New Ideas

I'm always coming up with new ideas for our school.  Our "classroom" is eight years in the making. :)  In NY we finished off half of our basement and used that as our schoolroom.  When we moved to AL, I had my husband build us a schoolroom above the foyer.  Transitioning from a 30' x 15' schoolroom to a 10' x 8' schoolroom was not an easy task.  But I am oh so thankful for my little classroom, and the husband who built it for me. :)

Because we are working in such a little space, I have to make every little square inch count.  I think I've changed the desks around 5 times this year, and we have only done 9 days of school.  I also have the issue of growing children.  When they were in PK 3, K, 2nd & 3rd, they were able to maneuver around the room just fine.  Now they're in 2nd, 4th, 6th, & 7th and there is no wiggle room. At. All.  Just Wednesday, I had to rearrange the desks, because my 4th grader and 6th grader kept bumping elbows.  My hubby told me I could use our dining room as a school room.  Which actually probably would be MUCH better since they're growing up so fast, but I'm having a hard time giving up my dining room...  We'll see.  Maybe this year will be the game changer.

Ok, onto my new ideas for this school year, and some old ideas that I just want to highlight because I think they're worth highlighting. :)

This magnetic dry erase board is perfect for All About Spelling.  It is available at Costco for only $20!!!  It came with an eraser, dry erase cleaner, and some markers too.  I don't use it for the dry erase purpose, but what a deal!!!  And the tiles don't fall off like they did with the magnetic chalkboard that I painted.  Spelling is less frustrating because of this gem!!

My 2nd grader still struggles with b and d.  Mostly in making the letters.  We use Handwriting Without Tears.  With that program, letter formation for printing is imperative for cursive.  Having this attached to his desk, has helped him greatly.

We don't use our HWT chalkboards anymore for handwriting, and I almost sold mine.  But I love them, and couldn't quite put them up for sale.  Instead I am using the one as a "Date" reminder.  The other is being used as the Teacher's Helper of the Week".  This is placed right behind the kids computer for their Math, so it also helps my 2nd grader who struggles with Days of the Week order and the Seasons.

I wish I could take credit for this awesome gradebook.  I can't.  But I love it!!  I went to a workshop earlier this summer where the leader shared this with us.  My version of excel is older, so everything wasn't able to transfer, but I know enough about excel to be able to fix those problems. To get this gradebook, click FREE Download.

 

I used to make separate "to do" checklists for my kids.  But I didn't have the time to do that this past summer while I was prepping.  So I made 4 extra copies of my weekly schedule and cut out each day, and stapled them in order.  This obviously is Courtney's, so I highlighted everything she has to do for the day.  She x's them off as she gets them done.  And when she's finished, she rips the top one off, and the next day's is on top.  They love this!!  I don't know why, but they do.  I'll take it! :)

My 2nd grader is still using Sonlight's 2nd Grade Reader Schedule, but my other kids are not.  Even though most of these are Sonlight books. :)  Again, crazy summer, so I didn't have time to make an individual reading list for them.  So I grabbed about 15 books from our personal library for them to pick to read.  The only requirement (besides being able to tell me about what they read that day) is reading at least 1 chapter a day.  They really like this, because they get to choose the book and I don't tell them what they HAVE to read.  And there are enough choices and reading levels to satisfy my diverse reading level students.  Oh, and I use Sonlight's Read-A-Louds from K-3 as my 4th - 7th graders' readers.

I used to print out the entire school year's schedule and put it in a binder, with 20,000 other papers that I swore I needed. (20,000 MAY be an exaggeration) ;) Well, my tiny school room won't allow for that.  I've done it before.  But my binder was constantly getting bumped into and dropping on the floor, or pages getting ripped out, etc.  Also, because I have some OCD issues, I hated having specifics scheduled, but not do them.  For example: My 7th grader I scheduled for him to do pages 1-5, but he could only do pages 1-3 that day.  Unless I played a game of 'catch up', my whole binder would be off page-wise for that subject.  Now I print just one page of the schedule at a time (even though I have the whole thing already done on my computer), and highlight as they complete each subject.  By printing just one week at a time, this allows me to change any page numbers for the next week, and so on without wasting paper and my time. :)  Oh, and I have it on a clipboard hanging off of a pushpin on the wall to free up the little table space that I have (which is basically only big enough to fit my laptop and a mouse).

I don't know if you'll find these things helpful.  But it works for me!  And if it gives you a foundation to do something better for you and your schoolroom, then I've succeeded. I love seeing and hearing about what other people have done.  It gives me ideas for my schoolroom.  My timeline was given to me by a dear homeschooling friend.  It's an awesome idea.  The shower curtain wire was purchased from IKEA.

