Cuneiform Cookies - Living history lessons

Honestly growing up I hated history.  It was boring and about people who were dead.  I hated remembering dates and names.  Well as I got older I started getting more and more interested and was sad that I did not pay more attention when I was younger.  One of my goals as a home school mother is to encourage my children to love history and want to know more about it.  

This year we are learning about Ancient History and beginning American History.   The main curriculum I am using is Story of the World the Ancients.  I have the book, audio CD's and activity guide.  Most of the time the kids listen to the CD's in the car.  When we complete a lesson I have them review the lesson of the week.  Usually they listen to the CD again with a map and color page in front of them.  They circle things on the map that they hear and write down key information (dates and key people).  I normally read along in the book as we listen and pause the CD from time to time to ask questions.

 After we listen to the information we sit down to do an activity together.  I try to pick activities that allow the kids to get a glimpse of what life was like long ago.  So last week we learned about the first writings.  Last year we created cave drawings and the kids loved that.  This time we created Cuneiform with knifes on cookie dough.  I was going to let them use sticks but they wanted to eat the cookies when we were done. 

  

We took refrigerated cookie dough and I cut it into four balls.  The kids then each rolled them out on wax paper (make sure you put flour down so it does not stick).  After the kids rolled it out I helped them shape it into a rectangle so that we would have a "page of clay" to write on. 

Each child then took the knife and started putting the symbols that spell their name in the clay.  Mommy had to help Abigail some by putting her stick where it needed to be.  Then Abigail would push it down.  Even at 3 she had a great time and seemed to understand what we were doing.  

We discussed how the Sumerians would have baked the clay for important information so that they could keep it.  If it was something not important (a note or list) then they would leave the clay wet.  We decided our names were important so we baked them in the oven.

The kids had a great time completing this project plus who does not love cookies?  

After we put our bricks in the oven we talked about what we thought would happen to our symbols.  Would the dough rise and hide them or would they stay? 

Shelby's name with the chart she used.

 They all decided it would rise like bread but they figured they would still be able to recognize the symbols. 

 

 

My name in Cuneiform

Once the cookies were done they kids discovered that the dough did rise some.  If you do this project at home make sure your impressions are deep in the dough.  Almost all the way through.  The marks that were more shallow we could not see once it was cooked.  

The best part!  Eating their creations.  I have overheard them talking about Sumerians and cuneiform when playing.  I have seen them pretend to be Egyptians hammering in stone and then Sumerians marking in clay.  This was definitly a project that helped the kids reinforce what they learned. 

Something Big is Coming and a $56,000 Homeschool Sweepstakes! | Home Educating Association

Something Big is Coming and a $56,000 Homeschool Sweepstakes! | Home Educating Association

Teaching Place Value - Place Value Lane

Place Value was a challenging subject for one of my children.  They just did not comprehend that the number 35 had 3 sets of 10's and 5 ones.  So one day I sat down and drew a street with houses (see pic above).  There is an units/ones house on the right, tens house, hundreds house and thousands house (and on and on).  These houses get bigger and bigger but all only have 9 rooms. 

I then pulled out our cuisinare rods and some index cards.  I wrote a number on the index card and told my kids to put the units and tens in their houses for the night.  At first they looked at me strange and then they thought about it.  Slowly they put the correct amount of units in the unit house and tens in the ten house.  

Why we are called the School of Monkeys - Wordless Wednesday

On dresser!

Paint Chip Phonics Learning Game

How do you teach phonics to kids without it being boring?  This was my question when I was teaching my oldest daughter.  She had a hard time learning to read and I got really frustrated.  Then I read a blog that had this game posted.  

 

What you need:

• 13 Long cards with 4 colors on it
• 34 short cards with a hole cut out (or 12 if they have 3 colors)
• Hole punch 
• Laminator
• Laminating Pouches
• Metal Binder Rings
• Phonogram Page

I got my paint chips from when we painted three rooms in our house.  They are in the paint section of any hardware or big box store.  I was short some of the cards with the hole in them so I asked the manager if I could buy them.  He told me to just take them.

Once I got home with my colorful paint chips I printed out the Phonogram Page and got to work.  On the 12 long cards I wrote the following letters going down.  Try to center the letters on all boxes in order to make word making easier.

Consonants:

• b
• c
• d
• f
• g
• h
• j
• k
• l
• m
• n
• p
• q
• r
• s
• t
• v
• w
• x
• y
• z

Blends:

• bl
• cl
• fl
• gl
• pl
• sl
• br
• cr
• dr
• fr
• gr
• pr
• tr
• sc
• sk
• sp
• st
• sm
• sn
• sw
• spl
• spr
• str
• squ

Diagraphs:

• ch
• wh
• th
• sh
• ph
• thr
• shr

On the 34 cards with the hole cut out I put the word family letter combinations.  If you cannot find the cards with the square cut out you can make them yourself.  Get the cards and use an x acto knife to cut each square.

• ag
• ab
  
• ail
• ain
• ack
• ake
• am
• an
• ank
• ap
• all
• at
• ay
• eed
• ell
• est
• ew
• ick
• ight
• ill
• ine
• ing
• ink
• ip
• ob
• og
• ore
• ot
• out
• ow
• uck
• um
• unk
• y

 

  You can skip any of these steps if you would like and just put them all in a baggie. I have three kids and I knew these cards would get lost and ripped unless I made them more durable.  If you would like to make them more durable then laminate them, hole punch the corner and put a ring on it.  I put all the long cards together and all the short cards together. 

Now that your game is done it is time to play!  To play have your child sit down and try to create words with the cards.  They will place the card with the hole on it over the long card.  My children sometimes play and go in a circle creating words.  They get a point for correctly identifying a real word or fake word.  Other times they play on their own and write down real words and fake words on a chart.  My son (below) LOVES this game and asks to play daily.  

