World Premiere of Gulliver’s Travels, Homeschool-Style!

I haven’t found many lessons on Gulliver’s Travels for kids. I guess it’s considered high school curriculum, but who can resist telling a tale of a man who goes to a land of Barbie-sized people and then to a land of giants, where he is the small one as well as other adventures? My kids love Gulliver and truly enjoyed hearing the tales of his travels.

We did this lesson, which helped them understand satire: http://makinghomeschoolfun.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/gullivers-travels-learning-satire/

I also want to show them the Gulliver’s Travels movie with Jack Black.

However, since my kids are really into making movies, and i couldn’t find many lessons their age-level (2nd and 5th grades), i asked them to make their own version of Gulliver’s Travels. They amazed me, not only in how much of the story they remembered and understood (we’ve been reading this book slowly, over a period of weeks), but also how they infused humor into it.

Check it out! The World Premiere of Gulliver’s Travels by Annie (11), Allison (8), and Tyler (4)!

 

Traffic safety lesson

I haven’t really been keeping up with posting our school lessons, but i promise that i’ve been saving up some good ones to post soon.

One of our requirements for homeschooling in New York state is to teach about “ highway safety and traffic regulation, including bicycle safety.” Here’s what we did:

I used the Bicycle Safety Activity Kit from the NHTSA, which had some great resources. We did the first two activities for kids ages 8-11. I wanted to take the kids out to ride their bikes for a bit as a P.E. extension, but… it is really cold out still.  I also meant to have the kids draw a picture that includes safety aspects discussed in sheet #1 and then write at least two sentences describing their picture. But i didn’t have my notes in front of me, so we skipped this.

Next we went over the meaning of traffic signs, including how the shape and color are incorporated into their meaning to help drivers make quick decisions on the road. I used the following resources:

1. http://www.trafficsign.us/
2. http://www.safeny.ny.gov/Kids/ksignans.htm#grenlit

Next we made our own traffic signs to go in our rooms. Annie made a crosswalk-type sign that reads “Walk Away. I’m changing” to put up when she’s dressing to prevent being constantly bothered by her siblings. Allison made a One Way sign to her bed. TJ requested a railroad crossing sign. I tried to have him make it say Tyler Crossing or something similar, but he would hear nothing of it. He wanted a genuine railroad crossing sign.

We just used cardboard and paint.

Creative Lesson Plan on Adjectives: Adjective Burger

Next in our adjective lesson plan, we made adjective burgers. This lesson is fun, if i do say so myself. =D Plus, my kids said so, so it must be kind of true.

I cut out the pieces of a burger. You know, meat patty, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and so on. For the bun, i cut out a bun (figure 8) out of thin cardboard. An old cereal box works well. Then i folded it and stuffed it with the burger and toppings. On the top of the bun, i wrote, “My Adjective Burger” and drew some sesame seeds. I placed the Adjective Burgers in a sandwich bag… just because it’s more fun that way.

I gave my girls the burgers and asked them to describe each topping with an adjective. I asked them to be creative with it. The were not permitted to just write “red” on the tomato, “green” on the lettuce, and “yellow” on the cheese. I was looking for adjectives like “juicy,” “crisp,” and “yummy.”

You can read more about the lesson on my web site, PoeticLotion, and even find free printables for the burger toppings.

Creative Lesson Plan on Adjectives: Adjective Booklet

I found some fun adjective activities on Pinterest, and then i created some of my own, ’cause i roll like that. This post will explain how to create an adjective booklet.

Allison fills our her adjective booklet

In this booklet, your students will define what an adjective is by listing things that adjectives might tell us. I made each student a hot dog booklet before school. On the cover, i wrote: “Adjectives tell us…”

When school started i asked the girls what an adjective is. They both knew that they are descriptive words, thanks to our obsession with Mad Libs. We filled out the booklet, writing the following on separate pages and illustrating each.

1: About a noun – The girls drew a person, place, and thing. For an idea, they drew a thought bubble.

2. What color? – They drew rainbows.

3. What size or shape? – They drew different shapes and measuring cups.

4. How a noun looks – The girls drew a picture of a mirror.

5. How something feels – They drew different textures (i.e. a blanket, a foot on crunchy leaves)

6. How a noun behaves – They drew a clock ticking.

Gulliver’s Travels: Learning Satire

We received an illustrated Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift. Since this particular tale is one of my favorites, we began to read this as part of school.

There are many different versions of Gulliver’s Travels available. There are illustrated copies, small print, large print, hard back, paperback, classics, ones featuring the Jack Black’s mug, and many more. But for the life of me, i couldn’t find any appropriate Gulliver’s Travels lesson plans. So, being the demanding homeschool mom that I am, made my own lesson to go with our story.

Go to my website to find the lesson plans along with printables to go along with Gulliver’s Travels.

I’ll be posting my kids’ awesome projects here as soon as they are complete.

Winter Bird Feeder Ice Ornaments

Here is a fun activity that we love to do. We’ve done this several times and it always turns out great. You know how in the summer months, you can put peanut butter on a pinecone, roll it in bird seed and you have a great treat for the neighborhood birds? Well, this, my friends, is the winter version.

What you need:

Aluminum pans or muffin tins

Oranges

Bird seed

String

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This activity is perfect for when it gets super cold outside.

Step 1: Fill the pan or the muffin tins with slices of oranges, bird seed, and even some pine needs if you’d like a little more color.

Step 2: Fill with the tins with water. We use warm water, because it freezes faster.

