Grade 5 Botany: Root Observation Lab
This has been one of most cool projects of our botany block. In this lab, we used a polymer from Miracle Grow, promoted as water crystals, as a germination and growth medium. These polymers are marketed at hydration crystals that help keep soil from getting too moist or too dry. They do this because they…
Grade 5 Freehand Waldorf Geometry: Ellipse Exercise
We’ve been working on our freehand Waldorf Geometry block the last couple of weeks. Check my Geometry highlights on Instagram for more. We are using pushpins as string to first draw a circle from the center, and then moving the focus outward from the circle to see the changes in the circle. It’s a cool exercise just by…
Artist of the 1800’s and 1900’s
We do not usually do artist study separate from our regular studies. With our intertwining of Charlotte Mason (CM) and Waldorf, artist study is usually incorporated into a short CM-style lessons themed to accommodate our main lesson. Since we do history chronologically, this means most of our artists have reflected what we were studying in…
Exploring Rules of Divisibility through Patterns in the 100-chart and Digit Sums of Multiples
Rules of Divisibility. How did we decide what they were? That’s where we are headed in our math journey at the moment. I’ve talk about going back, reviewing, revisiting, or doing an activity more than once. This repetition brings depth to our math journey. We are doing just that again in preparation for reducing fractions…
Botany (Grade 5): Celery Stalk Demonstration of the Vascular System
Matching scientific demonstrations accurately to the explanation of their concepts is important to me. Science is cool, fascinating, and amazing! But even more amazing is scientific literacy and why these demonstrations work the way that they do. It’s essential to match those concepts with clear, accurate concrete examples. Dying the leaves of celery or carnations is…
An Introduction to Genetics through Botany
Our Botany Block offered the perfect opportunity for an introduction to genetics with the work of Friar Gregor Mendel. Mendel is the person that bred several generations of pea plants to discover the basic understanding of genetics. In this book Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas, the story of Gregor Mendel is told and…
Industrial Revolution
We recently finished our block on the Industrial Revolution. This was such an interesting block in the time period, and innovations had a diversity of impacts on so many people – some good and some bad. I used The Industrial Revolution for Kids as a spine of sorts, reading from it on a regular basis….
A Time-Sequence Graph
When my son was in eighth grade, I compiled several resources to make a “How We Learn/How to Study” course in preparation for High School. It went over thinks like memory recall, reflection, interleaving, and notetaking. One aspect that we spent some time on were graphs and using them for study, understanding, and notetaking. In…
The Shapes of Numbers — The Curve
Earlier in our Shapes of Numbers block, we explored triangle numbers, square numbers, and primes. We looked at the different ways they related to each other by exploring their sums and differences. Next up — curves — a particular curve — the parabola. I think I only mention the word once though, at the end….
The Shapes of Numbers — Exploring Prime Numbers through Eratosthenes’ Sieve
The sieve of Eratosthenes is one of my favorite math exercises to do with kids, and it’s a great intro into prime numbers. It eliminates numbers through the multiples, leaving primes on the 100 chart. We usually use block crayons, because there is a definite pattern on the 100 chart for multiples, and block crayons…
Grade 5 Physics: Electricity
Electricity…it’s electric! We spent two days on the theme of electricity within our physics block. If you are just joining me, there are several blog posts about our physics block. The plan, which has gone reasonably well so far, follows: Introduce Energy, Force, and Momentum 2 days Simple Machines 3 days Waves and Sound 2…
Loading…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
About Me
Hi, I’m Della. I’m passionate about homeschooling, and I want to share it with you.