One Small Step...

In our planet unit today, we studied the moon. In my search for a short educational video clip about the moon, I stumbled upon this little gem, which had me fooled for a second thinking that it was a serious deal...you'll see what I mean about it being deceptive. Oh well, it gave me a chuckle anyhow... Make sure you turn the music player off in the sidebar!

We did two nifty little projects today. The first was a moon phase mini-book. I got the instructions to make the book template here. Then I just had the kids paste construction paper cutouts of the phases of the moon into the little books. Here's a video of the finished product...

Next, we made craters using a golfball and some wet sand. We learned that the bigger the object, the bigger the crater and the speed and direction it hits the moon, changes the size and shape of the crater. Here's a video of the kids making craters and poor Tucker just trying to get in on the action...

Did a really neat object lesson for devotion this morning called "God's Toolbox". I gathered up some tools from Jody's tool box and laid them out. I read in 1 Corinthians about the gifts God gives and how everyone has various gifts and they are all needed to benefit and do the work of Christ in this world. Not everyone can preach, or sing, or teach Sunday school, but we learned that God will and can use us everyone of us for the furtherance of the Gospel. I asked the kids what the tools were used for and then asked questions like,"Could I hammer a nail in with this screwdriver?" This was a great little lesson to illustrate the principal of gifts and talents.

Tried something new with Lillie and reading practice this morning. I got on Google Books (which, by the way, is one of my new fave sites) and downloaded a copy of an old primer called Elson Readers Primer. I picked a selection and printed it out. Lillie sat down with a highlighter and read through the passage, highlighting all the words she knew. I helped her with the ones she didn't but then went back and wrote the unhighlighted words on index cards and did the 3 Lesson Method to help her learn those words she didn't know. Then we went back and reread the passage and continued the process until she could read the entire passage fluently. It was a simple and easy approach to add a bit of variety into our reading lessons.

Jack's naptime is on the horizon, so I will be conquering math and writing with Lillie while he's snoozin'. Then when he gets up, he's gonna work on his letter sounds and counting, though he doesn't know that yet...ShHhhhhhhh.