She's strong, she's generous, she's terribly smart and hilariously sarcastic, and we're so happy that she's ours. We enjoy her, we take pride in her, and we'd never have dreamed, before she came to us, that this is what a kid could be like.
We'll be celebrating this beautiful big kid of mine today, this kid who loves chickens and dragons and dinosaurs, reading and horses and her sister, with homemade waffles, a morning-long trip to the library, video games all afternoon, and a make-your-own sundae bar for dinner.
When a kid can't get the hang of their math lesson, then I know it's time to bring out the manipulatives.
Normally, I try to introduce each mathematical concept using manipulatives right at the beginning, but sometimes they sneak up on me. In Will's Math Mammoth, for instance, she was tooling along in decimals, and I'd shown her how to model decimals using Base Ten blocks, how to round decimals using a number line with tenths and hundredths marked, how to divide decimals using blank hundred grids as models, etc., but then I went to print out her lesson for the day one morning and boom! Here's a lesson on the metric system, all of a sudden!
I let the lesson go by, then, just handing it over to Will, but she just could not wrap her head around the concept of metric conversions. Grams to centigrams? Kilometers to meters? Hectoliters to liters to milliliters? Forget it! It made no sense to her, even when I gave her a conversion chart for reference.
It just... made no sense.
The next day, then, we had a different type of math lesson. I had bought this set of graduated cylinders marked in liter measurements a while ago--like, a year and a half!--and had never opened them. This day, however, was finally the day for the graduated cylinders to come out to play!
I made Will a chart that consisted of seven rows, each with the conversion chart from kiloliter to milliliter typed out. Her job was to be two-fold:
Model each liter unit from milliliter to liter, and
Write out the complete conversion chart when the entry for each unit is 1. For example, what is the complete conversion chart for 1 milliliter? 1 decaliter?
Lastly, I provided a set of Base Ten blocks to use for modeling. My own goals for this lesson were to:
Provide Will with a visual reference of each unit from milliliter to liter.
Give Will practice making these conversions.
Have her create her own reference sheet to use in future lessons.
Let her have plenty of practice looking at that conversion chart, to help with memorizing it.
First, I asked Will to model one milliliter:
I would have liked for her to have used the 1 centiliter graduated cylinder for this, just because, but for each unit that she modeled, she kept choosing to use the largest cylinder that still had markings for her particular measurement:
It spoiled part of the activity that I had planned, because I'd wanted her to photograph each measurement to serve as a visual reference, but photos of cylinders of different sizes, each with water barely covering its bottom, doesn't make much of a comparative reference. Ah, well...
Will normally loathes manipulatives, but surprisingly, she LOVED this activity! Perhaps it was the way that it involved not tiny little pieces of things to fiddle with, but large movements that you can make with your whole body:
It was more of a problem-solving activity than a simple modeling one, as well, which also helped.
For the first couple of measurements--1 milliliter, and 1 centiliter--I used the Base Ten blocks to show her how the conversions work exactly as they do with decimals. If the cm cube represents 1 milliliter, then the ten-bar represents 1 centiliter. What decimal represents the place that one cm cube holds in a ten-bar? In a hundred flat, for the deciliter? In a thousand cube, for the liter?
After the first couple Will could easily see the pattern that emerges, and could fill in all the others herself:
Here's what her finished chart looks like:
This activity turned out to be the key that unlocked the metric system for Will. As she filled out the chart, she said, in passing, "I understand this." All the yays!
Of course, this is the best hot summer day celebration of the liter!
We're about to begin a two-week break from school, so this might not happen for a while, but I did have Matt buy a giant bag of cheap rice so that Will can do this same activity with grams--for that, I plan to have her put her measurements in sandwich baggies and label them, so that she CAN have a permanent visual reference for it.
And I suppose I should also start reading ahead in Math Mammoth...
Please forgive me, for the photos of this u-pick blueberry patch excursion are simply an excuse for me to show off the reversible sun hats that I just finished sewing for Syd, Will, and myself.
I used the reversible sun hat tutorial and pattern from Creativebug, and the small size worked fine for both kids. I made myself a size large, although I dialed back the brim size after I decided that it made me look like I was wearing an umbrella on my head.
Although I have a doleful amount of stash fabric, I let us each choose a new fabric for one side of the sunhat. Syd has My Little Pony:
I have Doctor Who:
And not only did this girl choose flowers (surprising me, as I'd figured she'd go for dinosaurs), but she also talked me into using the fabric for BOTH sides of the hat, utterly flouting my standard rule that all sewing projects must include some stash fabric somewhere:
Considering that this is the kid who didn't mind when I sewed ALL her winter pants from random, mismatched cuts of stash flannel, and that this is her birthday week, well...
Brand-new hat from brand-new-fabric it is!
