Saturday, October 9, 2010

Weekly Wrap-Up: Where Did the Week Go?

On Monday, we went to co-op where, Emily takes an Ancient History class and I am the helper.  They made petroglyph plaques and pyramids.  Perfect timing for us since that's what we covered this week and last in Creation to the Greeks!
The teacher cut squares out of foam board and the kids covered their board with air-dry clay.  Once they finished carving, we sprayed gold paint on them and placed them to dry.  I can't wait to see them next week!

Then, the teacher brought out another fun project involving peanut butter "dough" and pretzel rods.  YUM!  These were used to form a pyramid.
Some kids ate them afterward, others weren't so adventurous.  Guess where Emily fell?  At least she tried the peanut butter dough, even though she claimed that she didn't like it.

So I was thinking that I could by-pass these activities at home, to avoid redundancy and all.  But... well, I'll get back to that.

So Tuesday and Wednesday were ok, and Thursday was great.  I felt well rested, perky, and everyone was in the mood for school.  Staying focused, we accomplished a lot on Thursday which made me very happy!  Emily learned more about cooking.  Katie learned more about reading and writing.  We cleaned up the house and enjoyed some time outside.

This brings us to Friday.  Hum.  I'm not sure what to say about Friday.  It was kind of a roller coaster day, with ups and downs all day long.  It wasn't bad and it wasn't the best.  We didn't have a ton to do today, which was a good thing.  Having and needing some time for something more fun, I decided to break out the clay and straws so that both kids could make cubes and pyramids to compare stability.

They formed two cubes of clay roughly the same size...
 

Then, they shaped one into a pyramid, keeping the base of each the same size.

And we measured, proving that each shape held the same volume even though the pyramid was three times taller than the cube!

Sorry, this was the best I could get out of Emily for a picture!  She was pretty much done!

Katie, on the other hand, was very much into the making of the pyramid.  After all, she isn't in the Ancient History co-op class, so this was her first time around...

The finished structures...

And now the test...
After comparing the two structures, there was no question about why pyramids were built instead of rectangular buildings in ancient times.

The week went fast, we accomplished great things, and ended with a fun project.  I feel blessed!

How was your week?  Link up to Weekly Wrap-Up and share it with others!

2 comments:

  1. What a fun week! I Love the cube vs. pyramid part! Have a great weekend!

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  2. That is great that your co-op class can fit in with your curriculum! And don't worry--we all have days like your Friday!!! Some days I am so overwhelmed and "done" that I just sit on the couch and cry! All it would take for me to regain order would be a few directives to the children, but I can't even get there some days! You are doing good work with your girls!

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