If you don’t believe me, or your kids don’t believe you, now’s a good time to do a science experiment to see at what temperature water freezes the fastest. When we did it, i used Play-Doh molds to freeze different temperature water. We checked on it hourly and recorded the progress. Then we melted the ice and watched it evaporate in a pan on the stove. We even put a glass lid on the pan to capture the condensation. But, that’s an entirely different lesson….

Step 3: Place the string – or decorative ribbon – in a loop, with both loose ends in the water. This will be the hook.

Step 4: Put the tins outside, being careful not to spill.

Step 5: Wait.

Step 6: When they are frozen completely, just pop them out and hang the bird-feeder ornaments on trees in your yard. We like to hang ours near windows so when they start to melt, we can watch the birds eat.

 

We had just taken our Christmas tree out into the yard near the wooded area. It makes a great hiding place for little birds, so we hung our ornaments there. Unfortunately, with this weird winter weather we’ve been having, ours melted in an hour the very next day when the sun came out and it became springlike outside. (I’m not complaining!)

One thing that i want to add is that we use oranges, because the wherever i originally got this from said to use them. But really, all of the orange-eating birds have already flown south for the winter. We still add them because they look pretty.  You can do a lesson on birds or bird-watching to go along with this activity.

 

 

 

Skeletal System Activities and Crafts

To go along with our skeletal system lesson, we did some creative activities. I’ve just now had a chance to post them, but they go with this post here: Science Lesson on Skeletal System

 

First we made Mr. Bones. The kids loved cutting out the pieces and we hooked them together with brads. (Okay, we don’t have brads. Instead, i took twist-ties – from bread wrappers, from the produce section at the grocery store, from a package of trash bags – cut them in half, and formed them like a brad.) I hung our skeletons on the wall and the kids enjoy moving them. Mr. Bones was almost as tall as my 7-year-old, which made him not only realistic, but also fun.

 

We have been working on handwriting, so this cursive lesson was perfect. We folded a sheet of white paper and then the girls wrote their names in cursive along the fold. I did TJ’s for him, because after he saw that the girls made Mr. Bones, he wanted to join us for school. We cut out our names, even in the holes of letters, making sure to keep the fold intact. When the paper was opened, it became the body of a skeleton. The kids cut out skulls, arms, and legs to add to their picture. I got this idea from Pinterest.

Next we did a fabulous art project that resembled an x-ray of a hand. I mixed and matched some different art projects that i found on Pinterest for this one, and it turned out beautifully. I put some white tempera paint in a spray bottle and added a little water to water it down. Then i had the kids lay their hands on a sheet of black construction paper and i sprayed the paint on their hand. You read that right. I sprayed white paint on my children. They LOVED this. I mean, what child wouldn’t??

After washing up, we used glue and cotton swabs to construct the bones of our hand. My girls were able to cut the swabs to the right size, but i helped my 3-year-old, of course. However, he was able to glue the swabs where i showed him with no problem. My only regret is we didn’t do this before Halloween, because these look kinda spooky hanging on our wall.

 

 

One of the other things we did to help understand how the skeleton protects the body was make noodle necklaces. You can see Annie in the middle above with her pasta necklace. I gave my children a piece of yard and asked them to squeeze it in their hand. I asked them what happened to the yarn? Did it keep its shape? Then we talked about how the skeleton protects us. I compared the yarn to a spinal column and the pasta to the vertebrae in a spine. We then made our necklaces. We used wagon wheels, but only because that’s all we had that would fit the yarn i had. Next, i had the kids squeeze the necklace in their hand. Could they crush the yarn as they had before? (Of course not, silly, it’s surrounded by a pasta vertebrae!) We painted our pasta after we strung it to make pretty necklaces. We filled in the booklet that went with this lesson.

 

We are done with the skeletal system and are moving on to another body system now.

More Spanish Learning Posters!

I’ve added some more Spanish posters to our Learn Spanish lessons. Check ‘em out!

I know that there isn’t much there, but if you’ve been going along with us, you probably waited all December for more words. (Oops, sorry!) I am working on a making a review book so that your students can review the Spanish words they’ve learned on their own time. I’ll let you know when it’s done – hopefully tonight. #ImFeelingAmbitious

Okay, yeah, i just used a hashtag in my blog. Because hashtags belong in everyday life.

Happy New Year!

We had a fun New Year’s Eve. The boy took a nap so he could stay up late with us.

TJ getting his beauty sleep.

Then we made our traditional New Year’s Eve hats.  Last year, we took a picture in front of Annie’s new green screen and then with the magic of Photoshop, we moved the kids to NYC.

The kids in NYC

This year, we did things a little differently. I had some old disposable bowls that i saved (I save everything) for a craft project. And this craft project called for disposable bowls. I pulled out stickers and scrapbooking paper to decorate the bowl hats. I didn’t have any pipe cleaners, so Daddy went out and got twigs for our antennae.  We cheered in the New Year wearing our hats. Do you have any special projects for the New Year celebration?

The kids just a few minutes before midnight.

Happy New Year everyone!

Introduction Cards for Kids

My kids love the idea of business cards, so i made them some introduction cards for Christmas. They can give these cards – which include their personal email addresses and my phone number – to new friends that they meet at church or gymnastics. We are new to the area, so these cards will come in very handy and will help my kids break the ice in meeting new people.

 

The pretty cases were made by my dear friend, Lisa, who’s Etsy shop is here.