Learning States & Abbreviations

In First Language Lessons, the book suggested that the postal abbreviations be taught for each state.  I thought, what a great idea!  But where to begin??  I contemplated it for a couple weeks.  My kids all have different learning styles, so I wasn't sure where to start.

First, I decided to teach them in alphabetical order.
Next, I decided to teach only 10 at a time.
And last, I came up with a flashcard learning system.

Dry Erase (or Wet Erase) Flash Cards

The first set of cards has the state name, shape, and abbreviation on the front.

On the back, it has the state name & shape.

The student fills in the abbreviation.

How to use it:

Have student study the front sides first.

Then have the student flip over the cards and try to fill in the abbreviation from what they can remember.

Immediately after filling it in, they flip it over to see if they were right.

If they consistently get it right, they can place it in their "mastered" pile.

If they get it wrong, they can place it in their "practice" pile.

Bonus: They're reusable!  Easy clean up with a sponge or paper towel.

---------------------

The second set of cards has the state name, shape, and abbreviation on the front.

On the back, it only has the state shape.

The student needs to fill in the name & abbreviation.

How to use it:

Exactly like the first set.

Some thoughts:

1.  I wish I would've done the two sets in different colors.  Because I didn't, the one set has a little red mark in the corner.

2.  I used heavy cardstock (scrapbooking style) paper and laminated the cards.

3.  I wish I could draw states better.  Perhaps printing them from online would've been better.  But I think it gives a fair enough idea of the state shape regardless.

4.  I am also going to use this with a blank map of the US.  After we get ten states down, I'll have the students find the state and write the abbreviation on the map. ~ This will also teach them location within the US as well.

5.  Most states are shaped differently.  But there are some that are very similar.  Wyoming & Colorado are both box shaped.  North Dakota, South Dakota & Kansas have very similar rectangular shapes.  So in order to find their locations in the US, these states need special attention paid to them.

I also have this map in full view of all the students.

Each state is named and as we learn the state, I write the postal abbreviation on it.

Hopefully, this will be enough of a visual clue throughout the weeks to help them remember location.

Pluto: The Rejected Planet

I went in to this whole Pluto study biased.

I was raised on the knowledge that Pluto was a planet.

The Solar System had 9 planets.

It just doesn't seem right to say that it only has 8.

You just can't throw a planet out of the Solar System!

 I'm a little sentimental when it comes to Pluto.

I like Pluto.

He's the underdog.

(no pun intended) 

;)

I'm going to interject here to thank those of you who voted for our Pluto Planetship question on facebook.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed that we only got 11 votes (out of 211 friends),

BUT, I am so thankful to those of you who did vote!!  So thank you!!

I am going to list the reasons why Pluto was taken out of the category of Planet.

Followed by the reason for why it still should be a planet.

At the very end,

I'll give you our unanimous (as a family) vote on how we feel about it.

But I'm sure through my subtle sarcasm . . . You'll figure it out.

REASON AGAINST: Pluto is the size of a moon.

FOR PLUTO: Um . . . Ever hear of Mercury???  Smaller than Jupiter's moon Ganymede.  And not a ton bigger than Pluto.

REASON AGAINST: Pluto has an off center orbit that is elliptical.

FOR PLUTO: Again.  One word.  Mercury.  It has an elliptical orbit.  Pluto's is only ever so slightly more elliptical than Mercury's.  And guess what!  All the planets actually have an elliptical orbit to some extent, but the planets from Venus through Neptune's are more circular.  The off-center orbit could be explained by the next "For".

REASON AGAINST: Pluto has an inclining orbit.  Most of the planets orbit on a flat plane.

FOR PLUTO: Is it at all possible that (being near the Kuiper Belt) it may have been hit by a Kuiper object altering it's orbit????  You would have to answer: Yes, it is possible.

REASON AGAINST: Pluto's moon is too big.  All the other planet's have comparatively much smaller moons.

