ThadenPierce School

J’s picking up on the hand cues we do and learning the lyrics. This is a Blue’s Clue’s song and you know how he feels about those. (Yes, it includes Pluto, I’m okay with letting Pluto be a planet still.)

Kit and I were wondering what had devoured our bell pepper plant during the night – it’s a few feet high and now sadly lacking in leaves and our peppers were chomped. Odd, since it’s on our deck right by our house. Anyhoo, I looked out the window and saw this and screamed, it’s HUGE!

Kit put his keys next to it for scale and the kids were discussing what in the world this thing must turn into and how big of a thing?? Mo says it’s going to be a dragon.

Seriously giving me the shivers, I can’t look at it.

Update: Kit found two more, they are four inches long and called a Tomato Horn Worm (though ours devoured our pepper plant.) They are creepy! Bleck. I can handle looking them up online and reading about them to the fascinated kids but I made Kit deal with sticking them in the caterpillar cage.

Update II: Kit put them in our caterpillar cage and they ATE THEIR WAY OUT, right through the netting. Stinkers.

We got a cool surprise in the mail today, a package from the Mealer grandparents filled with eight double sided placemats. The kids LOVE, love, love them and are sitting around the living room now reading them! They are heavily laminated so we can use dry erase markers on them and wipe them off and use them at mealtimes as well – these are fantastic, we’re so excited about them.

Topics include the presidents of the US, the solar system, multiplication tables, world map, US map, shapes, numbers and letters. The backs have games and more information for the kids and they are all entranced, from the 8 year old (telling me who is on each bill or coin as he looks as the presidents) down through the 1 year old (yelling, “W! One!” as he identifies things.)

An extremely cute web-based tutorial on basic genetics.

Thingdom.

Where was this when I was trying to explain why Joseph has blond hair to the other kids?

We’re away this week visiting my parents but we’re still getting in lessons. Lots of nature study – the frog from the water table, catching lightening bugs, etc:

We’re also doing lots of art & handicrafts, though sometimes Mom & Dad have to help out with those! (This one involved wire cutters.)

Lots of exercising:

And lots of books – storytime at the library, new finds from the thrift shop, and bedtime stories in the iPad with Daddy:

Another fun resource, this one from Kit – Science Toy Maker.

September – 1. Scientific Method, Experiments & Senses
- sensory experiments
- disability awareness experiments: ear plugs, blind fold
- will it float?
- water, ice, dye

Vocab: solid, liquid, gas, senses

C Cub Scout Award Science requirements here.

October – MATERNITY LEAVE

November – 2. Animals
- sorting animal cards
- visit animals*: zoo, Spirit Horse, farm (nutrition scout award)
- care for pet for 2 weeks, read book and list 3 facts about & make poster to share

Vocab: habitat

C Cub Scout Award pet care requirements.

December – 3. Life Long Ago/Dinosaurs
- animal tracks, make prints in clay & plaster (for scout requirement re: wildlife conservation & geology, footprints and fossil print)

Vocab: earth, dinosaurs

January – 4. Land
- rock, sand & other mineral examination
- samples of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic & 3 types of minerals

Vocab: rock, mineral, soil

C Cub Scout Award Geology requirements here.

February – 5. Body
- food groups
- safety poster: KidPower & Frisco fire station visit*

Vocab: body, heart, energy, exercise

C Cub Scout Award for Nutrition requirements here.

Games: All Systems Go and Heart Health.

March – 6. Earth & Outer Space
- shadow tracing
- constellation cups w/flashlight: planetarium trip*
- model solar system

Vocab: shadow, star, solar system, orbit
(Additional C vocab for scout pin: planet, star, solar system, galaxy, the Milky Way, black hole, red giant, white dwarf, comet, meteor, moon, asteroid, star map, and universe)

C Cub Scout Award Astronomy requirements here.

April – 7. Forces
- forces on different objects: use simple machines (for scout award: lever, pulley, wheel-and-axle, wedge, inclined plane, and screw)
- magnets

Vocab: machine, magnet, attract, repel, force

May – 8. Plants
- plant seeds: diagram plants
- ways animals use plants poster

Vocab: stem, roots, flower, fruit, seed, pollen

June – 9. Water & Weather
- water plus: salt, sugar, sand, oil
- helicopter spinners
- make poster water cycle
- set up weather station for one week

Vocab: water, air, gas, weather, wind (Additional vocab for C’s scout pin: humidity, precipitation, temperature, tornado, hurricane.)

