Mommio: Art Class- Impressionists- Rodin

Today we had an extra long, really fun art class!  We continued our hand study, inspired by the work of Rodin, and made clay hand sculptures that will become candle holders.  We found the lesson for today's project from an artist on the eHow website.  We moved the school tables in front of the TV so we could all watch the short lesson segments as we worked through the project.  First we learned how to cut our slabs of clay for the hand sculpture.

 Then the kids used a needle tool to outline each of their hands onto their slabs of clay.

 Using the needle tool and a butter knife they cut away the excess, leaving two rough hand-shaped pieces of clay.

 Next they formed each hand into a more realistic shape by rounding, smoothing, adding knuckles and fingernails.

 The last step for today was to set up the hands to create the candle holder shape- the fingers are intertwined, creating a bowl in the palms.  When they got everything into the right position they again went back and worked on making the fingers look more realistic.

With a little one-on-one help, Max even made one!

Here are the sculptures- we were all impressed!  

 They need to dry for several days and then we will learn all about casting a sculpture in bronze and we'll be spray painting the hand sculptures to finish them off.

Marney: Civil War Journal

July 22, 1861
Dear my love Ivarene,
I made it. I am so happy so I hope nothing happens to you because I want to come home and have my kids and you to love. I had so much in this part of the war. Well, I won that part and by the way it was at Bull Run.  So any ways I am super tired and I need some sleep and some food.

Avery: Civil War Journal

July 22, 1861
Dear my lovely wife, Sally,
We just now returned from the war in Manassas! We won and even got a terrific feast out of it. Some people came to watch, but ran away in the middle. Things got really bad there, people actually got hurt and lost some limbs. Luckely, I'm perfectly fine. A couple of bruises and cuts won't do anything. How are you guys doing? Is pa still alive? He said your doing well. Waiting for everything to be over with.
Love, Fitzhugh Johnson Pettigrew

Marney: other blog

Me and Gabe have a blog called Gabe and Marney.  Here is a link to it www.gabeandmarney.blogspot.com.  I really hope you guys use it and read it a bunch.

Phineas and Ferb: Remote Control Car

 

Today we started a new Phineas and Ferb science/technology study inspired by an episode called The Fast and the Phineas- the one where the boys use their mom's car to build a giant remote control car so they can enter a race.  Max checked out the online game version of the show for us too and got to design his own car- but was a little slow in the race!  While he checked that out the rest of us started to learn all about how to build a remote control car from the very cool Thames & Kosmos Remote-Control Machines kit.

For our first day we started off slow and learned all about gears, how they work, why we need them in our remote control machines and how to calculate where to place them as well as their gear ratio (how many times you have to rotate one gear to make another gear rotate).  We watched a basic video about gears that we found online but it was voted as "really lame" by all the kids so no need to share that here!  On the other hand, the Thames and Kosmos basic gear lessons were great.  

 We learned a bunch of new vocabulary today: gear, cogs, transmission (gear train), torque, gear ratio, pitch, pitch diameter, spur gears, bevel gears and idler gear.  Then we used the kit to put together several different gear trains and calculate their gear ratios.  All the kids got some hands on experience and by the end of the lesson we were all happy to have a basic understanding of how gears work and how to use them in our models.

 The kit comes with instructions to make 10 different remote control machines- starting with a basic car- so we'll start giving those a try next time and learn a bit about how the remote part works too.

Gabe: Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Gabe: Civil War

The Civil War unit has been really, really fun.  We do a lot of stuff like drilling and marching. We also have combat cards. Today on combat cards we did weapons. We also did destiny dice where we roll a die and see if we get or don't get points.  Today we lost 20 points and they got 120 points.  Here are some pics of drills and marching.

Kiki: Word Challange

The butterfly is very flaccid because it is skinny.
My forte is crafts because I like them.
The water foundered in to the dirt.

Kiki: Civil War Journal

     It was the middle of the bull run battle. People where dieing everywhere and I had to take care of them. I am getting scared because a lot of people are dieing and I don't want to.  It is cool because I can watch the battle form the side.  There is a lot of noise because people are yelling and shooting there guns.  Its weird having to be one of the only girls in the civil war.  I am happy I am not in the CSA because I do not want slaves.
July 22 1861
Loretta Boyd

