Pie for breakfast? Well, Yes!

Looking at this picture you may see breakfast. Why not? I mean, there is cereal, yogurt, juice, and a pancake. When I look at this picture, I see pi! That's right, folks. Not pie as in: plug your pie hole or easy as pie, but pi as in the Greek letter and the mathematical constant of the ratio between the circumference and the diameter of a Euclidean circle.

So, look at the picture now. Do you see all those circles? Plate, bowl, cheerios, cup, juice bottom and juice top, yogurt bottom and yogurt top, and the pancake (sort-of).

Are you wondering why we are studying pi today? Well, it's pi day. Today is March 14 otherwise written as 3/14. Pi is approximately equal to 3.14

So, today the kiddos measured the many circles' diameters and circumferences and sure enough, after doing a little division (yes, Prez used a calculator), their circumferences were about 3 times the diameter.
Measuring his string that was used to measured the circumference of one of the items.
Doing a great job of measuring.
Even though I believe the brain is a self-congratulator, I did have a couple of donuts pi-nuts on hand for a job well done. You know to plug the pie hole.

By the way, if you are wondering why there is no picture of a pie, because seriously that is the easiest "tie-in" ever, it is because I never made it to the store. :(

My plan was to let us eat pie at 1:59 because the number pi is actually 3.14159....... a good way to remember this (because HEY, it could be the last question on who wants to be a millionaire) is on March 14 at 1:59 we always eat pie. :) Oh well, maybe next year.

To Saturn or BUST!

After learning about the planet Saturn and the rocket named Cassini that was sent there to obtain pictures, we used the book's suggestion and decided to create our own rocket demonstration. A few household items.
A little "lipstick and rouge"....
Mixing the "explosive chemicals"......
and BUST--complete failure. We attempted several other containers and tried tampering with the amount of Alka-selzer, but we could not get it to work. (Sigh).
However, Bubbles had just picked this book out from the library, on an unrelated note, but it had an activity in it that showed how to make a rocket! (A bottle rocket, that is)
Some more household items....
Not quite so pretty......
A make-shift launching pad......
Some air pressure and a beautiful assistant....
Lift-off! You can see the water trail in the air, but that baby is way, way, way out! ;)

We had so much fun doing this, that Bubbles has decided to take this activity and turn it into her Science Fair project. She will be experimenting with the ratio of water to air per container in order to determine distance launched. Perfect, since she just finished learning about ratios and proportions in Math.

A baby is born!

A BABY CHICKEN, THAT IS!

A little more than three weeks ago, our good friends built an incubator as part of their science curriculum and brought home several chicken eggs to hatch.

They included us in the fun as the chickens began to hatch today.

When we arrived, the chicken had broken through part of the shell and was needing lots of rest in between each attempt to "be born". (You can click on each picture to see it larger.)
The kids are peering in each time the chicken would wriggle and writhe to break free.
Getting the foot out.
Getting the head out.
Basically out! The baby chick can not be moved until the feathers dry out. We watched for about 15 - 20 minutes just to see what you saw in the last photos.

There is a temperature and humidity gauge in the incubator to keep things at the constant they needed to be. The eggs have an X and an O marking because the eggs had to be rotated and that was a way to keep track of the rotation.
Here is Bubbles holding a chick that had been born earlier in the morning and had already dried out. The chick you saw in the eggs is going to have yellow fuzz.

Tomorrow, we'll return to see the rest of the chicks. The kids are so excited! My friend said that they will keep them for a few days and then gift them to another friend who has a farm with chickens.

All in all, a great opportunity, right?

Are you smarter than a 6th grader

Here is your free Friday fact. Actually, it's a question.

What is the largest volcano...in our entire solar system?

(dee, dee, dee, dee.....dee, dee, dee......dee, dee, dee, dee, DEE....dee, dee, dee, dee, dee---jeopardy music)

The answer is: Olympus Mons (oh lim' pus mahns). It is found on Mars. There is evidence that some of the volcanoes are active on Mars, but no one has seen a Martian volcano erupt. (Wonder what would come out of it, if it did erupt?)
Here are pictures of Bubble's model of the volcano.
Although she's done this "trick" a thousand times, she did it again for Prez.
Oooooo, aaaaahhhhhh!
Prez had his turn too and it just never seemed to get old. I had to ration my baking soda and vinegar.

Now, go impress everyone with your factoid of the day! (If you happen to win any game shows on this little piece of information, I will be looking for my small share in the winnings.)

The Lunar Landing Module

The experiment: create a model of a "vehicle" that will land upright, without harming your two astronauts inside, when dropped from two feet, three feet, and five feet etc.

Here we go...in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.....

It's almost there. (Pretty lucky shot, eh?)

Sweet success! Go Bubbles!

Bubble's latest creation

With just a few simple household items......

You can create a telescope too! Just keeping Science fun! :)

Just doing a little braggin'

After an afternoon of studying the great artist, Van Gogh, the kids put their art supplies to the test with their rendition of Starry Night.

