Benjamin Franklin Study

We spent a couple weeks studying Benjamin Franklin. We used the Download N Go study to break up our days. We learned about his life, who he was, his inventions, his other accomplishments, and much more.

 

 

Books we read:

 

 

 

Kids drew the U.S. seal with a turkey instead of an eagle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Liberty Bell art- idea found here

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have to talk about kites when studying Ben Franklin. I got the kids mini kites to play with.

 

 

 

 

 

Charged cereal experiment

 

 

 

 

 

Notebook pages with pieces from Homeschool Share and Download N Go.

 

 

 

 

 

While visiting Washington, D. C. after doing the study, we went to the Old Post Office Pavilion to see the statue of Ben Franklin there.

 

 

 

Truman's Aunt Farm & Ant Unit Study

Most of our focus was on the study of ants since we did this to go along with the Zoology 1 section on ants.
We did spend time talking about homonyms, homographs, aunts, and repetition though.

Books we read

We made an anthill cake. The anthill is crushed graham crackers with chocolate sprinkles. There are also chocolate sprinkles inside the cake.

 

 

Egg Carton Ants

Molly and her gold ant

Caleigh with the giggles

Colin and his moustached ant

 

Notebook pages (printables from Homeschool Share and Aussie Pumpkin Patch)

 

We do have an ant farm I planned to use. When I mailed away for the ants, it came back undeliverable though. I gathered some ants from our yard, but they quickly escaped. I think they were small enough to get through the air holes. I know the kids would love to see ants tunneling so I'm going to try to find some bigger ants.

Hana in the Time of Tulips Unit Study (Netherlands)

Since we were studying the Dutch in history, I thought it would be a good idea to expand on it a little with some ideas from the unit study for Hana in the Time of the Tulips from Homeschool Share.

We read books about the Netherlands, dikes, windmills, tulips, and Rembrandt.

Windmills from DLTK

Notebook pages

We read about Rembrandt's life and looked at a lot of his paintings. We did an activity from Discovering Great Artists about drawing facial expressions.

Molly looking at herself in mirror to draw facial expressions.

Caleigh decided to make this on her own. It's a dike with the blue water on the outside. In the middle are some tulips.

 

They also drew tulips with watercolor crayons.


L to R: Molly, Colin, Caleigh



Our Week: Jamestown, Ladybugs, and Water Park

It was a really good week! The rain cancelled some of our plans so it turned out to not be as busy as I had expected.

We went to an apple orchard Sunday.
On Monday, we met some friends at Great Wolf Lodge and had a great time at the water park.
Colin had hockey practice Monday and Wednesday evenings.
He started a biology class this week also.

The girls were exploring the nature center when I looked out and saw Colin gathering something during his class so I had to snap his picture.

Yesterday we saw the movie, Dolphin Tale. We all really enjoyed it.

Science



We learned about beetles this week. We concentrated on fireflies and ladybugs. I ordered ladybug larvae from Insect Lore. We've been observing them all week. We were able to see them molt and now most of them are in the pupa stage.

We also made some ladybug treats with apples, strawberries, grapes, pretzels, mini chocolate chips, and M&Ms.

Left: Caleigh's
Right: mine
Caleigh said mine were wrong because they don't have 3 body parts so she made hers the correct way.

Left: Molly's (she said the head is hiding)
Right: Colin's

All the rain we've had the last three days has interfered with our experiments. Hopefully it will dry up soon and we can do them.

Colin's biology class is using Real Science 4 Kids. This week they talked about taxonomy, the kingdoms, and classification.

History

We read about King James VI of Scotland and how he also became king of England. We also learned that he sent people to North America to search for gold. They started the Jamestown settlement.
We learned that Guy Fawkes was involved in a plot to assassinate King James, but he was caught. Caramel apples are one of the treats they have during the Guy Fawkes Day celebration so we made some.

Pocahontas was mentioned briefly in our history book. We read some other books about her and did the Pocahontas lapbook from Homeschool Share. We finished our week by watching the Disney movie, Pocahontas.

