The Shell Seeker

I am still working on my master list of verses and movement activities for worker circles and updating my blog post about The 12 Professions. When reading through The Breathing Circle: Learning through the Movement of the Natural Breath today, several of the verses caught my eye as being a really good fit for the latest story from Suzanne Down’s early childhood puppetry newsletter. The story is The Shell Seeker and it takes place on a beach. Zac and I have been taking a break from Circle Time while on vacation but I miss it and would like to bring it back. What better topic for a beach vacation than a beach circle, and here are the verses and movement activities which jump out at me from The Breathing Circle:

Rocks to Stones, page 84
Swooping Gulls, page 91
Rolling Seals, page 92
The Mermaid’s Purse, page 103
The Tide Comes In and the Tide Goes Out, page 104

Of course you could also have needle felted puppets while you tell the story (Suzanne makes some to go with this story) but I think the best thing to have with this story would be an enormously big beautiful shell.

Day One
do Rocks to Stones verse to introduce story

tell story

Day Two
do Rocks to Stones verse to introduce story

begin story, stop after first sentence of paragraph two to say, "sometimes she would see Swooping Gulls"

do Swooping Gulls verse, then continue story to end

Day Three
do Rocks to Stones verse to introduce story

begin story, stop after first sentence of paragraph two to say, "sometimes she would see Swooping Gulls"

do Swooping Gulls verse

say, "sometimes she would see Rolling Seals"

do Rolling Seals verse, then continue story to end

Day Four
do Rocks to Stones verse to introduce story

begin story, stop after first sentence of paragraph two to say, "sometimes she would see Swooping Gulls"

do Swooping Gulls verse

say, "sometimes she would see Rolling Seals"

do Rolling Seals verse

say, "she would watch the tides go in and out"

do The Tide Comes In and the Tide Goes Out, then continue story to end

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Housebuilding Camp Planning Notes

I'm getting really excited about my next camp, which is based on the Waldorf 3rd grade Housebuilding block!

We are using some of the wonderful Montessori materials from Waseca Biomes, which specializes in Geography materials.

I am particularly thinking about their Biomes of the World Map (which is canvas and rolls up and stores in a bag) and the Biome Continent Cards. You can use these three part cards in so many ways, but one of the things I’ve always wanted to do but never done is to pull the cards for one biome across all continents and lay them out and compare them side by side. Their cards are great for research and feature animals (one invertebrate, one fish, one amphibian, one reptile, one bird, one mammal) and one plant from every biome on every continent PLUS how the indigenous peoples of that biome met their fundamental needs (food, shelter, clothing, transportation, etc.)

So in this camp we will do a combination of things. We will read books and we will do a MLB of our favorite kinds of shelters around the world. We will make models of different kinds of houses and gradually create a museum. We will also examine the Shelter cards one biome at a time and lay them out and display them on the correct continents on the Biomes of the World Map as one of our exhibits at the Expo / Museum Walk. What a wonderful visual!

The biomes list simply takes us through the set of 8 in order. (I would also like to make biome maps of the different continents using the Map Legend Stamp and the new Continent Stencils from Waseca Biomes!) The book list follows the biomes list by going further into a few key examples of housebuilding in each biome (as well as covering a variety of other houses each time), and also sparks the projects which go along with each biome.

I’d love other suggestions so if you think of something, let me know! All of my Linear Measurement & Housebuilding notes are organized on my website.

BIOMES LIST

Monday - desert, grasslands

Tuesday - temperate forest, tropical forest

Wednesday - wetland, mountains

Thursday - polar regions, ocean

Friday - final project day, field trip, Expo / Museum Walk

BOOK LIST

Monday AM - Rain School by James Rumford
project - build with cob

Monday PM - Wonderful Houses Around the World by Yoshio Komatsu
project - model yurt with flat wet felting in bubble wrap

Tuesday AM - Traditional Houses from Around the World by A.G. Smith
project - build with tiny bricks, build with Lincoln logs

Tuesday PM - A Ride on Mother's Back: A Day of Baby Carrying Around the World by Emery and Durga Bernhard

Wednesday AM - How Do People Live? by Philip Steele
project - model stilt house

Wednesday PM - If You Lived Here: Houses of the World by Giles Laroche
project - model cave with self-hardening clay

