Wonderful Wednesday's EGGstravaganza!

I wanted to share our end of the year blow out -Wonderful Wednesday party!  I have to say that I don't think I have laughed that hard and much, in a very long time!  It was so much fun!  I wish everyone I knew could experience a group like this.  These women and children are incredible gifts to us and one another.  The exploration, experimentation, excitement and excellence that is within each of these kids and Mom's, is what makes life so fun homeschooling together!

Year 2 Wonderful Wednesday's in Review!

It's hard to believe that Year 2 for us, has come to a close.  Sadly, that means that our Wonderful Wednesdays are coming to an end as well!  I thought I would recap our year in dress-ups and feature my two favorite from the first and last 12 weeks of Wonderful Wednesdays!  I'd love to hear from you by comment below, about which were your favorite's from this year!

Weeks 1-12 Dress Up....

My favorite by far was the Marie Antoinette costume from the first 12 weeks!

Year 2 - Week 23 - Presidents and Heat Flow

Today we combined our Week 23 and Week 24 a little bit.  We are heading to a special field trip next week for Wonderful Wednesdays (more to come on that next week).  So for dress up we did Presidents and then we focused our memory work on the way heat flows - conduction, convection and radiation.  

If you want to see the Orchestra Review Game I made up - skip down to the bottom of this post!  

Year 2 - Week 22 - Beethoven and Exploring Light

This week we decided to dress up as Beethoven from our Fine Art, Composer studies.  I loved the variety and versions we got of Beethoven.  It's so fun to see the kids when they are dressed up and given some free time, we often will see them acting out their character!  How great is it to see their minds exploring the character, time period and actions of that person's life - all on their own, based on what they have learned in class and home this year, regarding Beethoven?  That's why I love what I do!

Year - Week 21 - Spies and Russian Salt Dough Map

This week it seemed fitting, since there is so much going on with current events and Russia, to zone in on our history sentence for our projects and dress up this week!  So, we dressed up as spies from the cold war!  We also did a salt dough map of Russia.  This theme couldn't escape one of our Moms who came through with a fantastic themed snack and review game.

Year 2 - Week 20 - Vietnamese Dragons and the Second Law of Thermodynamics!

Vietnamese Dragon Supplies

• Plastic cups
• Bendable straws
• White paper
• Egg carton
• Streamers
• Markers
• Hot glue
• Clear tape

Year 2 - Week 19 - Korean Lamb Towels & Silly First Law of Thermodynamics "Magic"

This week we dressed for our history sentence in our best attempts at Korean hanbok dresses and made  lamb towels for the kids to wear!  What a hoot!  They are so easy and fun!  All you need is a hand towel.  Here are the visual directions and written ones below pictures....

Year 2 - Week 18 -Indians & 3D Degas & Monet

So fine arts and Indians?  A natural combination - don't you think?  Well, we combined them today in Wonderful Wednesdays!  We exhausted our dress ups for all the various WWI and WWII history, so we went for a timeline dress up today - Cherokee Trail of Tears!

 

Sarah wanted to be the first "girl Chief" - true to form!  

Year 2 - Week 17 - WWII Dress Up and Newton's F=ma

This week we focused our attention on World War II leaders and our dress up included some famous folks!  We also did a project for Valentine's Day involving our fine arts and then further explored Newton's Laws.  The kids had a blast with the big characters they were representing and the props they were famous for - can you tell?

Year 2 - Week 16 - Isaac Newton's 1st Law of Motion!

Directions at bottom of post for making Isaac Newton Costume!

This week we explored the concepts of Newton's 1st Law of Motion through a variety of experiments!  Our history dress up was World War II -so we had some great costumes!  I couldn't resist making a Isaac Newton costume to go with our science for the day!

We sang, wrote and hand motioned through the week's memory work using our lapbooks to start.

Year 2 - Week 15 - Kinetic and Potential Energy Experiments and more

Kinetic and Potential Energy Experiments and Types of Sentences Dress Up!

Today we had a little delay with the weather.  Being in North Carolina, when it snows 1/3" - things are delayed, preschools are closed and Moms scramble!  Originally growing up in upstate, it's funny to see the panic over a flake of snow!

So…to save time, allow kids to play in that fabulous 1/3" of snow and make alternate arrangements for little ones, we omitted our lap books today and instead, we sang and hand motioned through the Week 15 Grammar.  Then we broke out our activities to help the kids understand better, the concepts of energy - potential and kinetic!

