Ducks

After reading The Story About Ping (set in China), we completed a duck lapbook using the book Ducks, by Gail Gibbons.  (These pictures are all from Nicolas's lapbook.)

We looked at how many different kinds of ducks there are (150), what ducklings can accomplish as they get older, what preening is, the most common type of duck (Mallard), what enemies ducks have, what the male, female and baby ducks are called (drake, hen and duckling), the difference between male and female duck calls, migration and homing.

Also, the characteristics of a waterfowl, about the nests and eggs, what ducks are domesticated, and the difference between dabbling and diving ducks.

Finally, definitions like instinct, brood, and clutch, habitats of ducks, and that people in China raised ducks for feathers, meat and eggs.

Geography notebook

We are "visiting" so many different countries this year with our co-op, that I thought it would be fun to do a geography notebook this year.  We are identifying it on a map, coloring the flag, learning briefly about a famous person either from that country or had something to with that country to make him famous, getting a recipe from that country (that hopefully we can make), and a famous landmark from that country. 

The recipe we will try to make along with other food items from that country sometime during the week for our cultural meal.  My hopes so far of listening to music from that country and using decorations from there have failed so far. 

We did France first and last week studied China.  (We are still doing China.)  We ordered a China kit this summer that the boys used in their books.  I wish we could do that for every country we study :)  The following pictures are all from Alex's book, but they both look the same (basically.)

We studied Louis Braille for our famous person.  I actually printed the alphabet on cardstock and poked the holes out with a screw so the boys could feel the alphabet.

Paper cutting from China

Chinese knot and coin.

Fun School Friday (Sept. 18)

Got the idea from the homeschoolshare message boards to have Fun School Fridays.  I am not doing it the same as they have suggested, but am trying to pick one fun activity to finish off our day - something creative.  This particular idea came from my most recent edition of Family Fun magazine.

I sent the boys outside with our camera looking for things that looked like the letters in their names.  Here is what they came up with:

 I thought it looked like fun - so I did my name, too.

Fall vacation

I know, we just started school, but our family enjoys taking a camping vacation the week of Labor Day, after everyone else has left the campground.  This year, we chose Pokagon State Park near Angola.  They are famous for their refrigerated toboggan run and the Potawatomi Inn.  It was raining when we got there on Monday and rained most of the day on Tuesday.  So Tuesday was spent at the Inn playing games and enjoying the nature center.  We actually decided to eat at the inn Tuesday night because we didn't want to try to start a fire with wet wood, or stand out in the rain while cooking it.  By Wednesday, it had cleared up nicely and warmed up some.  We enjoyed the day riding our bikes and fishing.  Thursday, Ryan and Alex went fishing again and Nicolas and I rode our bikes around before packing up to come home.  It's a nice campground with wonderful trails. 

The beach

The Inn.

Ping - pong in the activity room inside the Inn.  (Those are their stuffed animals they bought at the gift shop - Squirrely and Chip).

Starting the S'mores fire.

Nicolas fishing.

Alex doing some 'serious' fishing!

One of his "catch" before releasing it.

On the bike trail.

There were red squirrels and chipmunks EVERYWHERE.  You had to be careful on the bike trail not to hit a chipmunk.

Our campsite.  Notice there are NO neighbors.  It was so quiet.

The finish of our flight unit

On Labor Day weekend, we attended the Fly In/Cruise In at our small local airport.  They had small airplanes taking off and landing about every minute throughout the day.  They were giving helicopter rides.  But the highlight was the B-17 World War 2 Bomber that was there.  We got there just in time to see it take off.  I circled the area and landed about 1/2 hour later.  Then we were able to go up close to it.

This last picture is of a Navy plane (not sure what kind.)  We also saw it take off.

Wilbur Wright Museum

For our field trip, we visited the Wilbur Wright birthplace and museum near Hagerstown.

This is a "to scale model" of the airplane that the Wright brothers invented and was able to fly.

Study of Flight

We began our school year studying inventors.  Nicolas did a lapbook on inventors - Braille, Wright, da Vinci, Ford, Edison, etc. while Alex was preparing his oral presentation on Benjamin Franklin for our first co-op.

For our first co-op, we read The Glorious Flight, the story of Louis Bleriot, the pilot who flew his plane across the English Channel. 

Then, the 5th graders split to do their inventor presentations.  We have 4 5th graders this year, so we heard presentations on Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Ford and Alexander Graham Bell.

The younger kids built their own planes and flew them to see which one went the furthest and which one was in the air the longest.

After our co-op meeting, we met a pilot at a local airport.  He talked to us about his plane and showed us maps that pilots use when flying.