Volcanoes.

Just after Christmas L did an outschool class on blue animals, we both learnt lots, how most animals aren't actually blue it is how the light reflects of them, how a chameleon changes colour. It led to us looking at rainbows and how they are formed and then spending a lot of time having fun mixing colours, starting with primary colours and then secondary colours. L created her own colour wheel and we talked about warm and cool colours too. Then did some art using only warm colours and then one using only cool colours and comparing how they made us feel.

Before Christmas we had been reading bits about the Romans, lots on the myths and legends, which L loves. I introduced L to the first in the Roman mysteries series, The Thieves of Ostia, missing the bits when it got a bit gory or upsetting around the dogs dying, then read The Secrets of Vesuvius, which she found fascinating, we have since watched so many you tube videos on volcanoes and enjoyed reading Tsunamis and Other Natural Disasters. This led to L asking if we could make a lapbook and learn all about volcanoes, this spread out to earthquakes, tsunamis, mudslides, how mountains form and then looking at Yellowstone National park and their geysers etc. I love the Super Earth Encyclopedia the photos in it are amazing, to say the least. We have made a model of the earth using play dough, recreated earthquakes, using a tray with rice in it, adding some blocks and people and shaking it, starting gently and making a note of what happened and then shaking it stronger, to demonstrate the different strengths. Photo below of some of the other books we have read, not all of them cover to cover but we are getting there.

 L's lapbook.

We created an experiment to demonstrate how acid rain can cause erosion, using vinegar and chalk, you can't see clearly from the photos but it bubbles really well producing the gas carbon dioxide, we then dried the chalk out and compared the difference, see holes where there weren't any before.

Setting up an experiment to show how stalactites and stalagmites are formed, we used epsom salts mixed with water, weighting the string down in each jar and

2 days later we have our stalactite. Think I might have to find out our copy of Caves (One Small Square)  as we have been talking a lot about where you would find stalactites and stalagmites, the one small square books are really informative and beautifully illustrated, we have a read few around different habitats.

My plan now is  to look at the polar regions, using Ls interest and love of penguins! We have started watching David Attenborough Frozen Planet and then used this Mystery Science lesson to map the climate around the world, it means we have a large map of the world with its climate, might end up looking at weather and climate change too.

Some of the books I am planning on using, as L loves adventure/mystery stories I am hoping she might like to learn about some of the explores, as well as the animals.

A few stories to read and drawing book, L loves these, though when she first opened it up she said she liked the drawing but wouldn't do the writing, which was fine with me but actually nearly every time she draws a new animal she copies the writing too.

Now for Christmas Evie was given Vincent's Starry Night and Other Stories, it has a 2 to 3 pages story about an artist, some paintings etc so thought it would be nice to use in conjunction with the art group we go too. Then came across the  Usborne Art Activity Pad , it will go very well together and can't wait to start using them both, hoping L feels the same!

Jackson Pollock and The Secret Garden

Not Jackson Pollack and The secret Garden together, though thinking about it now that could of produced some lovely artwork!

Our weekly art group's theme this week was Jackson Pollock, L loves his artwork and enjoys painting in his style. The first few paintings were done at the art table,

 

they then cleared the floor and put down some large sheets of paper (poster size) and let the children paint there, the finished piece is huge!

We have been looking at the different biomes in our Monday group and they put together a mini lapbook, they rather loved the penguin drawing using a number 8 as the base, so we used their favourite ones to decorate their lapbooks.

One of my favourite childhood books is The secret Garden, ok one of many childhood favourites! I thought it would be a lovely one to share and create some beautiful art work to go along with it. As the story starts in India and talks lots about the heat, we used some chalk pastels to create sunsets, all but my own child who decided she would prefer to draw a cactus dessert.

We looked up India in our illustrated Maps book and they saw the peacocks, so again using chalk pastels they drew some peacock feathers.

Using this simple guide on how to draw a peacock, they drew their own ones.

With the story now taking us to the journey across the moors with the wind and the rain. I thought using pencils to create trees was a lovely way to try out different materials and also to show the contrast between the bright colourful start to the book and now the drab, dulling setting we were now travelling through in this chapter.

Then to contrast again, watercolours to show the secret garden coming alive and of course the robin that helped Mary to find the garden.

Hedgehogs

We have enjoyed lots of walks to different woods and parks near us, the children love to watch the squirrels scampering about, they loved the story of the The Very Helpful hedgehog and we have added some hedgehogs to out display. These foam hedgehogs came from Baker Ross and were a nice simple craft for the children to enjoy.

They were really fascinated and had lots of questions about hedgehogs and I thought it would be nice to make a lapbook with them, with all the info in that they have found out. The printables for the lapbook are from Home school Share, I think we might add some bits from The Tale of Mrs Tiggy Winkle but we see what they say next week. I know lapbooks are in many ways very adult intensive activity at this age but they have loved the process and looking at how L has wanted to share her book with everyone, it was worth it.

We've looked at how hedgehogs are nocturnal, that they hibernate, roll into a ball when scared, compared their footprints to other animals and what they eat.

Our Autumn display so far.