All about physics....Part II

Here is the rest of our unit......

Part II

Magnets

Electricity

To see Part I follow the link below....

Part I

Big Bang

Forces and Motion

Light

Sound

We used Usborne's book What's Physics All About? as a spine...

I love this book also from Usborne, 365 Science Activities many an experiment was taken directly from this book!

We also used Brainpop Junior and Brainpop videos/activities/quizzes.  *Note* Brainpop is a subscription based website.. several DL schools will have a subscription you can access... if not I highly recommend adding it to your homeschooling budget, it is worth every penny!!

I also used a number of printables from TeachersPayTeachers....
Sweet Pea wanted some notebooking elements that I was too lazy to make!

Magnets

We read the corresponding chapter on magnets in What's Physics all About?

Great videos...
Brainpop Jr - Magnets 
Brainpop- Magnetism

We also read this book together.. love the Magic School Bus chapter books;
Amazing Magnetism

Here you can find a lapbook based on this book... we used some of the printables.

More great videos....
Bill Nye the Science Guy- Magnetism
Scishow- Animal Magnetism

This is a fabulous science kit.. lots of great ideas and an easy to follow format for experiments... Magnetic Science.

 There are a billion great magnet projects out there...
 do a quick search and do whatever catches your eye!

Here are a few we enjoyed....
 Playing with our compasses and hiding things in the backyard to create a scavenger hunt...
The kidlets spent entirely too much time playing with the magnets in their science kit....
Find the magnetic iron in your breakfast cereal....


Electricity
We read the corresponding chapter on electricity in What's Physics all About?

 We made a potato battery!
 So fun... we didn't have a led light so we used our fancy volt meter instead :)

Here are some great videos...

Brainpop- Electricity
Electric Circuits
Bill Nye the Science Guy- Electricity
Magic School Bus- Gets Charged
 

Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip

 Our scientist study was two fold.... Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison.

 The kids also love working on projects with Snap Circuits!

 

Hope you enjoyed our foray into physics... sorry it took me so long to post Part II :)











 

More explorers and the fur trade...

On to explorers as we take a trip through Canadian history! 

There are so many great books and resources..

Here's what we did:

1. Read some books together.

2. Watched some short videos.

4. Some fun activities.

5. Sweet Pea included notebooking pages in her Canadian History notebook, Goober did some mini books for the explorers lapbook he is putting together.

The book I'm using as a spine is The Story of Canada.

 

As well as, The Kids Book of Canadian Exploration.

We read these books together;

The Red Sash by Jean Pendziwol

From the cover:

The Red Sash is the story of a young Metis boy who lives near the fur trading post of Fort William, on Lake Superior, nearly 200 years ago.

The Broken Blade by William Durbin

From the cover:

In 1800, 13-year-old Pierre La Page never imagined he'd be leaving Montreal to paddle 2,400 miles. It was something older men, like his father, did. But when Pierre's father has an accident, Pierre quits school to become a voyageur for the North West Company, so his family can survive the winter. It's hard for Pierre as the youngest in the brigade. From the treacherous waters and cruel teasing to his aching and bloodied hands, Pierre is miserable. Still he has no choice but to endure the trip to Grand Portage and back. 

There are lots of great youtube videos and Canadian Heritage Minutes for the individual explorers, so I won't list them all here ;)

Each kidlet also did a project on the beaver.

Goober did an animal study page from 123homeschool4me.com

He thinks his beaver drawing looks like a business man with a mustache...hahahaha!

Sweet pea wrote a beaver report, typed it up and presented it!

We watched a couple documentaries:

Leave it to Beavers- a PBS documentary 

Life of Mammals- BBC- Episode- Chisellers 

There is lots to learn here... we read through the Story of Canada (#1 The beginning), and I answered questions or clarified where necessary.  

We mostly read about New France and the various battles up to and including the War of 1812 without too many extra activities.  

