Back to the Learning Board!

It's been a while since I've had the weekly lessons board up and running! At long last it feels like we're back on track.

As you can probably tell, we're studying the earth this week. I must point out a few other things, beginning in the upper lefthand corner:

• Porcupines - we're just kind of interested in them right now. Fisher cats are making a splash in the local headlines and they are the only predator that can successfully hunt the porcupine. We realized how little we know about porcupines (I'm not sure we want to know about fishers) so we dug up some information - from Big Backyard magazine and The Beginning Naturalist, to start.
• An invitation to a friend's birthday party.
• A coloring page of Henry V and his sword (our history topic this week).
• Some photocopied bits and pieces from various history resources (in addition to Henry V, we also are reading about Joan of Arc).
• Magic School Bus Inside the Earth, the picture book (we also have the CD-ROM somewhere around here).
• My grandmother's pie crust recipe (kind of a long story involved here, something to do with Earth Day - more on that later).
• The map with the stars is a project I "borrowed" from Suzanne. The stars show all the 4Real children who are making their First Holy Communion this spring! Isn't it a lovely idea for these children to pray for one another as their big days approach? CJ was so happy to apply each and every star, and it was a great geography lesson to boot!
  • If you have a child making FHC soon and would like to leave his or her name and home state in my comments, please do and we will add you to our map - and our prayers!
• Finally the Earth book we're using - DK Eye Wonder: Earth, in conjunction with a science encyclopedia for meatier info., and a chart of the earth's layers.
• Oh! And there's our Earth Day reminder, smack dab in the middle of the board. (It's this Sunday, by the way.)

A few more pictures from today:

Coloring and labeling cut-away earth diagrams. The apple was for illustration - and morning snack. :) (That's Koala Krisp in the mugs in case you were wondering.)

A favorite picture book, timely for this study and this week. The apple peels were brought directly to our compost bucket beneath the sink. (We'll talk more about compost and soil later in the week.)

To make the earth chart, I cut up strips of construction paper (with a little help from my friend there) and then the boys helped me arrange them in the appropriate order:

As you can see, the earth's layers are represented by varying colors. They are surrounded by pale blue atmosphere and, further out, by starry black space.

So now that the board's all set, it's on with the work! Have a great night, everyone. See you in the a.m. - or sometime roundabouts. :)

Comments

[Theresa ♥]

Dawn,

Do you have a specific Science curriculum that you use or do you put this together yourself?

Looks like a fun day. As usual, I love visiting your site. I start and end my day here. :o)

Love in Christ,
Theresa

[jen]

My son Nicholas will be making his First Holy Communion and we live in Wisconsin. Thanks for praying for him. He only has 2 1/2 weeks left to wait.

[Nori Coleman]

Your site is always a blessing to us! My son Raphael will be making his First Holy Communion May 5th. We live in MA. Awesome idea and thanks for the prayers!

[Carmela Edwards]

I read your blog everyday! You're such an inspiration! God Bless You & Your Family! My son Trevor is making his FHC May 6th. We live in Pennsylvania. Good Luck & My God Richly Bless all the children making their First Holy Communion!!

[Emily]

I love you mapping project!! Thats such a neat idea, I might just have to borrow it!!

My daughter is making her First Communion this year, and we live in NH.

[bfarmmom(Kirsten)]

I love the iea of the learning board. Very clever Dawn, as usual!

[Louise]

Your learning boards are terrific!
Our Dominique will receive his First Holy Communion on June 2nd, a week after his brother Augustin's wedding. We live in NC.

[Krys]

Thank you for all your inspirational work! My daughter, Julia, will receive her FHC on May 12. We live in NC.

[jen]

While mulling over the idea of a lesson board, I wonder, what do you do with all the materials once the week is over? I have such a hard time dealing with the mass of papers we collect. Do we keep them in a folder? Will we really go back and look at them again? Just wondering.

[Melissa]

I love your site! Such an inspiration!!

I'm curious, do you put the actual books and worksheets on the bulletin board or are they copies?

Blessings to your family!

[Dawn]

Jen and Melissa, I do make photocopies of the book covers - the worksheets are originals. I keep a weekly folder for each week of the year and everything from that week goes inside. At the end of the year I have folders filled with reminders of our studies and activities.

I have an inbox for all the other things I save through the week. Ideally I go through that and the board over the weekend, add it all to my folder and then re-file the folder in the home ed. crate. The next week's folder gets pulled out and begun at that point.

I probably save too much stuff, but I find I don't have the time to pick and sort, so for me it's easier to save it all and then find a weekend over the summer to pare it all down.

PS ~ We recycle our toner cartridges. :)

[Dawn]

Thanks everyone for the replies - we're adding stars as I type! :) God bless!

[Tina]

Zachary from Utah is receiving his FHC May 6. Thanks for the prayers, Dawn.

[Tina]

Another question about your learning boards. I know your kids are younger than mine, but we often take longer studying especially topics like history and science than I plan. How can you manage to fit it all in just one week?

[Tina]

Another question about your learning boards: I know your kids are younger than mine, but we often take longer studying especially topics like history and science than I plan. How can you manage to fit it all in just one week?

[Dawn]

Tina, I almost never *do* fit it in just one week, lol! Often parts of the board stay up as we continue a certain subject.

This week we are discussing aspects of the earth's composition - next week we'll move on to volcanoes and earthquakes. I *know* that subject will linger longer than a week!

We use Story of the World for a history spine and generally focus on one topic a week or so. It all kind of depends on interest level. We spent *weeks* on Richard the Lionhearted and Robin Hood!

[Angel]

It's funny you should mention fisher cats and porcupines... I was just reading something about both (can't remember where unfortunately). Apparently when the porcupine population gets too high, it's bad for young trees because the porcupines girdle them; they eat all the bark off the bottom of the tree and kill it. So having a decent population of fisher cats is really crucial to keeping everything in balance. :-)

[Theresa ♥]

You must have missed my question at the top. So I will post it here.

Dawn,

Do you have a specific Science curriculum that you use or do you put this together yourself?

Looks like a fun day. As usual, I love visiting your site. I start and end my day here. :o)

Love in Christ,
Theresa

[Dawn]

Goodness, Theresa, I'm so sorry. I did miss your question the first time!

We don't use a science curriculum. I do follow recommendations in Well Trained Mind (booklists for the most part). We try to use really good (living) books about various subjects as well as our science encyclopedia (DK Publishing) for more detailed information. We look things up online, and do some hands-on activities. Whenever possible we roll nature study into it. We also learn a lot from science channel shows!

I haven't decided what we're doing next year. Putting it together as we did this year is a lot of work. I may go with something more structured. We'll see - I'm sure I'll be posting all about it when the time comes. :)

[Tracy]

Oh dear I am late, but my oldest son Jake will be recieving FHC this Saturday! (we live in Atlanta)

[Theresa ♥]

We are going to be using Considering God's Creation for the younger crowd at our house next year. It's very hands on and makes a nice notebook for the end of the year. I will definitely add to it with good living science books too.

[Laurie M]

Thanks for letting us share our children for prayer!
Katherine will be making her First Eucharist 5/6, next Sunday in San Diego, CA.
I'm going to have us make a map with everyone's star also. And prayers for all!