Science Fair Ideas

When I heard about the Science Fair that our homeschool group is hosting, I'm sure, I was more excited about it than my son.  As a science person, I am a little biased about my passion in teaching my kids about the fascinating world of SCIENCE.  We've done various investigative activities in matters that piqued their interests, as well as experiments that are related to the curriculum we are using (details of these science investigations will be in another blog that I am working on).  Sometimes I have to hold my self back in pushing it to them so for this project, I asked him first if he wanted to do it or not.  I've got a lukewarm response.  Anthony showed some interest and I feel that the experience will benefit him, so we went for it.  To make it more 'his' project, I made sure that most of the output are his and that I only help and guide him through the process.
The topic of the Science Fair was endangered species.  To help him decide what animal (he decided to work on animal and not plant) he will work on, I brought him to a zoo to search for any endangered animal that might interest him.  This activity became an integral part of this science fair project.  Not only did it helped him choose an animal, it also became a learning process as we go from one animal exhibit to the next.  We took out time to read the information written for each animal that we looked at and it became a mini-lesson about animal ecology, behavior and habitat.  He started asking questions and it gave an opportunity to discussed things with him.  It is amazing how Anthony was able to have a better understanding about what does it mean to be endangered, why and how some animals are endangered and really appreciate the various animal exhibits.  He came up with three endangered species, and at the end he chose to work with the African wild dogs. 

Anthony and Aidan looking at various animal exhibits at the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence, RI

We used Miss Jones template in writing an informative book on the African wild dogs

We had two months to work on this science project so my game plan is to work on it 3-4 days in a week, gathering information, writing facts and making the actual materials for the exhibit.  We didn't really follow a strict schedule.  Having enough time allowed us to work on his project in his own phase which minimizes the frustration level for both of us.  As I was browsing one of my favorite website for teaching resources (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com), TeachersPayTeachers  I came up with this lesson on writing by Miss Susan Moran Jones which gave me an idea to 'kill two birds with one stone', meaning Anthony can work on his project and at the same time, provide an opportunity for him to do research, develop writing skills, and learn about various types and parts of books.  I asked Anthony if he will be thrilled to make his own book about the African wild dogs.  I showed him the template of the book and since most of the pages require drawing pictures (which he loves), he was excited to start it.
How did we tackle the writing part?
Anthony worked on one page at a time.   We started with going over the various parts of a non-fiction book, and since most of the books we borrowed from the library are non-fiction, we had many samples to look at.  Normally, we looked at a particular page that he is working on that day and explained to him the content of the page/s (what information should be included, the importance of that part of the book), then he worked on with the page of his book.  When it was time for him to write his paragraphs I found it helpful to do a spider diagram of all the information we are looking at.  For example, when he has to write something about the African wild dog's habitat (at this time, he already knew how to use the book's table of contents to find the page of what we need) I read to him that section of the book that has the information we needed and then I asked him after reading, to summarize what he understood and remembered about the theme we were working at.  I used the spider map to lay out his summaries, and he then used the map to write his paragraph.  After he was done with all the pages, and he was satisfied with his finished book, we made copies of the book and gave copies  of them during the fair.  I also bounded the original copy for us to keep.

Anthony working on his non-fiction book on African wild dog

Title page

Anthony also made a diorama showing packs of African wild dogs in their habitat using play dough and Styrofoams.  In addition, Anthony came up with this 'story cube' to add to his exhibit.  Instead of using a tri-fold poster, we used a box and covered it with colored papers.  We made copies of the diagrams he drew for his book, and put them around the box.  My husband helped us to make the box rotate.  We ended up using these materials since they were readily available eliminating the need to buy materials or spend money. 

Rotating 'story cube'

Anthony explaining his project.

 

I agreed with a lot of moms who participated in this science fair.  Most of the learning are achieved in the process, not in the actual product.  It has been a great experience for us.  More than thirty children participated and their projects show how unique and special each child is.  Overall, this has been a very enriching experience and we are looking forward to the next one.

Celebrating Halloween and All Saints Day

The last week of October was both FUN and EXHAUSTING!  This year, we made some additions where we celebrated not only Halloween but we also focused on the remembrance of All Saints and All Souls Day.  Migrating to the US, I somehow lost that tradition of celebrating All Saints and All Souls Day so I was really happy  to be able to share even a little bit of that tradition this year to my children which I hope will continue from now on.  Coming from the Philippines, the latter is a huge holiday for us and we celebrate it differently than maybe the rest of the world.  When I was growing up, the arrival of November doesn't only mean  lots of rain or typhoons, but it also means that we have to go to cemetery and clean our family's graveyard.  Few days before November 1st (All Saints Day) and November 2nd (All Souls Day), people would start their preparation for "undas"... cleaning and painting tombstone, making "kalamay" or sticky rice, traveling far to be with their living and 'dead' family members.  On the day of Nov. 1 and 2, people will flock cemeteries bringing candles and flowers for their deceased loved ones, and stay there until night fall, reunite with relatives and make a celebration out of it.

