Our Week: Constellations, Beginning the Renaissance, and Michelangelo

The kids keep watching the nest on our front porch in anticipation of the babies hatching. We also found a nest in a tree next to our back porch with some beautiful eggs in it. I let the kids make their own bird nest from Rice Krispie treats. You can see pictures of the bird nests (the real ones and the edible ones) in this post.

History

It's probably only when your kindergartner is homeschooled that your dinner conversation includes your 6 year old telling Dad that she learned about a man who kept marrying different women to try to have a son and then he even had two of their heads cut off. Yes, we learned about Henry VIII.

We also learned about Martin Luther and the Ninety-five Theses.

We also finally made it to the Renaissance, which we learned was a time when people began relearning things that had been forgotten and making new discoveries. We found out that art began to look more realistic and studied Michelangelo. We read Michelangelo by Diane Stanley and Michelangelo by Mike Venezia. I taped paper to the bottom of tables to allow the kids to lie down and paint, an idea from Discovering Great Artists to represent Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Caleigh's bunny

Colin's bunny with eggs



Molly's- big egg at the bottom, grass, eggs, rainbow, some people at the top



Science

We read all about constellations. We made a constellation planetarium by punching holes in a shoe box in the pattern of the big dipper and shining a flashlight from the other side to show it on the wall, but I wasn't able to get a good picture of it.  We made some constellations on paper by drawing them and putting glitter glue on the places where the stars are, an idea I found here.

We also read about some events that led to space travel, the first rockets in space, the Space Race between Russia and U.S., and the many great accomplishments of the 1960s.

Everything Else

 

Molly was very excited to lose her first tooth this week.

 

 

 

 

Colin scored his first goal in hockey and I was lucky enough to catch it with my camera. See more including his celebration in this post.

 

 

 

 

And just because she looks so pretty in this picture, here's Caleigh.

 

I love close-ups where you can see the freckles she swears she doesn't have.

 

We spent today on Easter activities. The kids made handprint bunnies, painted ceramic eggs, read lots of Easter books, and had an Easter themed lunch. Tonight we're watching a couple of movies and making some Easter cookies.