Unit 20: Preparing

It's my most favorite time of year...not Christmas...it's time to order next year's curriculum! I've been a curriculum ordering maniac all week. I've had to make some big decisions. We decided to stay with Heart of Dakota for 5th grade and I'm super excited about it! I can't quit looking at all the books online! We always order our curriculum when we get our yearly tax return, so that we don't have to worry about the expense in the fall. I can't wait until all of our boxes start coming in the mail! I'm sure I will be blogging about it all! I'm also setting aside money for some field trips and some classes I would like the girls to take the remainder of this year and next. I truly love planning all this stuff.

History: This week Sis learned about the early church and the spreading of the gospel after Jesus went back to heaven. We learned about Peter and John being thrown in prison, the stoning of Stephen, the believers scattering when persecution broke out, the conversion of Saul, and Peter's vision.


Her History project was to make an Ichthus (Jesus Fish.) We decided to make an Ichthus poster. First we drew our fish with a thick layer of white glue onto black construction paper. We let it dry over night and then we used different colored chalks to decorated the background. Boo and Baby Bear thought this one looked fun (they like to get messy with chalk) so they joined us and we all made posters. They took turns using our new chalk board to create their chalk masterpieces so that we didn't get the table messy.

Reading: Sis started learning about biographies this week. The book I chose for her is "Louis Braille:

The boy who invented books for the blind." I picked this book because it's fairly short. I decided not to spend over one week on biographies since we just recently read Rosa Parks. I also picked this because it seemed like an interesting story. The back cover of the book has the Braille alphabet with raised letters so that she can feel with her eyes closed. She thought that was neat. Sis read this one on her own while I worked with Boo and she told me about all about it when she finished. We also studied the characteristics of biographies.

Science:

In science we started learning about blood.We looked at what the Bible has to say about blood...and it's a lot! The life is in the blood. We learned that only through the shedding of blood can sins be forgiven, because someone must pay for the wrongs that have been done. In the Old Test times that meant the sacrifice of an animal, but an animals blood even one without blemish was not sufficient for covering all of a person's sins. Only the blood of a perfect human sacrifice would ever be able to do that...but there was no perfect human. So God decided he would become a man with flesh and blood, so that His blood could be shed for our sins! How awesome it is to think about the blood of Jesus! Without it we would have no hope of salvation or eternal life. We also learned about how our bodies work and why we need blood to live. We read about arteries, veins, and capillaries. 

We made a blood model for our project...corn syrup represented plasma, red hot candies were red blood cells, a white jelly bean for our white blood cell, and then candy sprinkles for our platelets. 

Sis added each ingredient as we studied the different parts of the blood. The most interesting fact we learned is that the plasma or liquid part of our blood is actually "straw color" like the corn syrup! There are so many red blood cells floating in there that it makes the blood look red!

  

 
For fun we also spent some time listening to season 2 of Brinkman Adventures! MFW sells these audio Christian adventure stories. They're great for in the car and road trips. My kids love listening to them. I tell them this is what life was like before tv, kids use to sit and listen to "shows," on the radio. At first I was surprised that my kids would actually sit and listen to acting on a CD without "pictures," but these keep Sis and Boo's attention. They are great entertainment though, they are exciting and Christ centered.