Seasons Week

 We had fun with school this week with our theme of Seasons. I decided that each day was a season and Friday was a fun day. It is crazy that school is almost done and that next week is our last week. Paige said that she wants to do school all summer because she wants to continue doing science, art, cooking, and sewing every week. I told her we can still do those things but it just won't be as structured. I am ready for summer but I have actually really enjoyed this collaboration of school online and at home learning. 

Monday's season was winter. She did a dot to dot snowflake and also had a class meeting to introduce her math and online learning for the week.

Then for art they created snowflake art. They drew on white paper with crayons to draw the snowflakes. Baylor just scribbled on her and kept says "it's not working" since she couldn't see the white crayon on her white paper. :) Then they painted over it with watercolors and while the paint is still wet you sprinkle a little bit of salt on it to get it the frosting/snowing look.

 They turned out pretty cool!

 Then Paige did her ELA on her computer and then for our writing we read some facts about snowflakes/snow and she typed up an informative paragraph about what she learned. "Here are some facts about snow! The largest snow sculpture ever built was in Heilongjiang Province China in 2008. It was 656 feet long and 115 feet tall!! The most popular activity for kids to do in the snow is build a snowman! When the weather person predicts there is a blizzard coming, people buy more cakes, candy, and cookies more than any other food. There is no scientific proof that no two snowflakes are alike. And this all about snow!!"

 Then I also came up with a science experiment to do each day that went with each season. For our winter science experiment, Paige went ice fishing. You put ice in a cup of water and lay a piece of twine over the top of the ice and then pour salt over the string and the ice sticks to the string and you can "fish" for it. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't but it was pretty cool to see.

 Then for cooking we made homemade ice cream. We made the mixture and made 4 different kinds- chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and mint chocolate chip. We put some of them in a tin container with the ice and rock salt and the girls rolled it back and forth to help mix and harden the ice cream. The other ones we just put in bigger bags with the ice and salt. We didn't have quite enough time so they were still pretty soft by the time it was bedtime so we just put them in the freezer to harden up more in there. 

 The next day, we enjoyed the ice cream! All the flavors were very strong but they turned out good.

 Tuesday's season was Spring. While Paige did her online math, Baylor worked on her letters and played with her dolls.

Then for our Spring math, Paige and I did a roll the dice bar graph. It's like what we did last week just with spring things to represent each number on the dice. We talked about our graphs and which one got the most and the least and if any of them tied. The last question was what spring item on the paper was our favorite and we both said flowers. 

 Paige quickly got her ELA done and did a journal entry for writing. The prompt was what your favorite thing to do in the spring is. She wrote, "My favorite thing to do in the spring time is to ride bikes because it a way to be outside."

Then Addison came over for the afternoon and we saved our art project for the day to do with her. They created a paper plate snail and decorated the shell with beads. Baylor loved having her own glue and spent the most time putting her together. She loved putting her own dot of glue on her shell and then finding the perfect bead.

 Their's cute snails- Baylor (I love the mouth that Baylor drew on hers!), Paige, and Addison

 We couldn't do our science for spring since we needed sunlight for it and Tuesday was rainy but Wednesday was nice and sunny so we ended up doing 2 science projects in one day. The spring one didn't require much expect setting it up and waiting and then observing. For the spring science experiment I briefly told Paige about photosynthesis and this experiment shows how there is plant respiration and how plants release oxygen in the air for us to breathe. 

First we put some freshly picked leaves in a little bit of warm water and placed them in the sun and then left them for a good part of the day.

 Then after the leaves have been in the sun you can see little bubbles in the water which is the leaves letting out oxygen and the water allows you to see that. Pretty fascinating to see!

 Wednesday was our summer day. Paige did her math on her computer and then this summer day word problems worksheet.

 Then for art they created paper plate fans.

 For writing my thought was for her to write a narrative about the perfect summer day. She asked if she could just write in her journal what you need for the perfect summer day and so that's what she did. She wrote, "A perfect summer day should have sun, sprinklers, outside games, friends and family, and a picnic. That's what I think a perfect summer day should have."

 For our summer science experiment we had fun with roly-poly bugs. Paige gathered up some and we observed what they did and what they preferred.

The first experiment was would they prefer light or dark. I had a paper where Paige would write her guess and the results. We put the bugs in the middle section and see if they crawled to the side where the sun was or to the side where we had the black paper covering. We had 6 bugs and 4 preferred the dark and 2 wanted some sun.

 Next was to see if the bugs would do under or through some objects. We put a toilet paper roll and some dryer lint to create some obstacles. They all went under the lint but none went through the tube and just tried to hide under it.

 The last experiment was to see if they would prefer carrot or apple. Paige predicted carrot and I thought apple since they are sweeter. Paige was right and all 6 went to the carrots to have a little snack.

 Baylor loved it so much and now thinks roly-polys are the cutest and coolest bug ever. While Paige had her class meeting, Baylor spent almost an hour playing with some. She would squeal and drop it if the legs tickled her. She loved trying to pick them up and it was the cutest listening to her little voice say, "Come here little guy." She even blew it a kiss and said I love you to it when it was time for her nap.

 Thursday was fall day. Paige did this cute fall addition color by number for our theme math and Baylor had fun coloring while Paige did her online work.

 For art we did aluminum foil leaf rubbings. Baylor didn't really understand this one and was happy to color on the foil with some markers. Paige thought it was pretty cool though!

 Then for writing, Paige did a journal entry. She wrote, "My favorite thing to do in the fall is have hot chocolate and jump in leave piles because it is fun!!!"

 Then for our fall science experiment we did an experiment with apples and how they brown. We talked about how if an apple gets dropped or slice the apple caused oxidation which causes the apple to release melanin which is the brown color that you see. She first did a hypothesis to guess if lemon juice would affect the flavor of the apple and if an apple tastes different once it browns. She also guessed whether lemon juice, salt water, or plain water would be the best to prevent browning. At the end of the day we observed and she taste tested. She liked the apples with the lemon juice and didn't like the ones that browned quite as much. Lemon juice and salt water worked best to prevent browning. And a side note is that Granny Smith apples hardly brown at all just on their own so it was a harder apple to observe for this experiment.

 Friday she had a fun drawing bonus meeting with her class in the morning. She didn't have any online math and did this graphing worksheet about all the seasons for her math.

Then for art they created trees to represent each season. The painted with Q-tips and their fingers. And of course once Baylor was done with her art project she wanted to paint her hand. :)

 Baylor's trees for each season.

 And Paige's finished seasons!

 Then for writing, Paige did opinion writing. The question was: winter, spring, summer, fall- which season do you like best of all? She wrote, "I like summer because it is super warm outside and you get to do lots of fun things."

 For sewing Paige learned how to cross stitch with Nona and did this cute heart. Paige loved it so much even though it took her a bit. 

 Then we did the weekly drawing and the whole family joined in this time. Baylor had her own paper and distracted Nate but we all had fun learning to draw this koi fish- Bethany, Paige, and Nate.

 Baylor's artwork during it all.

 For science this week on Paige's computer she learned about heating and cooling. At the end of the week it had directions for this art/science project that Paige really wanted to do and it turned out great. She even wanted safety glasses from the garage since it had them in the instructions. :)

It was a fun week and our last week's theme is camping!