A Cool Pine Cone Experiment!

Hello, today I'm sharing a cool experiment that we did in our homeschool when we were leaning about cones. We had these cones since last year, I saved them from one of our trips to the Arboretum, because I knew I would need them for an experiment.

Initially,  we read about cones, and then she wrote some important facts about them in her worksheet that is part of her Science Curriculum. We took a closer look at them to identify the parts, and I wanted something more hands on, so I went online, researched and found some cool worksheets at The Crafty Classroom, then Little V was able to label the parts of the pine cone and we also found another cool experiment.

The pictures below, show that we submerged one pine cone in water, after about 2 hours we could see that the pine cone scales started to close up.

Then, 6 hours later check out how closed up the scales were!!

Cool, right?! I didn't now that and we were pretty excited about it! So we did some extra research and learned that the pine cones scales respond to changes in humidity. When it's warm and dry the scales open up to release the cone's seeds and when it's humid or wet, the scales close up by expanding the scales cells.

Well, that's it for today! Hope you enjoyed our little experiment!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Trying something new!!!

I was thinking of trying something new to keep the blog more active. I'm planing to pick a day or two of the week and try to add as much info as possible.

November of last year I started working PT and my schedule since then has been even more hectic than before. But on the positive side I want to continue sharing my experience and let Moms out there now that it is possible to work and still be able to homeschool.

I feel that Little V by no means lost on the quality of her schooling, I just need to be more organized and time management is a must to work on and develop. We still have lots of fun while schooling and I can't believe she's on her final weeks of first grade, it feels like it was yesterday when we went outside to take our first day of school traditional picture.

For several weeks she was learning about the Human Body, we purchased a microscope. I do like the one we got her, very affordable and I think it will do its job for the years to come.

She got to see how one of her own hair looks in the microscope lens.

We also did for those weeks, while studying about the Human Body, an experiment to observe the patterns of finger prints. She rubbed the sharpened end of a pencil on a sheet of paper (top left picture), then she rubbed each finger tip on the paper (bottom left picture). Next, she applied a piece of clear tape on the dark spot of the finger tip and transferred the tape to the paper and wrote down which finger that piece of tape belonged to.

This helped her to learn that each person has an unique finger print and that these personal signatures form at five months before birth and they never change.

If you are interested, you can find this science experiment and many more that we used at Janice VanCleave's Biology for Every Kid - 101 easy experiments that really work.

For Arts, she was learning about Paul Cezzane and here you can see her working on an inspired still life piece from Cezzane, She used fake fruits and vegetables from her kitchen and used watercolor paint on watercolor paper.

Hope you enjoyed our post and if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below or contact me through the contact form.

Hope you have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Mammals Week 1 - Science Curriculum!

Greetings my readers! Today, I'm going to share some of the cool things we learned about Mammals. Little V had a poem about characteristics of Mammals to memorize and to recite by the end of the week.

From the Kingfisher Encyclopedia of Animals we read each day about a different animal:
- lion
- cheetah
- elephant

After reading about each animal, we discussed what we learned and what was interesting about that animal, as well as their habitat and diet. Amazing to have an opportunity to review and learn new things with your child!

I did a different craft project than what the curriculum recommended but it was fun nonetheless! I printed from first pallete a template of the folding lion, then she colored, cut it and we folded as indicated on the directions from the website.

 The same craft activity we did for the cheetah:

And the elephant:

We also added the picture of the animals that we studied this week in the habitat chart and also the animal diet chart:

Each week, we have a scientific demonstration to do and for this week, Little V got to learn why the eyes of the cats glow in the dark. We used a toilet paper tube, then one end of it we cover with blue construction paper and the other end we covered with tin foil, secured the ends with rubber bands and in a dark room we flashed the flashlight into each side and were able to see that the side with the tin foil reflected light, just like the eyes of the cats. There's a substance in their eyes that reflects light and make their eyes seem like it glows in the dark. Super cool science experiment from Elemental Science. 

I'm really pleased with my choice of science curriculum, Little V has learned a lot these past few weeks and we are so looking forward to learning more and sharing as well! How I wish I had this much fun learning when I was in school! 

What have you and your little ones been learning in science? Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Learning About Habitats and Animals Behavior!

Our very first chapter of our super cool Science Curriculum was to learn about habitats and animal food. We started by learning what is a habitat.

Then, through an online research we checked how each habitat looks like. We learned also about the amount of rainfall and the average temperature for each one of them of each of the following habitats:
- desert (cold and hot)
- rain forest
- grassland

Time to make a lapbook so we can consult later if we need it:

We also got to learn about the animals food habit:
- Carnivore
- Herbivore
- Omnivore

To finish the week, she answered the quiz provided by the curriculum:

Each week ends with a quiz, and so far each week we had a science project to do, soon I'll be sharing more about our science adventures!

What have you been learning in Science? We would love to hear from you!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!


Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

First Grade Science Curriculum!

We have been 5 days into our First Grade School year already and we are enjoying it very much! So, today I want to share with you what is our choice for First Grade Science Curriculum.

We are using the Biology for the Grammar Stage from Elemental Science, and the required books for this curriculum.

This is our first year using this curriculum, and as I mentioned before we've been 5 days into the school year, and so far we are very pleased with the activities, the flow of the curriculum, the books required. I love the activities and there's also an option too purchase the lapbook templates which is one of our favorite type of activity.

Little V will have 20 weeks to learn about animals, 10 weeks to learn about the Human Body and 6 weeks to learn about plants. The lessons are well planned and easy to teach. They provide a list of material needed for each week, to make sure you'll be able to complete the Scientific Demonstrations.

Another thing I liked about this curriculum, is the fact that they give you two possible schedules to be used, and believe me this is very helpful. The options are 2 days a week and 5 days a week. I decided to use the 5 days a week schedule.

While I was checking their sample classes online, I was also able to see the list of books that are required for the curriculum, and that was another plus, as ahead of time I knew what books we would have to purchase and therefore no surprises later.

As you can see in the picture above, I purchased the online version and printed the student workbook and teacher manual at home. The lapbook templates are in the same binder as the student workbook.

Come back to check more about this curriculum and to see Little V having fun while learning Science!

What is your choice of Science Curriculum? We would love to hear from you!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki