I like making little projects that change up the monotony of teaching the same subjects, year after year...
Here we have Spider Math:
Daniel rolls the dice and puts that number of flies on the first web, using the tweezers. He repeats for the second web. The paper is actually inside a page protector, so he uses a dry erase marker to write the number sentence and answer. Once he knows his answer is correct, the big rubber spider gobbles all the flies. Both the spider and the flies are from The Dollar Store.
Then we had Spider Web Weaving:
I hole punched some styrofoam plates and set the loose with some orange yarn. No skills needed.
I have a stash of spider rings that I "borrowed" from the candy bags last year. These were perfect embellishments for our webs.
Lula enjoys cutting practice:
An activity that looks wasteful and destructive is actually quite important! Scissor skills are nothing to sniff at.
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| Or are they? |
Then we had the lesson on weight comparisons:
I've used Saxon Math 1 for five kids now. This activity calls for yogurt containers with lids. Ha! I haven't seen a lid on a yogurt container for years. I used my old St. Patrick's Day pots and filled them with more Halloween doodads I had tucked away. I love doodads. Daniel compared their weights on the balance after he guessed which one of a pair was heaviest. Very fun, very hands-on, no directions really needed for a guy who is naturally curious. I actually got the balance out the day before and let him compare whatever suited his fancy: cars, broken pencils, anything really.
And speaking of doodads:
The sortable is one of my favorite doodads. I got this pack of plastic Halloween shapes (bats, spiders, snakes, skeletons, and centipedes) at Walmart for under $5. Daniel and Lula sort by shape and color. Daniel made a bar graph of the different shapes.
The Elective:
If Ian were in public school, his schedule would be filled with elective classes. I consider his game design on Scratch as his elective course. The pumpkin above on the left is one of the characters from his game. He actually just finished a game yesterday that he created specifically for Halloween.
Yesterday I pulled out the big guns. I have been avoiding Homeschool roller skating for a few years. I didn't want to go to the costume skate and spend my time juggling a baby who is spitting up on the floor and two toddlers that want to run off and get flattened by a bunch of teenaged boys in skates. We did a STEM challenge I saw on Pinterest instead:
The goal was to build the tallest tower with the supplies in front of you. The tower must not fall over. No eating your supplies. You have fifteen minutes. GO! Ian and Shane used gummy pumpkins and the rest used ghost shaped marshmallows. The marshmallows were disgusting. Do not buy Scary Berry marshmallows!
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| Fiona, you have to let go of your tower. |
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| Will it stand on its own? |
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| Nope. |
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| Winner of Tallest Marshmallow Tower |
Ian's tower won Tallest overall. He spent most of his time constructing a super solid base based on what he has noticed on cell phone towers and power lines. When he got the two minute warning, he quickly went for height.
Shane's tower got best design. I don't know why he decided to use a hexagon as his base shape, but it sure looked nice! I did give the boys a few day's warning that we would be doing this. I was curious if they would do any research.
The winners received bags of Halloween shaped fruit snacks. Fiona made a fruit snack Barbie for Heidi, who immediately bit her head off:
Halloween is going to be celebrated both Friday and Saturday here. Tonight we are checking out a "Trunk or Treat" for the first time and tomorrow will be the Candy Carnival.
