May Photos Part II

lots of our baby plants are doing really well!

the children find the different shapes of each plant fascinating

people carefully check each morning on everything they've adopted

the City comes to cut down a tree along our sidewalk

friends watch attentively

we ask for the stump after they cut it, and they kindly give it to us

now it sits in the middle of the Canteen Tent and holds

• Biff the camel (to remind us to drink water)
• Piggie (to remind us to put on sunscreen)
• the silver bell (for calling School Meetings)

overnight a large fungus appears on the biggest tree stump!

after a few days, it turns from yellow to orange

finding a quiet spot for some Algebra

finger knitting for Pony Reins

the Big Bang, the Birth and Death of a Star, and how the elements are formed

the felt circles represent the layers building up inside the star until it goes supernova...

and all the elements that are created go streaming out into outer space

we keep watching the cardinal nest, trying to get a peek at the hatchlings

preparing for the wet-on-wet watercolor painting of the Sphinx

(I'm going to give this painting its own post)

kinetic sand

hardening off our seedlings

lots of new growth on the beet experiment, both leaves and roots

and the celery experiment is looking fantastic!

playing Bear and Fishing

more practice with equivalent fractions

chatting on their phones at lunchtime

chalk is perfect for marking felt

I cut the pieces for the next stage in the Pony Reins project

measuring the pieces of finger knitting to see if they are long enough

they should be at least 85 inches long

time to start sewing!

some vintage thread from my Great-Aunt Dorothy's collection

handwork time in the driveway

Wildcraft:  An Herbal Adventure (cooperative)

as you go along the path to the Huckleberry Patch, you land on spaces that give you either herbs or troubles

 

each trouble card shows the herbs that will solve it, so no reading is necessary; you use your own herbs to solve your troubles, or play a Cooperation Card and share your herbs with a friend who needs them

SSR in the driveway

the Ancient Egyptian shaduf!

planting the celery in a straw bale

sorting out the Botany cabinet materials and beginning to learn some nomenclature for the leaf shapes

we compare a grass flower...

with a wheat plant

like the celery, the bush bean seedling is deemed strong enough for planting

"you make dinner and I'll sweep"

I finally get a picture of a tiny red mouth open for food

I introduce two possible plant experiments:

Design a Plant Maze or

Can You Make a Plant Grow Upside Down?

everyone has to draw a sketch of their design and write a materials list before getting supplies

this interesting design gives the plant a lot of choices!

fitting together two periscopes to try to bounce sunlight so that it appears to be coming from below the seed

everyone wants to look through it!

Zac carefully moves the "path of things that smell good" pots to the Canteen Tent so they will be out of the way of the lawnmower

I prune back the hedge aggressively to make a clearer path to the spigot in the front of the house...

and little hands are immediately collecting all the bits of shrubbery...

and building a wonderful paddock for the horses

the Celebration Sun from Waseca Biomes

and the Birthday Ring, candles, and ornaments from Nova Natural

we celebrate Zac turning six years old

these brand new vintage birthday paper plates were in my Grandmommy's kitchen cupboard for decades... and today was the perfect special occasion!

fresh pineapple as the birthday snack

it was very popular!  they ate two entire pineapples!

we notice that the magnolia tree is about to blossom (the leaves get all yellow and spotty because the tree is putting its energy into the flowers)

our little ladybug larvae

plant maze designs continue

the PingPong ball will be suspended from the top of the box to give the plant another obstacle to bypass

everyone comes together at the end of the day to share their designs

the City comes to pour a new section of the sidewalk

this is very interesting and the children watch it for most of the day

in a lull in the action, I manage to sneak in a quick lesson on the layers of the Earth and how to magnetize a piece of steel to be a floating compass

we check our homemade compass (magnetized felting needle, drinking straw, modeling beeswax to plug up the ends of the straw & bowl of water) to see if it lines up with a store-bought one and it does!

when most of the workmen have left and only one remains, whose job to smooth the top layer of wet concrete, we go over 

he answers the children's questions and lets them touch the wet sidewalk

giving the horses a bath

new board games!

Cauldron Quest (cooperative)

Election Night! (competitive)

a beautiful piece of fluorite

checking all of my eggs to see if they sink or float (fresh or have gone bad)

the workmen come back for the final steps on the dry concrete

the beginning of the Goobi craze

we set up a new sprinkler in the front yard that is easier to run through that the one in the vegetable garden

SSR in the Canteen Tent

everyone is curious about Election Night!

Stamp Game in the driveway

our ladybugs are entering their pupal stage and attaching themselves to the sides of Ladybug Land

watching the ladybugs carefully

introduction to Fractions 

Lemon Volcanoes

Design Your Own Boardgame

this becomes the hot new trend

an MLB page for "The Ancient War:  Membranes vs. Machines"

thank you to Chet for the enormous donation of bamboo poles!

we organize them into groups based on length

thank you to Justin for the fascinating Physics lesson!

what is on either side of the spectrum of visible light?

fort building commences, with some students creating free-standing structures and others using the bamboo to add to their existing Nooks in the trees & bushes of the garden beds

we clear away the old bent cage around the hawthorn tree and get ready to put mulch around it

looking for the long thorns

the Pony Reins are done, complete with jingle bells!

look, Mom, I think I can balance this pole on my head

small balls of yarn for Nature Treasure Paths

unwind the yarn, create a path to a Nature Treasure, then 

have your friend follow the yarn and wind up the ball while walking along 

we decide the roots on the pineapple are long enough  

it's ready to go into a pot!

we bring our study of life on Early Earth up to the Sunlight Eaters and the amazing story of photosynthesis

next it's time for Plant Families and "true" Botany

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