Pirates

Following on the heels of Vikings, Seth chose Pirates.  I was...less than thrilled.  Vikings are fierce enough...but pirates are just plain barbaric.  So I approached with caution.

What They Knew:

Hannah:  They often used guns called pistols, Blackbeard was the most fierce, Pirates don't just steal treasure, they steal food and cloth, and things they need to survive, they have ships called warbirds, some brought their families (???), pirate movies mix myth with truth, they had parrots, sometimes they got caught in storms...which is very dangerous on high seas.

Seth:  They have big wooden ships, they don't have heads on their ships like the Vikings, some use guns and some use swords, some lost their heads, they have cannons on their ships.

We went over basic pirate history, we discussed what kinds of ships they used, and why they would choose smaller ships over the larger ones, we talked about a few famous pirates, Captain Kidd, Blackbeard, Mary Read, etc.  We looked at maps and followed some of the most common pirate courses.  We discussed why they would choose to hit those areas most.  We were very clear about the fact that pirates were NOT NICE PEOPLE who did a lot of bad things.  We looked at a diagram of the insides of a pirate ship, and what the different spaces were used for, the galley, the captains quarters, etc.  We looked at pirates symbols and pirate lingo.

For a writing activity, I had them write three days worth of a ships log.  They had to come up with their pirate name and record what might have happened to them during that time.  I totally love the results!

Next we did a "treasure hunt" activity.  I had a bunch of cardboard coins, from pennies up to quarters that I buried in a bin of dry beans.  The kids got to search for the "treasure" and then add up their "booty."  The point was for them to learn how to count money...to use some tricks to make it easier (grouping, separating into 1$ increments, counting by 5's, 10's etc).  In the end, Hannah ended up with quite a few more coins than Seth did.  But the totals were almost identical.  $5.29 for Seth, and $5.26 for Hannah.  Apparently Seth ended up with more "silver" coinage. 






















Next we did a fun activity.  I've been wanting to do the shaving cream activity, and this seemed the perfect opportunity.  I printed a simple pirate ship image and taped it to the table, then I covered it with a piece of saran wrap, which I also taped down.  Then I covered the picture with shaving cream and dropped a few drops of blue and green food coloring in.

They played around in the shaving cream for a while, and eventually realized that through the foam...there was something under there...
















We call the color:  Sea Foam Green.
















What They Know Now: 

Seth:  Some pirate ships are called "junks".  They steal the other peoples ships, some pirates get dumped off (marooned) for breaking a rule, Blackbeard was the meanest pirate in the whole world until the good guy got him.

Hannah:  Pirate ships have rooms, their anchors were heavy and so were their sails, they had different types of flags, they all had to do with skeletons, they had smaller, fast ships, they would steal the daughters of the mayor or general, pirates called their treasure "booty", they could be very dangerous.

Next week:  Famous Artists

Vikings

On the way home from the movie theater, following How To Train Your Dragon, Hannah said, "Mom, I know that dragons are not real, but what about Vikings?"
















And so a summer school topic was inspired.

What They Knew:  

Hannah:  They have their own handwriting, they fight, they lived in houses with roofs made of straw.

Seth:  They fight.

We covered a lot of aspects of Vikings:

• where they lived
• what their houses were like
• how they ran their towns
• what their boats looked like and were used for
• what foods they ate
• what clothes they wore
• what tools they used
• how we know about them
• their alphabet, Runes
• their beliefs, including the gods, and how we got many of the names of the days of the week...
• Erik the Red, Greenland, Vinland, Iceland, etc.
• their weapons and forms of fighting
• unique customs
• followed their travels on a world map
• discussed why/how they disappeared

They wrote their names in Runes.  












































And finally, we built this boat.  The day after Hannah decided to do Vikings for our next lesson, we came across this kit in the clearance bin at Michaels.  (yes, Michaels, despite my extreme dislike for them...they have the best assortment of fabric paint colors) .  At any rate, it was fate.  These kits are usually more money than I am willing to spend, but this boat has become a well loved and well used toy at our house...totally worth the 3$ I spent!

First Seth had to show me that he could make a sea horse out of these pieces.


































































Finished.  I told them to show me their Viking faces.  Yikes!
















What They Learned: 
Hannah:  Vikings were very good at shipbuilding, they killed or banished people that broke the rules, Vikings often went to other lands and traded, or raided.  They wore gold, some people were rich, their ships were strong and fast and they put their shields on the sides of the ship, they carved heads of animals on their ships, they liked to fight, and feast, and their meetings were called "things".  The days of the week were named after the gods, Thor, Woden, and Frey/Freyja.

Seth:  Viking boats were fast.  They were also strong.  They killed whales for food.  They growed their own food.  They traveled to Greenland and Iceland.  They made their own weapons.

Another segment that we added to our school time was one on money.  My sister gave Hannah a bunch of foreign coins for her birthday.  So each "school" day, we pick out a coin, find the country on the map, discuss how many US dollars/cents it would be worth, whether or not it is still used today, etc.  They have really liked this part.  And so have I!

