Sukkot

Monday, 9/28, was the first day of Sukkot. Our friends were planning to come over for lunch and decorating in the sukkah, but the weather didn't cooperate. So here's what we did instead....

We started off by having an interactive snack - carrot and cucumber sticks and mini bell pepper rings with hummus. We had the kids try to build sukkot with their food. Some were more successful than others...

Next, we learned some sukkot terms and did a fun secret code worksheet.

Since we couldn't hang out in a real sukkah, we decorated and created our own! 

This little guy came all the way from my grandmother. He used to sit in my model sukkah when I was little! 

Last, we made all kinds of paper chains, flowers, and lanterns. A. Made the longest one!

Our First Day of Jewish Homeschoolers!

Tuesday, Sep 8, 2015 was our first day of "Jewish Homeschoolers". Basically, our family and another family decided we wanted to get together to encourage Jewish learning and friendship. E is not enrolled in Hebrew School at this time, and I don't plan on it anytime soon. 

So for our first class, Lisa had lots of great projects and learning opportunities for us! First, we learned about the holidays throughout the Jewish calendar - especially Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the ones coming up soonest.

Our next activity was to decorate a folder to keep all our information in. L hand drew the cutouts! It certainly helps to have a friend who has a degree in art....

While the glue was drying, the kids did a holiday puzzle while L got snack ready....







So proud of their speedy work! (I took this picture upside down. They thought that was fun!)



N watched the big kids do their puzzle. (Upside down pic of him, too!)


Apples and honey - what a treat!





Last, we worked on stamping and painting Rosh Hashanah cards to send out to friends and family. We will be writing in them for our writing class this week, so if you want one let us know! What a great day!

Art and (food) science!

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Today, R joined us for lessons. On days when we expect this almost-3-year-old, I try to plan things he might enjoy as well. 

First we had to prep for our science lab....except it ended up being snack. Oops!

I was a little ill-prepared for the science lab, so while we were waiting for one part of it to be ready, we did our art/history project - cave paintings!





E took it quite literally and painted a man in a cave.









Finally, our Jell-o was set, and we could go about making our plant and animal cells. We made banana nuclei and grape chloroplasts...



Our animal cell got a bit jealous and also got some chloroplasts...it must have eaten a plant cell for lunch....






Now, for what we learned....



And the best part - enjoying the fruits of our lab!

Egg-cellent work!

Monday, 8/31/15

So I had to take a picture of him learning to use a REAL pencil sharpener.....just because!

Today's science lesson had us investigating the egg - a cell!

First we looked at the outside to observe the tiny holes that allow air through the shell.






Then we cracked it open....





We looked closely at the yolk (the cell) and looked for the blastodisc (the nucleus)....


See that white spot? That's it!




Next we observed the rest of the parts, labelled, and colored them on our lab sheet.







Once a week, we talk about a line from Pirkei Avot. I write down our interpretation, and we have them posted on our bulletin board as a reminder to ourselves.



E happened to pick up one of my very favorite books for his reading today! I am also impressed with how quickly he is progressing in his choice of sentences when he describes the books.

Hard Work Gets Rewarded!

We got all our lessons (including an extra math lesson that we skipped yesterday) done before lunch! We spent the afternoon running errands and having a surprise treat! 

Taking Science to the Field!

Today we took our first (of hopefully many) field trip to the Chattahoochee Nature Center with our friends, the Hydos. E received a membership for his birthday (next week), and since we had a science lab that required studying nature, this seemed like the perfect place for some field work!

 

I kept T home from PreK to join us on this adventure!

 

Checking out the flowers....

 

You don't have to tell this girl more than once to "stop and smell the flowers"!

 

Looking for the otter and turtle (neither were out today).


Our attempt at a group photo....FAIL




Checking out the indoor exhibits!


Learning about the cycle of rain.


Checking out the tiny owls!


R really LOVED this microscope-type thing. He looked at a lot of different rocks.


Working on making our stick puppets for our puppet show!




The 2 yr olds worked hard sorting colored frogs!


After a picnic lunch, we got to work on our science lab. Today we did a Plot Study of a 1' x 1' piece of ground. Bonus - this is also part of a Tiger Cub badge! Killing two birds with one stone, here. Efficiency at its finest!

Laying out the string to section off his area.


Looking for living things (we found ants and roly-polies).


Charting our finds.





Rocks!


Checking out this "bat cave" with the youngers kids while E worked on his plot study.






Proof N and I were here!


While E finished his lab, the younger kids played tag in the field to work off some energy. T was "It".


Then C.


S spent a lot of time really teaching E about the things he was finding. I couldn't get down on the ground with him because of the baby, but she stepped right in and was amazing!


We can't wait to come back with our friends to explore more things in nature!