Chickadee's Learning Tree

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Wool Felting- Penguin and Hamster and Seals

Sage Also Made Tables and Food with the Extra Wool Felt

We tried our hand at wool felting. Hamanaka company from Japan makes these cute kits. I ordered a to make the penguin and hamster from Amazon. The kit didn't come with wool felting needles so we ordered a kit separately. It took so long to get the needles via mail that we got impatient and went to a local wool store. It was fun looking at the books and supplies there. The needles were really inexpensive so we bought a bunch.
It didn't take long to make our little critters. We watched a video to make sure we were doing it right since all the instructions are in Japanese. Basically all you do is shape the wool felt as you stab it lots of times with the needle. They eyes are glued in last. We used a hot glue gun. It was easy and fun. We are waiting now for the next kit to come. We are making baby seals next. Amazon sells a great assortment of wool felt colors and plastic eyes of various sizes. Before you know it we will be making our own original creations.

Country of the Month- Brazil

Brazil Board

Made Brigadeiros

Vegetarian Feijoada

Made Banana Frita (Fried Bananas)

Some ways we studied Brazil...

- Watched videos on Carnivale, natives of the Amazon rainforest, No Reservations- Rio de Janeiro, tours of Brazil, capoeira, and anacondas.

- Listened to various types of Brazilian music

- Made Brigadeiros- chocolate candies made out of condensed milk, butter and cocoa powder

- Tasted feijoada that mom made

- Made Banana Fritas

- Spoke with Connor's grandma about Carnivale in Rio (she's from there)

- Made a Brazilian village with fishing dock, Amazon river and rainforest in Minecraft

Mystery Science

Building Bridges

Freezing Hands Experiment

Mystery Science has become our favorite science curriculum of late. We watch four episodes and do two experiments per week. This program is free for a year. We really like it because the videos are interesting and engaging. They are followed by step by step instructions on how to do the experiments and they also have extra links to videos and articles to read.

Here are the boys making a bridge out of paper. They were able to cut it, fold it, crumple or twist it to create their own bridge. They learned about different types of bridges and why they work. Then they put coins on their bridge to see how many each could hold.

Another experiment we did was from one of the extras. It was called "Polar Bear Hand". In this activity they covered one hand in vegetable shortening and left the other hand as is. Then they submerged both hands in icy cold water and noted how long each hand could stay in. The one with the fat covering it could stay in the water much longer.

French- Duolingo

We are currently learning basic French at home. The boys were introduced to the language while attending Montessori preschool. Although I am not fluent in French, I did take three years of it in high school and was also in the French club. I've been using the Duolingo program for about a year and have finished all the curriculum though I redo parts that I need more practice on daily. We have been watching youtube French instructional videos, songs, and the occasional Minecraft video as well as borrowing books and videos from the library.

The boys finish three Duolingo lessons per week. I've also started printing out flashcards to play games and using basic phrases at home. I hope that this will give them an introductory exposure to another language and when they get older, they will be able to choose which language they would like to study.