The Water Cycle!

      This week, we took a close look at The Water Cycle! First we did a Starfall lesson where we read a book called Precipitation and checked out a diagram of the water cycle that showed all three parts; evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. Then, I had gotten a book from the Library called The Drop Goes Plop by Sam Godwin. It was really great at showing The Water Cycle in a way that was easy to understand.
      The next day, we did some Water Cycle experiments! First we showed evaporation by putting warm water in a clear plastic cup, the placing another clear plastic cup over the top to show the water vapor collecting in the top.  Next, we showed condensation by putting ice in a cup and watching the water droplets collect on the outside of the cup. Finally, we showed precipitation by getting a dry cotton ball and feeling how light it is before, then dipping the cotton ball in the water. When the cotton ball was full, it was heavy, like a cloud gets heavy with rain. When the water starts pouring out of the cotton ball, it's because its full and it has to let water out, again, just like a cloud. They totally got it and the wrote a journal entry about it! They did a great job with their kid writing too! Plus when we were done they got to play with the water and decided to see what happened when you add food coloring too. Fun times and great learning!
    

Science Experiment: Underwater Volcano!

    This year for Christmas, one thing that Wyatt REALLY wanted was a science kit. So, I searched online, and found one on Amazon that was 6+ and had great reviews. Here is the one I ended up choosing: http://www.amazon.com/Scientific-Explorer-0SA221-Blowing-Science/dp/B000BURAP2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422486559&sr=8-1&keywords=kids+science+kit. The price varies on it, when I bought it they were about $14. Of course I had to get two because... you know... twins.... haha

     We've done a few experiments so far, but we decided to do one all together for school! They agreed on the Underwater volcano experiment, and we got started! The kit has some pretty cool stuff in it, like; test tubes, test tube holder, scoops, stir sticks and a bunch of little packets of different things like baking soda and red cabbage leaf powder. So we got out what we needed and got to work. They did all the steps themselves as I gave them the instructions and they did really good. It was actually pretty cool! Plus it was really an acid/base lesson in disguise! lol! Eventually it turned into them needing cups and plates and extra water and things and a slight mess, but they had a blast. Here are some pics of our fun. :-)

Library Day - 1/23

Another week has come and gone. 

Here are the books we read last week!

     The boys liked this book they randomly picked out at the library. It's about a boy named Seb meeting a dog named Hamish and how they become friends. It's pretty good, and anything with dogs in it is good for them. 

      Of course the other favorites have to include Magic Tree House, though this one was one of their least favorite Tree House books. They also REALLY like choose your own adventure type books, and when you combine Batman with that, obviously you get awesomeness. Haha. They also really like the Scooby Doo choose your own adventure books that are pictured in the top picture. Any adventure is a good adventure to them! There's also a choose your own adventure DVD they rented from the library once that they really like, though the whole library system only has one! It's worth checking your library for if you have a kiddo who likes to choose their own story!

Still Loving Stations... (and they're helping!)

     I know I've written about it before, but the boys LOVE when we have station day in our Starfall curriculum! It's one thing that, no matter the day, they're always excited to do. This time we did a sight word Concentration type game where they matched up sight words, a color by word, computer time on more.starfall.com, and the reading station where they read their book for the week and match it up with the word cards for the book. Basically every week I spend forever cutting out what feels like billions of these little cards. There is a card for each word, rebus picture, and punctuation for the whole story! The story is only 4-6 pages long.... but still... lol. Anyway, this time it was a mad dash for the computer time and Concentration. They did great with their sight words for Concentration and both did some really cool stuff on more.starfall.com. They tend to gravitate toward the coin activities (which has helped TREMENDOUSLY in being able to tell me the differences between coins and their values), and these spacial area type activities. If you want some supplemental fun for the kiddos that isn't terribly expensive but incredibly educational AND fun, check out more.starfall.com. Seriously. Good stuff.
     After they took their turns with the computer and matching game, they begrudingly (oy) moved onto the other two activities. I think they leave these for last because they take longer, but always end up having fun. The funny part is once they get started on the book part, they like it and do great! I seriously love this activity educational-wise. It always amazes me how well they do reading the story, and finding the right cards! I help them by putting the cards in the chart so they can concentrate on the words, plus it goes MUCH faster that way...haha! This weeks story was longer than the previous ones, so I was pretty impressed how great they did. Another really great aspect of this is that it forces them to notice punctuation! They already know what periods and quotation marks are for, and can recognize commas, which I think is pretty cool. The Starfall Kindergarten curriculum really seems pretty great in general to me. Obviously I'm not a teacher and I don't know exactly what they should be able to do, but I do know they do really well at everything they've tried so far. So proud of my guys!