Monkey Preschool

Abigail is 3 and LOVES to do "school work" like big brother and sister.  She has lots of workbooks, color books, sticker books and water color books to help keep her occupied.  However her favorite thing to do is hands on work that I give her. 

Here she is above working with little bugs and tongs (ours are all from old bed bug game).  She is working on her hand/eye coordination, sorting skills and colors.

Next she works with pom poms of different sizes and bowls.  She made us go and get more color bowls so that she could sort properly.  

See her with all of her bowls! 

She even cleans up her mess when she is done.

Above is a video of Abigail working with her tongs.


 

Next Abigail works on a file folder game that is a first grade level.  It is a puzzle with letter/number combination on each piece.  She looks at each card and finds the letter and then number.  I took a video of her working on this with me.  She impressed me with her skills at 3 years old.
w

The above video is a little shaky since I was trying to video her and help her.  Sorry!  She is adorable when she tells me ,"This one silly!"

Writing Skills

 

Last Abigail worked on her "writing" skills.  As you see above I made these pattern cards myself.  I had a Scholastic PDF book that I got a few weeks ago.  It had patterns to use with cutting, clay or other activities.  I printed them off and laminated them.  After I laminated them I put a ring on them to hold it all together.  

Things you need to make these yourself are:

• Pictures/letter cards/number cards.  You can buy a book with this in it or google for them online.  
• Laminator (or go somewhere to print them)
• Laminating pockets
• Metal binding rings
• Hole punch

Laminate pictures (one on front and one on back) and cut it out.  Then hole punch each card.  Put the metal ring on it and PLAY!

My daughter used play-doh today to make her shapes.  You can use a crayon, dry erase marker, wikki stix, pipe cleaners or any other thing that is bendable to move around and make the shape.    This teaches that letters, numbers and shapes all have lines that are curvy or straight. 

Making a 3 with yellow doh.

Making 3 blue dots and putting them on the paper. 

CHEESE!  Isn't she sweet? 

Working on adding the dots to her five.  

Entertaining the younger kids at home can be easy if you plan ahead of time.  As you can see above most of these projects cost little money and are things we already have at home.  I have a bin of file folder/hands on games for all the kids.  I also have a list of preschool activities.  When my little Angel decides she wants to be a Demon and get in our way ... I pull out an activity and let her go to town. 

2011-2012 School Year is here!

We had our first week back at school and everything is going great!

We made some changes from last year and I plan on highlighting them each day over the next week. So far all of our choices are working out great.

Check out my 2011-2012 Curriculum page to see what choices I have made.  I will update as I tweak or change things. 

This week we accomplished so much!

Matthew-

 Play Paint Chip Phonics

The rules to this game are simple.  To create you use free paint color samples that you get from your local big box store or paint supply store.  We had painted three rooms in our house last year so I had a lot laying around.  For the extra I needed I went and asked if I could buy the samples. The manager just told me to take what I needed.  I got the idea of this game from The Snails Trail a few years ago.  If you go to her site she has all the letters you need to put on the cards and the full instructions.  Shelby used to love this game and I was excited to put it in our center bin for Matthew.  He played three days this week.  Basically he creates words with the phonic blends.  He writes down the real words on one sheet and the silly words on another.  He had a lot of fun playing this game and did not even realize he was both reading and learning.  To him this was a fun puzzle. 

-Reading and Phonics evaluation- He scored above grade level
-Wordly Wise lesson 1 Week 1
-Explode the Code 3 pg 1-10
-Handwriting without Tears pg 31-34 plus writing name each day
-Bob Jones Reading 1- day 1-5
-A Reason for Spelling A- day 1-3
-Horizons 1 Math: Lesson 1-5
-Algebra Readiness Grade 1: 3 lessons
-Critical Thinking Skills: 2 lessons
-2 Maze exercises

SHELBY

 Shelby learned how to create sentences this week.  She learned that it must have a subject and an action.  I had subject and action cards that she put together each day.  Some of them were telling sentences, some where commands and others were exclamations.  As an example one white card said. "The car" and then the yellow car said, "roared down the street."

-Reading Evaluation- scored above grade level
-Read "Keep the Lights Burning Abbie" and answered comprehension questions
-Bob Jones Press Reading Grade 2 and English Grade 2: Lessons 1-5
-Daily Language Review Grade 2 - Week 1
-Wordly Wise 2: Lesson 1- Exercise 1 &2
-SWO Spelling: List A 100% test
-Horizons 2 Cursive: Lesson 1-5
-Memory Work: Psalm 24:1
-Horizons Math 2: Lesson 1-5
-Algebra Readiness grade 2: 3 Lessons
-Critical Thinking Skills: 2 lessons

Both-

Listen to 2 chapters in "Ginger Pye" and answer comprehension questions
Daily Geography Skills Grade 1- Week 1-3 (map skills)
Story of the World Ancients Chapter 3- Early Writing
Apologia Astronomy Chapter 1- What is Astronomy?  What is in our Solar System?
United States Flag and Alabama for US Map work
Bob Jones Heritage Studies Grade 1 - Chapter 1 Oceans and Continents
Spanish Vocab (numbers 1-6), Book "Bigger/Mas Grande", Animal vocab
Art- create solar system with chalk pastels, create items out of circles, draw an animal (dinosaurs)

Music - Quarter Note, 4/4 time



 I plan on posting individually about these in the next few days. We created a solar system through art and sculpture this week.  We also wrote our name in cuneiform on cookie dough.  The kids LOVED this project.  In math we reviewed our Place Value Lane.  I took lots of photo's and will be updating this blog daily with fun non writing activities.