FOR PLUTO: Pluto has a gravitational pull.  Once again, is it possible that Pluto could have pulled a comet into its orbit?  Yes.  It is believed that Triton was a comet pulled into Neptune's orbit.  We consider Triton a moon and Neptune a planet.  A moon after all is a natural satellite orbiting a planet.  Does it matter the size, if it's doing what the definition of a moon describes?

REASON AGAINST: Pluto is made of ice and rock and all the other planets beyond the asteroid belt are gas giants.

FOR PLUTO: I'm gonna be a little rude here.  VERY DUMB REASON.  Where is the law that says all planets outside of the asteroid belt have to be gas planets?  It makes perfect sense that there would be planets far away from the Sun that are made of ice and rock.

Bringing us to this:

REASON AGAINST: Pluto looks like a comet.  Comets don't have a hot inner core and neither does Pluto.

FOR PLUTO: Agreed, Pluto doesn't have a hot inner core.  BUT all the comets make changes.  They form comas or burn off material.  Pluto doesn't do that.

REASON AGAINST: Well, comets burn off material and change because they get close to the Sun.  Pluto never gets that close, so that's why it doesn't change.

FOR PLUTO: The comets that don't get near the Sun are in the Kuiper Belt.  Guess where Pluto is not.  Yep.  The Kuiper Belt.

REASON AGAINST: Well then, it looks like a Kuiper Belt object, even though it's a larger object.

FOR PLUTO: You're right.  Pluto is a lot bigger than all the other Kuiper Belt objects. It's not in orbit with the Kuiper Belt.  It's much larger than anything in the Kuiper Belt.  So the logical conclusion here is, it's not a Kuiper Belt object.

REASON AGAINST: Pluto doesn't fit into the definition of a planet.

FOR PLUTO:  First of all, the definition of a planet was changed.  But, let's go with the raw definition of a planet: Any large object that orbits the Sun with a strong enough gravitational pull to keep it in orbit.  Does Pluto fit that definition?  Yes.

REASON AGAINST: Well with that definition, anything "large" could be considered a planet including comets.

FOR PLUTO: But comets don't fit into all the other guidelines of a planet.  You're grasping.  It's unbecoming.

Ok.  There are all the arguments and rebuttles, laced with my sarcasm.

;)

If you haven't guessed it,

We're all for PLUTO!!

Some of my kids weren't at the beginning or our study.

But the evidence and facts changed their minds.

I also have to add,

I hate it when people change the rules, definitions, laws or whatever to make their point valid.

Changing the definition of a planet is just nuts to me.

That's like changing the definition of a word just because you want it to pertain (or not pertain) to something.

If you recall, Pluto was not stripped of its planetship until they changed the definition.

I know the Hubble has given us much more information,

But that information, to me, has seemed to prove the fact that Pluto is a planet even more now.

Not stripped it of it's title.

Ridiculousness.

The Votes on Facebook:

3 Against Pluto being a planet

8 For Pluto being a planet

If you disagree with my opinion. That's ok. That's what makes everyone different.  I am not saying that I am right.  I am saying based on all the facts and evidence, this is how I feel.  I'm sure somebody could find fault with my reasoning.  Wouldn't you agree that if we all agreed on everything, this would be a very boring world?

Our information came from "Exploring Creation with Astronomy", by Jeannie Fulbright and published by Apologia.

1st Quarter Thoughts

Okay, I've tried some new things this year, and I already have some pretty solid opinions and thoughts.

In no particular order:

1.  Don't waste your money on Wordly Wise 3000 Grade 1.  I bought this workbook and looked at the 'sneak peek' online.  It looked perfect!  I normally read reviews, but I had already read reviews on the other grade levels and figured it would be the same.  Lesson learned: ALWAYS read reviews . . . for EVERY item.  Here, the workbook has to be used with a teacher's guide.  It did not state that on the website I was on.  Usually it has at the bottom, "People who looked at this also looked at that."  Or something like that.  Well, no big deal.  Order a teacher's guide, right?!?  WRONG!!  The teacher's guides are only on websites like Ebay and are going for just under $200.  My assumption is that they're no longer in print.  So why would a bookstore sell a workbook that you can't use??  Good question.  Still don't know the answer to that.  So we're struggling through Wordly Wise for my 1st grader.  But 2nd -4th are great!!

