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Earth and Space Series

Monday, April 28th, 2014

Earth-And-SpaceThis post contains affiliate links. I was compensated for my work in writing this post.

We’ve had such a great time this year, doing all the hands-on activities in the book Earth and Space by Bright Ideas Press. We’ve formed Earth layers out of clay, dramatized the moon revolving and rotating around the sun, shook sandy earthquakes, dyed plate tectonic eggs, erupted a volcano, grown stalactites, cooked layered sedimentary rocks, performed skits of the water cycle and ocean currents, raced slow glaciers down a ramp, watched how groundwater sinks through layers of sand and pebbles, painted an atmosphere mural, made homemade weather instruments, created a tornado in a bottle, performed a ridiculous weather report, colored the phases of the moon on paper plates and Oreos, made sun prints, and created fun planet cards for the solar system. We did lots of other activities, too, which I mention in the videos contained in each blog post.

Besides all the wonderful hands-on activities in the Earth and Space book, the text was fun and conversational and included plenty of rich vocabulary for each topic. The printable diagrams were great, and all the printables were on a computer disc that came with the book. (The disc is attached to the back inside cover and can be removed after purchasing the book.) This makes the pages easy to copy, since you don’t have to slap a large book on the photocopier. (You are allowed to print copies for your own family.) My kids enjoyed coloring the gorgeous coloring pages, too, so make sure to have some quality colored pencils on hand before beginning the book. We placed all the pages into a notebooking binder, and we decorated the outside of the binder. (I show you how we did this in the first video tutorial below.)

I thought it would be easier for people to find all the posts if I made an index page, so here it is. When you use the book Earth and Space by Bright Ideas Press, be sure to come back and watch the experiments to help you see how they can be done.

Earth and Space Series:

  1. The Earth: Hands-on Activities
  2. Plate Tectonics and Earthquakes
  3. Make Your Own Volcano
  4. Caves Unit Study
  5. Edible Sedimentary Rocks
  6. Water Unit Study
  7. Groundwater Experiment
  8. Atmosphere Unit Study
  9. Hands-on Activities for Weather
  10. Ridiculous Weather Report
  11. Moon Unit Study
  12. Solar System Unit Study

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Solar System Unit Study

Monday, April 21st, 2014

solar-system-unit-studyThis post contains affiliate links. I was compensated for my work in writing this post.

We did a super fun solar system unit study during the past month, and these are the hands-on activities that we did. As we were doing the last four chapters in Earth and Space by Bright Ideas Press, we came across the brilliant idea to make our own planet cards. The book recommends using 3 by 5 cards, and there is no reason why you can’t cut these out from black card stock paper so that the planets are pasted against a black sky. You draw the planets on one side of the card, and you write a description of each card on the other side.

planet-cards

Be sure to check out plenty of planet books from the library so that your kids can do research on each planet. We also had a DVD about the planets, which my kids have enjoyed over the years.

You can make model planets with styrofoam balls, painting them in bright colors. We did this years ago, and I used a sewing needle to stab into the ball’s edge in order to hang them up in my sons’ bedroom.

planet-cards-2

Go to a planetarium if you can, so that you can get a description of what the universe looks like. You will also want to go to an observatory to see the far reaches of space. At the very minimum, you should go stargazing out in the country. Try to pick out the constellations. Here is a description of how to go stargazing:

You can also make tin can constellations. I give you a description of how to do this in the demonstration video at the bottom of this post.

sun-prints-3

Besides the planets and stars, you will want to study the sun. There is one chapter in the Earth and Space book about the sun, giving a rich description of the center of our solar system. The hands-on project for that chapter was to make sun prints. You will have to watch the following video to see how we make the sun prints. Or you can read about how we made sun prints several years ago:

Here is a demonstration video for our solar system unit study:

We have enjoyed using Earth and Space by Bright Ideas Press this year. Why not pick up a copy of the book for your science curriculum next year? You will love it!

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Nature Study

Wednesday, April 16th, 2014

 nature-study

Have you wondered how to incorporate nature study into your homeschool? A couple of weeks ago I was asked to be a panelist on this very topic, where several homeschool moms shared ideas for how to do nature study with children.

Why is nature study important for homeschooling?

Nature is science–plants, animals, rocks, weather phenomena, etc.–all of this is science. To be educated, you need to understand science. And to know it well, you need to see it and experience it first-hand in the great outdoors.

When can you start nature study?

Babies, toddlers, and preschoolers can enjoy nature. Here are some nature activities that small children can enjoy:

High school students and adults can also enjoy nature through nature journals, drawing and labeling intricate details of God’s creation. So all ages can enjoy nature study, especially because you can get fresh air and sunshine on your face while you relax and take it all in. You don’t have to rush when you are doing nature study.

What do you do back inside to follow up on nature studies?

Look inside an insect identification book for the insect you just sketched. Try to identify a tree by its leaves, or look up what kind of rock your son found.

I also like to take out drawing books, especially for younger children who might have trouble drawing straight from nature without seeing a pencil sketch. I describe more about how to do this in my workshop Using Journals to Teach Writing.

How directed should a nature study be? Is mom in charge or do you just let your kids cavort outside?

Most of our nature studies are open-ended, where the kids can decide what they want to write or draw. But if we are studying a specific topic in science, we might look for that topic. For example, if we are studying spiders, we would try to find spiders and spider webs to draw.

Tell us about nature study during the winter months when it’s too cold outside.

You can easily do a winter scavenger hunt, where you find different objects in nature, and snap pictures of them. You can also pay attention to what animals are doing this time of year, and you can study snow and weather. Here are some fun winter nature activities for you to enjoy:

Also, if you want to set up nature collections during the other seasons, you can continue to study nature from your home. Here is a fabulous workshop that shows you how to bring the outdoors into your home:

Here is the panel of homeschool moms who share what they do for nature studies:

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Posted in Charlotte Mason, Science | 4 Comments »

Moon Unit Study

Monday, April 14th, 2014

moon-unit-studyThis post contains affiliate links. I was compensated for my work in writing this post.

Join us as we do a moon unit study! We will explore the phases of the moon through hands-on activities. We are continuing our study of Earth and Space by Bright Ideas Press, and we have arrived at the outer space chapters. There is a super cool lunar observation chart in the book, which my kids filled out for 28 days as we looked up at the moon each night. (No, we didn’t howl like coyotes while doing so!)
color-the-moon

When you study the moon, be sure to look through some binoculars at least, since you can see the craters of the moon in greater detail. You can also use a telescope to see even more details.

One hands-on activity from the book was to draw the phases of the moon on paper plates. We drew them with pencil, outlined over the pencil with black marker, and colored in the moons with black crayon. We also made an Earth on one of the paper plates. We stuck them all to the wall, and the kids were able to learn the phases of the moon by matching the plates with the labeled index cards.
oreo-cookies-moon

We used Oreo cookies to do the phases of the moon according to the Bright Ideas Press chart from the book. You can see a simplified version here, where there are only eight phases. I decided to use black poster board and a silver Sharpie marker to make the chart. We opened the Oreo cookies and made moons out of each one, placing them into the chart.

Take a look at how we did these activities:

oreo-moon-chart

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