Soap Carving

 We thought it would be fun to try carving some soap.  We just used a regular bar of soap.  I think it was ivory.  There were no rules for it, just whatever he wanted to do.  He had to switch ideas though after the soap broke part way through.  He began attempting a turtle and in the end he made a little hammer from what else, and XBOX game.  I forgot to take a picture of the final project and also to hand it in for the end of term 1.  Oh well.

Ancient Rome

 Here it is, the final product of many many.... many hours.  I probably should take some close up photos of it also.  In his report he covered how they lived, homes, food, temples and ceremonies, gods/mythology, the mouth of truth, the Colosseum, Romulus and Remus.

 Part of the project was to include the food aspect of that society.  So that could mean what they ate, how food was transported, how food was grown, pretty much anything, it was very open ended.  Thankfully ancient Romans ate not all that differently from us today - in some regards.

 He had so much stuff that we had to use both sides of this board and even then we left a few things off.

 It sounds like it was quite well received by his peers and instructors so naturally he felt great pride in that - as he should.  He worked hard and did a great job.

Ancient Rome

Well, we've been working on Ancient Rome for a few weeks now and the time to showcase his work is just around the corner.  I think we may be cramming hard this weekend.  We don't have to be done by a certain point, but I find that it's a good way to cap off a 'lesson', plus, it's much more satisfying in my opinion.  Here, he is using a technique we did last year.  Do you remember the spider web?  First we traced the words onto paper which he chose the font for.  We attached that to a piece of cardboard then filled in the letters with hot glue.  We then lightly crinkled some foil and then placed it shiny side down over top and rubbed it gently until it was snug around the letters.  Once that was done, he rubbed shoe polish over it (it was stinky which is why he's doing it outside).  He made sure to leave the polish a bit darker around the letters.  Voila!  His Ancient Rome header for his presentation board.  

 Taking a time out from all the written/book research he and I have been doing.  Roman Holiday was on TV not long ago and it triggered me to tell him about the "Mouth of Truth" which is said to bite the hand of anyone who lies while holding their hand in it's mouth.  That in turn lead to some art work.  While the real thing is made of marble, his is made of modelling clay and just a touch smaller.  He's done such a great job with this and I am looking forward to seeing how it all comes out.  He's been typing like a mad man.  Once that's finished up we can print it up, cut it up and start piecing everything together.  Of course photos will follow.

Roman Numerals

Last month we went in search of Roman Numerals.  We've been studying ancient Rome and the lesson wouldn't be complete without learning a little bit about Roman Numerals.  I thought we might find some in this cemetery since it has some very old headstones.  I was wrong.  

 We did find this guy though.  It didn't say who it was.  He was standing over the mausoleum area.  Is that the right word for it?  I'm not sure.  Anyways, he was wearing Roman style garb and there were also leaves embossed in the stone, like what you would see on a leaf crown.

 Then we thought we might check out the cenotaph near City Hall.  With time running out we stumbled on 2 Roman Numerals tucked away nicely on the side of these two cannons.

 Can you tell what numbers they are?  Here is the information you need to know to solve this question.

I = 1
V = 5
X = 10
C = 100
D = 500

In Roman Numerals, when the same number is repeated one after the other, the numbers are added.
Ex:  X = 10,   XX = 20

When a larger number is followed by a smaller number, the numbers are added.

When a smaller number is followed by a larger number, the smaller number is subtracted from the larger if the larger is no more than 10 times the smaller.

Confused yet?  Don't want to spend the time figuring it out?  See below for answers.

 CCCXI = 311

DCCXCV = 795


Sooooo.... how did you do?  Are you a Roman Numerals whiz now?

The Mouth of Truth

We are studying ancient Rome right now and trying to get our project off the ground.  The other day Mckenzie learned about the Mouth of Truth and used modelling clay to make his own version.  The last picture is the real Mouth of Truth.

Art in the Ordinary

I saw this idea on Pinterest.  We have no lack of random items hiding in our house so we found a purpose for them.  We both searched for some items and after narrowing them down we cut up a box and he began gluing them in.  He could attach whatever he wanted, wherever he wanted.  The idea was that the box would be viewed from above, but there were really no rules to it.  

 He originally put the bike chain on the side of the box but I tried to subtly suggest that for such an interesting piece, it might not be the best place to showcase it.  He ended up moving it to the base of the box.  He also really liked the glue threads and decided to leave them in.  He even incorporated them by suspending an item from them almost as though it were caught in a spiders web.

 During the final stage of spray painting he decided to take out a couple items such as the purple pom pom because it just absorbing the paint.  He also removed the large stack of coins because they were too heavy and kept falling over.

 He picked a gold spray and went wild.

 I personally love the chain, tank, key, iron man, shells and the crayon covered in tacks.

 Caught in a web????

This and That

Unconventional desk?  Maybe a little. He was outside to observe and record details while using his 5 senses.  

 I think I was more into this puzzle than he was, but I love maps and all the stuff so it was fun for me.  This doesn't really fit in with our official lesson plan, but I consider it an important skill to be able to at least roughly identify and locate Countries, cities and continents.

 And fitting nicely in with his love of the whole Percy Jackson world is our Social Studies lesson plan which focuses on Ancient Civilizations.  We'll be using this theme to come up with a big project this term.  As of yet, we have no idea what that will look like.  I guess we'll just see where history and curiosity take us.

 I think I may have already posted these next two pictures of Mckenzie finally erupting his volcano from his Spring time Science project.  It was great, everyone loved it.  He blew it a second time for a few of his own friends.