Learning about senses at co-op

JayBird had another great day at his homeschool co-op. They have been learning about the senses. He did a great job applying information he learned at the co-op with information he has learned elsewhere, as after the co-op he went on to tell me that our sense all work together so they can do more than what they could do alone. He learned over the summer that team work is working together to do more than you can do alone. So he applied it to his lessons on the senses. I love how he makes all these connections! They tried tasting some foods with their nose plugged, which made it difficult to taste – so the senses were not working together in that situation. JayBird informed me that his favorite activity of the day was touching stuff, like squishy things, cold things, rough things.

Co-op was very hands on this week with the activities that they did and the crafts that they made. Here is what JayBird made in just the few hours that he was there:

A Model Tongue

 

A Nature Frame

 

A Marker Holder

 

Now on to field trips for the rest of the week! It is a packed week!

1st Day of Co-op 2010!!

Today was our first day of the Love2Homeschool Co-op! Hmmm…not the best picture of both kids there, but we were in a rush to get “first day of co-op” pictures so we wouldn’t be late!

It seemed that JayBird had a great time! He is in the Kindergarten class. He did preschool with last year’s co-op and this year he is better suited for Kindergarten. I had to explain that one to him though since he is so used to calling himself a preschooler and he is still technically preschool age. JayBird enjoyed art and then learning about the sense of hearing. They had this awesome HUGE ear diagram that the kids got to look at, look through, and even crawl through. Yes…it was that big! When I passed by him while he was in line to explore the ear, he was happy to see me, excitedly saying “Hi Mommy!” like usual, though this time he didn’t run to me with his arms open wide as normal. I went over to him and he told me about the ear he was going to see…then I messed with his ears. He then turns to me and says “Okay Mom, you can go back and be with JellyBean now!” as he pushes me and ushers me away! Usually after not seeing me for a while, he would want me to stay with him or may want to come along with me. Well, apparently he has grown up in just a few hours of Kindergarten co-op and didn’t need/want me there with him anymore! My little guy is growing up!

JellyBean had fun playing during co-op time while the other moms and I planned just what we would be doing with our toddlers during that time. We have lots of fun gymboree inspired activities to do with them and at times they will join the preschoolers when the activity is age appropriate for them too.

More pictures quickly taken right before we left…

JellyBean was SO excited to have her very own backpack, At first, when I brought out JayBird’s, she exclaimed “Elmo!” I explained it was not hers but that I have one for her. She was very happy with her backpack saying “Mine!” and it is the perfect little size for her!

Just for fun, here is JayBird’s “First Day of Co-op” picture from last year, along with a random picture of JellyBean from that time last year as well. My how they have changed and grown up!!

 

Art, Science, and Lessons for the Heart through Noah

Interestingly, before even beginning learning activities revolving around Noah’s Ark, JayBird wanted to make an ark craft. Originally he wanted to make it out of popsicle sticks, but it worked out better to cut strips of paper. This also gave him practice cutting on straight lines.
 
We then talked about a variety of things that God wants him to be obedient in. As you can see, it is written on the ark, each in a different color of the rainbow. This was such a fun spur of the moment activity!

And then, onto some drawing to fulfill his passion for art! This is a giraffe for the ark.

In learning that Noah was obedient and had to follow careful instructions to build the ark, we practiced our listening and problem solving skills with a scavenger hunt. Special little treasures were hidden around our backyard. JayBird (and JellyBean) were given simple clues to find these treasures.

Clues eventually led to the best treasure of all…

 JESUS!!

We used our children’s Bible to count by 2’s by counting the animals entering the ark, but JayBird being the active boy and kinesthetic learner that he is jumped up, grabbed some counting bears, and made his own game of counting by two’s. He put the red and yellow bears in pairs of two. The blue bears are laying their side was to represent a dash in between each pair. For him, this made sense and helped distinguish each pair. He then practiced counting by 2’s up to 12…and almost 14 but not quite. He problem solved and did the math on his own to go from ten to twelve and when he figured it out, we hugged and were so giddy together that he figured it out on his own! He didn’t want any help at all or even for me to look while he was figuring out what came after ten while counting by two’s.  :-)

(Oh, and those black crescent shaped moons on his shirt…well he was pretending to be a cow with moon shaped spots earlier in the day. LOL)

Here JellyBean works on a brand new Noah’s Ark puzzle. I think her favorite part was making the birds fly in the air. :-)

When learning about the flood, our science experiment was seeing if items would sink or float. JayBird would make a hypothesis for each item and then place the items on a chart.
 

And of course we had to see if Noah’s Ark would float…

We also acted out the scene of Noah and his family coming off the ark and praising God for keeping them safe. Then we made banana rainbows! JayBird sliced up bananas that we arranged into the shape of a rainbow.

Both JayBird and JellyBean then sprinkled colored/flavored gelatin onto the banana slices to resemble a rainbow. I realized later that this probably could also have been done with kool-aid powder, and at a fraction of the cost!
 

They thoroughly enjoyed their creations! Mmmm! Such a good way to have fun with healthy food! My kiddos go through phases of loving bananas and not wanting them so much. So this is a wonderful activity to encourage them to eat bananas when they are in their no banana stage! We’ve already done it a second time!

A beautiful rainbow represents God’s promise to never again flood the earth.