Notebook pages from Homeschool Share

Chocolate Unit Study

A chocolate unit study was a great way to start the new year. We used the Download N Go, Chocolate Challenge, and the chocolate unit study from Homeschool Share.

We read lots of books about chocolate and we listened to the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Each day we read about a different chocolatier and sampled some of their chocolate. We did some fraction math with the Hershey bars and the girls graphed using M&Ms (pictures in our weekly wrap-up).

Chocolate to sample

We talked about Brazil, rainforests, cacao trees, and the history of chocolate. The kids sampled rainforest foods, including pineapple, coconut, mango, sweet potato, limes, lemons, avocado, kiwi, and plantains. They had tried plantains raw before and didn't like them. This time I fried them and they ate the whole thing. They said it tasted like french fries.

Rainforest books and products

We ordered this kit that included ingredients to make your own chocolate.

Molly showing us the kit

Colin mixing the chocolate

Finished chocolate

The kit also included 2 cacao beans. They tried them, but quickly spit it out.

Caleigh with the cacao beans

Last month the girls got to go to a chocolate factory when we were in Maine, but Colin missed it because he was at hockey camp so we just had to go to another shop during our chocolate week. They were so nice there and showed the kids how they melt the chocolate, how they dip things in chocolate, and how they make fudge.

Outside the candy shop

Showing them how they dip in the chocolate.

Caleigh is holding the huge chocolate bars they get for melting.

Molly and Caleigh in front of the candy making area.

Waiting for the fudge to cool. It's on the left side of the table. That's peanut butter on top of it.

Mixing the fudge

Notebook pages: lapbook pieces from DNG and Homeschool Share. The orange is a piece of cardstock I had to add for an extension so we could fit it all on there.

The Cadbury Dairy Milk was Colin's favorite candy that they sampled so he put the wrapper in there. The girls both liked Lindt white chocolate truffles best. The picture of chocolates next to it is from the store where we did our field trip. On the bottom is his own candy bar creation. He had to write what he would put in it and name it. He named it The Whoo Hoo Bar. He even put a slogan on his wrapper: The candy bar that makes you go whoo hoo. Molly called hers the Whip Bar.


With the extension open

Caleigh didn't want to come up with her own candy idea, but she decided to make this cacao tree.



Those are cacao pods covering the trunk becasue we learned they grow there too.



To celebrate the end of our week, we had a little party and watched the movie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We had Brazilian lemonade to drink. It was actually made with limes and the kids loved it. The whole pitcher was gone the same evening. We also had chocolate fondue with lots of yummy things to dip in it.

Brazilian lemonade, chocolate fondue, strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, graham crackers, pretzels, apples, and pound cake.

Leonardo da Vinci

In history, we started learning about the Renaissance last week. We haven't gotten to art this year as much as I'd have liked so this week we studied Leonardo da Vinci.
We read a lot of books. Here are some of the them:
Leonardo's Horse
Who Stole Mona Lisa?
Katie and the Mona Lisa
Monday with a Mad Genius
Uh-Oh, Leonardo
Leonardo and the Flying Boy
Da Vinci by Mike Venezia
Leonardo da Vinci by Diane Stanley

One of the suggestions in Discovering Great Artists is to draw and write notes for inventions like Leonardo did.
Colin's was hard to see in a picture. He had a breakfast maker that would make a bowl of cereal with milk and some bacon for you. Another of his ideas was spring shoes and he drew all the different parts.

These are the girls' invention drawings.
The top is Molly's. It's a flying car, a flying bed, and wings so people can fly. We'd just read about da Vinci's flying machine.
The bottom is Caleigh's. It's a monorail to take you into outer space.

Caleigh found a box to make her space monorail.

This is from the inside, where she drew pictures of planets. She poked holes in the top part so light could come through and be like stars shining.

 

The kids made horses from clay like Leonardo would have before making his statue.

Front to back: Colin, Caleigh, Molly

Colin's notebook pages with mini-books from here.