Year 2 - Week 14 Wonderful Wednesday - WW1 Soldiers and Acid/Base Experiments

Week 14 Wonderful Wednesdays!

Today we dressed up for the military and discussed World War 1!  We focused our discussion around the trench battles.  I had written on a white board the way trenches were built, showed some photographs on my iPad and discussed the conditions and dangers that soldiers faced while fighting in the trenches.  Then I set up a game that was designed to help them better understand some of the challenges of this sort of fighting.

We first set up "trenches" using our gym mats.  They allowed us to zig zag the trench - which was what they did in WW1 and we discussed why that was tactically beneficial to the soldiers.  Next I gave them stuffed snow balls we had, along with rolled socks and those became the "mortars" that the soldiers in the trench were going to use to stop the advancing attackers.  The attackers used Nerf® shot guns and those simulated the rifles that they were issued.

Year 2 Week 13 - States of Matter!

Cycle 2 Week 13 - States of Matter!

Welcome back to Wonderful Wednesdays!  It was such a nice break!  Now it's time to get back into the swing of things and start our second half of the CC year!  Week 13 dress up was anything related to the Industrial Revolution - we had miners and train conductors today!  

Year 2 Week 12 - Create Your Own Spacecraft and Astronauts

CC Cycle 2 Week 12         Create Your Own Spacecraft and Astronauts

Today for Wonderful Wednesdays we explored space further, expounding on astronauts and their space missions.  I had two books that had lots of good pictures of astronauts and spacecrafts.  I also read excerpts from an interview with a NASA scientist concerning astronauts to them.

Year 2 Week 11 - Other Space Bodies and Marie Antoinette!

Cycle 2            Week 11                              Other Space Bodies and Marie Antoinette!

Today we focused our project on enriching our science memory work.  I created a project that would help them remember what those other space bodies were using the Everything You Need to Know About Science book as my reference for my information we would be labeling/covering.  I especially wanted them to know the differences between those elusive terms - meteoroid, meteor, meteorite!

Year 2 Week 10 - Moon and Music

Cycle 2       Week 10             Wonderful Wednesdays             Moon and Music

See bottom post to find info on "writing" music with food!

A classical fun approach to learning music theory!

Today we focused ourselves on the Moon for our project.  This project was neat.  It allowed the kids to really get a great hands on visual of how the phases of the moon works.  When completed the kids put their heads through the board becoming the "earth" and they then rotated the board around themselves, which gave them a view of each phase of the moon as they spun it.  So cool!  

Year 2 Week 9 - Solar Systems/Caribbean

Cycle 2 Week #9                                   Solar Systems /Caribbean

Today we embarked upon Week #9 dressed for the Caribbean!  Our project today reflected the Science we were studying regarding the Solar System.  This project was to give the kids a concept of the spacing between planets and relative size differences.  

Year 2 - Week 8 Pirates/Explorers and Exploration Project (Part 2 of 2)

Year 2            Week #8           Pirates/Explorers and Exploration Project      (Part 2 of 2)

The second Project that we tackled was regarding Explorers.  Since the topic for the memory work this week was Exploration, I wanted to have the kids understand a little bit about why Explorers would risk all they did to explore new lands and what they were hoping to accomplish or gain by doing so.  I found a concise, well laid out explanation that could easily be made into a visual to really help it come to life, from www.homeschoolinthewoods.com.  Each parent accessed and printed their own.  I also used the book Everything You Need to Know About History to have the kids draw lines representing each of the voyages for the main Explorers we were focusing in on.

Year 2 - Week 8 Pirates/Explorers - The Sun (Part 1 of 2)

Year 2          Week 8            Pirates/Explorers - The Sun (Part 1 of 2)

Today's Wonderful Wednesday will be done in two separate posts, since we had two projects.  So this is Part 1 of 2.  The first project we tackled was an artistic rendition of the sun.  This project was beautiful, had a sensory component and fun to do for the kids.  It went with our memory work for science regarding the sun.

Year 2 - Week 7 - Stars and Martin Luther

Cycle 2      Wonderful Wednesday   Week #7      Martin Luther and Stars

Wonderful Wednesday this week consisted of dressing up for history, as the Monk -Martin Luther!

 We started with the lapbooks and then once we finished those we moved on to our big project!  Today we did a project that was about stars.  I had a few books that I referenced and I had written some interesting facts that would hopefully provoke and intrigue the kids to read and learn more about stars.