Layers of the Earth for Kids

I went home one day with a bunch of avocadoes for Vito and I to eat.  Then as I was slicing it, Mavi saw the huge seed inside and blurted out that it looks like the Earth’s core!  And just like that, I whipped a brief activity on the layers of the Earth!

For the book, we had this since 2 years ago that Mavi really really loves to read.  It’s an easy read for young kids and the good thing about it is that it’s like an adventure book that takes its readers into an adventure of digging a hole down to the Earth’s center!  So I am HIGHLY recommending it to those who are interested.

Get the book from:

• To the Core from Amazon
• To the Core from Book Depository (FREE shipping anywhere!)

After looking into the avocado and discussing how it looked similar to the Earth’s layers, I took out some coloured rice (we already have this and stored in ziplocks) and have Mavi create the layers in a piece of cardstock in the way it is described in the book.

 

And this is what he came up with. He completed this with a little assistance from me. Well actually, my work only includes getting the rice and beans for him LOL.   He added some space shuttle and man in suit.  The book indicates that it is impossible to reach the center of the Earth as no machines or human can stand the pressure and heat.  But the book allows the reader to imagine and pretend, that if it’s possible, a super duper powerful digger and super suit is needed for humans to reach the  Earth’s core.

And since Mavi is now 6 yrs old, I am “training” him to discuss to me what he has learned from the book.  So he narrated what he learned using his artwork.  Okay, this is like reporting or project presentation in school, but it is at home and you’re doing it with your Mom :D  Mavi actually loved doing it and wanted to do it again!

After which, we took out some stuff at the kitchen and put up together the elements that made up the Earth.  Now, the CRUST is soil (we don’t have any so we used oatmeal for representation), MANTLE is made up of thick hot rocks, OUTCORE is made up of hot molten metal (we used ketchup!) and the INNERCORE is made up of a huge solid metal, a ball of iron (seed of Avocado).

See how spontaneous we are at home! My son enjoyed this activity and so do I! Hope you find this helpful :)

Pin this for later use! 

Language and History Books

My books from Book Depository arrived yesterday. We were able to work on some grammar lessons using First Language Lessons Vol 1.  I have heard good reviews about this book (and the series) so I’m giving it a try.  The tools used in the book are memory work, copywork, narration and grammar (leading to a Charlotte Mason’s principles).   I observed the  A LOT of repetitions though. But that’s fine with me. I have nothing against that technique worked for me, especially with mathematics.  In case its too much for my son to handle I’ll just skip some pages LOL.

For our history, I got The Story of the World Vol 1.  I love world history and I can’t wait to use this with Mavi.  I bought a hardcopy of the book but purchased a PDF version of the activity book so I can reuse it with Vito.

Will update more on this as we progress. Happy Wednesday!

Teaching Addition within 10

Here’s a little recap of what Mavi has learned of our Math lessons for the past weeks.  And  the best part of it is that Mavi has learned how to do mental calculations! Yehey!  I’m so happy that he has discovered this all by himself.  He’s like “I’m using my brains to count Mom”.

We are using Singapore Math workbooks, and we use manipulates as well.  Read here if you want to know how we integrated workbooks and manipulatives. We’ve been using manipulatives for some time (Montessori and other learning materials) and now that he is older, we’re going to use less of these. 

Anyway, here’s what he has learned so far:

Ways to Add

• Number Bonds. We’ve studied number bonds before so it was easy for Mavi to apply his knowledge once we’ve touched Addition.  You can also get a free NUMBER BOND ACTIVITY SHEETS by clicking this link.

• By counting on from the greater number.  This is something new for Mavi.  I told him it’s a trick that he can use to add numbers.  He liked it and he’s been using it ever since. 

Making Addition Stories

Another part of the lesson that Mavi really really love doing was making stories! Favourite characters in his stories were his classmates and the dinosaurs lol.  This is an introductory part for problem solving which we will be doing as we progress.

Next would be subraction. I wonder if he will like it in the same way he did in addition.

Life Cycle: Organisms

 

We started our Organisms Unit early this week and it was a joy Mavi had a great time learning about the living organisms and the different forms of life. I like that we will only have a few activities here. Focus on the quality, making sure that the child truly understands the concept behind the activity.

The key concept of this unit is for the child to learn that there are other organisms besides human and animals. That these organisms thrive and reproduce for survival. The following are the activities that we performed for the unit:

LIVING AND NON-LIVING

Objectives: To be able to sort the living and the non-living objects.

