<, >, or =

right now, in math nicholas is working on greater, less than or equals by looking at the number only. when he was doing <, >, or = by looking at the number and objects, steven made him some alligators. the alligator wants to eat the bigger number so it faces the number it wants to eat. the mouth shows the correct symbol. the equals guy is underwater and can't decide which one he wants because they are both the same.

books!

i <3 book sales. we went to one on saturday and got all this for $2.25!

~the owl and the pussycat - edward lear & jan brett
~david and goliath - penny frank
~happy faces - celebrate reading textbook (i'm not sure what grade level)
~big bug, little bug - a follett beginning to read book (it's old and falling apart but i can't resist old books. the page with the copyright is torn out. i researched it a little more and it's c.1963)
~you're in love, charlie brown - charles schulz
~happy birthday, noah - june morris arnold (a noah's ark book - not a happy coincidence like i originally though)
~sword in the stone - disney
~the young folks shelf books, vol. 7, the animal book - a collection - c. 1938
~houghton mifflin literary readers textbook, book 3 - a collection
~the ugly duckling and other fairy tales - hans christian anderson
~junior science book of trees - robert lemmon - c. 1960
~homonyms - joan hanson - c. 1972
~synonyms - joan hanson - c. 1972
~more synonyms - joan hanson - c. 1973
~a treasury of mother goose - illus. hilda offen
~the ladybird book of fairytales - rose impey
~the picture dictionary for children - garnette watters & s.a. courtis - c. 1968 32nd printing
~literature based geography activities - tara mccarthy - scholastic, grades k-3

grown up books:
~don juan - ludwig lewisohn - c.1923
~astronomy - john charles duncan - c. 1926 (this book is so cool. it has ton of notes penciled in in the margins. like when certain events happened "8pm on thursday". in the front cover it has a name/address/phone number. the phone number only has 3 numbers in it - 698.)

they played sword in the stone while i read it to them. :)

queen of hearts

last week's poem was the queen of hearts.

nicholas was VERY upset by the line "and beat the knave full sore." it made him sad. :(

the idea of making some tarts made him feel better though. we made some lemon tarts with some lemons steven got from a costumer's tree. we used this recipe for the filling. i cheated and used frozen pie crust. pie crust is on my list of things i still need to learn but am nervous about messing up so i haven't tried yet.


no pics of the finished product because i burned them. ahem.

they were still edible... just not pretty. :P

lunches!

we've been keeping up with the muffin tin lunches. noah's been getting one too because he wants everything the same as big brother. :P

yogurt, organic cheese-its, bacon
apple slices, granola, carrots

leftover fried rice, granola, peanuts
carrots, yogurt, chicken

noah stealing nicholas' lunch. don't worry. he didn't eat the peanuts ;)


and just like noah has to do everything like nicholas, nicholas has to be just like steven.

felt balls

we've been making felt balls like crazy. today, we dyed some in kool-aid.

you put a little water in the bottom of a pot. colander goes in the pot, balls with dye on them go in the colander. steam for 20 minutes.

red, blue, purple and yellow
they are all koolaid except the blue. the blue is regular food coloring. it didn't dye as well as the koolaid.

our new collection on handmade wool balls.
(now we can get rid of some plastic ones!)

noah discovering that some balls make noise and some don't.

fun with wool

today's muffin tin lunch was on a mozz cheese, golden grahams, crunchy granola thingies, baby carrots, and a turkey and cheese roll-up on a homemade tortilla.


this afternoon i got a pound of wool roving from my friend kellie at mindful life shop. first, we watched a few videos on youtube of sheep being sheared. then we watched a video showing how to make a felt ball (part 1 and part 2). we made the inner core the same as in the video. we don't have any felting needles so we used regular wool yarn and big needles.

ran out of yarn!

felting the yarn.

felting the yarn didn't really work but that's ok! we can still play with them!

last 2 weeks

last week, nicholas started 2 new workbooks. one for math and one for phonics.

the math book is one that i made that goes along with chapter 3 - counting to 20 in AAA math. he should be done with it by the end of this week.

the new phonics book is a lot more advanced than the one he just finished. there is a lot more writing. the last book had him just writing one individual letter multiple times everyday. the new book has him writing multiple whole words every day. he's doing really well with it.

we skipped animal of the week last week because i was sick on tuesday when i usually put it together. one day, we made bread instead. he learned a little about yeast and how it eats sugar.



noah help too.



while the bread was rising, we made an apple pie too.



bread and pie!



one day, instead of a montessori transfer activity, nicholas transferred meatballs.





we started doing some yoga this week too. nicholas really likes it. it's fun!

here's the video.

it started out clean....

but did not end that way.

muffin tin lunches

in an effort to get nicholas to eat more different foods, we've been putting together muffin tin lunches. it's fun!

celery, clementine, mango
organic honey & bran cereal, blueberries, extra sharp cheddar




blueberries, baby carrots, clementine
raisins, goldfish pretzels, regular goldfish

animal of the week - eagle

Bald Eagle

day 1 - intro - we used this pattern to do a perler bead craft -

day 2 - animal -

what do they eat? fish. they glide just above the water, snag a fish with their feet and fly off to eat it. they also eat dead animals. By eating dead animals, they help with nature's clean-up process

do other animals try to eat them? no other animals try to eat bald eagles

what is their skin like? they have feathers.

