Fox in Socks, Hop on Pop

December 4th, 2013

Tags: Children Books, Homeschool

Last week was about Dr. Seuss again. We read “Fox in Socks” and “Hop on Pop”. We did lot of rhyming each day after reading each of these books.

After reading Fox in Socks, we stacked everything we possible could.

: Stack of glasses

: Stack of blocks

: Stack of books

: Stack of Lego

: Stack of cushions

: Stack of tupperware

: Stack of boxes

Then we painted our socks with fabric marker and wore it.

: Kabir’s painted sock

: Arjun’s painted socks

We made paper socks: colored it, cut it and made holes with 1-hole puncher. Then Arjun laced it.

Laced paper socks

We made a brown bag fox puppet (download the fox template here) and blue goo.

: Fox puppet

: blue goo

After reading “Hop on Pop,” Arjun and Kabir played alphabet and number hopscotch. Also, Arjun hopped on bubble wraps.

: Alphabet Hopscotch

: Number Hopscotch

I can see that Dr. Seuss is becoming Arjun’s favorite author and I feel very happy about it.

Posted in Children / Kids, Preschool Read Alouds | 2 Comments »

Bone and Skin – Science Experiment

December 3rd, 2013

Tags: Homeschool, Science

After studying about bones, Kabir did the puzzle showing all the bones on a human body.

Puzzle

Then we bought a drumstick to perform a rubbery chicken bone experiment. Kabir felt how hard and strong it was; then he put it in vinegar for 3 days to observe the effect of vinegar on bone. As we had read about ligaments, he saw and felt it on the drumstick. The bone didn’t become rubbery but it did become fragile and it snapped in two very easily. I didn’t lose the opportunity to tell him the importance of calcium for our bones.

Drumstick in Vinegar

Then Kabir made a model of his arm using paper towel rolls. We added balloons to represent the muscle and we observed how muscles work when we bend our arms.

: Model of Kabir;s Arm

: Arm with muscle

Then we studied about skin and we performed a simple experiment to understand how skin cools the body. At first, I rubbed a cotton ball dipped in ice water on Kabir’s wrist and then I rubbed the cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol. Kabir felt more cool with ice water. Then I rubbed his wrist with cotton ball soaked in lukewarm tap water. He felt his skin cooler with the rubbing alcohol this time.

Cotton in water and rubbing alcohol

Posted in Children / Kids, Science Projects | 4 Comments »

Lego – Birdhouse

November 17th, 2013

Tags: Homeschool, Lego

The quest for this month was to make a birdhouse. I asked them to imagine themselves to be a bird and go as wild or imaginative as they can. Few really did take it up the challenge!

Here are the photos:

: Marie’s bird house

: Megha’s bird house

: Daniel’s bird house

: Archi’s bird house

: Mathew’s birdhouse was defended very well with ammunition and latest technology

: Vikram’s bird house

: Arjun’s bird house

: Sam’s birdhouse had a box for grains

: Kabir’s birdhouse had a couch and an invisible wall around the house

: Jackson’s bird house

Daniel has made a 3-storey house that he was kind enough to bring it to the Lego Club. He gave a wonderful presentation and he had every kid’s total attention. All of us were in complete admiration of his work by the time he left.

I got the idea for this birdhouse quest from this website. You might want to browse and see how some of the other kids take up the challenge.

Posted in Children / Kids, Lego | 1 Comment »

Brain Experiments

November 17th, 2013

Tags: Homeschool, Science

After reading about brain, Kabir and Arjun made a model of their brain (copied it from the book) and labeled it as seen in the photos below.

: Kabir’s Brain

: Arjun’s Brain

Also, we did an experiment which shows that the fluid around our brain protects our brain. We put an egg (depicting our brain) in a tupperware and kids shook it. The egg broke.

: Egg in the tupperware

: Broken egg in the tupperware

Then, we took another egg, put it in a tupperware with water. It took violent shaking to break the egg. So, the fluid protected the egg. Similarly, the fluid around our brain prevents it from breaking in our skull.

Egg protected by water in tupperware

Posted in Children / Kids, Science Projects | No Comments »

Corduroy and Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb

November 17th, 2013

Tags: Children Books, Homeschool

Last week, we read “Corduroy” by Don Freeman and “Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb” by Al Perkins. Each time we read, “Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb” Arjun played the drum.

For Corduroy, we did the sequence activity and sorting activity with teddy grahams and buttons. Arjun wouldn’t sort according to size or color. He prefers to sort them from smallest to largest.