SIU Day!

Completely by coincidence, we met with three different SIU professors all on Friday. We visited Dr. Karla Gage and Dr. Sedonia Sipes in Life Science II from 9:30 - 11:30 am for our lessons on hemp and indigo, and then Dr. Scott Hamilton-Brehm came to us from Life Science III as a Science Club guest from 4 - 5:30 pm for our lesson on the origins of life on planet Earth.

Thank you to all of these SIU professors who gave freely of their time and energy to help our small group of students go more deeply into topics which interested them. We are so fortunate to have this wonderful resource!!!

You can find my notes from Friday morning at my Fibers & Clothing Week 3 post. Here are my notes from Science Club, and some pictures from our day.


Shibori Dyeing with Indigo - AM

INDIGO DYE

MESSY

the "bloom" is the name for the top of the indigo vat

Arashi Shibori
this is the one which uses a pole

Dr. Gage lends a helping hand

Itajime Shibori

this is the style that Zac and I tried

Kanoko Shibori

this is the one which inspired American tie-dye

Dr. Sipes begins the dyeing process

items are a yellowish-green when they first come out of the dye

as they react with the oxygen in the air, they turn blue

now comes the excitement of washing the pieces

untying to reveal the final design

Zac's clamp design was so simple but it turned out great!

everyone is in love with the results of their project

Science Club - PM

First we "blasted off" to explore our third planet, the oh-so-speedy Mercury!

The two snow days which have interfered with our Science Club meetings in January and February have thrown off my timing a bit and we will have to look at the remaining planets after Spring Break. We are looking first at, and comparing, the 4 planets which are blueish and greyish. After Spring Break we will look at and compare the 4 planets which are reddish and yellowish.

To "visit" the planet of Mercury, we followed the same procedure as we did for Neptune and Uranus.

I welcomed the students as their intergalactic tour guide.

I read them the planet poem from Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars by Douglas Florian.


I read them the information on the origins of the planet's name from Greek & Roman Mythology from Kingdom of the Sun: A Book of the Planets by Jacqueline Mitton.


We looked at interesting facts about the planet in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Space & Space Exploration: Discovering the Secrets of the Universe.


We looked at the photo cards for the planet in The Photographic Deck of the Solar System.


We went drew an illustration of the planet. For the greys and craters of Mercury we used willow charcoal.

We calculated the scale (distance from the planet to our Sun in km / 162,500,000) and then measured and placed the planet card at the appropriate spot along the Solar System String. We were surprised to find that little Mercury was only 36 cm from the Sun!

For our home planet, Earth, we followed a bit of a different procedure. We had Dr. Scott Hamilton-Brehm as our tour guide and I introduced him by laying out only the lowest branch of the Tree of Life and only leaf #1. This is the most ancient life, the Archaea. I believe that the thing that makes Earth remarkable among the planets is not that it is a "blue marble," for we have seen that several planets share its coloring. It is actually the GREEN on our Earth, the LIFE found here, that makes it stand out.

Dr. Hamilton-Brehm is a microbiologist who specializes in archaea and extremophiles, hunting for answers about earliest life and how it evolved (and he complimented me on our Tree of Life puzzle and how beautiful it was). He led us through many topics -- blending Astronomy, Chemistry, and Microbiology -- to explore the question of the origins of life on Earth as well as whether it may be found on other planets. He stayed afterwards to answer student and parent questions, and then to meet with me about the book we are collaborating on writing together. He and I are hoping to create new curriculum resources presenting more up-to-date scientific information which can be used for the Second Great Lesson in Montessori classrooms.

charcoal drawings of Mercury

calculating Mercury's distance from the Sun on our Solar System String

we're all supposed to call it the Great Inflation instead of the Big Bang now

Dr. Hamilton-Brehm staying late to talk one-on-one with a student

he went back through every single slide and answered additional questions

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Fibers & Clothing Week 3

This block has been so much fun! Here are some notes from Week 3.