Connor: Civil War Journal: From The Desk Of Walter Wigfall

I just fought in my first battle, it was exceedingly creepy.  We thought that everything would be fine, both sides did.  I knew we'd be fighting the Johny Rebs, but I didn't think anyone would die.  After the first of our soldiers got shot I went into a panic.  I thought I'd die next so I kept shooting.  That fear of being shot and killed is what kept me alive throughout the battle.  This is what the men are calling the Battle Of Bull Run.  Everything was working out in our favor until Thomas Jackson's troops started to stand like a stone wall.  Then we were the ones on the defensive.  Those of us who survived retreated to D.C.  I saw many a man get shot in the back as we ran.  I was terrified and furious, those rebels were shooting at us and they stole my lunch, luckily it was just some lousy hardtack anyway.  I hope he bit it so hard his teeth fell out.  I felt like I had been lied to and wondered why the people who out ranked me hadn't told me anything about what war is truly like.  I think they might have just wanted people to voluntarily join the army.  I watched as my only friend in the regiment deserted without telling anyone, I was the only one who knew.  I didn't rat him out to the higher ups, but I thought about it.  I started paying more attention to the drills and stayed in the army.  Although I could have left and no-one would know the difference, I had to free the slaves and if no-one else here thinks that is important then I'll do it myself!
Signed,
Walter Wigfall
July 22, 1861

Gabe: Civil War Journal

     I thought at the beginning that we were going to make them leave and I was going to eat a picnic with the other people.  But I was right behind the flag man so I would right away start fighting.  I got out and I shot two people but then I had to reload. When I had to reload my best friend got shot. I got scared so I shut my eyes and started hitting people with my gun. When I opened my eyes almost all of my people left so I followed.
July 22, 1861
Melvin Thomas

Marney: Word Challenge

flaccid
The noodles were all flaccid after they got boiled.
forte
Meyie was counting rectangles so she divided 99 by 200 because she her forte was math.
founder
I foundered into the grass when I tripped on a stick.

Gabe: Word Challenge

His leg was very flaccid after surgery.
My forte is grammar because I love it.
Angel foundered to the bottom of the sea because he was in a lead coffin.

Mommio: Word Challenge

Write a sentence for each word.  

Anyone who can come up with a complete sentence that makes sense for each word gets a dollar!

flaccid- (adjective) limp, flabby, weak

The woman jiggled her flaccid arms in disgust, resolving to begin lifting weights as soon as possible.
forte- (noun) strong point, something a person does well

Since math was Dan's forte, his friends always asked him to calculate the bill whenever they went out to dinner together.

founder- (verb) to fall helplessly, to sink

After colliding with the jagged rock, the ship foundered, forcing the crew to abandon it.

*all words, definitions and sentences are from the Kaplan SAT Vocabulary Prep Level 1

Mommio: Civil War Journals

The date is July 22nd, 1861.  Your soldier is one of the very lucky survivors of the first major battle of the American Civil War.  The Battle of Bull Run (also known as Manassas) ended yesterday in Manassas Junction, Virginia with a bloody Union defeat.   There were thousands of casualties on both sides and the Confederates came away from the battle with a war hero, General Thomas Jackson- from now on known as Stonewall Jackson.  This is the first experience your soldier has had in the battlefield and he has a lot to say about it.  Today you will write a journal entry from one of your soldiers detailing their experience at Bull Run.  If you need help remembering the details of the battle read this webpage.  Use all of your senses to describe what it felt like for your soldier to be in the midst of a bloody battle-lots of details!

Mommio: Civil War Unit Study

The Civil War is underway in the Jones house!  We are a couple of weeks in to our unit using the Interactive Simulations lesson plans and things are going great.

Our Confederate regiment, the Swartsburgers, has enlisted six soldiers (each kid plays the role of two soldiers in the field and their loved ones at home).  They have created headbands, a flag and a motto- Just Keep Fighting!

The Union regiment, the Freedomators, has enlisted five soldiers and one army field nurse.  They created their own name badges, a flag and a motto- Fight 4 Freedom!

The kids and I are all really enjoying this unit.  Our regular meeting goes a little like this:

*Ken Burns movie The Civil War- watch 20 minutes and discuss

 *Roll call- I call the soldiers by name and if they respond they get points for their team

*Vocabulary- five new Civil War words each day and a chance to earn points by giving definitions

*Readings- we read passages from the student guide for the unit study and a chapter each day from Soldier's Heart by Gary Paulsen.

*Dispatches- each day the soldiers receive a news dispatch, one team member takes notes and reports back to their team, then another team member reports back to me- each item they get correct earns them points

*Mapping- we are working on mapping out the Civil War, states first then battles later

*Destiny Dice- each team rolls a dice and the number corresponds to a list of points earned or lost, then we tally the points, each time a team earns 100 points they get Civil War era money to post on their board

There are lots of fun extras too like reader's theater of soldier interviews, learning how to drill and march, playing Combat Cards (which is like the card game War but teaches the kids the ranks of the army, the unit sizes and the weapons used) and each soldier has been assigned a special project to present to the family on New Year's Day that will include models, food and Civil War photographs.  Exciting!