Building the Colorful Ice Fort

I saw this beautiful Winter art project in the Oak Meadow homeschool newsletter! Over Winter break and on into January our homeschool co-op collected half gallon milk and juice cartons. It became clear that this was our week to build it when the weather man promised Southern Illinois an Arctic blast, giving us back-to-back days of below-freezing temps round the clock.

On Monday afternoon we filled the cartons with water and added several drops of food coloring to each. We put the caps on, shook them vigorously, and removed the caps and set them outside to freeze overnight.

On Tuesday we checked our ice blocks and only the quart carton was frozen. Even it was not completely solid. So, we had to keep waiting...

We don't have school on Wednesdays... but even if we did there would have been no safe way to go outside and work. That day had a high in the single digits with below zero windchills. All of the public schools near us cancelled.

On Thursday morning, the art teacher, Ms. Kelly, took over the project and the children got to work on their Ice Fort. This project required lots of teamwork and problem solving!

Notes: Although the quart carton froze first, it was also the thinnest and broke. Ultimately, we had 29 blocks. Look back again at the picture from Oak Meadow. That's a LOT of blocks! Next time we do this we will strive for 200!

Sooo... is it part of the Housebuilding block? Part of our Zoology block (working together in a community like the social insects)? Is it an amazing Art sculpture? Or is it just a fun Wintertime activity? You decide!

Here are Ms. Kelly's notes:

The kids spent about an hour and fifteen minutes unwrapping our ice blocks. We found out that soaking the cartons in hot water helped them release faster. We went through many pairs of gloves and several instances of runninng inside to warm up but we got them all unwrapped. We even got to watch ice crystals form! Once it was time to build the kids planned a strategic place to build, making sure it was flat and not in the direct sun exposure. They gathered snow, learning that flat objects like boards and cardboard housed large amounts of snow at once and collected snow as a group in a larger pan to act as mortar for our ice bricks. Here are pics of the process in order from start to finish.

Then we poured some warm water over each wall so that it would melt just a little and freeze together a solid unit. It was a lot of fun! The kids said they wanted to freeze a bunch more and build an entire house!

Planning for Business Math and Geometric Drawing

Well, we have had a busy week!

I've been working hard on my planning for the two Math MLBs we are doing right now (one child Business Math and one child Geometric Drawing). You can find all of my notes on the website. I used to compile all of my notes and then create big PDF files and post them only at the very end of the block, but it's way too easy (being a single mom of four, from almost-2 to almost-15) to fall behind. I've found the best approach is to simply create web pages for each main lesson at the start of the block, which I then constantly update as I'm planning, teaching, or reflecting.

We just came back from a free event at the library:

Art Workshops Inspired by Black History Month
Sundays in February, 1:30-3:00 pm

Join us each Sunday in February for a FREE art workshop for all ages and all skill levels.

February 26 - Basket Weaving with the Mays Family
Supplies provided for the first 45 participants. See the African tradition of basket weaving and weave your very own basket.

This was fun and our entire homeschool co-op went, plus one of my weekend Art/Handwork students! Today we also read They All Saw a Cat, made art inspired by the book (one child painted a cat from the point of view of a wolf, one child used oil pastels to draw a cat from the point of view of a bunny, and one child collaged a cat from the point of view of a fish), played outside, had snack, made handmade paper (we started soaking the pulp yesterday), did puppetry (my well-loved Hansel and Gretel marionettes), and knitted.

Yesterday in Art/Handwork, we read Leave Me Alone!, chose a yarn color (cherry) and wound it and began a knitted chicken, stopped and sanded our homemade needles a little bit more, had snack, wet felted an egg and put it in a (real) found bird's nest to be a Nature table decoration, chose our cookie cutters and our colors and prepared our pulp for papermaking, made apple flowers (with caramel dip, apple slices, and grapes), and played outside.

Our family went yesterday evening to the "Hate Has No Home Here" Dialogue Dinner at the Muslim Center and it was absolutely packed. I mean, packed. The entire time we were there they were bringing in more tables and chairs. We ate on chairs in the hallway. It was so great to see the whole community turn out to show so much support for the Muslim Center!

So our homeschool week looked something like this:

"How to Tell a Camel" poem from Talking Like the Rain: A Read-to-Me Book of Poems

completing the birdhouse activity from Puddle Questions: Assessing Mathematical Thinking

writing a book review for the absolutely awful How the Rabbit Became the Easter Bunny, which I received for free in exchange for honest feedback

INTENSE lesson on "The Feather Pillow" and making inferences from the text (link is to free lesson plan from TpT)

Theme discussion for "The Feather Pillow," using lesson 2 from Reviving The Essay: How To Teach Structure Without Formula

4th grade math puzzles from Making Math Meaningful: Fun with Puzzles, Games, and More!

reviewing measurement in degrees and probability with a water bottle flip activity

Article of the Day

baking walnut chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin bread, and brownies

playing Big Boggle

spreading last autumn's leaves in the garden, covering paths, insulating daffodils and roses

Farm Day (which included taking a long hike and learning how to make from-scratch pastry for a rooster pot pie)

final Geology field trip: Bell Smith Springs and walking over the largest natural bridge in Illinois (and me leaping into a VERY COLD Bay Creek to fetch Zac's water bottle after he dropped it in there)

charcoal drawing, third assignment from Painting and Drawing in Waldorf Schools

Structured Word Inquiry

finishing Geology and Astronomy MLBs and beginning Geometric Drawing and Business Mathematics

art exhibit reception at Carbondale Community Arts - Wednesday

poetry workshop at the library - Thursday

awesome Science Cafe lecture at the Science Center on Subsurface Microbiology - Thursday

Hate Has No Home Here Dialogue Dinner - Saturday

basket weaving workshop - Sunday

I also created a flyer for the Aesop's Fables & Puppetry Spring Break Camp which I'll be teaching next month, and began to promote that. Whew!

This post contains affiliate links to the materials I actually use for homeschooling. I hope you find them helpful. Thank you for your support!