activities

Rocks and Minerals Discover Day!

March 30, 2010 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

Last week I set up this Rocks and Minerals Discovery table for the kids to explore with! Let me tell you that they L-O-V-E-D it, and it was hard to wrap it up and move on to the next thing. (Don’t you just hate when you have to pry them away from learning in order to get them to eat something?)

I used a few different kits that I picked up at the local teacher store, as well as our local museum. If you’re looking to pick up a kit for your classroom, I think the Minerals kit was better because it came with a streak plate and a nail to test the rocks with. However, the more “fancy” rocks like the ones in the first photo are the ones we picked up at the Museum, and you can snag a nice kit of some here online.

Here are some photos of the different stations that I set up:

Click here for the rest of them, including details for each one.

I also made up this handy Rocks and Minerals printable to keep track of all the information we collected about the rocks. These print 2 to a page so you can easily have a bunch on hand for your kiddos to fill out.

And CurrClick has a Rocks and Minerals Flash Card Set for Free!

Stay tuned for more Rocks and Minerals Activities!

Make Your Own Fossils

March 20, 2010 By Valerie Mcclintick 5 Comments

We’ve been slowly fazing in some Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils to our science lessons, and this was one of the activities that we just had to do!

So...here is a super simple way for children to make their own fossils.

I had no idea that Plaster of Paris could be so easy to work with!

(I had envisions of cement mixers, inhaling nasty white powder, and crusty rock formations on my best spatula)

However with a little prep work, None of that occurred, and we had a fantastic time making fossils!

And apparently our excavation site was somewhere in the Asian territory of a remote place called “ANIHC”

Too Cute Right?

Click Here for full Photo Instructions!

Mayflower Craft

November 24, 2009 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

This is actually a craft we did a few years back, but I’ve finally put up a photo tutorial for how to make it. They turned out really colorful too, because this time we used paint instead of markers.

Additionally, I thought it might be fun to have children draw pictures of different items and resources that were aboard the Mayflower and put them into the pocket.

If you haven’t already noticed, for each craft I offer some “Discussion” ideas. (You’ll see them to the right of the “Materials” list) These discussion questions are meant to be things you can be thinking about and teaching on as you complete the craft. It’s my experience (what little of it that I have) that my kids are very receptive to information when it is paired with hands on activities, and they actually commit it to memory easier when we’re having fun learning about it. It’s also useful to have something tangible for the visual learner in all of us, and I think crafts are a great way to fill that need when they are paired with educational topics.

Blah Blah, right? You know, just in case you were wondering what all that discussion stuff was.

Anyway,

Here are the Photo Instructions

I’ve paired this with the book, “If you sailed on the Mayflower” which has more then enough information to teach children all about the Separatists, and they’re journey to the New World, in search of religious freedoms.

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American Symbols: Bald Eagle Craft

November 11, 2009 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

Since Sissy is officially in First Grade, it’s time for us to learn all about American Symbols! So over the next few weeks I’ll be adding in some fun Patriotic Themed crafts and activities that we do.

Yes, I do realized that it is November and the rest of the world is doing Thanksgiving stuff.

But that’s just how we roll.

Maybe you’ll find something you like and you can bookmark it for June and July activities next year?

Bald Eagle Crafts

Anyway, I’ve paired these crafts up with a series of books called “American Symbols” which are geared towards children ages 4-8.

For our first craft we did the Bald Eagle:

Here are Photo Instructions

Stay tuned for more American Symbol Crafts!

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Base 10 Bean Sticks

November 5, 2009 By Valerie Mcclintick 4 Comments

This week we’ve also been working on Place Value.

But instead of using our Base 10 Blocks, we decided to get a little crafty and make a set out of beans.

We used the Jumbo Popsicle sticks, and I think these are red kidney beans.

I put up a full photo tutorial in case you’re not familiar with the idea of Base 10 blocks.

I suppose you could use any other item that would fit on a popsicle stick; macoroni, stickers ect…

You could really customize them to encourage involvement.

Sissy really enjoyed using these sticks to count up to the hundreds, and Bubba liked the feel of the beans on the sticks. Since she was part of the process of making them, I think she participated more in their use.

And of course that got me wondering…….

What special tools have you made special for your children to learn with?

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Paper Mache Globe

September 6, 2009 By Valerie Mcclintick 2 Comments

I put up Tutorial instructions for how to make this
(so bookmark for your Geo units because it’s versatile)

Why, oh why did I ever get it in my head to make one of these?

As if my house isn’t messy enough at the moment.

Seriously, I think I just added a week to our “Start School Date”

Even if I drank all the coffee in the pantry,
I doubt we’ll be polished up in time.

But who really starts homeschooling with a clean house anyway right?

Sigh…..

Maybe we can teach Home-Ec the first week.

There’s no law against that is there?

Rainy Day Oregon Collage

August 28, 2009 By Valerie Mcclintick 1 Comment

Summer in Oregon can only mean one thing: Rain.

Lol, actually any season in Oregon can mean rain.

So instead of lounging on the beach, or frolicking in the sprinkler like the rest of the country today,

We spent the afternoon inside making some fun collages:

(Nah, Nah, Nah, NAH, Nah)

Paper was everywhere

Glue was everywhere

But I didn’t mind because Sissy and Bubba had a great time

(Like 2 hours great!)

And of course I had to turn it into a learning opportunity and I designed this fun Geography Craft:

The kids thought it turned out so great that they VOWED that their next collages they were going to make Oregon too.

So here is the basic tutorial

I’m thinking this would be a fun activity when you teach your children about the different land formations, or terrains of your state (or of the US), they could really have some fun with it.

Anyone else have an idea for how to teach with this?