Thursday AM - Building an Igloo by Ulli Stelzer
project - build with sugar cubes

Thursday PM - House: Showing How People Have Lived Throughout History With Examples Drawn from the Lives of Legendary Men and Women by Albert Lorenz
project - model raft (Kon-Tiki)

Friday AM - field trip to Buckminster Fuller’s home
project - build geodesic dome with extra long straws

Friday PM - finish building projects as needed
Expo / Museum Walk

This variety of books gives us so many examples of illustration styles. It would be great if we could add illustrations to the MLB that were in the style of the book that inspired them! It would so fun to take a black & white photo of our attempts at a sugar cube igloo (which is hard because the blocks are the wrong shape... important for kids to learn) and we would have time to develop it and put it in the book before Friday afternoon when kids go home.

Note: There are lots of other field trip possibilities for a topic like this and originally I was thinking about a morning field trip each day (yurt, tiny house, straw bale house, etc.) but I think spending our time in model making and creating a museum will be more fun. I can always recommend several field trips to families as a great way to follow up on camp!

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Human Body Camp Day 8

Some quick notes and resources for our eighth topic, which was The Integumentary System, The Endocrine System, and The Immune System.

This was our final day of summer camp. Remember that all of my notes for this main lesson block can be found in much more detail on my website.

The Integumentary System

read "Skin: The Bag You Live In" chapter from Blood and Guts: A Working Guide to Your Own Insides, stopping as follows:
• on page 12, do the Evaporation activity and recall how we learned in The Urinary System that Nature always seeks a balance
• on page 13, do the Sweaty Palms activity (this did not work)
• on page 14, do the Skin Prints activity (pictured above) using Tombow Drawing Pencils
• at the bottom of page 14, look at "Skin" on page 42 of the Human Anatomy Coloring Book
• at the bottom of page 15, talk about how scientists believe our fingers and toes get "pruney" because it was an adaptation allowing early humans to grip onto wet rocks when hunting for food at the seashore... similar to how the tread on tires gives them more traction
• on page 16, do the Map the Back of Your Hand activity (pain, pressure, cold)
• in the middle of page 20, look at "Scarring, Nails, and Cooling" on page 43 of the Human Anatomy Coloring Book

The Endocrine System

• read "The Letter" chapter from Frog and Toad Are Friends
• explain that The Endocrine System is also a part of the Department of Communication (like The Nervous System) but that it carries a different sort of message -- chemical instead of electrical -- that is transmitted more slowly and carried out by the body more slowly
• explain that hormones travel through the blood stream and lock into receptor sites, like puzzle pieces, and draw a puzzle piece and its interlocking neighbor on the chalkboard
• give some information on examples of hormones (Unlocking the Endocrine System lesson plan) and look at pictures of glands and explanations of the hormones they release (growth hormone for growing, adrenaline for responding to emergencies, serotonin for the wake/sleep cycle, etc.) in The Endocrine System three-part cards from the ETC Montessori material for Human Physiology
• look at "Endocrine System" on page 40 of the Human Anatomy Coloring Book

The Immune System

read "Diseases & Immunity" chapter from The Human Body: 25 Fantastic Projects Illuminate How the Body Works, stopping as follows:
• at the top of page 107, explain that a white blood cell looks like a koosh ball and draw a picture of a red blood cell, a white blood cell, and a platelet on the chalk board and explain their roles
• at the top of page 108, do the How Germs Spread demonstration with glitter
• at the top of page 109, refer to the puzzle piece illustration on the board for The Endocrine System and explain that The Immune System works in a similar way
• draw a puzzle piece for an antigen and an interlocking puzzle piece for an antibody and explain that the body continues to make antibodies and they float around in the blood stream, ready and prepared for the illness to reappear
• at the bottom of page 110, explain The Science Behind the Flu Shot
• at the bottom of page 111, finish the lesson by laying out ALL of the cards in the Immune System three-part cards from the ETC Montessori material for Human Physiology so that students can see how complex it is

Note: We didn't do this but playing Wildcraft: An Herbal Adventure Game is a great cooperative board game for learning about medicinal plants and goes very well with The Immune System.

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Human Body Camp Day 7

Some quick notes and resources for our seventh day's topic, which was The Skeletal System and The Muscular System.

Remember that all of my notes for this main lesson block can be found in much more detail on my website.

We began by looking at the life-size illustration of the eye of the Giant Squid in Actual Size and then reading Eye to Eye: How Animals See The World. These books (and many other wonderful titles) are both by Steve Jenkins.