2.  Teacher Time / Self Study (a tutoring method I came up with) is working really well!  This is our best year yet!!!  I have had no, I repeat no, complaining about having to do school.  No moaning.  No 'aawwWWwww'.  Zilch.  The kids love it.  And I love it.  Makes our days go much smoother.  In fact, my kids get up early some mornings and are asking to start school at 6am.

3.  Unit study is the way for us!  We are almost done with our Science Unit.  The kids love it.  We do it daily.  I think it's their most favorite subject.  Next up is Geography, then History and lastly Health.  For Language Arts, our first quarter we did Spelling everyday.  Three kids completed a level.  One kid came close.  Now we are doing Vocabulary.  And the last unit will be Phonics.  Grammar, Reading and Writing are our all year subjects in that category.  Anyway, Unit Study = success!

4.  Harder subjects in the first quarter. Since we are doing a lot of unit studies this year, it made this method easy.  I scheduled it where all our 'tougher' subjects were done (or started) in the first quarter.  Then as time goes on, they drop out one by one and are replaced with an easier subject.  We worked our behinds off in quarter 1, but it has made quarter 2 seems so much easier so far.  Hopefully that trend will continue to the end.

5.  Because the harder subjects are over (or almost over) we were able to add some fun electives in for the rest of the school year.  My oldest is doing Piano and Typing.  My oldest middle is doing Typing and will be adding Art on soon.  And the second to youngest is doing Typing.

6.  I can never get enough of Astronomy.  And luckily for them, neither can my kids.

7.  Science projects can be fun!  Every year I've avoided Science experiments like the plague.  My kids love them.  Maybe that's because they didn't have to gather materials, read through directions to make sure they understood, take the time to prep, etc.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching experiments just as much as the next person.  Mythbusters is a favorite show of mine.  But I always hated doing them.  Well, Exploring Creation with Astronomy has healed me of that.  I love doing the experiments with the kids.  Just take a look at all my Astronomy posts.  Point proven. ;)  It probably also helps if you're interested in the topic.  Anyway, Science is fun this year.

8.  I'm so proud of my 6th grader.  He struggles in Language Arts.  I mean really struggles.  But he worked his tail off this past quarter and got a 4.0 GPA.  Yep, All A's.  Congrats Kaidin!!!

Here are a few end of quarter pictures:

His first quarter report card

Standing in front of her spelling board - Spelling Level 5 complete!

His very first year of spelling complete!  He can spell over 200 words!!

He completed his Level 2 toward the beginning of the quarter.  It continued from last year.  Great job Gavin!!!

He completed his first 'real' chapter book.  He's a world of difference from this time last year!

Venus, Mars, Rocks & Shooting Stars

I know some of you have been chomping at the bit to find out which planet is the hottest planet.

[Note an insane amount of sarcasm here] 

;)

The answer:

VENUS

It has a very thick atmosphere which holds in the sun's heat.
It's a whopping 870* day and night.
And we complain about getting to 100*. Pshh.

Venus Science Projects

 #1

Using Radar to determine the surface of Venus.

Since Venus's atmosphere is so thick and non-transparent,

Radar is needed in order to get a feel for the surface.

Using a color coded skewer to map out the surface

Blue/Purple are craters or deep areas, Green is surface land, Red/Orange are hills/mountains, Yellow are high peeks

He took a 3D picture of his

It must've been really hot in the schoolroom that day for him to have a cool neck wrap on. ;)

The big reveal to see what it actually looked like inside (the Legos were not color coded)

#2

Venus is full of volcanoes - Thousands of them really.

The lava thickens after each explosion.

So we used butter to represent the lava.

As it poured down the volcano, it thickened.

A lot like what happens on the surface of Venus.

I didn't have red food coloring, so I used red icing.  Yeah, that didn't work that well.

