Viva Mexico!!

It was crazy last week but I think I survived it.  We had our Apolojax meeting on Tuesday which is normally a long day but it was even longer last week.  Our good friends whose oldest daughter is getting married in December came in town from New Orleans.  I had to meet up with them Tuesday evening so we could tour the church for the wedding.  It ended up being a long night but enjoyable all the same.

Thursday was G's co-op meeting and it is my month to teach Geography.  Our family is doing Mexico!  G had made a salt dough map of the country.  Not bad for an 8 year old.

I decided to do a powerpoint to show some of the country's geographic features and history.  You should be able to see it below or you can download it as a .pptx file to watch with Powerpoint.  That way you can see all the little animations that were added.

Mexico

We also did a craft of making sombrero's.

Below are the items needed:

Paper plate (preferably all white)
Plastic cups (about 6 oz size)
Tissue paper
Tape
Crayons
Ribbon

I had the children color their plates with a crayon.  They then took a precut square of tissue paper, wrapped it around the cup and attached it with tape.  The bottom was tucked up into the cup.  3 pieces of tape were placed on the inside of the cup with the bottom part sticking out. 

You then tucked the tape under the cup with the sticky side facing down and set the cup on the plate. 

 We then added a piece of ribbon around the bottom of the cup.  You now have a completed sombrero!  Further decorating could be done at home.  The students loved putting them on their heads.

In science, they finished up the lesson on crustaceans.  For their craft, they made horseshoe crabs.

 

 The rest of the week was spent getting ready to help host a bridal shower.  I made some of the decorations along with the nametags.

 

This one is my favorite!  I love birds!!

 Sure am glad I have my Silhouette SD.  It makes projects more fun!

Links to photos in Powerpoint

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/1846361.jpg
http://imagine-mexico.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/viva_mexico.jpg
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/mexico/hidalgo-standing.jpg
http://www.mustangevolution.com/forum/f168/t26103/
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-hernando-cortez-aka-hernando-cortes-everett.html
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f6/Storming_of_the_Teocalli_by_Cortez_and_His_Troops.jpeg
http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/mexico-spanish-conquest-granger.jpg
http://richard-seaman.com/Travel/Mexico/Teotihuacan/PyramidOfTheMoonFromPyramidOfTheSun.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_pyramids
http://www.mexicanheart.com/pyramids-in-mexico/
http://malinche.info/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Aztecs.jpg
http://historymartinez.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/fall-of-the-aztecs.jpg
http://www.globalsherpa.org/mayan-civilization-ruins-sites-culture-calendar-2012
http://www.robinurton.com/history/ancient/americas/olmec.jpg
www.edf.org/sites/default/files/slides/rainforest-bromeliad-minden-141530-718-377.jpg
http://www.americas-photos.com/mexico/images/iguane1.jpg
http://farm9.static.flickr.com/8188/8151178057_5766113cb5.jpg
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRefaRbAkQ5UkFElfMJGw7gYuVbGYRh1h36KjTPs0fQTO_i-qqaSA
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8320/8051156802_55acc4cbae_z.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig6c4tiw9fU79QvE1WAJceD8e8uTr1fDsA27WgRSIlczfvgXgYHGbWx7LmWHDDUAdZLwgzH-0uo62T0DikLm9RKahPlWuQ34uO6m774zjZ4twZDvpZHIozJGXVQdxTug8F64ocnyJ-ogYJ/s200/cactus_001.jpg
http://www.cabosanlucasbeaches.com/pics/cabopulmobeach_021635_r2.jpg
http://www.yucatan-holidays.com/yh/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/loscabosmexicanbeach.jpg
tp://traveltips.usatoday.com/DM-Resize/photos.demandstudios.com/getty/article/61/175/medwt35048_XS.jpg?w=560&h=560&keep_ratio=1
http://www.southdreamz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Chihuahuan-Desert.jpg
http://www.tomzap.com/man/FLIGHTtoManzanilloMTY-BJX03.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sierra.madre.occidental.volcanics.JPG
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQUVyvKyf66frt9M4b0zsDmg2ziwz3ejv1QWZ9MqWre2YBGO78KvaoJgFwHtpMYq0eyOg34LKpQZgh-WLrwZiBOeZMo_M_yL8BWknGjNVO-rUyrv9yx4BcnSCp_rr8Hs-cxmlVrvPCsVU/s640/6582672_f520.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/Sombreros.JPG/800px-Sombreros.JPG

Back to School

We started back to school after the holidays on January 7th.  I decided to tweak our science a little so the older girls were assigned all the experiments in the next  module first and then do all the reading.  The twins are learning Newton's Laws so they had an experiment where they were to mix vinegar and baking soda in a large bottle.  It was suppose to blow the cap off and shoot the other direction but they had a few problems, one of which was using baking powder instead of soda.  Also, we didn't have a 2 liter so the vinegar bottle was probably a little too large.

 Victoria was trying to boil red cabbage on a wanna be bunsen burner.  I had her do it outside because of the smell.  It was little chilly with the wind.  She was multi-tasking while watching her next math lesson.  The cabbage never boiled so she had to move it to the stovetop.

Puddin was learning about sea turtles in her science.  Here she was using her "front flippers" to pull herself along just like a female turtle does when she comes up the beach to lay her eggs.  Not the easiest thing to do!

Happy New Year!

It is 2013 and I am still around.  I did well until mid October and then things go crazy around here so I didn't get posts up.  The next few posts, I will do summaries of what was going on around here and then we will see how well I do.  I've decided to keep this blog for mostly school related and every day things.  I am going to start another blog for my ramblings and the 365 day photo challenge I am going to take on.  I think any farm related will go on our blog we used when we built our house: From the Ground Up.

The end of October brought a day trip to Sea World with Puddin's science co-op.  Since they are studying sea creatures this year, it was a very appropriate trip.  We took our pastor's oldest daughter with us along with June's aunt and mom.  We had a wonderful class on Whales and Dolphins to start the day off.  The teacher was fantastic and very enthusiastic.  Our kids did wonderful answering her questions and she was impressed a few times with what they knew.  The rest of day was spent going to the different shows and we saw all the animals except the dolphins.  It was windy as a result of Hurricane Sandy passing by and they had already had a piece of roofing blown down.  It was a wonderful day with friends.