Energy and Motion Cont...

Today we learned about energy using ramps. The boys got to roll their bouncy balls down a ramp at different heights. I wish I could claim the idea, but I got it off TPT. They learned that a ball gains more energy making it faster going down the taller ramps.








We are getting so excited for school to end! I am not sure if me or the boys are more excited. I did lesson plans through the end of April and we are sooo close to finishing all of our books. This year has been crazy easier than last year which I will attribute to a few things. 1. Little man (4) is in preschool 3 days a week. School is pretty smooth without his cute face wanting endless attention. Little Guy (2) is still at the into everything age but can be easily entertained with activities like this.


He loves putting it away and even more fun dumping them out...but then he has to put them away. This can go on for 30 minutes.
2. I am a little more seasoned and so are the boys. By the end of this year I felt we have had a great rhythm and my tough one (8) stopped being tough. The things he was struggling with really clicked midway through this year and he has been an ace ever since. I have enjoyed this year but oh how I love summer days, no schedule, vacations, beach days, tide pools, swimming pools, pop cycles, and a good tan! Hurry May we are so excited for you to get here!

Forces and Motion Playground Lab

Last week we spent some time at the park learning about force and motion.  We tried out all the equipment and decided what kind of force we were using to move it or us.  Pushing or Pulling. The boys had a blast.  We met our friends, Viktor and Carmen, there to do our experiments.

Then yesterday we did another set of experiments about Motion this time.  We had several objects that we tested.  We tested whether bouncy balls bounced higher when dropped from a higher or lower place.  Then we learned about friction with race cars and tops.  We learned about energy with bubbles and pinwheels.  The boys had fun, even Isaac got in on the action.

Owen loves his tub of small objects to put in the hole in top.  He does this a lot during school time.

Christmas Tree Farm Field Trip

These pictures must have gotten lost in the Christmas Crazy.  I took Adam and Owen to a field trip with CHEP at a Christmas Tree Farm.  The coolest part of this field trip was when he was trimming the tree with a Machete!  You can imagine this totally got Adam's attention.  We learned about allergy free Christmas trees and how expensive real trees are, truly.  We also met a new family that just joined CHEP the Herrin Family.  They have two boys around Kevin and Adam's age and a little girl Owen's age.  

Spit Wad Trivia

We started a super cool science unit which I found on TPT and the unit is here.  The unit is on Energy, Motion and Force.  We got together with our friends, the Wallaces, and practiced our Vocabulary words.  I can't take credit for this ingenious game.  It was Kathy's all the way.  There are questions for each square on the board and you get a point for each question you answer correctly.  You can only answer the question you hit with your spit wad and if someone else already answered the one you hit then you don't get a question and it moves on to the other team. The boys had so much fun with this game and had to be taught how to make spit wads.  The kids learned their Vocab and had a blast doing it.

Character Matters

This year the boys had a super awesome opportunity to participate in a play.  They got to have play practice and it was a musical which Kevin loved and Adam loathed.  They both had to audition for their parts.  Adam took the part of  "Pig 2" which had a solo song and two lines.  He did an amazing job!  He was so cute that teenage girls were asking for his autograph after the show and telling him he was their favorite!

Kevin took the part of Jack (as in Jack and the Beanstalk)  He had several lines and a longer solo song.  He also did an amazing job and was flawless in his performance. 

My favorite thing Kevin said after the show when we got home:  

Kevin:  "Mom, I need to be in another show.  Make sure it is a musical"

Mom:  "Why a musical"

Kevin: "If you sing you get to be at the mic more"

Yeah that's my boy!

I got very little video of this.  I am hoping I will be able to buy a copy of the whole performance from the PTO but haven't heard any details yet.  But I did get this short clip between chasing the little guys around during dress rehearsal.  (he actually did it perfectly during the actual performance)

Valentine's Day Party

We decided not to go to the CHEP V-Day Party because the time did not work for naps around here.  But we did throw our own party and did get a pretty good crowd of 18 kiddos!

We decorated bags for Valentines, and cupcakes.  Then we had an Olympic Challenge with straws, paper plates, and tape balls and a long jump...(javelin, discus, shotput and long jump)

I got lots of help from the other moms as well.  Kathy made the medals, Kristen brought the paper goods, and Michelle provided milk for 18 kiddos!

Here is the winner's circle!

The Herrin Family, Wallace Family, Biddle Family, and Johnson Family and a friend of Kristen Herrin came with her 4 kiddos as well.  We had a great turn out!