C Cub Scout Award weather award requirements.

July – 10. Caring for our Planet
- caring for our space: make poster of ways to care for our space and do service project*
- create poster of food chain
- create poster/report on endangered species

C Cub Scout Wildlife Conservation requirements.

* Field trip ideas.

Explain what natural resources are and why it’s important to protect and conserve them.
Make a poster that shows and explains the food chain. Describe to your den what happens if the food chain becomes broken or damaged.
Learn about an endangered species. Make a report to your den that includes a picture, how the species came to be endangered, and what is being done to save it.
Academics Pin

Earn the Wildlife Conservation belt loop, and complete five of the following requirements:

Visit a wildlife sanctuary, nature center, or fish hatchery.
Collect and read five newspaper or magazine articles that discuss conservation of wildlife and report to your family or den what you learn.
Learn about five animals that use camouflage to protect themselves. Tell your den or an adult family member what you learned.
Make a birdbath and keep a record for one week of the different birds that visit it.
Make a collage of animals that are in the same class: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, or mammals.
Make a plaster cast of an animal track. Show it to your den.
With your parent or adult partner, visit with a person who works in wildlife conservation, such as a park ranger, biologist, range manager, geologist, horticulturist, zookeeper, fishery technician, or conservation officer.
Visit a state park or national park.
Participate in an environmental service project that helps maintain habitat for wildlife, such as cleaning up an area or planting trees.

Make a poster that shows and explains the water cycle.
Set up a simple weather station to record rainfall, temperature, air pressure, or evaporation for one week.
Watch the weather forecast on a local television station. Discuss with an adult family member what you heard and saw. Follow up by discussing the accuracy of the forecast.
Academics Pin

Earn the Weather belt loop, and complete five of the following requirements:

Explain to your den or an adult family member the meaning of these terms: weather, humidity, precipitation, temperature, and wind.
Explain how clouds are made. Describe the different kinds of clouds – stratus, cumulus, cumulonimbus, and cirrus – and what kind of weather can be associated with these cloud types.
Describe the climate in your state. Compare its climate with that in another state.
Describe a potentially dangerous weather condition in your community. Discuss safety precautions and procedures for dealing with this condition.
Define what is meant by acid rain. Explain the greenhouse effect.
With your parent’s or adult partner’s permission, talk to a meteorologist about his or her position. Learn about careers in meteorology. Share what you learned with your den or an adult family member.
Make a weather map of your state or country, using several weather symbols.
Explain the differences between tornadoes and hurricanes.
Make a simple weather vane. Make a list of other weather instruments and describe what they do.
Explain how weather can affect agriculture and the growing of food.
Make a report to your den or family on a book about weather.
Explain how rainbows are formed and then draw and color a rainbow.

Explain the scientific method to your adult partner.
Use the scientific method in a simple science project Explain the results to an adult.
Visit a museum, a laboratory, an observatory, a zoo, an aquarium, or other facility that employs scientists. Talk to a scientist about his or her work.

Academics Pin – Earn the Science belt loop, and complete five of the following requirements:

Make a simple electric motor that works.
Find a stream or other area that shows signs of erosion. Try to discover the cause of the erosion.
Plant seeds. Grow a flower, garden vegetable, or other plant.
Use these simple machines to accomplish tasks: lever, pulley, wheel-and-axle, wedge, inclined plane, and screw.
Learn about solids, liquids, and gases using just water. Freeze water until it turns into ice. Then, with an adult, heat the ice until it turns back into a liquid and eventually boils and becomes a gas.
Build models of two atoms and two molecules, using plastic foam balls or other objects.
Make a collection of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks and label them.
Learn about a creature that lives in the ocean. Share what you have learned with your den or family.
Label a drawing or diagram of the bones of the human skeleton.
Make a model or poster of the solar system. Label the planets and the sun.
Do a scientific experiment in front of an audience. Explain your results.
Read a book about a science subject that interests you. Tell your den or an adult family member about what you learned.