Bigger Hearts for His Glory- Unit 28

This week we learned about cheerfulness!
Our verse was Proverbs 17:22

'A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.'

Our poem this week was 'Little Roads to Happiness' by Wilhelmina Stitch.  We copied the poem and learned the rhyme scheme and circled the patterns.  We also discussed and found examples of imagery.

We started reading the book, "The Story of the Wright Brothers and Their Sister."  

The kids copied these chronological highlights from our reading this week into their history notebook. 

The kids are enjoying the book and we hope to visit Kittyhawk before the schoolyear ends.  

*crossing my fingers*

In Science, we talked about the many uses for corn.  We learned how corn

kernels pop!  The kids enjoyed their yummy snack! 

We added in a bit of state study this week.  We learned 'Fifty Nifty' last year but have started working on location and capitals.  I found these great worksheets we will be using to help. 

http://www.itsybitsyfun.com/uploads/9/8/7/6/9876061/states_and_capitals_worksheets_1014.pdf

This week we read about Frances Ridley Havergal and listened to and sang along with the hymn, 'Take My Life, and Let it Be'. 

This week we had the opportunity to visit our local library for a big owl event!  

The kids were introduced to the book series, Guardians of Ga'Hoole.  

There were many other owl books for the kids to explore. 

They made owl masks.  

They cut out owls for a stick mobile.  

They made an owl origami! 

They got to pair up and dissect an owl pellet.  

At first they thought it was disgusting, but soon they dropped the tweezers and started using their hands. 

They really enjoyed looking for bones in the "yarp" pellets.  

I think this might be a piece of the jaw.

They found several different kind of skulls and other bones. 

They used the chart to identify the bones they found.  

We watched a live stream of 2 barn owls.  The class was full of homeschoolers and the kids had a great experience.  I sure love taking advantage of our library homeschool program.  I would highly recommend the owl pellet dissection.  The kids loved the hands-on exploration and they learned so much.  You can find an owl pellet kit for purchase on Amazon here:  http://amzn.to/1Fa8Gu7

We hope you had a great week too.  We are looking forward to a much needed family break for our spring break next week but, will be back the following week! 

See you then! 

Be blessed! 

Bigger Hearts for His Glory- Unit 27

We started this week with a kick off of the new blog site.  I hope that it is easier to navigate and full of useful insight as you follow our homeschooling journey.  What I originally intended to be a site for family members and a couple of  friends developed into a place to learn more about Heart of Dakota, compare projects, and check out our weekly arts and crafts activities!

Unit 27 ~ This week our character trait was bravery!  Our verse was Proverbs 24:10. 'If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength!'  So many times, I am uplifted by these simple weekly verses.  I almost think they were written just for me to get through each week!

John Muir Walks America

 

We learned about the naturalist, John Muir.  He came to America when he was eleven.  He was a botanizer and was very brave to travel walking 1000 miles from Indiana to Florida to observe nature in its' natural environment.  

The kids each chose a different state and drew pictures of some of the trees and animals you might find in that state.  They outlined the state with yarn and loved how the pics just popped right out of their page by cutting 3 sides and bending the bottom forward.  They labeled their pictures.

 

We had Tennessee with black bears, Smoky Mountains, streams, and oak trees.

We also had Georgia with swap land alligators and cypress trees.  

Last, we had Florida by my little artist.  He drew palm trees, black wolf, a panther in a tree, a pelican, and a vulture.

We learned John Muir helped found the Sierra Club to help protect the environment. 

 

Our Cattle (kernel) Drive

We learned about the great longhorn cattle drives from Texas to Wyoming on the Chisolm Trail.  The kids tried to keep their cattle (kernels) together  as they made their way across the table. 

Our cattle kernels scattered from a great hail storm!

We learned about cattle stampedes when the herd became spooked from coyotes, noises, or weather and how it was very dangerous for the wranglers as they rounded them back into formation.

We also read about Rosa Cristoforo who left Italy to come to America to live with her husband.  She endured many hardships but, made the best of her new life and became proud to be an American.  

We learned about longitude and latitude.  The kids were able to find different places around the world using this site:  http://itouchmap.com/latlong.html

Our vocabulary words this week were botanizing, wrangler, and immigrants.

