Week 18 - The Digestive System

This week we decided to expand our knowledge of food by studying what happens to food when we eat it.  We learned all about our digestive system!  We have an amazing book from Usborne Books called Look Inside Your Body  that Big K really enjoys looking through.  We spent a whole day focusing on the pages that explain the digestive tract and learned the names of the different organs.  Then we watched a youtube video following an actual camera through a digestive system.  Big K thought it was pretty gross, but pretty cool at the same time.  (You can find that video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QYwscALNng )  We also watched a Magic School Bus Episode where they take a field trip inside Arnold's body to see how digestion happens. 

Another activity we did to help us understand digestion was to use graham crackers and a few household items to recreate the digestive system.  First we crunched up crackers to represent what our teeth do.  Then we put the crumbs into a paper tube (our esophagus) which led into a plastic bag (our stomachs).  Then we added some water (stomach acid) and used our hands to recreate what the stomach muscles do.  Afterwards we talked about the jobs of the intestines and then cut a hole in our bag so they could push the goop out of the bags, to stimulate pooping.  (As you can imagine, this was Big K's favorite part.  What six year old wouldn't like to pretend to poop!) 

For the month of December, part of our calendar routine is using an app on my tablet to check the high temperature in various parts around our country.  We thought it would be fun to include some cities with Christmas themed names, so our choices are Christmas Valley, OR, Santa Claus, GA, and North Pole, AK.  This week the high temps in Santa Claus, GA were in the 70s!  Much better than the 30s here in Ohio! 

We have also been doing a lot of spelling review and trying to change up how we practice our words.  Spelling isn't one of Big K's favorite school time lessons, so this week we decided to write the letters on our piano and Big K had to play each word.  What a fun way to practice our spelling words!  He said the letters as he played them and had to play each word three times.  It was the first time in weeks he didn't grumble about practicing his spelling words!


The weather has been cold and rainy almost all week.  And although we've been busy with play practice (opening night is in two weeks!) and Christmas activities, we made sure we had time to take our weekly trip to the library.  The weather was just too conducive to snuggle up with a good book!  Big K is really into the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and was thrilled to find the newest release at the library this week!  Although he decided he needed to finish his Big Nate book first - he loves books that have the comic integrations in them! 

 Happy Learning!  Less than three weeks until Christmas!
~Momma C

Week 17 - Food and Thanksgiving

 This time of year, we try really hard to not get caught up in the gimmie-gimmie-gimmie that usually accompanies the holiday season.  One thing we do is stress the importance of giving back to the community and helping others.  This week the kids helped me make dinner for a friend who recently had a baby.  We made one of our favorite dishes - meatball sub casserole!  The kids helped cut up all the ingredients and assemble the dish and then we went and delivered the meal to my most grateful friend.  And of course, Little E had to grab her chef hat out of her play kitchen to wear. 

Since it was a short week, we spent the few days we had reviewing some of the topics we have covered this year so far.  Big K went through his old spelling words and we picked a few tricky ones to go back and practice again.  We also reviewed some math topics from our Life of Fred books.

 One thing that normally makes an appearance during our school week is board games.  We LOVE to play games in our house.  Lately, Big K has been requesting to play a game called "Knowledge" a lot.  It is very similar to Trivial Pursuit, so we learn lots of random facts about lots of different categories!   And Little E gets to practice counting dots on a dice while Big K gets practice reading lots and lots of trivia cards.  Even baby W likes to get in on the action. Win, Win! 

For Thanksgiving Day, Big K decided he wanted to make a desert to bring for dinner.  He chose a S'more Cake, made a list of ingredients, came with me shopping, and then put the cake together almost all by himself, including making homemade whipped cream!  (He just needed a little help melting the chocolate chips on the stove).  It got rave reviews from our friends and family on turkey day!   You can find the recipe here:  http://kaotichectickitchen.blogspot.com/2012/07/so-nice-i-am-posting-twice-no-bake.html

This week we also went over to grandma's house for our traditional set-up-the-tree lunch date with her! The kids look forward to it, and it always sets off our holiday spirit to see her tree all dolled up.  Between our cats and the kids, our tree isn't nearly as nice as Grandma's tree!  We normally spend Christmas morning at Grandma's house too, so setting up her tree really gets them excited for Christmas. 

Happy Learning,
Momma C