The kidlets are anxious to learn about pioneers, so being true to child-led learning that's where we will be heading next :)

Our curriculum choices 2017/18

Wow.. it is nearing the end of August… already!  Where did the summer go?!?!  My kidlets have finished up their summer workbooks and projects and are ready to start a new year.  Some people have asked me what that looks like when we homeschool year round… well part of it means cleaning up… organizing our homeschool closet, filing away projects and artwork, and restocking the kid’s bins with new workbooks, pencils, etc.

The kidlets love getting a new notebook, folder and some cute stickers :)

*Shameless Usborne plug-  I am an Usborne Consultant and would love to find you the perfect books to supplement your learning or help you develop an entire unit!  You can find my Usborne Consultant FacebookPage here or drop me a line!  But if you have a homeschool friend that is a consultant make sure to throw some business her way!*

Here is how our year is shaping up for units and curriculum… lining up with my philosophy of reading, writing and math everyday!
Sweet Pea is 11 years old and Goober is 8 years old.

Math

Both kidlets work through the MathSmart workbooks.  I explain new concepts as needed and we use Khan Academy as a supplement when needed.

I love living math books… this is a great link to a wide variety of math topics.. www.livingmath.net.

The kidlets also love to play Prodigy math game.  I have to be careful not to help too much here as it adapts to the learner and will get difficult if I hep with answers ;)

Usborne books also has a great selection of math activity books. We are adding these to our bins this year….

Times Tables Activity Book 

Decimals and Fractions Activity Book

Math Puzzle Pad

 Language Arts

Goober will be starting cursive writing this year using Handwriting Without Tears.  

Sweet Pea will continue to develop her cursive using this neat workbook....

I love All About Spelling... I find we don't use the whole program... and because we do our own thing we can totally pick and choose what works!  So I usually only purchase the teacher's guide, The LearningHouse has been great at helping us find what we need!

Here are the books we are using for story writing this year... Usborne of course! 

My first story writing book

Write your own story book

For poetry inspiration we are loving A Crow Doesn't Need a Shadow...

Our book lists are usually quite long...
We always have a read aloud on the go and the kidlets have a book on the go...

Here is our current read aloud, we are really enjoying it- The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Sweet Pea is currently reading Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCammilo, one of her favourite authors.

Next on her list is Hidden Figures Young Readers Edition

which will likely lead into a unit on astronomy and astronauts!

Goober is currently reading Fergus Crane (Far-Flung Adventures#1)

which will likely lead to a science unit on inventions!

Social Studies

We are continuing our study of Canadian History...

check out my blog posts to see how we are tackling this huge topic!

We have already covered First Nations and Vikings, next up Explorers, Fur Trade and Voyageurs!

Science

Science is by far our most random subject.... we go where the questions and interest leads us.  Anything and everything is up for grabs... check out my science blogs!

Sweet Pea has spent the last few years working through chemistry, biology and physics so this year she is going to read The Magic of Reality and The Science of Why.  I'm guessing they will lead us down some great paths of learning :)

For Goober we are going to pick some Magic School Bus Chapter Books and make a unit study, a lapbook of the topic or even some lego stop motion animation :)

Together we are going to work through this book I was recommended...Two Truths and a Lie... 

I like how it incorporates science and critical thinking!

Art

Now I'm not an art person... but my kidlets love it!  

We love ArtHub for Kids youtube channel for drawing, painting and folding tutorials, 

it really does give the kids a boost of confidence in their art skills.

We will also work through ArtTango.com , free art lesson plans for kinder through Grade 5... we used it sporadically last year and I was really impressed with the projects! 

French

I am very grateful to my parents for sending me to french immersion when I was young...  however teaching my kids to speak french after more than a decade of practice is pretty interesting!  For french I find a varied approach seems to be working best for us.  We mix it up with nursery rhymes and simple songs, reading french pictures books, watching french tv shows, and simple worksheets.  French is most definitely our work in progress, however I have noticed the more consistent we are the more the kids pick up and retain... so my goal this year is a little something french everyday!

Hope everyone's homeschool planning is going well... 

and that you find some great resources that work for your family :)