Looking Back 2012, Week 11

 

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you have the most wonderful plans laid out, but you manage to only complete a small portion of them? Well, we just had one of those weeks.  We've had lots of appointments this week, but we managed to have a lot of fun mixed with a little bit of learning!

We completed the Jr. Ranger program at the Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve.  There we learned about the history of the Timucuan Indians as well as the Spaniards who came to the area.  We studied the river ecosystem and the kids found poison ivy and muscadine grape vines in the preserve.

In history, we studied Moses and the Exodus from Egypt in SOTW.  My favorite resource this week had to be our audiobook version of SOTW.  It was a great help to be able to listen to the stories in the van while traveling around.  The girls had no trouble completing their notebooking pages while listening.

Our formal science studies were pushed to the side this week.  This is odd, since science is our favorite subject and is usually the first thing the girls want to work on.  But lately, it's math that they love the most.  Although we had no formal lessons, we still learned a lot on our trip.  The girls also had fun comparing the new bird and plant species that they found at our new home.  One very exciting moment was when we pulled up at the old house and discovered a Red Bellied Woodpecker in the tree of the yard.  We have always heared them, but never saw them up close. Other new birds identified this week include the Northern Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher, Blue Jay and the Tufted Titmouse.

In math, our geometry unit study is still going strong.

They experimented with Mobius strips and circles this week. We also got a little crafty and made our own pentominoes! 3D pentominoes are great for studying geometry and they make great math puzzles.

There are 12 possible pentominoes, so you need a total of 60 cubes.  You can use wood blocks, but being the thrifty person that I try to always be, we decided to use the $1.00 foam block sets I found at Michaels.  We practiced drawing out our own pentominoes, but here is a picture of the 12 pentominoes you can use as a guide.

The z pentominoe was shown twice in the above picture, but you only need one.

Next, you simply glue them together and allow them to dry.

Finished product!  When you're finished, have fun creating squares and rectangles using all of the pentominoes.

Well that's all for us.  We did enjoy our week and we hope you enjoyed yours as well.  If you have something to share, join our weekly blog hop.

 

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