Books We Are Using This Year
  • The Story of the World: Ancient Times (Vol. 1)
    The Story of the World: Ancient Times (Vol. 1)
    by Jeff West,S. Wise Bauer,Jeff (ILT) West, Susan Wise Bauer
  • Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-2
    Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-2
    by Bernard J Nebel PhD
  • Math-U-See Epsilon Student Kit (Complete Kit)
    Math-U-See Epsilon Student Kit (Complete Kit)
    by Steven P. Demme
  • First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind: Level 4 Instructor Guide (First Language Lessons) By Jessie Wise, Sara Buffington
    First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind: Level 4 Instructor Guide (First Language Lessons) By Jessie Wise, Sara Buffington
    by -Author-
  • SPELLING WORKOUT LEVEL E PUPIL EDITION
    SPELLING WORKOUT LEVEL E PUPIL EDITION
    by MODERN CURRICULUM PRESS
  • Drawing With Children: A Creative Method for Adult Beginners, Too
    Drawing With Children: A Creative Method for Adult Beginners, Too
    by Mona Brookes
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Entries in Antarctica (11)

Friday
Sep022011

An Antarctica story

My favorite story of Calvin's as yet by far! I made this writing sheet to put in his language workbox (writing, reading, etc.). This was the first time I'd tried a writing activity like this with him. The only guidance I gave him was the sentence of instruction at the top. The composition and spelling are entirely his own (and come entirely from lots and lots of reading, and I suppose from keeping his journal, too).

"dars is an explorer. He went to Antarctica and watched the chinstrap penguins go to their nesting grounds on mount Erebus. He came to a high mountain. Then he heard a thundering and a rumbling soundof an avalanch. The noise broke through the sound of the wind. Snow and Ice started to fall from the mountain. It was an enormous avalanch. Then he watched Emperor penguins lay their egg. (transfer has to be quik). he watched the Emperor mother go to the sea to feed on kirll. (Krill are small srimp like animals). Then he got on the ship and went home. the end."

Wednesday
Aug312011

Antarctica felt set

For every unit-like study we tackle Calvin requests a new felt set and Antarctica was no exception. Like I did with the volcano felt set request, when he asked for penguins and the like I told him to draw what he wanted and make me a list of items to include.

I've made all of Calvin's felt sets using standard craft felt, sharp scissors, hot glue, and the occassional marker or pencil. Some of the shapes I cut free-form, some I mark directly on the felt and cut, and others I draw first on paper before sticking paper and felt together to cut along the lines. I was excited this time to find textured craft felt that made good mountains, and sparkly craft felt that made good snow.

We have two small travel felt boards now that Cavlin has now decided make up Antarctica in the summer and Antarctica in the winter, so I guess it's a goot thing I made two mountains. And there are three penguins here: the Emperors, the Adélies, and the Chin Straps. The red things are sea stars, the white in the sky is intended to be swirling wind and snow, and if you're wondering why the explorer seems to be sans pants, that's because he is actually from a different set I'd made and his pants got left behind in his haste to visit that cute penguin baby. Really.

 


Friday
Aug262011

Ice experiments

The scientific side of our Antarctic exploration?

First I have to admit that I got the idea for these two extremely basic experiments from the book 365 Simple Science Experiments. Embarking on a journey through Antarctica I just did a quick search through the index and found a handful of experiments pertaining to ice, two of which seemed fun. Lucky for the authors I'm passing judgement on over the whole book based on these two experiments. Doing any hands-on experiment is fun, but as far as I can tell the premise behind each of these experiments is based on faulty logic.

Glacier Melt (p.151)

• We gathered small pebbles and sand from our garden in plastic cups, then filled the cups the rest of the way with water, jiggling the cups to make sure all the air was released.
• Set cups in freezer until completely frozen
• Meanwhile, create a shallow incline by propping a board up on a small object. Drive a nail into the board in the middle at the top.
• Remove cups from freezer and use a knife (or application of warm hands for a short time) to loosen and remove the "glacier" from the cup without damaging it.
• Place "glacier" on inclined board. To keep it from sliding down the board use a rubberband to attach it to the nail.
• Observe melt and runoff.