Week 1: Wool Experiments, Washing Molly's Raw Wool, Carding & Spinning, Wet Felting

Week 2: Natural Dyes, Mohair & Cashmere, Yarn Store Field Trip, Silk, Crochet Special Guest

Week 3: Weaving, Angora, Camel, Spinning Special Guest, Flax & Hemp, Hemp & Indigo Field Trip

Monday, February 18

• review silk, draft and add Silk to MLB
• discuss plan for finishing our Local History & Geography tapestry
• read Thérèse Makes a Tapestry by Alexandra S.D. Hinrichs
  
• read The Emperor's New Clothes illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton
  
• feel angora fiber and guess what it is before being told
• practice with block beeswax crayons
  

• do the Live Ed drawing lesson Three Archetypal Forms (focus on circle progression) from Drawing Simple Animal Forms

  

Tuesday, February 19

• review weaving, draft Weaving for MLB
• feel baby camel roving and guess what it is before being told
• tell children that we will be able to spin some of our exotic fibers with Thursday's special guest
• read Rumplestiltskin by Paul Galdone
  
• read "Little Briar-Rose" from Favourite Grimm's Tales illustrated by Anastasiya Archipova
  
• draw rabbit using drawing lesson from Drawing Simple Animal Forms

  

• draw camel using the Live Ed drawing lesson Animals Among the Elements (as part of the sand dunes) from Human and Animal

  

Thursday, February 21

• Spinning Special Guest: Lorrie Killion
  (she demonstrated how to use a spinning wheel and spun my flax top and angora right before our eyes; she also brought a drop spindle for each child to keep and we all spun yarn from Corriedale wool roving)
• read "Flax and Hemp," chapter XVI of The Story Book of Science
  (this classic book by Jean Henri Fabre, published in 1919, is still in print but is also available online for free at Gateway to the Classics)
  
• look at hemp products: Wise Owl Lemon Verbena Furniture Salve, Hemp for Knitting AllHemp-6 Chocolate yarn
  
• look at (and taste, if desired) a variety of flax and hemp foods
  Flax
  • Bob's Red Mill Organic Raw Whole Golden Flaxseeds
  • Good Karma Unsweetened Flaxmilk
  • Nature’s Path Blueberry Cinnamon Flax Instant Oatmeal
  • Nature's Path Flax Plus Maple Pecan Crunch Cereal
  • Bakery On Main Gluten-Free, Organic Happy Granola, Sprouted Blueberry Flax
  Hemp
  • Nutiva Organic Raw Shelled Hempseed
  • Nutiva Organic Cold-Pressed Unrefined Hemp Oil
  • Tempt Unsweetened Original Hempmilk
  • Evo Hemp Mocha Chip Hemp Bar
  • Evo Hemp Brownie Chip Hemp Bar
  • Purely Elizabeth Blueberry Hemp Ancient Grain Granola

Friday, February 22

Morning

• field trip to SIU to learn about hemp planting & research questions from Dr. Karla Gage and dyeing with indigo from Dr. Sedonia Sipes, use shibori dyeing techniques (Arashi Shibori, Kanoko Shibori, Itajime Shibori) to indigo dye a piece of cotton fabric for each child to keep

Afternoon

• start germinating our hemp and flax seeds in the classroom
• look at and feel examples of linen: linen rug warp, shirt, dishtowel, vintage handkerchief, vintage bedsheet, cotton/linen blend washcloth
• draft and get edits for MLB two-page spreads as needed, add final versions and illustrations to MLB

  Note: Not all children will have the same contents in their main lesson books. There have been a lot of absences for travel and sickness and holidays during this month. In addition, children get to use their individual discretion regarding how much content they want to add in from our field trips and special guests. Here is a list of possible two-page spreads they could have in their books so far:

  Wool Experiments

  Washing Raw Wool

  Carding & Spinning

  Wet Felting

  Natural Dyes

  Silk

  Weaving

  Exotic Fibers (Angora & Camel)

  Flax & Hemp

  Indigo

  Please remember that you can schedule a student-led parent conference at any time to see the Main Lesson Books which your child has completed. Students can also use this opportunity to give you lessons on the Montessori Math & Language Arts materials with which they are working during their individual morning Choice Time.

• read "Cotton," chapter XVII of The Story Book of Science, look at cotton bolls and seeds, review Dr. Gage's research questions for hemp and consider our own questions about growing cotton and flax

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