Last Wonderful Wednesday! Easter Celebration!

Hard to believe we are done!  Wonderful Wednesday has seen it's final week!  The last week landed on April fools day, and right before Easter.  I couldn't help but have some messy, erupting fun to bring it all to a close!  I even played an April fool's day joke on all the kids!  I've included instructions and ingredients for all this week's Wonderful Wednesday's fun - great for anytime of the year -not just Easter!

Preamble Fun with Lichtenstein!

Today we were commemorating our timeline memory work with our dress up of New York's own Lady Liberty.  We also celebrated our history sentence for the week, by doing a Lichtenstein art project, that reflected our patriotism!

Fossil Fun!

Today we explored some fun with fossils and touched on catastrophism again!  There were three fun projects, some weather related jokes and a dual of the zebra's to decide who would make it on the Big Boat!  To end the day the kids created their own banana boat arks.  Join us as we explore the fun of fossils!

Introducing the Science of Origins

The Science or Origins can be a scary thing to introduce to children, but we took it on anyway this week.  My goal was to help the kids tie together some of their science labs and expose them to arguments they will hear out in the world regarding Darwinism and Creationism.  I also highlighted some strengths and weaknesses for both arguments.  My main objective in the end however, was to have them walk away recognizing three things to be true…

Gooey, Bubbly Elements & The Supreme Court!

Playing with chemical reactions is just too much fun to stop!  So…we decided to have one last go at the gooey, bubbly world of creating chemical reactions with elements!  We zoned in on two easy and high interest experiments today, as well as exploring the Supreme Court, through our dress-up theme.  Lastly, we expanded our review time - to support all those in our group going for Memory Master (8 kids), by rotating through review stations for the various subjects.  

Element Concotions

This week we had a delayed start to Wonderful Wednesday, due to some unusual North Carolina snow!  The sun decided to come out, the temperatures warmed up, and we were able to still have some science fun together!  We made some very bubbly element concoctions, that were quite the hit and super easy!  Don't miss this week's fun…

Teaching the Orchestra

Teaching the orchestra is not as hard as it may sound.  One of the best ways I've found to teach it as a tutor, is to make an orchestra board for the six week segment.  The board is also great to keep up at home with my own child during the week.  I am just getting ready to update my board for the current cycle, so I thought I'd share with you how I made it and what I put on my board, along with some additional teaching ideas for the classroom and at home.

Element Experiment Extravaganza!

After completing our DIY Giant Periodic Table of Elements, I decided it would be the perfect time for the kids to explore elements in a hands on way, through experimentation.  So I set up several experiments today that utilized common elements, as well as an understanding of how electrons play a part in everyday things like electricity!  So join us as we explore...some ELEMENTS!

DIY Giant Periodic Table of Elements - Completed!

This project came out so good.  It is amazing what you can do with some cardboard, used egg cartons, a little paint and a fun Basher book!  It might be one of my favorite projects to date!  You won't want to miss the completion of this project, the roaring 20's fun and the funny surprise that awaited me and made this one of the most fun Wonderful Wednesdays, yet!

Painting the Periodic Table of Elements!

Wonderful Wednesday was the continuation of our Periodic Table of Elements board we are making.  We began working on this large project last week.  Today, the kids painted their periodic table according to the color scheme of Basher's The Periodic Table: Elements with Style! book.  We hope to finish up the final PTE boards next Wednesday!  They are going to look so cool when they are done!

Exploring the Elements! + O'Keeffe Pizzas!

Today our exploration dressed as Theodore Roosevelt, was a further understanding of the Periodic Table of Elements!  We also made some O'Keeffe inspired pizza flower designs that were...delicious!  So join us in today's Wonderful Wednesday journey!

Introducing the Periodic Table of Elements!

So if you were with us last week, we introduced the idea of chemistry and zoned in on atoms.  This week we had an icy start to our day, but we were able to still get together, albeit a little later!  Starting out, we built on last weeks' concepts and talked about the elements in the Periodic Table.  I reviewed the the atom, and then explained elements and molecules in more detail then last week.  We then took a big picture view of The Periodic Table and started with a simple project on the break down of the Table.

Introducing Chemistry!

Wonderful Wednesday is back!  School is back in session, and we are starting our exploration of chemistry!  I wanted to back up from the atomic number (which is week 13 for CC) to explaining what an atom is first, and how that fits in with our previous studies of anatomy.  I also wanted to back out and give them an overview of chemistry and introduce the idea of the periodic table of elements.  This is the basis from which we will explore the periodic table of elements and the atom in the following weeks!

Christmas Party -Wonderful Wednesday 2014

The month of December is a busy month!  It's so hard to fit everything in you want to.  Thankfully, we were able to get together for a small celebration of God's goodness in putting together this group of women and children, that we call Wonderful Wednesdays!  My daughter has been in the middle of long and late night rehearsals for a Christmas fundraiser play and I've been helping with costuming for it, so I didn't get too elaborate this year.  However, we did eat a yummy breakfast together, do some fun games and make a neat little craft.  

Learning About Blood and Inside Me T-shirts!

Today we touched one final time on understanding what makes up our blood and what it's function is within the body, which we covered in more detail when we focused on the circulatory system a few weeks ago.  We made our own t-shirts of our internal body organs/systems to tie up our last week of anatomy studies.  We ended our day with a very fun review of the previous twelve weeks of memory work via a fast paced "acting out the memory work with props" game!

Endocrine System!

Wonderful Wednesday was all about the endocrine system today.  The kids got the fright of their lives to start our day and then we ended our day with an Abraham Lincoln themed snack and review game, with fun learning in between.  We had some special guests today too - always love when a Grandparent (or two!) can come join our day!

Edible U.S Maps and More!

Today in Wonderful Wednesday, we stepped away from the science blitz format we've been doing.  We had already covered lungs in our previous week when we looked at the Excretory System and made a working lung model.  So, it seemed fitting to take a little break and focus on our geography and music theory, with a little abstract art for fun thrown in!

Battle of the Immune System!

This week in Wonderful Wednesday we focused on the amazing Immune System!  The kids dressed up as Vikings (a timeline event for this week) - which also fit with our end of the day activity of "fighting" germs!  The kids loved the immune system attack activity of the day, it was a ton of fun!

Circulatory System Fun!

This week we had a blast exploring the circulatory system!  We all dressed up as "medical professionals" (I joined in this week since all I had to do was pull out a pair of my old scrubs - so don't expect any other week to see me...haha!) - I loved the pharmaceutical sales girl with her briefcase.  There has to be at least one in every gathering of medical professionals, don't you think?

Exploring the Excretory System!

Today we explored the excretory system with the kids.  I had a couple models planned, along with a few demonstrations and a surprising end to the day for the kids!  We had cowgirls and boys for our history dress up this week.  I loved seeing some of the kids bring their mop horses I had made in September!  Sarah chose to wear a costume horse she had from a few years ago!