Discovering Skeletons

First thing this morning the doctor's surgery was back in full swing.

I printed out some x-rays for further exploration and play.

The Boy and I talked about our five senses and he used his sense of sight to draw things he could see under a magnifying glass.  We noticed that a leaf had little brown dots so...

...we used a microscope and realised the little brown dots were...

tiny weeny insects!

Pasta skeletons

Making a skeleton.

Tracing and labelling a skeleton.

After our trip to the library our neighbour came round for a cup of tea and a visit to the doctor.

This evening, after hail and a huge downpour, the sun has come out - perfect for my two eldest to go boating on the lakes.

The Human Body

 Mixing and matching our units keeps the kiddlets on their toes - and me!  We're steering away from History and heading into Biology this week.

Books from our bookcase.

 This subject is a fun one for me as I am a Personal Trainer by career.  I dug out some of my workbooks for my studies from way back when and the children have browsed through them.  They are covered in my scribbles and also love hearts for my then boyfriend - who is now my husband and the kiddies' Papa. Ha!

I had a relaxing morning while the children worked through workbooks I made for them last night.  Appropriate for their ages and current level of learning, they covered basic anatomy and the body systems.

Big sisters are for helping. :)

Operation

I found some brilliant doctor forms on the net complete with prescription forms...

...and we set up a Doctor's Surgery in the Living Room

To break up the morning I used some old circuit training print outs and blasted some music while the kiddies beasted their quads or triceps or deltoids.  Cute and funny for us all when they started to feel the burn :)

For weekly exercise the three girls attend gymnastics, trampolining, tap, modern dance and ballet classes.  The two eldest also sail or kayak twice a week.  My Boy swims and attends gymnastics and trampolining classes.  He is hoping to join a football and/or rugby club next term. 

After lunch and outside play today various kiddies studied Spanish, Faith Work, Times Tables, Phonics, Script Writing and Maths.

Native Americans, The Louisiana Purchase, Explorers and Mountain Men, The Gold Rush, The Pioneers, Frontier Towns, Cowboys and Ranchers

This unit had so many dimensions to it and each kiddy discovered a different aspect which they enjoyed most.  It was enjoyable, deep, eye-opening and has given us all a greater insight into the impact of the European Settlers when they landed in the New World.

Blogs are weird.  Weird in that when writing up a chronological history in a step by step way over the course of a fortnight, when it comes to reading the blog- it's all backwards!

So our final step was a day about cowboys and ranchers in Texas.  We also touched briefly on frontier towns, homesteaders and The Iron Horse (the first railway track that joined the East to the West).

This is brilliantly written, is singing with metaphors and similes, and has some great Texan vocabulary!

The Boy's cactus is the best looking cactus I have ever seen.

Someone can't stop reading Harry Potter.

A concluding story about a chosen subject within our unit.

The Boy's paintings...

...and his brilliant writing.

We recreated the United States on our classroom floor and built a track for The Iron Horse.  It crossed the Appalachian Mountains, The Great Plains, The Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains before arriving in California.

The Boy's worksheets.  He's coming along beautifully.

The Boy's Saloon :)

Panda Girl's lovely summary of our unit.

And we finished the whole unit off with a trip to find totem poles...

...and a family night in with Doritos and dips!

The Pioneers and Prairie Schooners

The cheapest way of reaching the West, with its fertile farming lands, the discovery of gold and promises of a better life, was by wagon train.

This great clip started our day.

We built our own prairie schooner...

 and packed for the 2000 mile, 6 month journey from Missouri to Oregon along the Oregon Trail.

Packing eggs and valuable crockery in barrels of cornmeal prevented damage on the rough tracks.

 And we're off..

Most people walked alongside the wagons as it was far too bumpy to sit inside.  But it's always worth a go anyway!

We listened to birds singing and the sound of horses trotting to help the imagination.

We learnt that to water-proof the wooden wagons when crossing rivers, the pioneers would use a wax paste made of wax and ashes mixed together.  We gave it a go and waterproofed a stick.