Task:

1. Describe the characteristics that makes an object a living organism.
2. Distinguish objects that are non-living but have been created from living objects (wooden cabinet).
3. What are the three important requirements of a living organism to thrive or grow?

Vocabulary: animal, living, non-living, organism

 

ANIMAL FAMILIES

Objective: Classification and sorting of objects, in order to group them into larger groups (Families)

Task:

1. Discuss the families of the animals, what do you call the father, the mother and the baby and their group.
2. Comparing the animal tracks. Those with round shape, hoofs or prints with toes.
3. Classifying animals whether they live in land, water or sky.

Vocabulary: family, group, classification

   

ANIMAL HABITATS

Objective: Comparing where animals live.

Mid this year, we have conducted a study of the different habitats of animals around the world.  You can view our lesson here and here.

Next week, my son and I will work on the human body.  Still part of the Life Cycle theme… that evolves around organisms. 

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Calendar: October Schedule

I printed this calendar and posted it in Mavi’s room.  He loves looking at schedules and is looking forward for me to put a star on it once we’ve accomplished something.  So in October our lessons would be:

• Math:  shapes, ordinal numbers, number and shape patterning
• Grammar:  First Language Lessons (we will be using Montessori Grammar Symbol for this)
• ART:  artist study, crafting, random painting activities
• History:  SOTW
• Science:  Human body (organs, skeletal system, teeth), plants, natural environment

Science Lesson Plans 2014 – 2015

For a change, I made plans/curriculum for Mavi’s after school lessons.  I think I needed this for I am about to start schooling Vito as well.  What happens here is that we talk, discuss the topic and he will work on the tasks or lab experiments then answer the activity sheets.  The tasks should be done with minimal help from Mommy.  This will encourage him to think for himself, work on his own and start to make decisions.

Note that even if Mavi’s knowledge on Science is way beyond his age, I started with the K lessons so as not to miss the little things.  Anyway if we’re done ahead of time because he knows it already, we will proceed to Year 1 level even before the school year ends.  So here are the things we need to accomplish for this year :

Life Cycle

• Living and Non-living things
• The Human Body
• All About Plants
• Nature and Environment

Water

• Water Cycle
• Oceans
• The Weather

Earth’s Crust

• States of Matter
• Minerals
• Rocks
• Discovering Dinosaurs (Dinosaurs, Geological Times)

Earth’s Moving Force

• Volcanoes
• Earthquakes
• Continents and Oceans
• Hazards

The Story of the Universe

• Universe
• Solar System
• Earth
• Land and Water Forms

Applied Science

• Science and Math, Tools of Discovery
• Physics, Observation, Electricity, Magnets
• Technology, Machines, Inventions
• Natural and Man Made Environment

Source:  The curriculum is based on Math/Science Nucleus

Math Curriculum 2014-2015

Sharing Mavi’s Math curriculum for this school year.  In our home math is done as a supplemental study after school.  We don’t exactly do it everyday but I have weekly goals for each scope noand I am making that Mavi accomplish that task per week.  This post also serves as a reminder for me, in case I will look back 5 years from now for Vito’s Math curriculum as well :D

We are still using our Montessori Math materials and still adapting the philosophy.  But I just feel that need that Mavi needs to more forward.  As what Susan Stephenson said in her book Child of the World

“This child nearing the age of six or seven is passing beyond what is known as the sensory-motor developmental stage, when movement and exploration through the senses is a basic need in all learning.  Now he will gradually move to a cerebral exploration, giving up the manipulative materials according to his personal timetable. The years 6-12 are relatively stable, and the main academic work can now be done.”

With Math, I allow Mavi to use manipulative materials (Montessori and other learning materials) if he wishes to.  But I want him to learn how to do mental counting as well. 

• Number Patterns
• Number Bonds
• Addition within 10

• Subtraction within 10
• Shapes and Patterns
• Ordinal Numbers and Position
• Number to 20
• Addition and Subtraction within 20
• Length
• Mass
• Graphs
• Number to 40
• Multiplication
• Division
• Time
• Number to 100
• Money

If you have been following my blog, you know that we’ve done some of it in the past few years though play.  Right now, we’re working on it with workbooks and lots of additional activity sheets(homemade).  

