Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Changing the Schedule

One day a week the homeschooler draws slips of paper from the bag with the titles of each subject printed on them. This is the order the subjects are done for that day. Makes for a fun "Away-from-the-normal-schedule" day!

Spaghetti and Meatballs for All Mathematical Activity

We read the book Spaghetti and Meatballs for All! which is a mathematical story.  Then we re-enacted it with different people playing different parts in the story.  We used some cards to keep re-arranging the tables as they did in the story.  Great way to get kids thinking about area and perimeter!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

"Hand with Flowers" Art Project


Have students view pictures of Picasso's "Hand with Flowers" and then draw their own.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Determining Area By Drawing Fun Pictures

Print graph paper from HERE.

Let each child draw one or more animal creatures.  Then count the squares to determine the area.



Monday, January 21, 2013

Interactive Clock - Helps Kids Tell Time

Make a large clock on the floor using Post-It notes for the numbers.  Your child can walk around the clock while saying while saying "five", "ten", "fifteen", "twenty", etc.  Different times can be written in a surprise box and pulled out and the child moves the hands to that time.  You can call take off the large hand and call out a time and the child stands by the correct number.

Friday, January 18, 2013

PREPOSITIONS

Title the paper, "PREPOSITIONS; Where Is the Sticker?"

Give the child a sheet of stickers to use to illustrate each preposition, such as: under, behind, between, over, in, above, on, near, beneath, beside, out, last.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Fruit Pizza - Healthy Recipe Kids Love to Make!



Kids love helping to make this healthy, delicious pizza!

Ingredients: 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ¾ cup Kellogg’s Special K Vanilla Almond cereal or any flakes cereal (crushed in blender or by hand), 2 tablespoons honey, 1 teaspoon almond extract, 2/3 cup skim milk, ¼ cup vegetable oil, 1 container low-fat cream cheese, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, Kiwi, pineapple.


Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together flour, baking powder, cereal, 1 tablespoon honey and almond extract.
3. Add milk and oil.
4. Stir.
5. Spray 14-inch pizza pan with non-stick cooking spray or oil lightly.
6. With floured hands, press dough into 14-inch pizza pan.
7. Shape edge to form slight rim.
8. Bake about 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
9. Cool.
10. Mix 1 tablespoon honey into cream cheese. Spread evenly over crust.
11. Arrange fruit in any desired pattern.
12. Cut into pieces. Eat and enjoy!

Ancient Egypt Sarcophagus Art Project

The wooden coffin which is then placed inside the sarcophagus.

Materials Needed:  White construction paper, markers, cardboard, yarn.

Geyser Art Project

After viewing Old Faithful on YouTube, we made a geyser picture using construction paper and white glitter.

Sahara Desert Project

Printed off a map of Africa found on the internet.  Put glue over the area where the Sahara Desert is and poured on sand.

Einstein Craft Project

Materials Needed:  Empty toilet paper roll, construction paper, crayons, markers, fiberfill, glue, scotch tape.

Butte & Mesa From Play Dough

After reading about a butte and mesa in a book, they were sculpted from play-dough.

Mother's Day Art Project

Materials Needed:  Large sheet construction paper, paint, brushes, coffee filter, child's photo, glue.

Weather Words Handwriting Practice

Am always looking for new ways to make handwriting practice fun.

We made a list of all words associated with the weather and then choose 8 to use for handwriting practice.

I cut out the raindrops and drew a straight line on them so the words could be printed on each drop.

20-Roll Game (Addition/Subtraction)

Roll the dice 20 times.

After each roll, say the equation and give the answer.

A fun way to practice addition and subtraction.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Write Spelling Words With Water on Blackboard

A different idea for having children practice their spelling words is to write them on a chalkboard using water and a brush.

Building 3-Dimensional Shapes With Toothpicks & Marshmallows

Give children miniature marshmallows and toothpicks and let them build 3-dimensional shapes.  Start with a square and let them continue from there.

The Great Pyramid

During the Old and Middle Kingdoms, the Egyptians built huge pyramids as tombs for their kings, or pharaohs.

At the right is the Great Pyramid, Khafre's father, Khufu, is buried here.  The 3 small pyramids are for the queen and the pharaoh's other wives.

The pyramid at the left is for the pharaoh Khafre.

A huge statue of the Sphinx guards the pyramids.  It has a human head and a lion's body.

A passageway links the valley temple to the mortuary temple.

Spelling Words With "OO"

A fun idea for spelling words with "OO" is to use Fruit Loops!  These words will never be forogtten!

Learning About Northern & Southern Hemispheres

Have your child place a rubber band around a ball.  Talk about this being the equator -- and that the area north of the rubber band is the Northern Hemisphere and the area south is the Southern Hemisphere.  Get your globe and have the child find the equator and the hemispheres.  Talk about continents which are in Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere.

Learning Perimeter and Area

Draw your child's foot on a sheet of paper.  Talk about what the perimeter is (the line outside the foot) and area (all the part inside).  Have your child glue squares in the area. 

Using Cereal to Learn 9 Fact Family - Math Fun






To help your child learn the 9 fact family -- use Fruit Loops with marshmallows.  For instance, the child places 6 Fruit Loops and 3 marshmallows, says the equation 3 times.  Breakfast follows!

Using Descriptive Words to Classify Rocks







Write out descriptive words and let the child match them to rocks in their collection. This can also be mixed up by using two words such as "dark smoothest" - "biggest rough" - etc.  Teaches classification and also how to use descriptive words.

Penny Shuffleboard Math Game


Draw a rectangular shuffle board and write in numbers from 1-9.  Play Penny Shuffleboard.  This can be used to review addition, subtraction or multiplication.