Less Traveled By~2015

Homeschool Highlights - First Few Weeks of the Year

DG has been enjoying the start of her sixth grade year!  We kicked off the year in our usual tradition of chocolate chip pancakes.

Breakfast was followed by portfolio cover designing, All About Me pages, and Skittles graphing.

One of her favorite subjects so far is science.  This year she is studying Human Anatomy using Apologia's Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology.  The first chapter covered some history and she enjoyed reading and writing about the views of different civilizations.

 

She also enjoyed completing her first experiment, which was to see what happened to an apple that was covered in salt and baking soda (to replicate a sort of "mummification" process) as compared to an apple that was not covered.

After 8 days this was the difference in appearance:

We have also been on our first "field trip" with other family members, and we had a great time spending the day together.  We went to a nearby Natural History Museum with a butterfly exhibit.  The butterflies were beautiful, and the museum fascinated DG.  Her wish list now includes more trips to new museums (and visits to old favorites as well).

The year is off to a fantastic start!

 

Gearing Up for Our First Day

Our first day of sixth grade is scheduled to begin soon!  I've been working on planning for our first day traditions, and am making good progress.  I am going to use the same "All About Me" pages as last year.

 

 

And as for our first day of school math graphing tradition,  I am thrilled to have found some mid level Skittles math that includes graphing on the Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) website. 

 

 

We will probably get two years out of this packet as I may save some for next year (or later this year).  Well worth the purchase price either way because I was fresh out of ideas, and this is such an important tradition!  I came across some free Skittles math on the TPT site as well for younger students (scroll through to see different choices).**  It's a great site, if you've not come across it before.  LOTS of creative material!  Of course, anyone out there reading is also welcome to use pages I've made in the past.

...So on with more planning!...

 

 

**I did come across some free Skittles Math elsewhere online, so I'll link those below in case anyone is interested.  The TPT packet is perfect for us for this year, but there are even higher level math activities using Skittles out there!  :-)

DG requested Skittles again for this year.  Skittles may become a new tradition in and of itself.  Third year and counting....

Primary Grades PDF- Basic division included: 
http://www.plainlocal.org/userfiles/1170/Classes/7292/Skittles%20Math.pdf

Middle Grades-
http://believersandachievers.com/pres_samples/math/Skittles_math.pdf

7th Grade Skittles Math-Using Ratios to Taste the Rainbow
http://www.ms.uky.edu/algebracubed/lessons/skittles.pdf

Pre-Algebra/(preview of) Algebra 1 Level PDF: 
http://www.target.k12.mt.us/cms/lib7/MT01000812/Centricity/Domain/68/Isnt_math_yummy.pdf

Another First Day Tradition---Graphing

When DG started Kindergarten we did a simple M&M graph and she enjoyed it so much, she requested to do a graph on the first day of school each year thereafter; and it has become another first day tradition.   Over the years we have graphed M&Ms, Lucky Charms, and Skittles.  

Today was our first day of school for our new year (5th grade)----and she was so excited to see her graph paper and Skittles bag out and waiting for her.  I thought I'd take a walk down memory lane and share pictures from the past.  I can't seem to find the graph for 2nd grade, but I have one for every other year.  At the bottom of the post, I'm also uploading our pages we used this year in case anyone would like to download and modify/use them.

Kindergarten-M&M graph
This year was a simple predict, sort, count and graph.  The file I purchased for this year (and that we used again 3rd grade) was from AIMS and can be found here.  There is a great preview feature and you can see even more pages in the file on the site.

 

First Grade-Lucky Charms Graph
The graph has been shared online by the publisher and can be found here.

 

Third Grade- M&M Graphing again with added pages (see file above)

 

4th Grade-Skittles Graph (made by me - You can download a PDF Version if you'd like to.

 

5th Grade- Skittles Graph (made by me - Feel free to download it if you'd like to.  Download Skittles2012-PDF or Download Skittles2012-WORD document)

As you can see, the math concepts have increased gradually, but I've kept them light and fun purposefully.  If you have older students or want more advanced math concepts, there are lessons available using similar ideas that you might find through an internet search.  For example, a lesson on a simple statistical analysis of the frequency of M&M colors can be found here.

Of course, a big part of the fun is getting to nibble on a sweet treat after the work is done!

 

 

All About Me - Back to School Tradition

The first day of our new school year is rapidly approaching, and I am making plans and getting materials together.  We have a few first day traditions, one of which is filling out an "All About Me" page.  When DG was younger, we made handprints, footprints, measured height with string and stored it in a pocket, and our "page" was a little book.  Now that she's older, she makes a page/pages that go at the front of her yearly portfolio. 

I'm uploading our "All About Me" for this year if you'd like to download it and use it as is or modify it for your child.  It includes a space to write favorites including Bible verse, book of the Bible, books, author, songs, singer/musician, color, food, sport/recreation, movie, school subject.  There is also space for your child to write what they'd like to learn more about this year and to write other things about him/herself and to name some friends.  There is a box for a photo or drawing of your child on the front and then a box for a photo or drawing of friends or whatever your child would like to add.

Thinking back on our very first book I became nostalgic  :-)  ---- I decided to add an extra page this year for a handprint and height measurement even though we've not done that in a couple of years and it's included in the file as well. 

Download as a WORD document:  Download AllAboutMe2012

Download as a PDF file:  Download AllAboutMe2012

It's Tradition!

The first day of our new school year is almost upon us.  It is tradition to do some sort of fun math graphing activity on the first day of school.  We've sorted and graphed Lucky Charms, Skittles and M &Ms in the past.  This year, by request, we are graphing M&Ms again.  I found some really good M&M math sheets and ideas online, so it saves me from making my own!

The one we are going to use is from one of my all time favorite sources for science and math activities: the AIMS Education Foundation. It can be found here and you can preview most of the pages.  They are great (and well worth the $2.00 to me)  If you have children at multiple ages, the little ones could just sort or sort and graph, while the older ones work out the problems also.

I did find this free one (which is similar to the AIMS), though I would have needed to use it with modifications this year, so maybe I'll use it another time.

I'm tucking this one away for possible future use. (fractions, decimals, percents included) 

Let the tradition continue!