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.

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.