Ecosystems Related Clips

How Wolves Can Affect the Ecosystem

Burnaby Park

 We've been diving into the world to Ecosystems as September is still so beautiful and I always find such an interesting time to explore the outdoors.  It also fits in with the grade 4 curriculum of Habitats so it's a great opportunity to collaborate in a very small group.  While we walked and observed and discussed we focused on a few main themes (see below).  It wasn't until we got home that we took some of those thoughts to paper.  Our conversation was great and everyone had a lot of really good points to make.

 Below are some photos from our outdoor learning.  We also went there last Friday but I forgot my camera.  On that day we focused on what types of animals/vegetation would live in this type of habitat/ecosystem.  Much of that was first hand information we gathered through observation but there was also a lot that we had to infer by putting our keen observations to work.

 Oh happy day in the great outdoors.

 Checking out what may be a bear print in the mud.  There are signs that a bear is in the area but this was a little small.  Not sure if it was a small bear or something else.

 Perhaps our small bear enjoyed this grassy bed...

Watching water striders and looking for frogs.

 I spy with my little eye 12 ducks.

 This sun dial will fit in nicely with his study of Ancient Roman civilization later on.

 We saw a very fuzzy caterpillar last Friday but we didn't see any today.

 Below is the Eschscholzia, also known as 'California Poppy'.

 Hibiscus Moscheuto, also known as 'Southern Belle'

 This was helpful last Friday as we identified some of the leaves we picked up along the way.  We found all the ones on the right side.

 Great day of learning.  While the entire day was devoted to Science, it was well spent.  It felt simple and natural.  Back to the books tomorrow though for a little math and English.

Geometric Collaboration

Today we finished our art project.  A collaborative geometric masterpiece!  I'm so happy with how it turned out.  As shown in the previous post, we each used water colours to paint a picture. Not even really a picture, just covering the page with colour and design.  We then cut it into triangles, painted our canvas white and then placed the pieces somewhat randomly on the frame.  We each picked out our favourites and made sure to include them.  We put just a touch of glue on the underside of each piece (once we'd decided on a layout) just to hold them in place while we used homemade modge podge (ratio 3:1, glue to water) to seal the canvas.  I'm totally digging it!  I love how it came together and works so well together.  Each of our paintings were so completely different in colour and design.  

 We did some reading on mythology, a bit of Science and the study of ecosystems.  We also did one page of math.  It felt like it took all day because things were kind of spread out and at times hectic in the house, but we finished what we set out to and still managed to enjoy the majority of the day outside.

It's A New Year!!! Grade 7

 I had thought we'd be diligent with school work during the Summer but.... that didn't happen.  Instead we just had fun; and that's OK.  At one point there was a natural lead into some review and I was so happily surprised that he recalled everything I asked him about.  After the end of the year, with it's nose dive into frustration and what felt like several steps in reverse, things were actually learnt and retained.  It was a really good day and I felt encouraged going into this year.  I'll probably have to hold onto that feeling in the coming months.

And now with September we're slowly sliding back into the rhythm of organised learning; very slowly.  It's not being met with joy or excitement though and I have already had the 'talk' with him about attitude and not expressing the whole pre-teen angst and sighing, eye rolling, basically the 'my world is so hard' routine that comes with asking him for something that isn't 'fun'.  But it hasn't been all bad, he was eager (despite how the picture looks, he wasn't actually in the fetal position) to do the Math Train and earn a few candies along the way.  He did really great.  54 questions, only a couple wrong after a long Summer with no other review.  I was very pleased and so was he.

 Because the public schools are all on strike right now my daughter is home too and I've taken on home schooling her for the mean time.  I used this opportunity to do review with Mckenzie by having him teach her the Continents, hemispheres, equator, Prime Meridian, Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn as well as several Oceans and Seas.  Once again he proved that he retained all the info really well.

 With eagerness we hit the library and picked out several books and a couple of DVD's, mainly on Roman and Greek mythology as we'll be studying ancient civilisations and he's chosen these to focus on; no surprise there with his love of Rick Riordan books.  We may have bitten off WAY more than we can chew.

 Rather than throwing him right into the world of writing, which is a struggle I thought we'd do some workbook English.  Last year we focused mainly on writing and it was painful for both of us.  This year I'll try to be more balanced with that.

 Today we did math from a workbook which although seemed more simplistic to me than yesterdays math, it was a slow go.  We played a game of dice and he kept score.  He did plenty of reading and we finished up with some art.  We each used water colours in any patterns or colours we wanted to completely cover a sheet of paper.  When they had dried I cut them into triangles and tomorrow we'll place them on canvas as a large collage of our art.  I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Reading Chart.

After talking to a few people about how we charted Mckenzie's reading and mentioning that there might be photos of it on the blog, I realized that indeed, I did not have any recent or complete photos of it on here.  Sooooo, here it is....  These are the books that he read between September and June.  We haven't added any new ones to it as we seem to have come to a screeching halt in the 'schooling' since Summer began.  When he and I look at this, we're both so proud and it's so encouraging and helpful to see all the work he accomplished.  These books were (all but 1) read out of his own motivation and desire.  I had nothing to do with which books, the pace, the timing etc...  It was all his own incentive.  I'm so proud of where this young man is now.  When we first started the whole reading thing in grade one the outlook was beyond grim.  It was brutally painful every night trying to simply go through letters and sounds and short beginner books.  It was a Canadian parent version of torture, for all of us.  I'm so thankful for stumbling on the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books at a garage sale.  They began the love of reading.  Slowly, picture by picture, then a few words here and there until he was reading and re-reading the books and eagerly awaiting new ones to be released.  And now here he is, reading large complicated books, usually over 500 pages and some with over 50 chapters.  Flying through them at a pace that catches us off guard every time.  His love and passion for Rick Riordan books to be specific is fantastic.  He's one book away from the last book of the last series.  Oh boy.  Since he's read The Hobbit, we just gave him the first Lord of the Rings book along with another story about the gold rush and the Yukon.  Hopefully we can find a new large series of books that he'll fall in love with - soon.

As for the rest of the Summer, well, I had high hopes for keeping up with only 2 subjects; math and Language Arts.  I've failed.  We've let it all fall by the wayside.  My thoughts are that Summer is for fun, not 'work'.  Let kids be kids.  However I wanted to try to add just a couple of really quick lessons periodically just to maintain some basic things.  I've had these hopes before, which was one of the reasons I was unsure if I'd be able to homeschool.  I could never get my act together.  Now I'm realizing that it's just a Summer thing.  We've still got some time yet, maybe I'll get one or two quick reviews in there.  OR, maybe not.  I've given up the guilt.  What will be will be.

What's Going On In That Noggin?

The answer:
XBOX
Kayaking
BMXing
Gummy worms & bears
LEGO