From the book: "Glaciers are large masses of ice that move down mountainsides and valleys cutting gouges out of the rock and soil. Deposits from glacier movements can be found in such places as the arctic, Antarctica, Finland, and Greenland. These giant masses of ice would not move at all if it weren't for the great pressures they also exert....As glaciers move, they break off and pick up tons of rock and soil and deposit it someplace else...Like the real thing, our miniature-glacier experiment shows how and why those rock and sand deposits are so unusual and often unevenly placed." (p.151)

Which is all fine and good, and some moraines are left behind by glacial melt waters, but I find it misleading to imply that a stationary mini-glacier is the same as a moving glacier that not only expells moraine in melt-water, but also leaves it along the side as it slowly moves on, or gouges it into the ground, or drops it as glacial ice breaks off into the water.

Tip of the Iceberg (p.278)

• we filled a cup with ice and cold water, and marked the level of the water on the side of the glass
• when the ice had melted we observed the water level to see if it had changed.

From the book: "When the ice cubes melt, the water does not overflow. The ice cubes simply displaced the water in the glass, or the amount of ice that melted was exactly equal to the mass of the ice cubes below the water. Like the ice cubes in teh glass, the main part of an iceberg is under water. If all teh icebergs were to melt, as did the ice cubes in our experiment, the sea level would remain the same." (p.278)

This is fundamentally true, but is completely useless as a means of teaching about environmental change and the hazards of a warming planet, and as stated in the above manner could be misconstrued. Sure if all the icebergs melt the water level will remain the same, but Antarctica holds 90% of the world's ice and 70% of the world's fresh water (source). If that melts, you can bet your bottom dollar that the sea level is going to rise.

Homemade Iceberg (our own concoction)

• Fill a plastic cup with cold water, add a few drops of food coloring, and set in freezer until frozen solid
• Fill a bowl with warm water (preferably a clear bowl)
• Add "iceberg" and observe

We had two objects here. First we wanted to observe the currents in the water, which the food coloring allowed us to do. Second, we wanted to observe the melting of the ice—how it does not stay in one place, how it crakcs, and how it does not necessarily melt evenly but instead takes on a shape that becomes more and more obvious as it melts further.

We used red dye, so unfortunately our berg looks a little like frozen meat of some kind. We had fun anyhow.

Thursday
Aug252011

Eve of the Emperor Penguin (review by Calvin)

To go with our exploration of Antarctica we picked up Eve of the Emperor Penguin from the library. He loved it so much it took him just a couple of days to read, and then he read it again out loud so that I could enjoy it.

Saturday
Aug202011

Weekly book shelf, 8/20

We spent a lot of our time in Antarctica this week, or at least in learning about it. After finishing Mr. Popper's Penguins Calvin was keen on learning more penguins and their home. He picked out a lot of library books on the subject, we went to the zoo, and our home has been filled with (imaginary) members of that species all week long, each with an exotic name, such as Penguinogio, Penguinogiotonio, and Gambul. It's been a lot of fun.

What Calvin read to himself this week...a lot of non-fiction because of the south pole exploration.

I am in love with the Getting to Know Nature's Children book series from Grolier (Scholastic) because they have beautiful full page photographs that face pages of well written text in a font that is easy to read but is not meant to be "eye-catching", and they are completely devoid of the extra graphics, icons, gimmicks and the like (which are so prevalent in children's non-fiction today, and which I think add confusion and over stimulate the senses). Unfortunately the series is out of print, and the cover image I have here is from a later printing (in which it is inexplicably linked with elephants), so I don't know if it's the same inside, but our library has most of the originals and they are on our favorites list there.

The True Book series from Scholastic is not on my top list. There are at least two fonts on every page, and two to four font colors, font sizes, font types or variations, plus graphics that are meant to draw the eye (away from the important text) towards quick fact tidbits (for those who don't want to read the book maybe?) and away from the photos. There are good facts here, I just wish they'd let the photos and facts stand for themselves. Calvin did fine with the book, and I know he read it, but I feel like it was more of a jumble for him than when he read the Nature's Children book straight through (and got a lot out of it).

And he finished The Boxcar Children #1 this week, and started in on Eve of the Emperor Penguin, and its non-fiction counter part, Penguins and Antarctica, right away.

 

 

What we read to Calvin this week...we're still working our way through Despereaux, which is pretty enjoyable, but I'm finding the slang dialect annoying...almost as annoying as the intrusive narrator (since I'm reading it out loud I've actually started skipping over the words "dear reader" and the like). I'm also not sure about some of the subject matter. There is violence (like the girl getting beat over the head until she is near deaf, and the mouse getting his tail cut off), plus the queen dies and the rat desires nothing but revenge because people don't like him. these things haven't upset Calvin at all, but maybe I should have read it myself first.

And on my shelf this week...I am back at Proust, I'm plugging through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and I'm in the middle of Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves, by Naomi Aldort.