Next week:  Pirates!  (I know, it's so similar to Vikings...I will have to spin it a little to be more educational, and less horrifying.)

Sharks

Seth chose to learn about sharks this week.  I toyed with the idea of doing oceans as a whole, but that was just too much information, and my kids are all about the details, so we focused on sharks. 

What They Knew:

Seth:  They have sharp teeth.  They live in the sea, they eat fish.
Hannah:  They have sharp teeth.  they live in the ocean.  They like to eat fish.  They are very dangerous.  They live deep down in the ocean.

We discussed the habitat of the shark, and which type of sharks lived deep in the ocean vs. which sharks lived closer to the surface.  We named the most dangerous shark, the least dangerous shark, and some of the more unique sharks in between...i.e. the Cookie Cutter Shark and the Saw Shark.  The kids thought it was cool that the cookie cutter shark, which sounds so cute and sweet, was much more brutal than the saw shark, who sounds so vicious.  We discussed other members of the shark family, like Rays.  We talked about the three ways that sharks give birth...laying eggs, an egg case, and live birth.  Shark babies are called pups.  We discussed the distinguishing characteristics of sharks...like the lack of bones, the ability to replace their teeth, and their mode of "breathing."  We also talked about how many sharks need to keep moving so that they don't sink.  We learned that they have an oil in their liver that helps them have more buoyancy.  We poured a little oil into a glass of water to show how that process worked. 

And finally, we got crafty.  I had seen this idea on my friend Amy's blog a couple weeks ago, and knew that we would need to try it.  Here is the site that she got the idea from.  His looks so professional.

Ours looks slightly less professional, I admit.  But I just adore the kids' drawings.  Hannah did the octopus and the whale shark, while Seth did the black and green sharks. 

One thing I will say about this project...be prepared to be freaked out.  This currently sits on the table next to the computer, and more than once I have jumped because the fishies were "swimming"  (thanks to the AC) and I thought they were real for a second.  Creepy.  The top of the box is cut with long slits where the fish are attached to buttons.  So the kids can slide them around and constantly rearrange the fish like puppets.  Very fun. 

OK, so what did they learn?

What They Know Now: 

Hannah:  Some sharks live on the very bottom, cookie cutter sharks use their teeth like a cookie cutter, whale sharks are almost completely harmless, all sharks eat meat, oil helps them float, the oil is in their liver, some sharks eat each other, some lay eggs in a sack, the Great White is the most dangerous shark, sharks barely ever get sick, if sharks stop swimming, they sink.

Seth:  They can eat their own babies, some babies eat their brothers and sisters, the cookie cutter shark makes cookies out of its prey with its mouth...even huge whales, the huge shark eats tiny food, and he's nice, and fat, the whale shark...that's what he's called, some sharks live at the bottom and look like sea weed, one shark looks like a swordfish, they are flabbery because they have that stuff inside that's not bone.

Next Week:  Vikings (Hannah's choice, inspired by How to Train your Dragon)

Plants/Photosynthesis

Even though the kids had both done plant units in school this spring, they were still both very interested in it.  So...we made it our choice for the week.

What They Knew:

Seth:  "they grow by seeds, they need water, they need sunshine, they need air, they are alive, some plants eat bugs, some are big and some are small"

Hannah:  "they need to breathe, they are big and small, they need certain things to make them green, they need warmth, sunlight, and water.  they need time to germinate, they need soil, the leaves make the food, if they don't get pollinated, they can't make seeds"

As you can see, they already had a pretty good grasp on the concept.  So I had to push it a little further.  Thankfully, I had prepared more than I thought I would teach.  So we ended up skipping most of the basics and focusing on photosynthesis.  They filled out a worksheet labeling the parts of a plant.  We read the book "The Life Cycle of a Carrot".  We talked about seed dispersal and looked at different ways seeds can be spread.  We learned about various unique plants from around the world.  We discussed vocabulary words, including:  root, stem, leaves, flowers, fruit, seeds, chlorophyll, photosynthesis, sugar, oxygen, and carbon dioxide.  We learned the basic process of photosynthesis and the function of chlorophyll.  Plants use water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight to make their own food.  As the food is absorbed, the plants leaves release oxygen into the air.  (thank you, plants, for making our air so much better to breathe!)  To see this process in action, we put lettuce leaves in water and placed them in the sunshine.  About an hour later, we observed little bubbles of air on the surface of the leaves and into the water.


































The picture doesn't show it very well.  You can see the tiny bubbles on the side of the container better than you can see the big bubbles right on the surface of the leaf.  Bummer.  BUT, the kids could see it perfectly in person. 

What They Learned: 

Seth:  "we don't eat the top part of a carrot, we eat the root.  Some plants wrap around other plants and eat their food.  birds and bees transfer pollen.  plants make air."

Hannah:  "There is a flower that is 3 ft wide, the redwood trees can be taller than the statue of liberty, people can spread pollen on purpose to make their crops grow more seeds, fruits have 2 jobs 1.  to be delicious, and 2. to protect the seed.  Chlorophyll is the stuff that makes it green.  Plants make oxygen for us to breathe."

Next week:  Sharks (it was Seth's choice)