All work....and then play

We are a little late planting our cover crop this year, but this afternoon we spread the winter wheat seeds on all of our beds.

I spread the seeds, Rylan raked them in....
Cohen and Lakin.....and eventually Rylan and Cale stomped around the garden to push the seeds down a bit...

Bandit helped too...he's quite the gardener

While most of us were in the garden Cale was raking the leaves....

So that when you are done working...

You can have a little fun.

To bury your self in leaves

Pose for the camera, with my favorite smile

To throw as high as you can

Then throw them at the camera, and my face.

Number Games/Tricks

Here are some number games/tricks we've been playing around with lately...

#1

step 1: Write a number
step 2: add 9
step 3: double the new number
step 4: subtract 4
step 5: divide the new number by 2
step 6: subtract your original number

your answer, with no exceptions, is 7

example:

155 + 9= 164 164 x 2= 328 328 - 4= 324 324/2 = 162 162 - 155= 7#2

Step 1: In what month were you born? Write the number that stands for that month (1 for Jan, 2 for Feb...etc)
Step 2: Double that number
Step 3: add 6
Step 4: Multiply your new number by 50
Step 5: Add the day of your birth (if you were born on June 15, add 15)
Step 6: Subtract 365
Step 7: Tell me your answer, and I'll tell you your birthday.
(To determine the birthday add 65 to the answer above, then divide that number into a numerically written date- a slash between the tens and hundreds place) and that will be the birthday)

Example of an Oct 31 birthday:

10 x 2= 20 20 + 6= 26 26 x 50= 1300 1300 + 31= 1331 1331 - 365= 966

966 + 65= 1031 or 10/31
#3

Step 1: pick a number between 1-99
Step 2: multiply by 2
Step 3: add 35
Step 4: multiply by 5
Step 5: subtract 155
Step 6: multiply by 10
Step 7: subtract 200
Step 8: cross off the last 2 digits (tens and ones place) and you will be left with your original number

example:

54 x 2= 108 108 + 35= 143 143 x 5=715 715 - 155= 560 560 x 10= 5600 5600 - 200= 5400....cross off the 2 zeros and you are left with 54

On clocks and time....

Right now in the co-op class I am teaching we are finishing up telling time. Here's a couple things we've done in the past couple weeks to help the kids learn how to tell time....

We made the standard paper plate clock....They cut and glued all the pieces then we worked on setting the clocks for certain times. We manipulated a paper clock to see how the half and quarter hours cut the clock. The paper clock we used has helped them all tremendously. I printed it from Aussie Pumpkin Patch and they have all used it to help them get quicker at reading the time with out having to count by 5's all they way around each time.


We had a life sized game board set up around the room. I printed a bunch of blank clocks and drew the times I wanted. We were focusing on tell the time to 5-minutes and seeing that the hour hand doesn't point directly at the hour, that it moves closer and closer to the next hour as each minute passes. They kids really enjoyed throwing the oversized dice and walking the board. They did really well at the time-telling too.


These are the prizes for 'winning' or completing the game. White and milk chocolate clock faces.


We also played clock-face go fish. It can also be played as rummy or as memory/concentration. Since we were running out of time we did move from Go Fish! to just spreading and matching the digital time to the clock face. The times on these cards were to the minute.


We are making a lapbook in our class, so all of these pieces...the paper plate clock, the Go Fish cards, and a mini version of the clock-face game board will be included for them to play with at home too.

Sea Turtles

Reading Lesson:
Sea Turtles by Gail Gibbons
All About Turtles by Jim Arnosky

Art Lesson:
Based off of the Foil Turtle and Fish Collage Lesson from Deep Space Sparkle

drawn, outlined, then paintedCale's
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Cohen's
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Rylan's
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Writing Lesson:

Poetry

Cale's on the Green Sea Turtle

Rylan's on the Leatherback Sea Turtle

They plan to make green paper sea turtles and rewrite their poems on those...but first we need to make a construction paper run....we are down to black, pink and brown.....

Fall Decorations....Boy-Style

The boys have been on a decorating kick lately. It all started with this:

They glued and nailed a bunch of old wood together added some paper ghosts and colored some little wooden bits orange for pumpkins...

We had a bit of disagreement on how to hang it. They were certain that it had to be hung from a rod that was attached to a hook that was nailed to the wall. I wasn't about to nail a rod permanently to my wall. I told them they could just hang it by string from an existing nail in the wall....but apparently the rod was non-negotiable. They worked it in...and did hang it from the existing nail.

This witch started as a cutting practice for Cohen while the older boys were doing book work. I drew all the pieces and he cut them out and glued them together. Then he strung it in the kitchen with a couple ghosts...

Rylan made one soon after and hung it from the highest part of our ceiling.
Cale's hangs from our dining room light...We finally got pumpkins this year too....Cohen and Rylan picked out white ones that we will cook and eat after Halloween. But he didn't want a plain old pumpkin....

Here's Cohen's finished pumpkin complete with witch hat, yarn hair, feet, arms and Cohen sized hands.

Rylan kept his more simple with a drawn on face...

Cale wanted an actual jack-o-lantern...

Which we carved today