Vibrating Marbles and Fire Stations

Today was a fun day. We started

Right now in math we're working on a review test to make sure he has retained the information from this section. We only do a few questions a day or it is too much for him, but I was really impressed today when he did his questions. The first question was to write 4 addition equations that equal 5. He was able to do it very quickly and his printing of his numbers was great! Then he had to do 4 equations that equal 6, I thought that might catch him up a bit more, since he's not been practicing the 6's for as long, but he got them no problem. I'm so proud of how he's doing with it.

In science we've been studying sound. So today we did a demonstration with marbles that shows how a molecule bumps into another which then bumps into another and so on carrying the sound to your ear. He understands the concept. I'm not sure if he got the connection between it and the marbles, but he had fun doing it.




----------
This afternoon we got to go to the firestation for a field trip. The kids had lots of fun. Nick especially liked the ambulance, more so than the fire truck. Here are a few pictures for our trip.


Nick explaining the uniforms to B.


Talking with the fireman.


Sitting on the firetruck listening to fire safety.


Sitting on the firetruck in a different spot.


Looking into the ambulance - Nick's favorite part.


Learning not be afraid of the fireman with all of his masks on.


Watching the fireman come down the pole.


Nick's turn! (No, they didn't let him come down the pole, but he sure had fun posing with it.)


Group photo (kinda fuzzy). Nick's at the back between the fireman and the lady with the baby.

Reading

Here's a fun video of Nick reading "The Big Log". This book is a lot harder than the last book we taped him reading, but he's doing fantastic! There are 2 videos because the battery died part way through. Sorry they're sideways!





If you can't see them, you can view them here
http://s37.photobucket.com/albums/e75/socksinfox/?action=view¤t=100_5636.flv

and

http://s37.photobucket.com/albums/e75/socksinfox/?action=view¤t=100_5637.flv

Cambrian Period

In history we're continuing to study the earliest time period and we're currently learning about the Cambrian Period. One of the important things about the Cambrian period is that it is the first period of time that showed some animals with shells. So, we decided to make a shell fossil today.



First we mixed up the plaster of paris in a paper cup, and then put the shell in it (we covered the shell with vaseline before putting it into the plaster to help with removal).





After the plaster dried for an hour, we removed the shell and there's our fossil. Tomorrow we'll be filling the cast with colored plaster to create another type of fossil. More about that tomorrow.

Snow Fossil Tracks

Well, we're getting back in our regular swing now. We've been homeschooling again, but I just got back to taking pictures again today.

In history today, we were learning about early animals and how not much is known about the soft bodied animals because the only fossil record we have of them is their tracks. So, we went outside, and used a few soft toys to make tracks and see how easy or hard it is to figure out what something looks like just by examining it's tracks.