Dabbling Ducks

Swimming at Springwood today, followed by a picnic and explore at Werrington Lake.

Mulga motoring along.

Boronia investigating her toes.

Waratah has mastered the art of floating.

Mulga chasing the ducks (and slipping on the mud and sliding into the lake).

Studying the wildlife.

Two well-camoflaged lizards.

A Blue Wren fluffing himself dry after a bath.

Intrepid explorers.

Rainbow Lorikeet.

Collecting and classifying feathers.

Dusky Moorhen.

Circus Skills Workshop

Today we attended the long-anticipated Circus Skills workshop. There were some initial nerves, but the boys quickly settled in and enjoyed themselves immensely.

These pedal pushers were extremely popular.

Learning the rules for the day.

Practising juggling skills.

Boronia helped Mummy with the picture taking.

Clinging to the flying trapeze.

Spinning in the Lyra Hoop.

More juggling skills.

Keeping the silk in the air.

Mulga on the high trapeze.

Boronia taking a break.

Waratah had been practising on the pedal pushers and was proud to win the final race!

On the way home we stopped for a rest and Boronia had her first ride on a carousel.

Ideas for Week 8

- Tonight we watched the Space Station fly over our house, so this week we will do some follow up investigation and exploration.

- Waratah has asked that we learn about the desert.

- A visit to the library (and perhaps the local museum) on Monday.

- We will be attending a circus skills workshop on Wednesday.

- Swimming lessons on Thursday.

- Sunday will be the first Sunday of Advent, so we will be dusting off and renovating the Advent candle and calendar, and discussing their significance. We may also consider making a Jesse tree.

I have decided to use this blog now as a showcase for photos / portfolio of our work and for special learning stories, and swap to a less time-intensive method of record keeping, rather than listing everything we do each week.

2012 Term 4 Week 7

THEME FOR THIS WEEK: Waratah had a dream about a Golden Eagle, so this week we explored Eagles, which also tied into our ongoing exploration of North American Indian culture.

RELIGION
- who are we named after? discussion of why our names and those of many of our friends and family are based on people in the Bible

ENGLISH
- discussion of written advertising; writing signs for shop (see description under Mathematics)

- writing about Golden Eagles: composition (dictation) and handwriting practice

Dictated: "Golden Eagle. It is not gold. It ac tually has brown feathers. Their feathers have gold tips when the sun shines on their wings."

 

 

Handwriting: "They are great hunters. I want to own a Golden Eagle."

 

- independent reading (shop signs, packages etc)
- writing lists: a to-do list for our day; a shopping list

Story time - library books
- Lydia Monks, Babbit (2011)
- Arone Raymond Meeks, Enora and the Black Crane (1991)
- James Marsh, Bizarre Birds and Beasts (1991)

MATHEMATICS
- Waratah set up a shop selling cicadas ($2) and nut shells ($1) and rides on his skateboard ($100).

 



- measuring length, width and weight of an Eagle feather found in our bush (see above under English)

- counting to 100
- how much is 1 million?
- currency recognition; counting money
- weights and measures: making tortillas after reading about North American Indians

 

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
- make a snow globe: experiments with viscosity (adding glycerin to water and observing effects); experiments with particle size and weight (adding shells, tiny gemstone chips, sequins and glitter and observing which stay suspended for the longest time and how they move in response to gentle / violent forces)
- watch a number of short documentaries on Golden Eagles [playlist]
- observation: Christmas tree reproductive cycle; identifying male and female flowers, immature and mature pinecones
- investigating hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties of various objects
- plant vegetable seeds and watch for seedlings sprouting
- observation of moths
- observation of skinks
- observation of butterflies and a dragonfly (which you can just see in the net); discussion of catch, observe and release

- inventing and testing a butterfly trap

- David Attenborough Blue Planet: Tides

HUMAN SOCIETY & ENVIRONMENT
- discussion of relative values and how scarcity affects price (cicadas were worth more because they were more difficult to find)
- discussion of goods and services
- watching documentaries of humans interacting with Golden Eagles in Scotland and in Mongolia
- learning about the Golden Eagle Festival in Mongolia
- discussion of legislation in Australia preventing the keeping of Eagles as pets or for hunting
- Michael Stotter, Step into the world of North American Indians (1999)
- making beans and tortillas

CREATIVE ARTS
- oil pastel drawing of the Golden Eagle from Waratah's dream (he described it as being the size of our kitchen and pure gold)

- completed the water colour painting of a praying mantis

- clay modelling: making Christmas ornaments
- painting - goache on canvas. Waratah painted the picture of a spouting whale but was dissatisfied with it as pencil lines from his first idea - a gecko - were still visible, and there was a blotch where paint had dripped. We discussed what kind of background his subject might have and agreed that the spume might create a rainbow. Waratah asked me to paint in the background, and I showed him how his previous pencil outline could be hidden in the sea, and how the blotch could be disguised as a bird flying by.