Library Day - 1/16

  I can't believe it's been a week since the last post already!! Time flies....oy. Anyway, since I managed to not take pictures of anything else we did this week... so... here are the books we read!

Holy ridiculous amount of books Batman! haha! Seriously though we had A LOT of books to read that had to go back this week! There are quite a few they've read before or that are superhero books, but reading is reading!

Of course one of the favorites of the week is the Magic Tree House book we read! We had actually learned about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln a few days prior to reading this book, so they were super excited to see George Washington on the cover and hear about the Revolutionary War! They totally made the connection and my little homeschool mom heart skipped a beat... ;-)

They also really liked this one. Its a silly book about an old lady who is not afraid of anything, that ends up a little freaked out... lol. Good stuff though. 

Stay tuned until next week for more book fun! <3

Library Friday: Weekly Books

     Every Friday we go to the Library and pick out (probably way too many...) books and dvds for the week! I pick out some that are part of school work time, and they pick out some that we read at bedtime every night. Usually we read at least 2 books a day, if not more, so we go through A LOT of books! The picture below is the books I returned last Friday. I figured since we're rollin' through so many, maybe if I can let you know a few of their favorites, other kiddos might get to hear about a book they never knew existed if you find them too! Plus it's always fun to be able to look back and remember. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure we've already been through hundreds of books, so instead of attempting to go back and start from the beginning like my (self diagnosed) OCD wants me too... we're just gonna start from here.... haha! Anyway, here are the books, more info below the picture.

This is most of the books we read last week... I forgot a few for the picture. Oh well...

If you haven't checked out the Magic Tree House books... DO IT! They boys LOVE them and often play "Jack and Annie" games where they travel to distant lands! <3 Obviously I'm reading these to them at this point, but when they get a bit older we can re-read for the history lessons!

This was by far their favorite book this week (besides the always favored Magic Tree House anyway).  It's basically about a donkey that finds a magic pebble that grants wishes. Without giving too  much away, basically he makes a bad decision with the rock, and eventually learns a valuable lesson that you only need your family to really be happy, not a magic rock. 

More books next week! :-)

Twin Test Kitchen: Puppy Chow!

     We went to the store today, so I got some ingredients for a basic, yummy treat that I'm not sure the boys have ever had before: puppy chow! Yeah, that's right. I said puppy chow. Cue salivation now! Anyway, I picked it because it only had a few ingredients and it was fairly easy for a 5 year old to do with minimal help. Plus its yummy. And now someone has to eat it... :-).
     I got out all the ingredients and measurement tools and we got to work! First they measured out 10 cups of rice chex. (The recipe said corn chex, but I went with rice, still yummy either way.) Then Wade measured out 1 cup of chocolate chips, then Wyatt measured out 3/4 cup of peanut butter (this part was kinda hard trying to get the peanut butter off the spoon and into the cup without a peanut butter splatter ending up on my ceiling...but we made it through slowly... haha. I helped scoop the last bit out). They both dumped their cups in the pan we had on the stove (not heating up yet). Next, Wade measured the 1/4 cup butter (same spoon issue...but at least it was a smaller amount this time... ;-) ). Then he dumped it into the pot. Next, I turned on the stove and they took turns stirring the mixture around while the other measured powdered sugar. We needed 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, so Wyatt filled the cup and Wade filled the 1/2 cup. (This part also involved some time to make sure there wasn't a major sugar disaster, but they did really well.) Once the chocolate mixture was heated and melted, I poured the chocolate into the chex cereal and we all took turns stirring it around. Finally they scooped the chocolate covered chex into some baggies, poured in some powdered sugar and shook the bags like crazy! Then they finally got to try it. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. They did great! <3