Dyson challenge cards

We had fun with some science activities last week and were joined by some friends. I used the Dyson challenge cards, which were free from the learning section of the Dyson website, and we explored expanding gases and viscosity. These were very effective and simple demonstrations and I love the concise explanations on the cards of the science behind it.

The children all loved the gloop, which melted into a liquid when left alone, turned to a solid when moulded and went very hard when poked with a sudden impact.

We also watched a YouTube video about armoured jackets made using a similar material which the children loved.

http://youtu.be/o6gT3IfjfUc

Finally, an update!

My blog has been neglected for a few weeks as lots has been going on in our life so I'll just post a quick update then hopefully will be back to regular posts.

Peter had his fourth birthday! No longer a toddler and he had a nice visit to soft play and build-a-bear.

Harry has continued to create great pictures at art class and has been playing cello very nicely.

Harry has been reading Beast Quest books and has read the first two Artemis Fowl stories borrowed from the library as well as King of the Cloud Forests by Michael Morpurgo. Peter has started blending sounds to read simple words in the stage 1 Oxford Reading Tree books. He is also using the Teach Your Monster Read app.

Harry has started working from the Galore Park English textbook which is the perfect level of challenge for him at the moment. We are doing some of this each week. He has also been working lots on the basic maths functions using techniques for larger numbers, in Conquer Maths and the Mr Thorne Maths Universe app.

We have been using the BBC Schools Let's Move podcasts based on Ten Pieces classical music programme, so we have been following the podcast through dance and movement then watching some of the Ten Pieces too.

I recently received a set of free challenge cards from Dyson, which contain small science and engineering challenges. We have started following these last week, by using coke to clean a penny, which teaches about chemical compounds.

Harry has been to a family stargazing event at Kielder Observatory with Stuart, which he really enjoyed.

Harry and I have just started following a futurelearn online course about moons. He has always been interested in space and I think we will enjoy this.

We have been working on the Stone Age for a few weeks. We have read several books, looked up details about Germany (where the first bones were found) and visited the Hancock Museum in Newcastle using their downloadable object sheets to discover items in the Stone Age gallery. The boys played a great imaginative game for a long time involving hunting and being Cave Men. Harry also wrote a report back to the future from the Stone Age. 

We talked about Cave art and why it existed and also generally about art and how it can transport us to imaginative places or make us feel emotion. We looked at the posters and pictures in our house and said how they made us feel. 

Maths, news and leaf collecting

Harry has been doing more Conquer Maths today; he's on a roll! We also went shopping and bought a newspaper so we could read about the Rosetta mission to the comet. I usually just read the news online but like to read to the boys from a proper paper. Harry is really interested in space so I try to spot interesting stories for him. He spent tea time telling us how he will design a craft to take humans to land on comets! 

We also went out to Jesmond Dene with friends for a couple of hours to collect leaves. Harry needs to collect something over the course of a few weeks for a Beavers badge so we are going to preserve some of them and press others.

 

We're Going on a Bear Hunt activities

We had a week of bear themed activities last week, starting from the basis of Michael Rosen's book We're Going on a Bear Hunt. We have used several other bear books alongside it.

English

We talked about onomatopoeia and watched these YouTube videos explaining it - here and here. Harry identified the examples of onomatopoeia as we read the book.

We also made lots of buzzing onomatopoeia sounds while reading this bear counting book.

We looked at the description of the bear in the book and came up with our own descriptions of other animals.

Science

We talked about what bears eat and looked it up in our animal encyclopaedia. The boys thought they only eat meat and were surprised to learn that they eat berries and plants too. They liked the picture of the salmon fishing bears. We also read a book about hibernation, featuring bears as well as other hibernating animals such as wasps, toads and mice.

Harry explained very well to Peter what habitat means and included the concept of adaptation with an example - I was really impressed! He said that the habitat is a home where the animal gets the things it needs to live, such as food and shelter. Lots of animals are adapted with special features to live in certain habitats, such as very warm fur in cold places.

We played a habitat lotto game I printed from here http://www.marwell.org.uk/downloads/KS1HabitatsGamecolour.pdf. 

We talked about the different kinds of bear as we played and how they have different habitats in different parts of the world. Our wall map shows bears in Europe, North America and The Arctic too. 

We read these polar bear books and Harry answered some questions.

Numeracy

I asked Harry lots of mental maths questions this week with a bear theme. For example; If there are five caves and a bear family of four lives in each one, how many bears are there in total?

We used this game with Peter. One person hides the bear under a numbered cave and the other person tries to find it, saying the numbers as they turn over cards. Peter also put the cards in the right order - he did 1-10 on his own and 11-20 with help.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears 

I also had some Goldilocks and the Three Bears activities printed for Peter so we read our copy of the book and he ordered some objects by size and age. He also sequenced the story using picture cards and Harry told us the story based on the pictures in his own words.

We found this book at the library which we also read. It features a grown up baby bear meeting a grown up Goldilocks and we really liked it!

Play, story starters and decorating

Harry and Peter played Lego together for an hour this morning, without any bickering! This is unusual and very nice so I let them carry on without interrupting and I researched some WW1 activities and started thinking about Christmas ideas. If we don't have anywhere to be, or anything urgent to do, I do try to let them get on with self-directed activities if they are doing them well. I think this skill is just as important as the activities I prepare for them.