Sticky rice or kalamay

Children talking, playing and collecting candle wax

Cemeteries look like  campgrounds with tents during All Saints/Souls celebration

 Halloween on the other hand was not much a celebrated holiday in the Philippines when I was growing up.  It is only recently that kids dress up and enjoy 'Trick or Treat'.  When I first arrived here in the US, I was so excited to dress up on Halloween (by the way, I was in grad school at that time so you can do the math) and it became my second favorite holiday ever since.  Fast forward to present times... having children of my own, Halloween makes this time of the year more fun!  I enjoy dressing up with them, forcing my husband to dress up too,  there are some years that I made our own costumes, throwing Halloween parties and making "frightening" food, and just the feeling of being a 'kid'  again is exciting.  This year, however, I decided not to focus solely on Halloween.  I was fortunate that the homeschool group that we are part of has a yearly celebration of All Saints Day, so besides going around our neighborhood to go trick or treat-ing and indulging my kids with sweets for that one day, we were able to prepare for the All Saints day celebration which my kids never really had a chance of doing. We talked about why do we celebrate this special day in our church. It also gave us an opportunity to get to know some saints by reading their life stories.  We even spent a day making their saint costumes for the celebration.
The boys both decided to be saints that wear armor.  My first instinct was to go on-line and get ideas of the saints we can choose from.  This website really have some very good resources, not only for boys and girl saints costumes, but it also has links to saints inspired games or activities (http://catholicicing.com/all-saints-day-costume-ideas-for-boys/).  Anthony decided to be Saint George (one of the popular picks for boys) but I had a hard time for Aidan's saint.  I suggested that Aidan can wear a dragon costume which we have already, and be Anthony's 'dragon'.  Of course that didn't fly since he has to wear an armor, right!  The next choice was St. Michael the Archangel but Aidan didn't like the idea of wearing wings.  After several hours of probing the Internet, Aidan finally ended up agreeing to be St. Martin of Tours, thanks to the Catholic OnLine website (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=81). 

St. Martin of Tours

St. George

Our next challenge was how to make their armors and helmet.  I decided that we can make the armor ourselves so I watched several YouTube videos to get ideas how to make armors out of cardboard and I was surprised to the complexity of some armors that you can make out of card boards.  To make it a mommy and kid-friendly project (meaning easy), this is what we end up doing:

1. You need a cardboard box that can cover the upper front and back of your child.  Some websites used  wine box,  or the cover of storage boxes.  I found this box in our basement that contains stick hockey table top game.

  

2. I cut one end (flap) of the cardboard that covered the front and  back sides of the armor.  These strips served as the straps of the armor.  You can ask your child to bend the straps so it can fit well over the shoulder area. 

3.  Duct tape to the rescue.  We attached the straps using strong tapes and cut the armor to a shape of an armor plate. I ask Anthony to try his armor several times to make necessary adjustments to the shape, length or fit of the armor.

4.  Time to make it metallic.  Once we were satisfied on how it looks like on Anthony, we covered it with aluminum foil.  We opt for covering our armor with aluminum foils since I don't want to spend money to buy spray paint.  With the help of some glue we were able to cover the entire armor with foil.  Anthony spread the glue while I cut the foil.  What a difference it made.  Now our armor is starting to look like it is ready for battle.

5.  Anthony made a mask helmet and shield from his kindergarten class last year that we used to complete his costume.  As a finishing touch, I printed a dragon design and put it over the front side of his armor. I also cut two oval shapes red construction paper to serve as his shoulder pads, and attached a piece of red cloth as his cape.  Now he is ready to slay that dragon!

6.  I really cannot explain how my husband did Aidan's armor but once he was finished with it, I added similar finishing touches to Aidan's St. Martin costume.  I printed a cross for his armor plate and attached a blue cape which has been cut short (to symbolize St. Martin's generosity to a beggar by cutting his cloak into half and giving it to the poor man).  We used Anthony's mask helmet as a template for Aidan's.

You can be the judge which armor costumes is better!

Overall, the kids had fun not only during the All Saints Celebration, but while making their costumes and learning the life of their saints too.  To end our day, we celebrated mass to ask the Saints to intercede for us and to remember our beloved family members that had passed away, that hopefully one day we can be with them in Heaven.

Aidan's Milestone

Is there a right age to start giving your child some structured learning?  Are there any benefits if you start your child early?  How early is early?  Just like many moms out there, I also struggled with similar questions.  My first son was enrolled in a whole day pre-school program when he was 3.5yo.  My youngest one is almost four and he hasn't been in a "regular" school setting.  Did I regret sending my eldest one that early?  Part of me says yes, especially when I remembered him being so tired at the end of the day.  He used to start school at eight in the morning and by the time I picked him up from work, it's usually three or four in the afternoon.  On the other hand, was the education that he received then gave him an advantage now, in terms of gaining knowledge and developing life skills? 
The way Anthony (my eldest) and Aidan (my youngest) started their pre-school years are totally different.  My youngest son Aidan never attended day care or pre-school and this is his first year to have some sort of structured instruction.  He is currently enrolled in Seton Homeschooling Pre-K Program.  When I read his curriculum, I am encouraged to start it with him because it has a lot of suggestions and fun activities on how to approach teaching especially in such young age.

