Saturday, October 8, 2011

The Fertile "Croissant"

This week we learned about the Fertile Crescent/Ancient Mesopotamia.I couldn't find any GOOD books, and as a result, I'm not sure how much it all sank in for Maxwell.

My reeds I ordered A MONTH AGO  to weave baskets with hadn't come in.  Perturbed....

We did do an activity anyway.  We were supposed to make bas reliefs from salt dough, which is a low raised sculpture or a picture etched in clay.  The kids weren't very interested in this, and since we were talking about the world's first cities, asked if they could make cities out of clay instead.  This sounded appropriate.

See how there's a city wall and a pyramid like temple in the middle?  I teach 'um good, eh?


We talked about how Mesopotamia is also called the Fertile Crescent and made croissants to drill this in, but I don't think they got it...maybe in four years.


For science, we talked about water tension.  We showed how a little safety pin will float on top of water but will sink if it goes through the water tension (just like a water skeeter.)  We showed how we could still fit tons of stuff in a glass that seems full.  We showed how material would hold in water unless you touched it and broke the tension, and then we broke the water tension in a shallow bowl with matches in it using dish soap.  It was pretty low key since only one boy showed up.  They were more interested in halloween costumes then water tension.


For preschool we learned that "d" stands for dddrum.


And for Field trip we went to an awesome Friendship Soup party.  Everyone brought an ingredient for soup and some cookies.  The soup ended up tasting delicious, and everyone got their cookie fix for the week.  There were probably 80 people in one house, but it wasn't crazy, I swear.  I bet it was because it was a big open house with vaulted ceilings, and she had carpet and log walls to soak up the sound.

I spent some of the party talking to one homeschooled boy who had just got his mission call.  I love how most homeschoolers are so comfortable talking to adults.  He has earned all the money he needs for his mission mostly from selling CDs with music he composed/performed on it.  Incredible and with it....YES another homeschool success story in the making.

Of course, what's a party without Shaina face painting everyone?

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