Ww- Water

We finally hit the 50th day of school mark on our number chart this week. That means we now have 5 bundles in our tens cup ( I think we need a bigger cup) and we're half way to our 100th day of school celebration!

This weeks theme was water. The focus was on learning about solids, liquids, and gases. Our Bible focus was on Jesus being the "Living Water." Just like our bodies need water to live, our spirits need Jesus the living water. Our words to remember were "Jesus gives my spirit living water to drink."

On day one we just talked about water. Where does it come from? Where do we find water on the earth? How do we use water? What would happen if there was no water?






 LIQUIDS:

On day 2 we talked about liquids. We went on a hunt around the house looking for liquids. Boo found water, dish soap, medicine, olive oil, milk, and other drinks in the fridge. I would point to something in the fridge and she would tell me solid or liquid. We poured water from a cup into a bowl to see how liquid can change it's shape. Then we put a solid (marker) in a cup and poured it into a bowl to see how it's shape stayed the same.

We also learned that some objects absorb liquid. We gathered a bunch of items from around the house. She guessed whether or not it would absorb water and then dipped each item into her bowl of water to see if she was right.


We filled a cup half full of water and put it in the freezer to check on the next morning. I also let her mix up some JELLO and put the liquid in the fridge overnight.  Boo loves to eat JELLO, but she's never watched me make it so she was pretty clueless that the liquid stuff in the bowl was going to turn into a solid. Baby Bear was pretty into it too.

SOLIDS: The next day we looked at solids. We took our cup of ice out of the freezer. Then we dumped it into the same bowl that we had used for the liquid the day before. We observed that the ice didn't change shape anymore like it did when it was liquid.

We checked on our JELLO too and discovered that it was now a solid. All of the girls enjoyed eating it for a treat after lunch.

 










Instead of the chart suggested in our manual, we decided to make a water book. I printed off pictures of solids, liquids, and gases from the internet.  We used a blank file folder and taped half of a second folder so that it would fold inside. Boo has never made a lapbook, but Sis has been doing them for years. So we decided to make this sort of like her first lapbook. Even though it's very simple.We labeled the 3 inside pages "Solids, Liquids, and Gases." On our solid day, Boo glued the solid and liquid pictures onto the correct page. We worked on adding things to our water book over the nxt two days. (pictures of the finished product farther down.)

These are the books we used this week. I liked  "Do Fish Drink? First questions and answers about water," for a non-fiction book. I found it a at thrift store a few years ago and grabbed it. It has info about water and related topics with colorful illustrations for young kids.

I have to mention that we had a reading breakthrough on Wed. Boo has been doing pretty well with her blend ladder and alphabet worksheets. After school she got Sis's old Bob Books off the shelf and was looking at them. Sis started screaming "Mom come here quick!" Boo was reading BOB Book #1 all by her self! She sounded out all of the words in book 1 and 2 of set A and read her first sentences! She was jumping up and down "I can read a book!" She was so excited that I let her stay up late to read to Daddy when he got home that night.There are so many school days that are so frustrating. You feel like they're not learning anything, or you wonder if they're ever gonna get it. All it takes is one moment like this to remind you why you work so hard and it makes it all worth it!


GASES:

On day 4 we talked about gases. We watched a pot of water boil on the stove and observed the steam going into the air. Then we completed our lapbook and glued our pictures to our gases page in our lapbook.

Here is the finished product...

Here is the inside of our book finished...

 

On the back side of the right flap we answered some water questions. I wrote the questions on blank lapbook templates and then filled in what Boo answered. Her favorite thing to do with water: Swim at waterparks (love it!) I always use blank templates from www.homeschoolshare.com They have an awesome variety of free lapbooks too. Click HERE for the blank templates. We used the Simple Fold Basic Shapes.

For our words to remember craft this week we decorated the back cover of our lapbook. We used cupcake liners folded in half and construction paper handles to make these cute umbrellas. We added our words to remember and then Boo got to finger paint raindrops.

Sis Highlight:
Sis took a big unit spelling test and only missed 2 out of 50 words at 4th grade spelling level. She's been working on her typing, equivalent fractions in math, learning about primeval reptiles in science, and making her first  lapbook this school year for history. Nothing else too exciting, just all her regular school work this week. She has enjoyed helping Boo with her water experiments though and eating her JELLO.

We've decided to take a week off of MFW next week, but not a week off of school completely. We'll be doing some holiday related activities instead and eating lots of turkey.