This
week's lessons for #2 Boy were on Sand Castles. You'd think I'd have
drawn the line by this one, but no, I found some things to learn about
sand castles like the 'best' mix for castles is 8 parts sand to 1 part
water. Yes, we got to talk about what would happen if you had the wrong
amount of water or sand. #2 Boy also played a Curious George game that
has you figure out how much water to sand while making a castle on the
computer.
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| #2 Boy making a virtual sand castle. |
Then
it was on to making some sand castles. Now if you have some sand and
you want a great indoor sand activity there are a whole bunch of
permanent sand castle recipes. However, I didn't have sand and didn't
want to buy sand. So, we played with brown sugar (almost like sand
right?!) We practiced packing it in to make the form stay. and
sculpting it so it looked fancy. We also rubbed down the sides showing
how little pieces fall off when there is friction. We talked about how
rocks get rubbed down through the movement of the ocean and become
little pieces of sand.
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| #2 Boy building a brown sugar castle |
While sculpting I remembered back to my youth and playing "
The Flour Game"
where you put a penny on top and cut down the sides. If the tower falls
you have to dig it out with your teeth. Well, we played a game like
that except I didn't want them digging it out with their teeth.
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| #2 Boy cutting the sugar |
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| #4 Boy cutting the sugar |
Some
worksheets were also in the working for this theme. The first one I
had him color and write sand castle under it by sounding it out. It
turned out "Sand Cal." The next one #2 Boy made a pattern and practiced
writing the number 7. The last one was a dot to dot and #2 Boy pointed
out the different shapes that were used to create the castle.
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| #2 Boy's pictures |
That day we had chicken patties for lunch. #2 Boy wanted his cut up so that he could build a sand castle out of his food.
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| #2 Boy with his chicken patty castle |
Today's
main event was building castles in the sand. It was a bit nippy
outside, especially when the winds were blowing, but we found a sand
volleyball court and #2 Boy got to work.
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| #2 Boy building his castle |
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| #4 Boy wanted a picture of his shoe covered in sand |
With
his sand castle, he practiced packing the sand in tight. After he had
built his sand castle and dug a deep hole we also measured the height,
length, and width of each of the items and figured out if they were
wider or longer.
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| #4 Boy added a little art to the castle |
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| #2 Boy decided to dig a deep hole. |
#4 Boy
got a little bored with the sand castle thing, but luckily #2 Boy had
created some train tracks as he dug for sand. Nothing like trains to
keep #4 Boy happy.
