Friday, September 7, 2012

Animal Cell Pizza

Pizza Supplies

Cell Parts

THE CELL!!

A pizza with everything

What was leftover...

CELL PARTS--
Nucleus- Turkey slice
Nucleolus- Mushroom
Endoplasmic Reticulum- Onion
Ribosomes- Corn
Golgi Bodies- Bell Pepper
Centrioles- Green Onion
Mitochondria- Black beans
Lysosomes- Tomatoes
Vacuoles- Black olives
Membrane- Rice Flour Crust
Cytoplasm- Rice/almond milk rosa sauce

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Making Stonehenge



Prototypes made of paleo fudge 

Sand to make sand dough

Mixing sand dough

Forming sarsen stones

Trilothons drying

Painting "grass"

How many do we need?

Glueing sarsen stones and bluestones

Adding lintels

Finished!

View from the keel stone

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Getting Ready for Essentials

Mastery Chart Notebook-- 1 full, 10 empty, ABC dividers
It's time to get ready for Classical Conversations-- Essentials of the English Language Class. So here's how I organize my essential student.

 ESSENTIALS 

1) Essential curriculum (for me!)

2) Mastery Chart notebook-- A large notebook, divided into A through R. I place 1 copy of the full chart and 10 copies of empty charts behind each letter.

3) Quid et quo notebook-- A separate notebook with a section for 50 blank quid et quos basic pages and 25 blank quid et quo detailed pages

 4) Analytical Task Sheet notebook-- A notebook with 100 copies of blank task sheets, printed front and back
Quid et Quo-- 50 basic, 25 detailed
5) Trivium tables and moveable walls-- those cardboard things from CC













WRITING 
Writing-- Anything that needs to be written.....

1) Student Text-- I don't buy a teacher's book
2) Downloadable handbook-- Printed and spiral bound
3) Text Copies notebook-- I reuse the writing textbooks, so I don't let my kids write in it. I copy out all pages that need writing (key word outlines, etc.) and the check lists that need to be turned in with papers. I divide it out by lesson with numbered dividers.





and turn in pages, divided by lesson with # dividers


Saturday, August 18, 2012

Cave Paintings

Cutting paper bags and crumpling to make walls

Paint

Just like Cheveaux

Copying techniques from the cave

Cheveaux!

Ice Age Activities


Ice Age Poster



We do "normal" stuff, too. This is penmanship. 
Ice Cream!! It's cold. Just like the Ice Age. 

Peanuts and chocolate chips!

Sunday, August 12, 2012

CC Cycle 1, Week (-2)--- Dino Diorama

Our next project was a diorama of a dinosaur habitat, complete with trees and volcanoes.






CC Cycle 1, Week (-2)-- Fossil Cookies



We made fossil cookies. I used a thick GF/CF shortbread base, to minimize spreading while baking. The kids mixed, measured, and stirred. They pressed plastic dinosaurs into the cookies to make imprints and then baked them. When cool, they dusted them with cocoa powder (okay, the concept here was to use a brush. They ended up brushing ON cocoa instead of brushing OFF dust from a fossil, but I think they got the idea). And, of course, then they ate them.














CC Cycle 1, Week (-2)-- Timelines



Chronology of the Universe Timeline
We made 3 timelines this week. The first was the chronology of the universe from the Big Bang to the present. It is made from half-length papertowels, 1 towel equals 1 billion years.



Entire Timeline
Big Bang, Dark Age, Star Formation

Formation of the Solar System

Advent of Life



Chronology of Life--1 towel = 100 million years
Formation of the Atmosphere

Cambrian Explosion

Chronology of Life, Cambrian to Quaternary, 1 towel= 40 million years



First Day of Preschool

Ivy and Laura
The school year has begun! My two little girls are going to preschool again this year. They are having a great time.
Ivy and David playing Battleship
They get lots of playtime with their brothers and sisters in the afternoon, though.