Not a single blueberry that this kid picked made it into a bucket:
This kid did put some berries into the bucket:
Every year, a kid starts eating berries directly from the bush. It can't be sanitary for future guests...
Most of my berries made it into the bucket, at least, although I did take a lengthy nap break:
And, of course, we got our usual seasonal supply of tadpoles--
--and puddle stomping:
And now we have two cats, two betta fish, fifteen chickens, countless tadpoles, and several pounds of blueberries.
As part of a long unit on World War 2, we're currently completing a short unit on World War 1--we'll study it in depth another time, but right now I'm primarily interested in having the children understand how World War 1 affected World War 2, so I'm emphasizing the timeline of events (using Story of the World, maps, and plenty of ready-reference), the conduct of the war (focusing on trench warfare), and the consequences of the war (also primarily using Story of the World and maps, but we're also going to watch a documentary on Jesse Owens this weekend).
To that end, after reading about trench warfare in Eyewitness World War 1 and watching this opening scene from All Quiet on the Western Front (I'd not recommend a Google Image search on this subject, as the results would be too upsetting for elementary children)--
I set up a LARP trench warfare activity for the kids. Here's what we used:
inverted spray paint. It paints on the ground, and we use this a TON for various yard games and projects.
measuring tape
two small shovels. I'd been kind of wanting child-sized, REAL shovels for a while, the better to put the children to work for me, so this was my excuse to buy them.
water guns
water balloons
bandanas.
bicycle helmets (optional). I'd wanted to add various items of clothing to imitate soldiers' uniforms, such as bicycle helmets and vests, but the day was too hot for that. Although heat exhaustion *would* be authentic...
First, Syd and I measured out a battlefield. We needed space for two trenches, far enough apart to make hitting the other side with water balloons and water guns challenging but not impossible, with a No Man's Land in between. Syd decided on a distance of about 13 feet, and it worked great.
The kids filled up a supply of water balloons, filled up a bucket to serve as a reservoir for water gun refilling, and dragged it all out to our war zone.
I wasn't sure how much effort the kids would want to put into digging their trenches, so I simply left them to it, asking them to tell me when they were both finished. This is what it looked like while they were working, before I sneaked off to have a snack and read for a bit:
This day was the only day this week that it didn't rain (and it's raining again today, sigh...), so the ground was quite soft, which helped the kids create some truly epic trenches for themselves:
Notice the piling up of the dirt to make a barrier in front of the trench? Good form!
When the kids were finished, they each ended up with a trench and barrier deep enough to crouch behind. Pretty perfect, I think:
When the kids had filled all the water balloons, they were left with an odd number, so it was decided that I would begin the war by playing the part of terrorist Gavrilo Princip and tossing a symbolic water balloon into the air; this was done, and war had begun!
Prior to the beginning of the war, there had been much debate about who wanted to be which country; Will wanted Germany, but Syd wanted Austria. Then she wanted Russia. When you're playing war, why does everybody ALWAYS want to be the bad guys?
Finally, Syd was persuaded to play France, so safely ensconced in their trenches, France and Germany commenced their bombardment:
See the water balloon?
Germany goes over the top!
Retreat!
France and Germany both wore bandanas around their necks. Every now and then, I would shout "Gas! Gas! Gas!" and the soldiers would have to put on their gas masks:
When someone needed to refill her water gun or rebuild her trench, she could shout, "Armistice!", and temporarily pause the war:
And then, back to war!
Of course, things got out of hand. First, France chased down Germany, knocked her down, and threw a bomb in her face. In retaliation, Germany kicked in France's trench and stole the rest of her bombs. France looked like this--
--and Germany looked like this:
Fortunately, France recovered (after I reminded her that FRANCE wins, not Germany), and all was again well:
This activity turned out WAY better than I'd hoped it would. The kids were really into it, they remembered enough from our World War 1 studies to naturally add some authenticity to their role-play, they got some great exercise and had a fabulous time, and I seriously doubt that they will ever forget the major contenders or major form of warfare of World War 1.
The kids asked to leave the trenches in place, which is fine, but I required them to pick up all water balloon shrapnel at the end of the game. Eventually, I'll have them fill their trenches back in, although if they wanted to use that space to make a couple of permanent forts...
a while ago--like, a year and a half!--and had never opened them. This day, however, was finally the day for the graduated cylinders to come out to play!
, maps, and plenty of ready-reference), the conduct of the war (focusing on trench warfare), and the consequences of the war (also primarily using Story of the World and maps, but we're also going to watch a documentary on Jesse Owens this weekend).
and watching this opening scene from All Quiet on the Western Front (I'd not recommend a Google Image search on this subject, as the results would be too upsetting for elementary children)--
. It paints on the ground, and we use this a TON for various yard games and projects.