I brought some big cardboard tubes home from Scouts this week and we had a great play with these for an hour as well. We started just rolling marbles and balls down them, then we taped a starting line to the carpet to test which ball rolled the furthest.

We also built small towers to knock over by rolling things down the tube and an arch for them to roll through.

Harry built a 'city defence' for one of his towers and was pleased that this couldn't be knocked over! This was a great use of engineering skills: he knew that the building needed a wider base to be more sturdy and eventually it became a city wall to protect his tower.

We have been using this online story starter resource from Scholastic. The boys love spinning the wheels to create their story starter and the finished pieces can be printed to keep. 

We had been waiting for a delivery today, so when it came we went out to get Christmas cake supplies and paint testers. We didn't make a cake today, as I needed the oven to cook pizza for tea, but we will soon. We also talked to my dad on the phone and he is coming to help us decorate our hall this weekend so we spent the rest of the afternoon pulling wallpaper off! Harry really enjoyed getting involved with this and they will enjoy seeing their Granddad at the weekend. 

Autumn and literacy games

It looked decidedly autumnal this morning with a very strong wind so we stayed at home and wrote some Autumn poems.

We also listened to a BBC Let's Move podcast; 'falling leaves and windy weather', which seemed apt for today! We had to be leaves falling from the trees and blowing around and spiky tree branches stretching upwards.

Harry and Peter watched Magic School Bus Goes Batty to tie into the autumn/Halloween theme. This explored nocturnal animals, echolocation and bat feeding habits.

We played some letter games. Harry and I played bananagrams and Peter matched the wooden letters to their space on the board. 

We also played Harry's speech therapy game, to practise saying a variety of 'ch' words.

Harry had his swimming lesson this afternoon, which was a bit ruined for him as he swallowed a lot of water near the start and wasn't happy for the rest of the lesson! On the way out we went to get some shopping at the supermarket and to return some books to the library. There was a group of schoolchildren in the library and Harry said 'that's nice of the teacher to bring them to the library'; I am pleased he thinks the library is a nice place to go! To diverge from the Sea Quest book obsession for a short while, I read Hamlet aloud from the Orchard Book of Shakespeare Stories.

A good home education day

It's been a lovely day today and I feel like we have been very productive. 

Harry went to art class this morning. The teacher allows us to make up missed classes by attending one of her other classes and this was to catch up with the session we missed while on holiday. This is a great advantage, as home educating families often use term time to go on holiday or make family visits or excursions. He started a rhinoceros picture in pastels. We also played in the park with some of the other children although it was pretty cold and rainy!

At home Harry has continued his written review of series 1 of the Sea Quest books. He started this a while ago and has picked it up again now. 

We did some French practise; we said our names and ages, watched some counting videos on YouTube and played Shopping List in French.

Some complicated Lego creations have been built.

I got some of the craft supplies out and the boys decided to make fan style wings and tails for birds, by cutting strips of paper and fastening the ends together with a split pin. Peter also snipped up some wool to make a spider web.

Harry read his current Sea Quest book aloud to me and has done a Conquer Maths lesson on shapes. Peter has used the Teach Your Monster to Read app.

Harry also had Beavers this evening and they had a presentation called Amazing Brain from researchers at Newcastle University, which involved interactive games on how the brain works and links with the senses. 

Static electricity, art and bike riding

We used these books to read about static electricity yesterday and we did some fun experiments. I explained that static electricity is a build-up of electric charge and can happen naturally, like lightening. We contrasted this with electric circuits, where the electric current is moving. 

We refreshed the meaning of conductor and insulator and Harry remembered that a plastic toy is an insulator, from previous times we have experimented with electric circuits. Harry knew that the three basic parts of a circuit could be a battery, a conductor and a light bulb. We will be following this up by using his electricity kit next week.

Harry enjoyed 'controlling' my hair with a charged balloon. We gave it an electric charge by rubbing it with a woollen sock. It worked well with Peter's fine hair too! 

We also used the charged balloon to pick up small pieces of paper.

Harry had his art class and finished his dinosaur picture. We played in the park for an hour afterwards with our friends.

Harry also had his enjoy a ball class. I helped Peter to practise riding his pedal bike while Harry was in his class. He did really well and managed several rides on his own! 

Autumn outdoor play

We have had a super afternoon at the Valley Gardens in Harrogate with my mum and sister today in perfect Autumn weather. 

We did some leaf identification, found a frog, splodged in mud, and played with some amazing leaves. We've all had a great time and Harry and Peter both fell asleep on the way home; the dark evenings are quite helpful for that! 

Teddy bear picnic

We had a nice activity waiting to occupy us post-holiday today. While we were on holiday Harry's Beavers group had a teddy bears picnic to complete their healthy eating badge, so we have done this at home. Harry loves Beavers and is always keen to earn the badges! 

Harry chose all the food and made it himself. He had to make two kinds of sandwich. 

Houmous and cucumber wraps.

Tuna and sweetcorn wraps.

Satsumas and fruit kebabs.

He asked for tomato bread made in the bread machine too (which uses passata and sun-dried tomatoes) and made ham and chicken sandwiches using this. 

We also baked and decorated buns as we often talk about the role treats can play in a healthy balanced diet. 

We all really enjoyed doing this and I think Harry was proud of himself for making everything. He also cleared everything away. They haven't quite realised it's Autumn yet and are still wearing sandals! 

The teddies enjoyed a bit of tree climbing in the garden afterwards and we read a couple of stories outside as well.