When we learned about God's Creation, we went around the neighborhood and took pictures of the different things that God made.  We later printed the pictures, cut, paste and label them. 

To review a letter that we've been learning, Aidan will go around the house with a post-it paper (written on it is the letter we are reviewing) and find items around the house with the beginning letter sound.  In these pictures, he labeled oven and onion for the beginning letter O.  If you have an older child, he or she can do this activity with your pre-schooler.

 I made lily pads (out of green construction paper) and wrote a word that starts with letter F on each lily pad and a couple of fillers.  Aidan pretends to be a Frog and hops only on lily pads that has the beginning F sound.

"Aidan feeding the Lion and the Tiger."  This is a fun way to teach beginning sound. The pattern for these adorable bag puppets are provided by Seton. If you want to make your own, you can print a picture of any animal that starts with the beginning letter you want and glue it in front of a paper bag (brown sandwich bag is a good alternative).  I cut a hole in front that serves as the mouth of the animal.  I make the puppets first and then I print various pictures that have the beginning sound of the letter we are learning.  You can add pictures that have different beginning sound to make it challenging. 

Aidan practicing his letters on a tray with flour.  You can also use oatmeal, sugar salt or sand to write on.  I love doing this exercise when I introduced a letter or number to Aidan.

One of the things that the Pre-K curriculum stressed upon is developing the fine motor skills of the child and we've been incorporating that in our daily lessons.  As we learn the alphabet, sounds, numbers, or Religion, Aidan do activities that also help him develop his fine motor skills. Manipulative such as blocks, LEGO, playdoh, puzzles are great tools for Aidan's fine motor skills development.  It is amazing to see the changes in how he grasp the crayons or markers when coloring or tracing lines; he is now more confident in the use of scissors and even showing less frustration when writing on papers.  I remember when we first started.  He would not color the pictures at all, or if he did, it will be the whole page without any consideration on staying with in the line.  What line? hahahahahahaha
He stills doesn't enjoy coloring or tracing broken lines but now I am running out of paper and tape because he loves to draw and make me pictures.  His imagination just flourished as he make up story about his pictures or as he pretend play with his stuff animal friends.  In addition, I have to constantly clean the floor for small pieces of paper that he loves cutting. 

Aidan with his friends, Bear, Eyeball and Bear

I realized that you can't expect them to write directly on papers that is why I love Seton's idea of introducing the letter strokes using "heavenly writing" first,  then having the child use his fingertips to write on sand or any sensory materials (finger painting, use of 3D blocks) before you can even proceed to have the child write on a board or paper.  These progression really eliminates the frustration in Aidan's part as he learns how to write. 

 

 

The curriculum has suggested lesson plan each day but it always emphasizes that the phasing will depends on the child's ability, interests and motivation.  We are now in ninth week but I am not embarrassed to say that we are still doing week 7 of his Math and Early Literacy units.  The Seton's curriculum gave me the confidence to tackle Pre-K curriculum because in each lesson, it explains where should I focus on and the importance of the "focus" to my child's development.



 

 

In the short time that we spent homeschooling, Aidan grew and developed so much.  Besides "school", he is enrolled in a swimming class. We are so proud of his progress in swimming.  Aidan can now swim a couple of feet without a floatie and he is not afraid anymore to put his face in the water.  We've been spending a lot of times outside as well, going on trails with our homeschooling group and oftentimes with the whole family during the weekends.  He loves to collect things as we go on these

walks. 

 

Aidan's nature art from the twigs, leaves and rocks he collected in one of our walks... ooops is that a whooly caterpillar? (Pratts Farm, Middleborough MA).  Below is the Cardinal trail within UMass Dartmouth's Living Classroom initiatives.

Below are some of the investigation lesson that we did- Math, Science and Literacy Pumpkin mini-lesson by Ms. Cara Carroll, http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Cara-Carroll, Making Sugar Crystals (http://chemistry.about.com/od/growingcrystals/ht/blsugarcrystal.htm), and Walking Water activity (http://royalbaloo.com/the-walking-water-experiment/); and the different places we visited for our field trips. 
As Aidan's mom and teacher, I am proud of his accomplishments and I can't wait to continue to explore, investigate and learn with my free spirited little guy!
BTW Aidan's name means "Little Fire"....  Fits him well!

Free Friday in Plimouth Plantation (Plymouth, MA)

Corn maze and other fun activities at Sauchuk Farm, Plympton MA

Our Big Backyard and Beyond The Fence Naturescape at Roger Williams Zoo