Dolphin Tale Unit Study Part Two

We spent a major amount of time today in parent discussion because we had a new mom with questions. And after all, that is what we are here for, to help each other, give support and suggestions on what might work. AND to be an ear just to listen. As moms we need that time to share what is on our hearts. I love this group for that very reason. We are there for each other. We all have different teaching styles and curriculum but we all respect each other and don't think one is doing it wrong just because it isn't the way we are doing it. We learn so much from each other each time we meet. 

 

This week we had eleven kids that were able to come and stay for our craft time. We didn't have a large amount of time for the craft so we didn't do a lot of background on the Anglerfish like we did the Jellyfish. But it is my hope that it will spark an interest in looking into it further. I also printed off some extra stuff for them to do while they were there or at home. 

JC, as always, is being silly and Ryan thinks he is funny. The kids really seemed to have a good time making them. They used egg cartons, pipe cleaners, construction paper to cut out teeth, feathers for the tail and a bead on the end of the pipe cleaner for the "light".  Those two boys seem to really love the idea of the feathers for the tail. I just love the expressions on their faces!

They got to do it all by themselves except for when they asked for our help. It was a pretty easy craft but fun at the same time. They drew eyes and fins on the body with a marker. Each child got to pick from a bag of different color feathers and beads. They got really creative with the eyes and how they decorated them.

The younger AND older kids seemed to enjoy our time working together. Then the older ones had a Winter (that's the dolphin's name) word search and the young ones had a dolphin coloring picture to work on. We are so thankful for the mom's who were there helping us with the crafts, too. It makes it wonderful to have everyone working together. 

I told them if they would take a serious group picture they could do a silly group picture. As you can see, we had some happy kids who were more than willing to take a silly picture as a group. I am so pleased because they all told me how much fun they had and they were full of smiles. THAT is why I love bringing things for them to do. THAT is why I homeschool. THAT is why I love working with kids. Their smiles! 

We have one more week of the Dolphin Tale Unit Study. That will be two weeks from today. There is much more to the study than we have done or will be able to do in the short amount of time we are able to get together. Make sure you take the time to do some of the other activities at home with your kids and share how it turned out with the group. We would love to hear about it.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Our Daniel Boone Unit

This school year we have been using a wonderful program, Trail Guide To Learning: Paths of Exploration. We have fallen in love with this program. It is great for me, the teacher, because everything is laid out so clearly. Everything comes in your "backpack" of supplies with very few exceptions, like colored pencils and the like. For the kids it is great because it is fun and interesting. It includes all the subjects but math. We are able to do so many extra things with each unit. There are six units that take six weeks each. This year we are learning all about exploration of the United States, starting with Christopher Columbus. Next year we will be doing Paths of Settlement. They are supposed to keep making more to this series that will continue all the way through high school. I think that is awesome!

We are having such a great time with our Daniel Boone unit. We have been doing lots of reading about him and I purchased a DVD with some of the Disney TV shows from long ago. We watched one of them last night. It was different from the true story in a lot of ways but truth was mixed into the story line. I could tell where they changed it but still kept truth in it as well. For instance, he had a new child almost every couple of years, but on the show he only had two kids.

We have learned how Daniel Boone lived and explored many different places in the United States. We also learned a great deal about how the battle for independence impacted the settlers in ways we never knew. The British paid the Native American's to kill the settlers because they were trying to gain that independence from them.

We are also learning a lot about honey bees. Did you know that they are disappearing? And if we can't find a way to get them back and keep them we will lose a lot of our favorite fruits and veggies? I am not sure what we can do about it. We found the information by looking up Colony Collapse Disorder, which was first realized in the U.S. in 2006. If you and your kids are studying bees, this would be an awesome subject to check out. The reason we are learning about bees is because when the settlers got to America there weren't any honey bees. I didn't know that.

Most people had a snow day today because the weather is so odd for Texas. It has been below freezing and snowing lightly all day. The kids have gone out twice although I don't see how they can stand it. I stand at the door to check on them and freeze within seconds. Kids are so funny that they can stand things we can't. I am glad they are having a good time but hoping they don't lose any fingers while they are having fun. I'm telling you...it's cold! We did have our school time today. They got their math done before they went out the first time. Then they came in for lunch and our Unit Study time. Now they are back out there freezing. I took these pictures of them when I braved the cold for the few minutes it took me to get them to come off the playground to pose for it.

That is our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.