I have it hanging under my bookshelf that runs across the top of our schoolroom wall.  It could also be attached to the wall if you'd like.  I use paperclips to hold the events. And a 'chip clip' to separate BC from AD.   It's very easy to slide everything off to the side and out of the way.

For my elementary math manipulative ideas that I still use click on the link.

So there it is.  All my ideas for this year (and years past).  I'm sure I'll come up with more ideas throughout the school year and torture you with a whole new post. ;)

Cell Science

We are studying Human Anatomy and Physiology.  Do you know the difference?  Yeah, we didn't either at the beginning of our study.  Anatomy is the study of the human body, the organs, and where they are located.  Physiology is the study of how the body and its organs work.

We studied many famous scientists from ages past: Hippocrates and Aristotle of Greece, Galen of Rome, Vesalius, Leeuwenhock, and Hooke of Europe to name a few.  And then we learned about the Egyptians and their belief that they needed to preserve a body because that person would need it in the afterlife.  Mummification, that's what our first science project was.  Mummification.  The goal: to mummify an apple.

This science experiment did not go to plan, but we did learn something.  Just not about mummification. ;)

Apples peeled, and one all ready to be preserved.  Day 1
Apple on the left: Control Apple / Apple on the right: Mummified Apple

Ready to see what will happen.  Excited to see a preserved apple.

Day 8: The Control Apple: dehydrated, but not rotten

Day 8: Mummified Apple: Squishy, dehydrated, and leathery

A shot of the mummified apple taken further back

So the best we could figure out, because I in fact ate one of these apples fresh, and it had a nasty taste, is that they were sprayed or injected with something to preserve them.  Which tells us, that if it does not decompose outside of the body in an 80* house, how hard do you think it is for our body to process it and actually get any nutritional value out of it.

It did not rot.

Isn't our food supposed to rot if left out?

It's really sad when the fruit flies in the house won't even touch it.

It reminded me of a McDonald's apple piece we accidentally left in the car for a week in over 100* outdoor temps. 

When we found it, it looked like the day we got it.

That's not food.

That's gross!

So the lesson we learned was not about mummification,

But why we shouldn't eat foods that have been preserved.

Good lesson none the less.

:)

 

But they were super disappointed in the mummification results.

We will try this again, but ask a friend for his apples from his tree.

We had some fun activities that we did throughout the last two weeks.

My shirtless one making a cell mini book

They all turned their cell mini books to their favorite part - Mitochondria, Golgi body, DNA, and the Lysosome

Then they made bodies and taped their heads to the top.  We'll be using these throughout the year to place organs on it.

And I think the kids most favorite part of the whole science unit . . .  Making an edible cell.

Adding M&M's (mitochondria) to their cytoplasm (jello & knox)

Skittles for Lysosomes & Smarties for Golgi Bodies

The fruit roll up was the Endoplasmic Reticulum, with Nerds as the Ribosomes

And the sprinkles were the centrioles.  Oh yeah, and a big ole Sour Patch for the Nucleus.

Flip them over on a plate, and wha-la!  You have yourself an edible cell.

Sugar rush . . . here we come!!

First Week of School

Well, we did it.

We finished our first week of school.

 

The aftermath:

Note: the coffee was for me, not my 6th grader.  Although, I'm sure she would've appreciated it. Ha!

 

I chose the craziest week to start.

What was I thinking?!?

I was hosting a neighborhood-wide yard sale.

I was in the process of publishing a book that I had written and had many deadlines.

I was tutoring, babysitting, trying to keep my house in somewhat of a decent state.

And the list goes on.

 

But we made it!

We survived!

And we only have 35 more weeks to go!!

 

In Science, we are mummifying an apple

 

And we are doing Typing Instructor for Kids again this year.  It's a big hit around here.

But we do have to work on posture! :)

The kids are now in grades 7, 6, 4 and 2.

I can't believe it!

I have a 7th grader.

[sigh]

 

Curriculum we're using for this year:

Math: Teaching Textbooks

Science: Apologia Human Anatomy & Physiology

Social Studies: ACE Pace

Geography: Maps, Graphs & Charts (MCP)

Grammar: First Language Lessons, Easy Grammar

Spelling: All About Spelling

Vocabulary: Spectrum, Wordly Wise

Electives (Finances, Art, Home Ec): Financial Peace Jr, LIFEPAC Drawing Basics, and me

Phonics: Explode the Code

Handwriting: Handwriting without Tears

Reading Comprehension: Reading Detective

Reading: Sonlight, library

Typing: Typing Instructor for Kids Platinum

 

**Stay tuned for our many adventures in the school year 2014-2015!**