what color are they? adults have a white head and tail, solid brown body, and a large, curved, yellow bill

hatch or born? hatched. eagles nests are called aeries (AIR-ees). they build their nests at the top of very tall trees so their eggs stay safe. The female lays 1 to 3 eggs. The eggs take between 1 to 1 1/2 months to hatch. Both the male and female will take a turn of sitting on the eggs. After hatching both the male and female feed the hatching's until they learn to fly.

what are they like as babies? babies are called eaglets. they are light grey when they hatch then turn brown. when they are 4 or 5 years old they start to look like an adult eagle. they learn to fly at 11 or 12 weeks old.

can they be a pet? no, they are too big and dangerous.

what size are they? their wingspan is 6-8 feet and they weigh around 7-15 lbs.

other description? they have VERY good eyesight. bald eagles are one of the largest birds in north america. each eagle has 7,000 feathers.

do boy and girls look different? girls are bigger than boys.

habits? Bald eagles may use the same nest year after year, adding more twigs and branches each time. One nest was found that had been used for 34 years and weighed over two tons.

day 3 - habitat -

land, air, sea? they fly through the air but they can also swim. they use their wings to swim through the water.

what is their habitat like? Bald Eagles live near large bodies of open water such as lakes, marshes, seacoasts and rivers, where there are plenty of fish to eat and tall trees for nesting and roosting.

what other (of the same) animals live around them? they live in groups called kettles. they also mate for life but prefer to fly around alone.

What other (different) animals live around them? all kinds of north american animals. they eat small animals though so they have to be carfeul.

where do they live on the map/globe? north america. about half of them live in alaska.


http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Animals/CreatureFeature/Baldeagle
http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/baldeagle.html
http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/animal-bytes/animalia/eumetazoa/coelomates/deuterostomes/chordata/craniata/aves/falconiformes/bald-eagle.htm
http://www.baldeagleinfo.com/index.html
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/www/critters/eagle/826572782.html#18

animal of the week - dolphin

for a craft, we printed out a picture of a dolphin, colored and cut it out. then we used water colors and painted an ocean to glue the dolphin on to.

(bottlenose) dolphin - animal -

what do they eat? they are carnivores. They have cone shaped teeth which they use for catching food. They do not chew. They eat 10 to 30 pounds of food a day, primarily fish and occasionally shrimp, crab and squid. sometimes they follow boats hoping to eat any food tossed over the side.

do other animals try to eat them? people used to kill them by accident but now we are more careful. people also used to eat dolphins, use their skin to make leather and their blubber for oil. sometimes sharks eat them.

what is their skin like? The skin has a rubbery feel and is quite sensitive. It can be scratched and damaged easily but also tends to heal quickly. Its smooth texture helps the dolphin to slip easily through the water along with its streamline body shape. the fin on their backs are called dorsal fins. they are made of cartilage like our nose and ears.

what color are they? they are gray colored.

hatch or born? they are born. The gestation period for a bottlenose dolphin is about 12 months.
what are they like as babies? Babies are called calves and are born tail first. They range from 2.5 to 4 feet long. As soon as the calf is born, the mother helps it rise to the surface to take its first breath. Calves stay close to their mothers for at least 4 to 5 years. they nurse for 12 to 18 months.

can they be a pet? dolphins are tough to take care of but you can visit them at aquariums.

what size are they? Adults range from 6 to 13 feet in length and can weigh from 400 to over 1,000 pounds.

other description? The name Bottlenose came from their bottle-shaped nose. They have a blowhole on the top of their head to breath through. They have very good hearing. They have almost no sense of smell. They have excellent vision in and out of the water.

do boy and girls look different? The adult males are usually larger than the females.

habits? Bottlenose dolphins usually swim 3 to 7 mph but can swim at a fast speed of 20 to 30 mph. They can jump up to 20 feet out of the water.

Bottlenose dolphin - habitat -

land, air, sea? they live in the sea even though they are mammals and breath air.
what is their habitat like? tropical and temperate waters.

what other (of the same) animals live around them? they like to live together in big groups called pods. pods have about 12 dolphins. research has shown that the have a dolphin language and can speak to each other.

What other (different) animals live around them? they live all over the world so the animals that live around them vary greatly.

where do they live on the map/globe? In the Pacific Ocean, bottlenose dolphins are found from northern Japan and California to Australia and Chile. They are also found offshore in the eastern tropical Pacific as far west as the Hawaiian islands. Off the California coast bottlenose dolphins have been observed as far north as Monterey, particularly during years of unusual warmth. In the Atlantic Ocean, bottlenose dolphins are found from Nova Scotia and Norway to Patagonia and the tip of South Africa. They are the most abundant dolphin species along the United States from Cape Cod through the Gulf of Mexico. Bottlenose dolphins are also found in the Mediterranean Sea, and in the Indian Ocean from Australia to South Africa.

what is that place like? they like warm water. if they live in a place that is warm all year, they stay there. if the water gets cold in the winter, they swim south for the winter and swim back in the spring.