We've been on a steady pace here in the Red Snail Classroom since our school started. We've been doing Kiwi Crates and Tinker Crates for fun. We've also been hitting the hard subjects, too. Math has been a bit of a struggle here and there for Skylar, but he is slowly getting the hang of it. We've been going over reading and writing comprehension like crazy and gearing up for our end of the year state test.
Kiwi Crates are a load of educational fun. If you haven't tried one of these, I highly recommend them. The one pictured above is forest learning. You can snag one of these crates here and get 30% off your first month's subscription.
We learned about stars, constellations with the December Tinker Crate, and shadow and light with Kiwi Crate.
Map making and treasure hunting.
How to antique paper:
1. Pot of coffee.
2. Copy paper.
3. Lighter (optional).
Place your copy paper in a deep, flat dish and pour the hot, ready-made coffee in top of the paper. Make sure every piece is fully submerged. Allow to sit in the coffee overnight, or longer, depending on the shade you want. Allow to dry completely on paper towels and as an optional added flair to the paper, burn the edges slightly with a lighter (Be very careful you don't burn too far into the paper). Now, use a pencil, or calligraphy pen to write messages, or draw a map.
We made 3D hand prints. You can find the instructions for this here.
We learned the parts of a seed and even planted some yellow squash seeds in a baggie with water to watch them grow over the winter. Not sure what we will do with them once they sprout, but it will be fun to watch them grow.
We touched on basic algebra and learned about positive and negative numbers.
We learned how to set a table properly with pretend food.
The lesson touched on more than just setting the table, it was also about how important certain foods were in order stay healthy. I used the Thanksgiving meal as an example of foods that have the recommended daily allowance for nutrients.
We did some cooking!
How to make Simple Cinnamon Rolls:
1. Can of ready-made biscuits.
2. 1 stick melted butter.
3. Cinnamon.
4. Sugar.
Mix cinnamon and sugar in melted butter and dip each biscuit into liquid. Place sideways in a baking dish and pour remaining liquid over the top of biscuits. Bake 12 minutes. Serve hot.
We also did a little gardening.
Our first attempt was a bit tricky because the sun wasn't coming out. We had to start over, but once we changed up windows, the sun hit the seeds every day. More on this soon.
We also gave some color to our Red Snails for the new classroom setup.
We did some science experiments. These experiments were a nice break up from math problems and reading comprehension pages. Skylar was glad of the break.
We soaked an egg in vinegar for two days and watched as the shell was dissolved. It gave Skylar a chance to work with theory and hypothesis information and gather facts over guessing.
With a few of the Kiwi Crates we were able to incorporate some science and theory into our daily assignment with science class.
With the January Kiwi Crate (Ice Lab) we learned about ice and how ice can be transformed.
Epsom salts with water and painted on paper dried to an "ice-like" snowflake design.
We really enjoyed this experiment.
The next experiment was the effect of salt on ice. The same way salt melts the ice on your driveway, it was an experiment with the same effects.
As the salt made tunnels in the ice, the food coloring was placed in the tunnels to watch the effect even better.
Effects of ice with food coloring make a design similar to the ocean.
The boxes that the kits come in are super cute! Skylar loves the winter theme.
The February box was themed, "Race Day." Having a boy, this one was right up his alley!
Building race cars and getting to learn about thrust and movement was a lot of fun for him. Even those these kits are geared around younger children, just the principle of learning about basic things is a great addition to our classroom.
We've also had our hands in a lot of OOBLECK.
More later! Have a great weekend!