We learned about the Spanish War this week too!  The American ship, the Maine was blown up in Cuba and the United States demanded that the Spanish Army leave Cuba.  When Spain refused, the war began.  Spain was forced to give up Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippine Islands.  This war united the North and South United States for the first time following the Civil War.
 

We read more about the Robinson family in our Pioneer Sampler Book.  The General Store was a good ride into town and they would often trade or barter goods.  We compared items that you'd find in an old pioneer store to items in a modern day store.  

We read that when a letter was sent, you could only receive it by paying for it.  It was costly and most people didn't have the extra money to spend.  It didn't take long for the pioneers to write in code on the envelope or simply send a blank page to get messages back and forth letting their loved ones know they were safe.  

We read about writing with quill pens and sealing envelopes with candle wax.  We wrote letters to our special family and folded one page into an envelope. 

We melted wax and dripped it onto our specially folded letters to seal it closed. 

We pressed the metal stamp design into the candle wax. 

The kids had fun with this but, of course I had to help them along the way because we didn't want to catch anything on fire!  A great experience to show them what it was like back in the day. 

We learned that pioneers didn't have heavy machines. We read that the Robinson family moved from their shanty of a home to their new log cabin.  They built their homes and worked hard on their farms using simple machines like rollers, levers, runners, and ramps. 

 

Rollers help move heavy objects. We rolled the book down the hallway with our rolling pencils. 

 

A fulcrum and lever helps lift heavy objects. 

This runner was used to skid heavy loads over grass or snow or icy roads. 

A ramp was used to roll heavy objects upward.
 

This week we read about many brave men and women who showed their bravery in different ways.  Some brave for a cause such as freedom, others brave to protect their families and some brave in order to survive.

 

We hope you had a great week!  I'd love to hear from you if you'd like to leave a comment below. 

See you next time!

Bigger Hearts for His Glory- Unit 26

Character Trait Wall

This week we added 'forgiveness' to our character trait wall.

We read more about Abraham Lincoln and learned that he kept our country together during difficult years. 

We used chalk to learn how to draw vertical cylinders that looked like Lincolns stovepipe hat. 

We drew horizontal cylinders to represent the rail logs that Lincoln split. 

We read about Harriet Tubman's adventures and learned how she guided and transported hundreds of slaves from the south to the north on the "Underground Railroad."  It was difficult and dangerous but, she was determined to help save the lives of many.

We learned that the United States divided into the Union and the Confederacy.  Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president, did not recognize the Confederacy and the Civil War began. The kids cut and pasted their notebook pages onto the correct side for each the Union and Confederacy.

The kids colored the Union States blue and the Confederate states gray.  Many people were wounded and many died in the war.  After the war, President Lincoln was shot in a theater by John Wilkes Booth. 

After reading Pioneer Sampler this week, we learned that in the pioneer days it was important to be weather aware.  They didn't have meteorologists to predict the weather so, they used the world around them.  Cicadas singing, birds in the air, and dew on the grass meant a warm & sunny day.  High clouds in the sky were good days to work outside.  Low and/or dark clouds meant rain.  We decided it looks partly cloudy here today with high clouds. 

We decided to try our own fun experiment this week to learn more about weather.  We made rain in a jar! All we needed was steaming water, a jar, ice, and a plate. 

We poured the steaming water into the jar.  We placed a plate over the top of the jar and put ice on top of it.  A cloud formed and swirled in the jar.  After a minute or two, drops of rain began to fall into the jar.  The kids enjoyed this simple project.  I explained that as the ground is hot and the atmosphere is cold clouds are formed and rain begins to fall once the droplets get heavy.

In Math, the boys learned how to find the approximate circumference of their ice fort!  It was the last bit of snow left to melt in our yard so we measured the diameter and multiplied by 3 to get an approximate circumference.  They thought that was pretty cool! 

In Art, we did a special project with colored pencils. 

We followed a step by step guide together. 

This project turned out great!  I love how they are each just a little bit different.  The kids really enjoy art and I love incorporating it into our week!

I even enjoyed it too!!  I was certainly amazed that the water colors turned out looking like paint when we pressed really hard and layered our pencils! 

Our Homeschoolers celebrated Dr. Seuss Birthday with a special trip to the library.  

All in all it was another fun week with Heart of Dakota!  We hope you had a great week too! 

See you next week!