Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Buckminster Fuller & Geodesic Domes

Science Club weeks 2 & 3 are follow up to our week 1 disaster. We are learning about the work of Buckminster Fuller and his Geodesic Domes.

The combination of curve and triangle in dome structures makes them strong and stable during an earthquake. Dome houses are also economical and environmentally friendly, requiring only a small amount of materials.


According to Buckminster Fuller: Poet of Geometry by Cole Gerst, Fuller's personal Dome Home in Carbondale IL "took only seven hours to build."

The American Institute of Architects calls the geodesic dome “the strongest, lightest and most efficient means of enclosing space known to man.” (pacificdomes.com)


Preparation:

straws - Perfect Stix 20" Extra Long Neon Straws - Pack of 300

    35 straws, 20 inches long

    30 straws, cut to 17.5 inches

    our dome design is smaller and simpler than the illustration above, which shows 3 colors for 3 strut lengths


paper clips - enough to make the three following types of connectors

a huge thank you to the creator of DesertDomes.com!


the connectors slide inside the straws to hold them together, as shown below


Buckminster Fuller Book Display


also


Activities:

review last week's disaster

explain Richter Scale and demonstrate with a math material to scale

    level 1 - 1

    level 2 - 10

    level 3 - 100

    level 4 - 1000

    level 5 - 10,000

    imagine level 6 - ten 10,000s

    imagine level 7 - a hundred 10,000s

    imagine level 8 - a thousand 10,000s

    imagine level 9 - ten thousand 10,000s!!!

a level 6 would be ten of these 10,000 squares!


recall the destruction in the 1811 New Madrid Earthquake (8.1)

look at Earthquakes infographic in Earth: By the Numbers, pp.14-15

read excerpts from Buckminster Fuller: Poet of Geometry

use straws and paper clip connectors to build a geodesic dome


DOME NOTES

As part of a Housebuilding summer camp in August 2018, my three daughters successfully built a geodesic dome with these straws:

I could never have done it without Natalie and Leah!


This year we were determined to do it again. And so I am going to take VERY detailed notes as to how to be successful!

We had a lot of questions. Do you make the stars first (some with 5 spokes and some with 6)? Do you start at the top and work your way down? Do you start at the bottom and work your way up? Do you make all the connectors first or construct them as you need them?

As soon as my students and I figure this out, I will write it up!


Articles & Links:

    10 Largest Earthquakes Ever Recorded
    usgs.gov

    Many thanks to desertdomes.com for help with the math. This is an amazing website which helps you build your own geodesic dome. Simply put in the radius of the dome you wish to build, and it will tell you how long to make your struts and how many of each length you will need, plus how many connectors of each type you will need.


Field Trip:


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

Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, September 22, 2026

Local Art Show - "Spooked or Spoofed"

We are excited to kick off our Local Artists theme this year with a field trip to "Spooked or Spoofed: A Celebration of Cryptozoology" at Sharp Museum.


Wed Sep 16

read The Secret Three by Mildred Myrick

do pages 7 & 8 from Games with Codes and Ciphers by Norvin Pallas

read "SIU Museum seeks cryptid-themed art" article from May 15, 2026

circle every word in the article that you think shares a base with < cryptid >

SWI exploration of < crypt >

This was a very rich base to explore! We found three different kinds of affixes (prefix, suffix, connecting vowel letter) and a hyphenated compound.

base word

    < crypt >

    early 15c., cripte, "grotto, cavern"
    from Latin crypta "vault, cavern"
    from Greek krypte "a vault, crypt"

    see complete entry at etymonline


base + suffix

    cryptic

    cryptid, cryptids


base + prefix

    encrypt, encryption, encrypted, encrypting

    decrypt, decryption, decrypted, decrypting


base + connecting vowel letter < o >

    cryptocurrency

    cryptozoology, cryptozoologist


hyphenated compound words

    cryptid-themed


One student circled < creature > because "it seems like it must go," but we did the word sum and found that the base of < creature > is < create >.


Mon Sep 21

review < crypt >

add < cryptology > and < cryptologist > to our list

do pages 9 & 10 ("Why Johnny Had to Stay After School") and 22 & 23 ("Lincoln's Rail Fence") from Games with Codes and Ciphers

Note: If you want to make more of a lesson out of the Cardan grille, Gerolamo Cardano is in Mathematicians Are People, Too: Stories from the Lives of Great Mathematicians (vol. 2, "The Conceited Hypochondriac").


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

Posted by at No comments:

Monday, September 21, 2026

Notes on Teaching Cross-Stitch

Once children are 10, they can start cross-stitch in Handwork. A favorite project here is the cross-stitch pincushion!


How to Sew Up a Cross-Stitch Pincushion


My notes from my AAP Handwork teacher training for this are buried in my Handwork Teacher Training - Spring 2021 post, so I'm putting them here!


cross-stitch

    6 count Aida cloth from Paper Scissors Stone
    size 3 DMC pearl cotton
    size 20 tapestry needle

    this is not a counted cross-stitch kit with pre-made design
    they create their own designs (4-way or 8-way symmetry)

    designing a pattern on paper and then stitching it is a different skill; we want to focus on one skill at a time

    top & bottom make a difference! mark the top of your cloth with ribbon (the "red bird" can't be on the side)

    have the students walk the cross-stitch pattern using large dots on the floor before they ever begin to stitch it


    *** right handed children ***

      situate yourself on the righthand edge of the cloth

      you will be heading LEFT

      then place the needle behind the fabric
      in the lower lefthand corner of the square you want to do

      "up and to the right, over 1
      down and to the right, and you are done"


    *** left handed children ***

      situate yourself on the lefthand edge of the cloth

      you will be heading RIGHT

      then place the needle behind the fabric
      in the lower righthand corner of the square you want to do

      "up and to the left, over 1
      down and to the left, and you are done"


    enjoy that feeling! there stands the X

    then think, what is the next square I'm intending to do?

    after a while, they begin to be able to look forward to the next thing and anticipate where the needle should be, so you can then say "down to the right (or left) and over 2"

    note: it is actually "over" when you are walking the dots on the floor but when you are sewing it you are really going under the fabric at that point! the "overs" are where you are traveling on the backside of the fabric, and it makes a tidy little row of lines


    the "up (or down) and to the right (or left)" is the part of the verse where you are working diagonally on the front of the fabric


    we began with a 20 square piece of 6 count Aida cloth

    first make the border (across top and bottom edges) as a chance to practice the stitch (if you do this correctly, on the back you will have only straight bars and no X's) and then do the border on the sides

    do the outside edge in a strong color!


    for the symmetrical design, divide your cloth into four quadrants ("backyards") and start in the square closest to center of the cloth, staying in whatever "backyard" you're in (remember, the needle goes in the lower L hand corner for R hand children and the lower R hand corner for L hand children

    we want the design to unfold for them... do 7 squares in that floss color (they must be touching in some way) and then match it in all four backyards

    switch to a new color... do 7, 8, or 9 squares (remember to start in the center again)

    don't plan it! just let it happen


Once you learn how to cross-stitch there are all kinds of wonderful projects you can do!

Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, September 20, 2026

Is "Underwater" a Noun?

In Montessori, words are color coded as to their parts of speech. See below


How Montessori Teaches Grammar



The Chalk Game


We have a lot of Science materials from Waseca Biomes, and some of them include Grammar work as well.


This particular card in question is from the Coral Reef Habitat Mat:


After children make sentences with the cards, they can write and symbolize them with the stencil. Last school year, a child was doing this work and he symbolized "underwater" as a noun in a sentence where it clearly was an adjective! So I pulled this card out to think about it some more. I can see sentences where "underwater" is an adjective and an adverb (of location), but I can't think of a single example where "underwater" is actually a noun. I don't think this card should be black!

I swam underwater to the sunken treasure chest. (adv)

The underwater robot got lost during its exploration of the Titanic. (adj)


Can anybody think of one?

Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, September 17, 2026

Pigleta!

In my Handwork series post for grade 5, I suggested starting the year with Pigleta, an absolutely adorable handy-needle-holding fairy pig created by Trixi Symonds. I got this pattern at the Making Zen workshop in May.

The next Making Zen workshop is coming up (from Sep 28 to Oct 2) so if you like free Handwork patterns and video tutorials, I highly recommend it!

For our Pigleta pattern, we sprinkle-dyed white wool felt with Kool-Aid powder. We used cherry for the dark pink and pink lemonade for the light.

The children love that they get to pick a fabric of their choice for her little apron. This way everyone's will look different! Before you sew the apron closed at the top, you slip in a slim magnet. We are using 25mm x 2mm.

It's going to be so much fun to embroider on her little face and give each pig some personality! Here are all of the blog posts in my Handwork Series:


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

Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Literature Circle: Surviving the Applewhites


Surviving the Applewhites
by Stephanie S. Tolan


Mon Sep 14

    pass out books

    pre-reading activities from p.4
    #7 - Predicting (juvenile delinquent, home school, acceptance, community theater, butterflies, television documentary)

    reading assignment: chapters 1-3


Wed Sep 16

    lunch group meeting

    reading assignment: chapter 4


Mon Sep 21

    begin Word Maps - FREE at TpT

    vocabulary activity: part of speech, dictionary definition, sentence
    (Ashram, blearily, choreography, delinquent, documentary, incessant, intention, melliflous, metamorphosis, pathologically, patriarch, personified, probation, unmitigated, variegated)

    reading assignment: chapters 5-9


Wed Sep 23

    lunch group meeting

    reading assignment: chapters 10-13


Mon Sep 28

    continue with Word Maps

    reading assignment: chapters 14-19


Wed Sep 30


Mon Oct 5

    extension activity for color-blind casting

    "The Little Mermaid"


    writing assignment: pretend you are Randolph and write a letter responding to the article you read (by Tayo Bero, Chloe McGowan, or Susan Muaddi Darraj) and expressing support for color-blind casting

    reading assignment: chapter 20


Wed Oct 7

    lunch group meeting

    read aloud chapter 21 together and make predictions

    reading assignment: finish reading book (by Wed)


Mon Oct 12


Wed Oct 14

    lunch group meeting

    choose book report project
    (post-reading extension activities from p.26)

    #2 - Read aloud scenes in the novel with different students assuming different character roles.

    #3 - Pretend you are Jake. Write two letters to his parents in jail, one from his third day with the Applewhites and one from the day after the premiere of the musical.

    #8 - Pick one chaper from the book and draw an illustration that could accompany the chapter.

    #9 - Make a timeline of all the events in the book with short annotations and illustrations.

    #11 - Design a bulletin board on metamorphosis.

    #13 - Complete the feelings chart on p.13 of this guide for Jake.


Mon Oct 19

    work on book report project


Wed Oct 21

    present book reports (whole class)

    gather into new book groups and introduce new books


We can't do this as a school, but families may want to watch The Sound of Music at home as a good follow-up to this book!


Main resource:


More resources / ideas:

These links are from my background research and not to hand off to children (in particular, the FOX News panel discussion of this film)


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

Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Literature Circle: Because of Winn-Dixie


Because of Winn-Dixie
by Kate DiCamillo


Mon Sep 14

    pass out books

    pre-reading activities from p.5
    #1 - Novel Preview (front cover)
    #5 - Plot Predictions (first and last paragraphs)
    #6 - Freewriting (moving to a new town)

    reading assignment: chapters 1-4


Wed Sep 16

    lunch group meeting

    reading assignment: chapter 5


Mon Sep 21


Wed Sep 23

    lunch group meeting

    reading assignment: chapters 9-10


Mon Sep 28


Wed Sep 30

    lunch group meeting

    reading assignment: chapters 13-15


Mon Oct 5


Wed Oct 7

    lunch group meeting

    reading assignment: chapters 18-20


Mon Oct 12


Wed Oct 14

    lunch group meeting

    reading assignment: finish reading book


Mon Oct 19


Main resource:

Because of Winn-Dixie
Teacher Guide from Novel Units


More resources / ideas:


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

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)