The Skeletal System

read "Bones and Body Plan: The Shape You're In" chapter from Blood and Guts: A Working Guide to Your Own Insides, stopping as follows:
• in the middle of page 21, get out the magnifying glasses and look at examples of exoskeletons: sheds from two cicadas and a tarantula
• at the bottom of page 21, draw the Eiffel Tower on the chalkboard
• do the Strength Experiment activity from pages 67-68 of "How a Long Bone Works" chapter in The Body Book: Easy-to-Make Hands-On Models That Teach -- we were able to hold the weight of five books!
• look at Skeletal System pages in the Wall Chart of Human Anatomy
• at the top of page 22, draw an illustration on the chalkboard of the mesh of a bone with the bits of mineral in the open spaces between the mesh
• when you sit an uncooked chicken long bone in vinegar for five days, the minerals will disappear but the collagen mesh will remain... you will be able to bend the bone
• when you cook a bone, the collagen mesh will disappear but the minerals will remain... you will have a bone broth which is very gelatinous... What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained, "What do bones contribute to a stock?" on page 129
• at the bottom of page 22, explain that you can think of the structure of a long bone as a foam, explain how popcorn pops, and then do the Ivory Soap Trick
• read Amazing Facts from page 23 and read poems from Jeff Moss's book of Bone Poems while students are playing with the Ivory Soap foam (pictured above):
  "Bones" on page 20

  "206" on page 70

  "A Poem to Help You Figure Out What Bone the Patella Is" on page 64

  "A Poem About One Way Scientists Tell How Smart Our Ancestors Were: They Measure the BrainSize by Filling the Skull with Uncooked Rice and Then Pouring the Rice into Measuring Cups (Yucch!) on page 59

• in the middle of page 24, look at collections of X-rays on the light table:
  • Human X-Ray Set
  • Human X-Ray Set: Broken Bones
  • Animal X-Ray Set: Vertebrates
  • Animal X-Ray Set: Invertebrates (we found the cicada)

• at the bottom of page 24, look at saddle joint model carved from floral foam "mug plug" (instructions in The Human Body: 25 Fantastic Projects Illuminate How the Body Works, #3 on page 57)
• do the Great Thumbless Survival Test activity from page 30 (pictured above: opening a granola bar wrapper and peeling a clementine were particularly difficult!)
• at the bottom of page 29, look at "Vertebral Column: Spine" on page 4 of the Human Anatomy Coloring Book
• do the "Make Your Own Flexible Spine" activity from page 58 of The Human Body: 25 Fantastic Projects Illuminate How the Body Works

The Muscular System

read "Muscles: Your Mighty Movers" chapter from Blood and Guts: A Working Guide to Your Own Insides, stopping as follows:
• before reading the chapter, do the Hokey Pokey
• at the bottom of page 37, look at the "Muscles of the Upper Limbs" on page 11 of the Human Anatomy Coloring Book
• on page 41, look at the "Muscular System" on page 8 of the Human Anatomy Coloring Book
• at the top of page 42, look at "Skeletal Muscle" and "Cardiac Muscle" slides from the prepared microscope slides set
• at the bottom of page 45, look at the "Muscles of the Face, Head, and Neck" on page 9 of the Human Anatomy Coloring Book and do the Calisthenics for Your Face activity
• at the top of page 47, look at the "Muscles of the Lower Limbs" on page 12 of the Human Anatomy Coloring Book
• look at working hand model (instructions in The Human Body: 25 Fantastic Projects Illuminate How the Body Works, page 45)
• on page 48, do the Flexercise activity
• review all vocabulary using the Skeletal System and the Muscular System three-part cards from the ETC Montessori material for Human Physiology

Note #1: The Return of the Cicadas video on Vimeo is a fascinating look at the cicada life cycle. It's one of my favorite videos.

Note #2: I would have bought these but I didn't discover they existed until I was making this blog post. There's a set of very cool Fixed Bone X-Rays!!! Ordering them now...

Note #3: You can do this with Nervous System or Skeletal but it's fun to buy a turkey neck from the grocery store and boil it until the meat falls off. You can see how the vertebrae fit together and usually a bit of the spinal cord is still in there. If you don't want to deal with a turkey neck, buy an inexpensive can of bone-in salmon and let the kids find the backbone in it.

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!