments


During my research, I made note of the instruments used in each  movement of this piece.  I tried to pick some kind of listening activity for each movement.

1.  Introduction- Royal March of the Lion--piano and strings
Listening map from Squilt

2.  Hens and Cocks--piano, strings (except bass and cello), clarinet
Guess what animal you hear?
Using the paddles (Dollar Tree find) make up the dialogue you imagine the hens and cocks are having.  The boys did this without knowing what the other one was writing.

The hilarious results:

"And stop crowing so early in the morning!"
"No."

3.  Wild Horses--2 pianos
How does the music make you feel?
Improvise movement

4.  Tortoises--strings and piano
Slow cup stacking

5.  The Elephant--double bass and piano
Those Amazing Musical Instruments and talked about the bigger the instrument the lower the sound.

6.  Kangaroos--2 pianos
Movement to music

7.  Aquarium--2 violins, viola, cello, 2 pianos, flute, glass harmonica
Talk about the whole note
Watch video of glass harmonica



8.  Personages with Long Ears-- 2 violins
Listen and use paddles to guess which animal?

9.  The Cuckoo in the Depth of the Forest--2 pianos, clarinet
Raise paddles every time you hear "cuckoo".
Listen a second time and count every time you hear "cuckoo".

10.  Aviary--strings, piano, flute
Watch:



Compare and contrast with #13, "The Swan"

11.  Pianists--strings, 2 pianos
Improvise movement

12.  Fossils-strings, pianos, clarinet, xylophone
Listening map from Squilt
Those Amazing Musical Instruments

13.  The Swan--2 pianos, cello
Watch:



Compare and contrast with #11

14:  Finale: full ensemble:  2 pianos, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, flute, piccolo, clarinet, glass harmonica and xylophone

Watch:

We also found the Ogden Nash poems quite humorous:

Another Fun Friday! 

What's On My Mind?

What's on my mind?

A jury duty summons
Juggling drop-offs and pick-ups
4-H demonstrations
Lego party
Carnival of the Animals
Instrument families
The answer to "Who shot the sheriff?"  (for a contest)
Dinner menus for busy days
"Is it going to rain again today?"
Prayers for healing 
Prayers for change in a certain situation
"I need new tennis shoes"
Waiting on W-2's and other tax forms
Another weekend with nothing planned and wanting to plan something...or not
"How is it so late in the morning already?"
Graduation announcements
Slideshows, pictures of yearbook and senior bios
 

Another week...

Another winter week in the books...

Some highlights and low points!

Michael went on a tour of our local courthouse, including the juvenile detention center and the election commission. And meeting the mayor.   He had a great time!  Well, not in juvie hall, but overall! 

Most of the week was spent like this...noses to the grindstones.  We finished another read-aloud.  Michael worked on his states/capitals and added science back into his weekly schedule. 

Tera spent a lot of time cooking and baking this week.  We got to enjoy the fruits of her labors.

Tera and Daniel's books are coming along nicely.  I've been able to read quite a few chapters of Tera's novel already.  Daniel took me through his story line today. 

We started another puzzle to get us through the rainy weather that never seems to end around here.

Getting to hang with some of our favorite people and learning a couple of new games was definitely one the highest points of our week!

Some low points:

A cruddy sinus thing has seem to attacked me.  I never deal well with drastic weather changes and that is all we seem to be having at the moment.

A disappointing time yesterday afternoon that did resolve itself.

Rain, rain, rain

Accidentally withdrawing Tera from her cover school when I pre-registered the boys for next year. 

A couple of really late nights and too much caffeine = not enough sleep


But it's Friday and we have a weekend with nothing scheduled! WooHoo! 

Fun Fridays: 3-D Art and The Periodic Table of Elements

Today was art project day in Fun Fridays.  We did a 3-D art project !

First, we drew six intersecting lines on our paper.  After the paper was divided into 12 sections, we started dividing those into four sections alternating between "smiley" and "frowny" faces.  

Everyone picked two contrasting colors to shade in every other section starting from the middle where all the lines intersected to the outside edges of the paper.  To make it easier we used our markers and put a dot on the sections we were supposed to color in.  

The boys requested that we study chemistry.  So, I gave a lesson on The Periodic Table of Elements.  

I checked out a couple of books from the library and we talked about atoms and the different categories of the periodic table.   

Periodic Table coloring sheet

Periodic Table of Elements with Pictures

We discussed how to figure out how many protons, electrons and neutrons each element has by using the periodic table.  Edible atoms--how fun!

One of the favorite parts of the day was watching a few of the Periodic Videos on youtube.  Nottingham University has put together a short video on each of the elements.  The highly reactive elements were the boys' favorites!