KJ's Ladies: Ice Cream at School

So, yesterday was school and the schedule ran much smoother. Meghan still woke up and wanted to eat, but I planned activities for them to do while she was eating (it just became snack time/free play for all of us) I also started "school" a little bit later, wrapped storytime right into school and then it was lunch time right after "school" which meant that I could feed Meghan too and then it was "rest time" for everyone and I was able to clean up a bit and get somethings done myself. I really like the way it turned out. I also started searching for a video related to our theme in school and letting them watch the video while I set up the school area. It helps to visual our topic for the kids. I have also become best friends with the local librarian with the number of books I am "requesting".

So anyway, at school we did a few neat things.... of course we learned the letter "I" and we did the shape of a circle. Kimberly learned the long vowel sound "i" and the difference between cream and milk. (Keep in mind I use the term "learned" loosely, "introduced" is probably a more appropriate term) We made our first "lapbooks" (see picture below) in which we practiced the "i" sound and did some copywork in our letter I books (top left in lapbook) and then we all drew our own ice cream come (bottom left) and then I did an anagram for "CREAM" and Kimberly did more copywork and Courtney practiced the letters on the front.(center-left top) We choose the all the pictures of ice cream topping that we liked and put them in the pocket (center left middle)We practiced the number "9" b/c this was the day National Ice Cream Day became to be.(center-left bottom) We then put together a wheel of the process to make ice cream starting with the cow and ending with buying it at the store (center-right top), then we cut circles (I cut Courtney's while she cut a blank sheet of paper) for a recipe for ice cream in a bag to put in the circle pocket... we did try this recipe later and it worked! (center right bottom) We also did cut and paste of different types of ice cream (top right) and then finally we did a science expierment in which we took two cups of ice water and added ice to one and then observed how they were different and took the temp. every 30 minutes for a total of 90 minutes. We then recorded the results. (bottom right). Least you think, OMG you are amazing to come up with all those ideas... I just did the lesson posted for free at Homeschool Share, so unfortantely I cannot claim the ideas as my own. The lesson was obviously written for a much older kid and I ended up doing a lot of prepwork so I don't know if I will do them all the time but it would be fun to try another one sometime.

We also went berry pickin' again last night. We all returned with berry stained hands.

As for me... still working on the "control freak" book but now I am on to lesson plans for the fall, trying to organize my thoughts on what objectives I have for Courtney in the 08-09 school year. Oh yeah, by the way I did finish that book So You're Thinking About Homeschooling which is basically 15 different families and the reasons why and how they homeschool. I still think I like the electic, pick and choose method, but I also am a unit study kind gal. Pick a specific curriculum as a core and build from that. I am definitely pretty detailed about how and what I want to teach but I love the flexiblity of home and time.

Cole- I got the sling and put it to good use right way... Meghan has also made good use of the quilt... (see below)

Anyway... again I think I have babbled enough... here are some pics from yesterday

Our ice cream lapbook (a file folder with projects inside)