So in times that we don’t work on Geography and Science, Mavi and I are definitely working on serious Math. Oh and yes, we’re using Singapore Maths… literally :D  I ordered a few workbooks used by students in Singapore from Popular Bookstore. Remember that we used to life there so I’m a little bit aware of what kind of books to purchase. And I have relatives living there as well.

Will post more as progress.

Montessori Grammar Lesson

At home, we’re using the Montessori approach in teaching the English grammar.

Below are some of the materials we used:  grammar symbols, grammar booklet, strips of papers and Sharpies.  The symbols are made from foam crafts which I painstakingly form and cut.

Instead of grammar farm, we used Legos and animal figures set-up in an Arctic/Antarctic Expedition.  From here, I made Mavi identify the nouns.

I made this definition cards for his guide.

 

We created the sentences based on our set-up and Mavi labeled each word using a grammar symbol.   

And I made him work the other way around, Mavi creating a sentence using the symbol sequence I made.

Surprisingly, he enjoyed this activity.  He enjoys identifying the correct grammar symbol and loves creating sentences.  We will be doing much of this work and as he progresses, I’ll introduce adverbs, conjunction, pronoun, interjection and preposition.

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The Geological Times

 

By now, you all know that my son is into history … the beginning of times.  I’m thinking of feeding this current interest and I find myself introducing topics which are unplanned.

I’m so thankful that I purchase The Universe Series (Trilogy) by Jennifer Morgan.  This book series tells the story of time, starting from the big bang theory (cosmology).. followed by the first animals and dinosaurs and the last book is about how the mammals that survived morphed into human beings.  The book is engaging (my son is only 6!) yet he reads this book on his own.   Amazing amazing book. All those science concept were explained in such a way that little fellows can understand as well. 

I got my books from Book Depository.  I find that it is much cheaper there, and ships for free worldwide.  The books are:

• Born with a Bang
• From Lava to Life
• Mammas who Morph

So we used these books to study the geological times.  We read them over and over, noted the import events and arranged them according to the period in time.

  

Information about the pictures:

HADEAN,ARCHEAN, PROTOZOIC--I used my felt planets to represent the events of the formation of the solar system (moon, planets, stars)

PALEOZOIC (early life) –- we placed Dimetrodon, appearance of first insects, amphibians, rocks

MESOZOIC –- time of the dinosaurs

CENOZOIC – evolution of humans

 

How I wish I have the Safari Toob Cambria Life and Safari Toob Prehistoric Life to make our time line much more interesting.  Maybe in another, if I have the budget :)

 

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Learning About East Asia

If you’ve been following my blog, we started our Asia Unit last month and so far we successfully completed our Southeast Asia Study.  In this post, I present to you materials and activities we worked last week for East Asia. 

Maps and Flags

As you all by now, we ALWAYS start our continent/country study with maps and flags.  This will familiarize the child of the subject’s location and each of the country’s national symbol.  For the East Asia, we identified three major countries: China, Japan and South Korea

Materials:

• Asia in a Nutshell
• Asian Flags Nomenclature Cards Pack

Again, we used Lego to recreate flags.  This activity is similar to our Southeast Asia flag activity.

Famous Landmarks

We have painting/crafts activity and Lego play.  Our tablet is very useful for this activity.  We used it to view pictures (for clear view) and watch videos related to our study. 

Materials

• Asian Landmarks Cards for other activities (3-part cards, fact cards).
• Lego
• Paints
• Pink Tissue Paper

Famous landmark for Japan is Mount Fuji

             

 

We chose Great Walls of China as our subject here.  Here we use our fact cards, which Mavi reads while we view the bigger picture in our tablet.

Calligraphy

We are using the Japanese numbers in this activity.  I painted the characters on papers and cut them for presentation.  Now Mavi has to make the characters as well.

After the activity, Mavi was like “Mom it is so difficult!”. 

 

Animals

We’ve studied Asian Animals previously, so in this activity we’re doing a Panda puzzle.  I printed this from DLTK Kids, and Mavi has to color and form the Panda according to the cheat card.

 

Arts and Crafts

We made oriental fans and learned how to make origami items.  For the oriental fans, we used paper plates, used watercolor for the background and black tempera paint for the details.  Our origami papers are homemade because the real ones are so expensive in this side of the world.  They’re colored crafts paper and I cut them to a size of 6 x 6 inches.

Books

We used lots of books, but here are my son’s favourites [aff.links]:

• Letters Around the World:  China --->> OUR FAVOURITE SERIES!
• Discover Countries:  Japan

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History and Geography