Our flour volcano with a custard cup in the center.  We turned it upside down so the lava could immediately run down the sides of the volcano.

hmmm . . . not quite what we expected, but it did show how the lava gelled as it cooled.

Touching the cooled lava.

MARS

Mars Science Experiments

#1  Why is Mars red?

We took a little play sand and put it in the pie pan to represent Mars's surface

Mars has a LOT of iron in it, so we took some steel wool and flaked it all over the sand

I didn't feel like waiting for moisture to rust the steel, so we sped up the process and sprayed vinegar all over it.

And the apparently scary results:  An orangish brown surface.

#2

We made our own little edible Mars Rovers just for fun.

Here is our template.  Courtesy of our science book: Exploring Creation with Astronomy by Jeannie Fulbright

Gathering supplies: Graham Crackers, Icing, Vanilla Wafers & Twizzlers

Mars Rover #1

Mars Rover #2

Mars Rover #3

Mars Rover #4

 #3

Mars has the largest volcano in our solar system.

It's name: Olympus Mons

It has never erupted (at least to our knowledge),

so we wanted to represent what it would look like if it did.

We have been waiting to do this experiment for a looong time.

5 Bottles of Coke & 3 different packs of Mentos later . . .

One whole pack of Mentos in a 2L bottle of Diet Coke

ROCKS & SHOOTING STARS

Meteoroids are space rocks, ice & dust that float around in space.

Meteors are Meteoroids that burn up in the Earth's atmosphere ~ Often called shooting stars.

Meteorites are Meteors (or anything) that makes it through the Earth's atmosphere and hits the surface.

Comets are balls of dirt, ice, rocks & snow that orbit close to the Sun on an elliptical orbital path.

Asteroids are space rocks that are at least football field sized or larger.

Any smaller than that and they're considered Meteoroids.

The asteroid belt is in between Mars and Jupiter.

The Exploded Planet Hypothesis suggests that perhaps the asteroid belt used to be a planet that exploded.

That would explain the large amount of craters on one side of each of the inner planets and moons and the craters on one side of the gaseous planet's moons.

Inner Planets & Asteroid Belt Model

1 yard = 3,600,000 miles  -  The equivalent Earth size is the blue dot on the left paper.  The equivalent Sun size is the orange circle on the right paper.  And the bottom left corner of the Sun paper is the equivalent Pluto (the size of a sprinkle)

We mapped the inner planets and the asteroid belt only

Otherwise we would have had to put Jupiter in the house at the end of the street.

Hard to see, but I'm at the Asteroid Belt.  The green pail is Mars.  My daughter is Earth.  My three sons are Venus, Mercury and the Sun.  The distance from the Asteroid Belt to the Sun is 77 yards. (280,000,000 mi)

To finish out the solar system model, our street would have had to been a half mile long. (would have been the equivalent to 3,673,000,000 mi)  It's not.  So we stopped at the Asteroid Belt.

And so next week we begin our study on the outer planets.
First Up: Jupiter
---------------------------------------------

*Note: Diet Coke & Mentos experiment:  In order to have a huge eruption, you must use Original Mint Mentos (which we could not find) and the name brand 2 liter bottle of Diet Coke.  If the Mentos are wax coated (which were the only kind we could find in our local stores), you need to dump an entire pack in for a small/medium eruption.

Battleship Spelling Game

My poor 3rd grader has hit a block wall when it comes to spelling.

We were smooth sailing,

then all the sudden:

BAM!!!!

o,o-consonant-e,oa & ow have gotten the best of him.

I searched Pinterest for any ideas that might help.

I came upon Battleship Spelling.

My boys LOVE Battleship.

So he was all too eager to do it this morning.

 

I did change some things to make it work for us.

For this version of it, I made two blank Battleship boards.

On my board, I placed his spelling words on the graph like you would battleships.

(so they can't intersect like a crossword puzzle)

Also, I was trying to be careful not to have two words touching;

that could be very confusing to a little guy struggling with his words.