- hand sewing: making a toy size feather pillow
- origami paper boats
- music: playing ukulele
- painting a feather: we learnt that since Eagles are now a protected and rare species in America, the Indians today use painted Turkey feathers to simulate Eagle feathers in their costumes. Waratah collected a white wing feather dropped by our pet Corella and painted it to be a feather from a more colourful species of parrot.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT, HEALTH & PHYSICAL EDUCATION
- Upon A Time... Life: Neurons [Playlist - 3 episodes]
- Upon A Time... Life: Eyes [Playlist - 3 episodes]
- eye tracking experiments
- chasing and catching butterflies
- skateboard riding
- swimming: Waratah is now comfortable floating on back; attempted underwater rocket for the first time; working on putting head under water without holding his nose
- bike riding without training wheels: needs help starting off but is otherwise doing very well
- breakfast picnic under Waratah's new umbrella which he purchased using his pocket money

PLAY BASED LEARNING - MULGA
Create a car app
Scrambled picture puzzles
Sorting games
Clay modelling
Swimming
Drawing with oil pastels

INFANT DEVELOPMENT - BORONIA
Playing peekaboo
Rolling over
Trying to crawl
Self -directed movement
Singing
Observation of her brothers

2012 Term 4 Week 6

NSW Core Subjects:

Religion:
☑ Tale Toons: Moral Stories for Kids [Link]
☑ Bible stories - Easter and the Resurrection - reading and comparing all four gospel versions.

English:
☑ Waratah and I used Maily to send emails to each other.
☑ Reading Eggs: Map 6 Level 51 (Waratah discovered he could successfully manipulate the mouse with his toes.)

☑ Writing a shopping list.
☑ Recounting a story seen on television (both Waratah and Mulga love to recount Tom and Jerry episodes to me.)
☑ Mulga has been spending a lot of time this week working on beginning sounds and rhyme endings. Waratah has enjoyed demonstrating his mastery of those concepts.

Maths:
☑  Maths with Springbird (addition & subtraction).
☑  Geoboard

 

Waratah's Geoboard 'waratah'.

☑  Rocket Maths (addition).
☑  Clocks and Calendars
☑  Play shop: first Mulga set up a Pet shop and Waratah came with $25 in play money to spend, and then Waratah set up a Truck shop where Mulga spent his $25 in play money.

 

 Science & Technology:
☑ Finished our River diorama.

Our inspiration picture.

Our final product and the proud artists.

Close up of the finished product.

Waratah created animals from salt dough to populate the waterfall environment.
These are salmon leaping up the waterfall.

A skink.

A fruit bat in a cave.

There were also fish, turtles, and a bear trying to catch the salmon!
Waratah said it was a combination Australian / Canadian waterfall.

☑ Documentary: David Attenborough Life - Reptiles and Amphibians.
☑ Close observation of Witchetty Grubs found in the garden.

☑ Close observation of Cactus flower (photograph by Waratah).

☑ Investigation of capillary action - inventing the longest straw you can still drink through!

 

 

☑ Close observation of Cicada larvae and adults.

 

 

☑ In-depth discussion of the solar eclipse and viewing of it on tv / computer.
 



Human Society & the Environment:
☑ Documentary: River People [Link]
☑  Discussion with Daddy about pets he used to have, including a number of pet snakes.

Creative Arts:
☑ Watercolour painting - Praying Mantis (Waratah asked me to draw the picture of an insect which he found, and then he painted the background. We put it aside to dry, planning to finish the picture next week.)

Personal Development, Health & Physical Education:
☑ Discussion of nutrition - the importance of vegetables.
☑ Swimming lessons.

Play Based Learning:

☑ Rubix snake.
☑ Rolling Squinkies around the Tree.
☑ Lots of dramatic play.

Infant Development:
☑ Boronia discovered her toes this week.
☑ Reading...