Sept. 30-Oct. 4: Rocks, Minerals, Volcanoes & Earthquakes

Monday

Well I introduced the new topic to the kids today and they were ecstatic, especially Annabelle who is particularly interested in rocks right now.  We had our morning routine: prayer, scripture, calendar, weather,  & sound of the day, math page, and then spent some time pouring over all our cool new books from the library about rocks, minerals, earthquakes and volcanoes.  We went outside and cracked open our Geodes. 

We also looked up some videos about rocks where we learned about sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks.  Then we took a trip to Wal-Mart to get some jelly beans.  That's right!  

Here's what we did with them:

We mixed some jelly beans with sugar, honey and cornstarch and squished them into balls.  

This represents Sedimentary Rock

 Then we took all but one of the balls and pressed them in wax paper and tinfoil.  

We stepped on them to squish them down and placed them in the oven for 10 minutes.  

These are our metamorphic rocks.

Then we took one of our metamorphic rocks and boiled it with a little water until the water was evaporated and the jelly beans were all melted together.  The end product represented our igneous rock.

Tuesday

To celebrate the first of October today I let the kids dress up in a costume, and we cleaned the house and decorated for Halloween a little bit. Then after our morning routine I finally logged into our IXL program I'd purchased with the home school group (major discounts when you purchase within a group) and let me just say I am impressed.  They've done a good job with the website.  It's got quizzes from every topic children are expected to know each grade and it gives the kids a reward (a virtual metal, and a game) when they've mastered a concept.  Annabelle didn't want to stop.  She was scoring very well.  So far I've only done the math, but they also have language arts quizzes as well.

After that we began construction on our very own volcano, Mt. Wannahockaloogie.  It's coming along great.  Annabelle got down and dirty with the paper mache, while Evan was more then content staying clean and playing on the computer.

Wednesday

Well I made a mistake today and didn't start the day off with the regular routine and it threw the kids into chaos.  Won't do that again!

We ended up watching the video, "Wind in the Willows" which we've been reading.  We talked about comparing, and the kids picked out several things that were different in the movie.  

We then went back and did our morning routine, except...the kids were all riled up, and it didn't go well.  We did our sound of the day and a little reading, and then the kids took turns playing Starfall on the computer.  

We also had a great time painting our volcano.  It looks pretty cool.  The kids wanted to wait until Daddy got home to watch it erupt.  

Ok, so I guess the eruption video must have been too large to upload.  Shucks.  Maybe we'll have to erupt it again and make a shorter video.

Thursday

We did the morning routine today, and the kids behaved fabulous all day.  It really does make all the difference.  For our devotional we read Ephesians 6: 11-18 and the kids colored their own shield of faith, then I pretended to be the adversary and threw popsicle sticks at them and said discouraging words.  They had to fend off the "fiery darts" with their shields of faith.  Here are their shields.  I was so amazed at some of the things Annabelle said about this scripture. She drew her shield with a yellow heart around the word faith, and said that was Heavenly Father protecting her faith from the darkness that surrounded it.  Wow...deep!  Evan wrote faith and then drew marker around it so the darkness wouldn't be able to find it :)

The kids did their sound of the day, and reading.  Then we took turns with our Math XL quizzes, which they still love.  I was impressed by Annabelle's determination to finish a level even though it took her about a half hour to master it!  They both did awesome on their quizzes.  It's so fun to see them excited to do math!

After lunch we did a writing activity where I read "Dr. Suess ABC's" and talked about Alliterations.  We then chose a letter of the Alphabet to do an alliteration on.  Of course they chose the first letter of their names.  It was a fun activity for them.

For science we looked at and read informational books.

Friday

We had our co-op today.  They did a math adventure.  I wasn't able to stay, but it sounds like it was fun.  The kids had a good time playing together.  After that we had to take our car in for an oil change, and then take Annabelle in for an ultrasound at Primary Children's Hospital in Riverton.  At Annabelle's last doctor appointment they thought she might have a hernia, but the ultrasound checked out clear.  No hernia, thankfully.  Then we came home and watched "Reading Rainbow."  The kids love that show.  Classic!