Then you play it like Battleship.

He would call out a coordinate, like: C 5

And I would say "Miss" or "You hit the letter a".

If I said miss, he'd draw an x in the box.

If I said hit and then a letter, he'd put the letter in the box.

Once he guessed coordinates and completed a word,

I would say Sunk and spelled.

He then would write the word he just sunk on the "Ships Sunk" list.

Today we worked on our oa words:

We started off with pencil, but he was confusing the miss x's with the letter x.  So he came up with the idea of using a marker for the misses instead.  Smart little guy!!  A bingo marker would also work well.

He sunk all ten of my word ships!

 This game really helped him.

He remembered that English words don't end in oa,

so he knew once he got an o or an a that there was at least one more letter after the a.

The only downside:

(if you could call it that)

He wants to play this everyday!

:)

Astronomy - Mercury

Mercury

The fastest planet in our solar system.

The closest planet to the Sun.

And because of that,

We don't have a lot of info on it.

But here's a little of what we do know:

1.  The 'sky' on Mercury is black even when it's facing the sun.

Why?  There's no atmosphere on Mercury to reflect blue light, or any other color light for that matter.

So Mercury has a black 'sky' with a very bright white Sun shining on it.

.

2.  Mercury has a year every day and a half.

One Mercury day = 59 Earth days.

One Mercury year = 88 Earth days.

In other words, Mercury spins (rotates) really slow as it is high-tailing it (orbiting) around the Sun.

3.  Mercury is similar to our Moon.

It is around the same size and color.

It is dusty like our Moon.

It even has craters all over it.

Except for one section of Mercury, which is very smooth.

This little fact disproves the solar system being billions of years old.

How? You ask...

In billions of years, every part of Mercury would have been hit by some kind of asteroid or space junk.

It doesn't have an atmosphere to protect it.

So, the likeliness of after billions of years that one rather large section of a planet wouldn't have been hit by an asteroid is very unlikely.

Even scientists agree with that statement, 

but of course they've come up with a reason for why it's smooth:

A volcanic eruption.

Whatever.

(If you haven't figured it out by now, I believe in an Intelligent Designer: God.)

4.  Which brings us to the temperature of Mercury.

You would assume that it was the hottest planet since it is the closest to the Sun.

Not  true.

Mercury's days run around 750* F.

While Mercury's nights are -300* F.

750*, Well that's pretty hot.

Yes.

But not the hottest.

So which one is the hottest??

We'll let you know, 

But not now. :)

5.  Mercury has an elliptical orbit.

Hmm... Funny... So does Pluto.

 You remember Pluto.  The planet that was stripped of it's planethood because of it's elliptical orbit and it's size.  

Yeah, I'm a fan of Pluto.  

It will always be a planet to me.

:)

Ok, back to Mercury.

It is the only recognized planet that has an elliptical orbit.

Well, that's not entirely true.

Actually ALL planets have somewhat of an elliptical orbit,

But all the other ones are very close to circular,

So they call it a circular orbit.

 Our Science Projects

We practiced making craters in flour.

And

We made salt dough Mercurys.

The idea was to make a Mercury model,

Put craters in it by throwing rocks and marbles at it,

And let it dry.

In the end, you have a cratered Mercury model planet.

But you know us,

Our experiments don't always go as planned...

 

First we have to practice making craters

We threw pebbles and marbles into the flour to see how the flour reacted.

And here is our idea of what Mercury's surface would look like.

So, let's get down to making the model.  A little flour.  A little Salt.  A little oil & water.

And a BIG mess.

Making craters using rocks, marbles and toothpicks

That's a big asteroid comparatively!

Our models were quickly flattening.  So, we considered it a half planet model instead. :)

And now, to go bake them in the sun.

And have ants crawl all over them.

And  take chunks of our Mercurys back to the colony.

As I said,

Our experiments never work out perfectly.

But there are some upsides.

1.  The ants created more craters for us.

2.  The ants will be well fed with salt dough tonight!

I guess you could consider that a win/win.

;)