Another fun Science Experiment!!

Good morning all!! Our Science subject for this week was fish. It was a fun week learning about these cold-blooded , aquatic vertebrates with gills and fins. Little V got to learn about:
- Salmon
- Seahorse
- Shark

We had visited the Shedd Aquarium many times before so we were able to look at some of the old pictures we had and hopefully soon we will be able to take advantage of the free days at Shedd Aquarium and make it a field trip day!

So now, let me share with you one cool experiment we did this week. This serves to teach them about osmosis (for older students) but also helps them to appreciate the importance of the animal's habitat. For example, Little V was able to see that a fresh water fish would have a hard time surviving in a salty water and vice-versa.

For this experiment we used:
- 2 shallow bowls
- tap water
- 6 slices of cucumber
- 1 tsp of salt

Little V wrote salt on s small tape and we adhered it to the bowl with salt water.

Once she added the cucumbers, we set the timer for 30 minutes. Once the time was up, we came back to check the cucumber slices.

Because the cucumber slices in the salt water lost water they were more flexible than the cucumber that were placed in the fresh water. Now, we switched the cucumbers and set the time for another 30 minutes.

The cucumber slices that were previously on salt water then were switched to fresh water recovered some of its firmness and the ones that were previously on fresh water and were switched to the salt water had lost some of its firmness.

This and more cool science experiments can be found at Janice VanCleave's Biology for Every Kid book. Just as a reminder in case you're wondering which curriculum we are using, here's a link to the Elemental Science website.

Here, Little V is working on the fish lapbook.

Hope you enjoyed our post, we surely had fun learning about fishes this week.

Today, is our last day of school before the Winter Break! Yay!!! We'll have 2 weeks to relax a little and have some fun! What about you? Will you have winter break?

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Parts of Speech Activities!!

Hello there!! We have been enjoying very much our homeschool activities! Little V is progressing very well and today I decided to share some of the cool stuff we have been doing for Pats of Speech. I'm using the Language Arts Grade 1 (Spectrum) as base of what she needs to learn and we are moving at her speed. I do however like to add lots of activities to make sure she gets it well.

So besides activities she gets from the book, we use our All About Reading student book and she practices coloring the parts of speech from the Fluency Sheets Sentences. There are some great activities also from Annie Moffat no prep packages.

I also created some activities myself and she used the Do-A-Dot Markers to color the different parts of speech.

I believe mastering these different parts of speech is an essential skill so I recently purchased an additional activity set of Parts of Speech from Dana Wonderland.

That's it for today! Hope you enjoyed our post about some of the cool stuff we have been doing for Parts of Speech.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Animals Units - Birds!!

Hello everyone, we spent  four weeks learning about birds! Little V first learned general characteristics of the birds: warm-blooded, egg-laying, feathered vertebrate that also have wings. Then we started learning a little bit more about each of the birds the curriculum picked.
- Eagle
- Owl
- Parrot
- Penguin
- Chicken
- Duck
- Swan
- Swallow
- Hummingbird
- Flamingo
- Peacock
- Ostrich

Each week there was a cool Science experiment and for each animal there was some craft activity or research. She also had a poem about Birds Characteristics to memorize. For each bird, we also identified their diet type and habitat.

Here's a highlight of some of the great and fun activities we did during the four weeks Little V learned about birds.

We made a paper craft Swan:

We made also a funny looking Flamingo:

One of the Science experiments called naked egg from the Biology for Every Kid - 101 Easy Experiments That Really Work by Janice VanCleave.

Little V poured white vinegar into a Mason Jar with a raw egg inside and we observed it for 3 days:

Look how big it got after 3 days!!

Not only big but all the hard shell dissolved and it became very rubbery!

Hope you enjoyed our post, we had lots of fun learning about birds and wanted to share some of the fun things we did!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Our Vocabulary Curriculum!!

I decided to add the Vocabulary to our homeschool workload, so after searching and reading a few options available I chose the Sadlier Vocabulary Workshop. I must say I'm happy with it. First, I thought I could get away buying only the student workbook, but after a few lessons I realized we could get more from it if I had  the teacher's edition as well, so if you are interested I highly recommend purchasing the teacher's edition, it gives you more ideas and helps you to be better prepared for teaching.

I like the fact that the book has lots of pictures and also you can access the lessons online.

So far we are happy with it and enjoying the lessons!

What do you use for Vocabulary?

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Highlight of the last weeks!

Good morning to my readers! I'm so sorry for being absent again... life happens and things can get pretty hectic. I will be sharing today some highlights of the past weeks so you still can have an idea of what we were doing.

For additional reading practice I purchased the Reading Comprehension Packet form Annie Moffat, I really like the activities.

Little V is loving to learn to write in cursive, even though we are just practicing the letters, she's enjoying it very much. I decided to add the sand tray to the cursive practice. 

I wanted to add some shape activities, so we went back to do our Melissa & Doug Magnet Shape Board.

Little V started to learn about nouns, so here you can see her coloring the nouns from sentences from the All About Reading practice sheets, and also extra activities about nouns from the Fall Math and Literacy No Prep Pack 1st grade from Annie Moffat.

Our Science Curriculum is great, we are very pleased with it. Here is one of the fun activities we did while learning about whales.

Lastly, we had a gorgeous weather last week so Little V and I packed the school material one day and went to the park to enjoy the warm day and just to do something different! She had a little surprise, a ladybug came by and got her attention. 

Next, post I'll share more pictures of the past few weeks and hopefully we will be all caught up!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Bible Story Comprehension Sheet!

Good morning all! Fall is really here... we love to see all the leaves changing colors. Jehovah God not only gave us what we needed but gave us beauty in all of what he provided.
Here are a few pictures from our past weekend, even though the leaves aren't fully changed yet it is still a beautiful sight!

Besides providing Little V with secular education, it's also my aim to help her draw closer to Jehovah, so this year as you know we are studying the book of Bible Stories. We read 2 stories each week, and I was asking her questions right after we read each story, but I decided to make some comprehension sheets for the stories. Yes, it does take time to create these and even more preparation, but what is all that compared to the greatness of helping your child draw ever closer to God?

The comprehension sheet consists of basic questions about the story, things she will readily remember or if they were overlooked she can easily find the answer by taking a quick look at the story again.

This is the very first one I created, and she did excellent on it! ;o)

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Artist Study - Leonardo Da Vinci

Good morning all!! We had so much fun learning about this great Italian artist, architect, musician, scientist, sculptor, inventor and mathematician! Ha... and I thought being a homeschool mother, wife and a preacher of the good news was a lot! ;o)

It was interesting to learn that he wrote all his note backwards and that he used what he learned from nature and science to make his paintings look real.

Leonardo's most famous painting is the Mona Lisa, and what we thought curious about it is that no matter where you stand, the Mona Lisa is always looking right into your eyes.

He was great at using dark shadows and light colors to make what he was painting seem to com e toward you and away from the painting.

One of the fun activities Little V did was to make her own painting inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Also, a Mona Lisa puzzle:

We love studying about all the greatest artists, but we love even more when we have a chance to paint and color, do some art ourselves. Why do I say ourselves? Because I love to have a chance to color and have fun too! ;o)

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki