The Sea Turtle Lapbook!

LOVE the paint job, A!

In April we went to watch the Leatherback turtles nest at Sandy Point. It was an amazing experience and if you want to read about read my earlier post.  In response to that experience, A and I started working on a lapbook about Sea Turtles. At first, I thought we might just make it about Leatherbacks, but then I decided that we might as well study all of the sea turtles out there. Not in depth mind you, but at least a brief overview of each type of sea turtle and their habitats, appearance, etc.  At some point, the lapbook got completely away from us and took on a life of its own.  I had to run away screaming and A lay hiding under the bed for about a month before we took it out again. To our relief, it had calmed down(oxygen deprivation maybe?) and we finished it. That experience went to show us how we could really get into a project and how it could take over. At one point I was up until 2a.m. looking up turtle anatomy….. Craziness!

A created all the pages on her own. She came up with the game page, and learned how to make holes and set eyelets.  She painted the turtle, cut, pasted, etc.  My favorite part is when we recreated a leatherback hatchling and made it weigh an average weight of a real hatchling.  We used Math, Reading, Geography, Social Studies, and Science in this project. We created Turtle poetry, measured a real turtle, read a science book on sea turtles, basically lived and breathed sea turtles for what seemed like AGES.  I think that a few of the pages might need some captions or some written explanation on them yet, but you know what? That’s OK, it’s her work of art and her work, so even I think it’s missing something I’m going to leave it the way it as. I can hope that she looks back in years to come and enjoys reading her very own Sea Turtle Lapbook!

Each scute has a vocab word under it with it's definition.

Super Hero Arm bands - a DIY

Who can say no to that face?

Apparently, C knows what super heros are.  All day yesterday he was wearing an empty Crayola crayon box on his arm and using his Super Powers!  After MUCH convincing, I got the box off his arm and put the crayons back in it.

From the moment he woke up all he wanted to do was get his powers back.  No idea where he gets these things, but I love it :)  C repeatedly asked me to make him some powers, and breakfast didn't count. So, having finished off a roll of paper towels, I got some inspiration.

Ingredients:

• 1 empty paper towel roll
• Spray paint
• elastic
• tin foil
• needle and thread or sewing machine
• craft glue

How to:

Photo Steps. Sorry about the flash.

• Cut open the paper towel tube and press flatish
• Spray paint the paper towel tube
• Wait... play Ring Around the Rosie, answer the question "Powers done yet?" about 5 billion times
• Once done, cut tube to size
• Figure out how much elastic you need and sew that on to the painted tube.
• Cut out a bazillion little tin foil shapes until you get the right one
• Glue said shape onto the tube and let dry while child destroys house

TADA! Done.

One happy little boy :)

Valentine’s Day craftiness

Valentine’s Day is coming up QUICKLY!  Every year, while in school, A made cards for her classmates.  This year, I was in a quandary as to what to do for a Valentine’s Day celebration and card exchange.

The other night, while doing a late night search on homeschooled penpals for A, I stumbled across what seems to be a great group with members across the US and in other places (Australia, UK, etc).  I joined up and while searching the old postings found a Valentine’s day card exchange, so what did I do? I signed up to do the exchange with A.  Once we got our list, I thought “Holy moly! That’s a lot of kids!”  On the list were over 20 kids.  Not bad you say, but in A’s school her class size was not more than 15 and we hand make our cards.  Now, they aren’t anything fancy, just paper, markers, glitter, and a few doodads thrown together, but STILL; 20+ cards to make to mail out by Thursday!!! What was I thinking?

Finished crayons cooling.

Two nights ago, A and I whipped out a few different styles of cards. We got our inspiration from various sites on the internet.  I think the bug are the cutest.  We also decided to send out homemade crayons (I KNOW, leave well enough alone and just send the darn cards,right?) Yesterday we all(yes, even C helped) have been busy peeling old crayons, breaking them apart, placing them in mini muffin tins, and melting them.  The house smells like melted wax, has glitter ALL over, and the paper scraps are blowing in the wind…. Yes, the house is messy (and the smell is killing me), but A is happy, we have been creative, and I am pretty sure we will meet our mailing deadline of today - unless of course I decided to make something else to put in each card.....

Go make something!