I had a few copies of Van Gogh paintings, but none of them were this one. So, I found an image on the Internet and let them study that. With over 800 paintings to his name, we will have more than a few weeks of material to emulate if we want.

Here Prez was using short, thick coats of acryllic and then grew weary of the process. He kept complimenting his sister though, which we thought was cute.

Okay, I'll quit boasting. I was just SO proud of them!

Batty for Bats

Even though our Science lessons have us studying the Sun, Prez stumbled upon a book on bats (go figure with Halloween around the corner) and has decided it's not fair that he hasn't personally seen one. So, with his enthusiasm up, I opened up a mini-unit book from the schoolroom on bats.

So far, we have learned why bats are not birds and why they are not rodents. This particular book also has scattered throughout, some great folktales and myths on why bats have crooked knees, short legs, and night vision. It has been fun.
The black construction bat was just a quick throw together idea that let him run around the house with his new pet. It also kept Sweetness entertained as the wings floated up and down. That is until Prez left it on the floor and she took it upon herself to dismantle the thing and figure it out. Luckily, she didn't try to eat it. He should have remembered that bats like to hang upside, hidden, and preferably out of reach. With all the extra fall season energy, I think I might be going batty!

School is definitely in session

Being that we are six weeks into our new school year (and I haven't posted ANYTHING outside of our first day) I have too many pictures and too much info. to share. So.....here are a few highlights that brightened up the days filled with papers, reports, tests, calculations, and chores.

History: We started in the time period of 1730's when George Washington was born. Many other great men/women of our country are also around or being born including John Adams, John Hancock, Daniel Boone, and Ben Franklin. We aren't exclusive in our study of America and we are also learning about what is going on in England, France, China, and India. Here is just a snapshot of a week's worth of reading. We actually frequent three different libraries in the area so I'm not out a small fortune each year.
The book below was such a find! This is a copy of the book that George Washington used in training himself as a gentleman. He hand wrote each rule and put it into memory and practice. Having it as a reference was funny as well as enlightening.

Science: We started the year with a short, four week study of the human body. I thought it would be a motivating hands-on way to start the school year. The kids really seemed to enjoy it and the lack of projects in History were made up for in Science.

Cute board game that Bubbles had received for Christmas sometime ago. We cracked it open for Prez to have a go. It includes removable decals of the body's organs and he LOVED racing us to see who could "build" their body first.
This was a cumulative game of Jeopardy we played to see what we had learned. I thought the kiddos did a great job of remembering details.
Bubbles was the winner, but in Prez's defense, he didn't sit in on every Science lesson.

Inside of a chicken bone with lots of bone marrow.

Gross!
Model of a lung and how the diaphragm works.
Red balloon is the lung...yellow balloon on the bottom is the diaphragm.
Model of how the arm muscles work.
One muscle pulls, while the other pushes.
Blood had to be studied with the circulatory system, of course!
Luckily, it was fake blood that we made. Although, I'm sure he had Daddy fooled.
Homemade stethoscope.
Two eggheads? No. Naturally this is a Science experiment.
What's the importance of brain fluid?
It protects the brain from injury. We used water for our fluid, but down below the poor fellow had an empty head, so he cracked!
Made a little brain hat in order to get an idea of what parts of the brain were used for which things.
The senses.
We learned that an adult brain weighs about 3 pounds and has a gray/pink, warm, squishy appearance and feel.
Using sand, instant mashed potatoes, and warm water in certain measurements, we attempted to get a grasp on that information.
Pretty fun to play with.

Art: I have shortened our school week to four days of hardcore lessons and on Fridays we do all of our fieldtrips, Mass, and art lessons. I am teaching the kiddos to draw and we are studying different artists. One of the lessons was teaching the kids to look for simple shapes when drawing still life objects. You sketch this out first and then add details and more precise lines to have your picture come to life.
This is a picture of a jalapeno pepper that Prez drew. He used an oval shape for the body and a triangle shape for the top.
Here is a pencil, which when turned you can tell was laying on the table. I suggested he add some charcoal underneath for the shaded effect. I thought it turned out well.
Here is Bubble's rendition of a green onion. The oval at the bottom with the crescent "leaves" really likened to the original vegetable.
Prez's log cabin he drew when learning about Daniel Boone.
Bubble's log cabin and tree, which she was very happy to "get the tree branches to look right".
Here is Bubbles working on her own take of Paul Signac's Palais de Papes Avignon.
The object was to draw a landscape, practicing drawing straight lines, and then filling it all in with different colored squares of paper.
Last but not least, we were working on transforming 2-D objects into 3-D objects with proper shading. I thought Bubble's sphere really popped out and she was extremely content with her efforts.
Prez also did a remarkable job, but I did help him with instruction on where to darken, lengthen, and shade more. We also traced the circle. Either way, I believe they both have learned a lot.

I hope to stay on top of the school posts, but one never knows. I wish I had pictures from our trip to the Nasher Sculpture Center, but I'll try to do better next time.

As for now, we continue the papers, reports, tests, and calculations, but we are now studying Astronomy. That should be "out of the this world". :)