Ancient History, Week 6

First Writings

Tessa practiced writing in cuneiform and hieroglyphs...two early forms of ancient writing.


Monday

• Read The Story of Writing by Carol Donoughue (pages 6-11).
• Completed cuneiform writing activity adapted from "Make Cuneiform Tablets" from the SOTW activity guide.

Tessa and I found the cuneiform writing activity so frustrating at first that I admit, I rushed it. I thought maybe she was just too young for it, so we worked through one quick short word and called it done. As it turned out, Tessa just needed more practice. She played with a stylus, some Play-Doh and cuneiform guide sheet on her own for a couple of hours after school. She got quite good it! She even had me pretending to be an ancient scribe student and her the teacher. I lament that our keepsake tablet could have been so much more had I been a little more patient. The good news is that all of her free play gave her a more thorough understanding of cuneiform. She enjoyed it so much that I know she'll remember this lesson for years to come.

I created my own simple cuneiform guide sheet for this activity from a free cuneiform font I found on the internet. I'm not sure how accurate the font it, but it worked well for us. Feel free to use it as well.

Download A Simple Cuneiform Alphabet.

Tessa's cuneiform tablet with the word "fish" on it. We used tan FIMO clay that we baked hard in the oven.

Tuesday

• Looked up and defined HO dictionary word for Lesson 4, Main Lesson.
• Read Seeker of Knowledge by James Rumford.
• Read The Shipwrecked Sailor: An Egyptian Tale with Hieroglyphs by Tamara Bower. 
• Completed draw and color.

Wednesday

• Read The Story of Writing by Carol Donoughue (pages 12-17).
• Completed hieroglyphs activity adapted from "Hieroglyphic Secret Note" from Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide by Marian Broida.
• Used Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs by Kathy Allen as inspiration for hieroglyphs activity above. There are several nice pics of actual hieroglyphs in it as well as a simple hieroglyphs guide.

Tessa finds it very difficult to look at a picture and replicate it with pencil and paper, so it didn't take long before frustration set in while completing this hieroglyphs activity. After several failed attempts, I left her to work on it alone while I fixed lunch. To my complete and utter amazement, ten minutes later she got it done! That's marker on her "papyrus" scroll there, so imagine how hard she must have concentrated. In hindsight, I wish I would have tracked down some hieroglyphs stencils or stamps. I think the activity would have been way more fun for her.

Tessa's hieroglyphs note says, "I like candy." Her name is encircled with a cartouche.

* HO = History Odyssey, SOTW = The Story of the World

Hooked on Phonics: First Grade - Completed!

How could I forget to post that we finally completed Hooked on Phonics: First Grade early last week?! Tessa has been reading early and leveled readers this past week, which is what she does on the off days of our schedule anyway. I feel like Tessa and I could both use a break from Hooked on Phonics. I'm wrestling with whether we should continue on with Hooked on Phonics: Second Grade so Tessa can gain valuable new decoding skills or jump over to All About Spelling, Level 1 and focus on spelling and reading fluency for a short while. We have the All About Spelling readers for level one, which I worry are quickly falling below Tessa's reading level. I need to decide soon!

Hooked on Phonics: First Grade...completed! YEAH!!

Atelier Art, Level 1 - Module A, Lesson 2

Picasso Hands and Flowers

Although this was only our second time using Atelier Art, I have been quite impressed at how well Tessa listens to the instructor on the DVD. She follows her instructions and movements way better than she does mine. I'm always tense when an art project involves paint...more so when my laptop is sitting a mere two feet from the paint and water bucket. After we got past Tessa tracing her hands (I had to help her a bit...Tessa tracing with her left hand just wasn't happening) and I realized that hey, she's doing a pretty good job, my tension eased considerably. I was able to take some pics. By the end, I was actually enjoying myself watching her paint.

"Picasso Hands and Flowers" is a lesson on color. It teaches that there are three primary colors and that those colors may be mixed to make secondary colors. The lesson also introduces renowned painter Pablo Picasso and features his painting Mains Aux Fleurs. Since Picasso is the key artist for this module, I'm considering using this lesson as a jumping off point for a quick artist study.

Tessa carefully mixed yellow with red to make orange, blue with red to make violet, and yellow with blue to make green.

After tracing her hands and then painting the middles of the flowers, Tessa used her freshly mixed green paint to paint stems.

Tessa painted the last of her petals orange.

Although not instructed to do so during the instructional portion of the DVD, the children featured on the DVD embellish their traced hands. Tessa wanted to embellish hers too. This would have been much easier before painting, but she made it work. 

Life Science, Week 6

Body Parts

Arms, legs, heart and lungs...Tessa learned her body has both external and internal parts.


Monday

• Read Kingfisher Readers: Your Body by Brenda Stones.
• Read Thank You For Me! by Marion Dane Bauer.
• Read All of Me!: A Book of Thanks by Molly Bang.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: How Your Body Works, Grades 1-3 "The Body Has External and Internal Parts - My Body Parts" and "Collage People" activities (page 13) from TeacherFileBox.com.

Tessa cut out body parts from various pictures in catalogs and magazines. She glued the pieces onto card stock to create a collage person and then labeled the parts.

Tuesday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: How Your Body Works, Grades 1-3 "The Body Has External and Internal Parts - Where Is It?" activity (page 14) from TeacherFileBox.com.
• Read Scholastic Discover More: My Body by Andrea Pinnington.
• Read Parts by Tedd Arnold.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: How Your Body Works, Grades 1-3 "The Body Has External and Internal Parts - Inside My Body" activity (page 14) from TeacherFileBox.com.

Wednesday

• Read Your Skin Holds You In by Becky Baines.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: How Your Body Works, Grades 1-3 "The Body Has External and Internal Parts - Skin" and "Extension Activity - Fingerprints" (item one only) activities (page 15) from TeacherFileBox.com.
• Used Drawing Is Easy: Drawing With Your Fingerprints by Godeleine De Rosamel to create fingerprint art.

Tessa's fingerprint art. She used fist prints to create the goat; thumbprints for the spider, bee, face and frog; and a hand print for the rooster head.

Tessa wanted to pose with her pics, so here she is!

Halloween Sneak Peek

Remember me saying that Tessa REALLY enjoyed studying about ancient cave dwellers? Well, here's a sneak peek of the Halloween costume I sewed up for her to wear tomorrow night. She insisted that her American Girl doll have one too!

All set for Halloween! Tessa and Kanani as ancient cave dwellers.

Picture Word Puzzles - Challenge Cards

These cute little Trend Picture Word Puzzles - Challenge Cards were hiding out in one of our homeschool supplies totes. I decided to put them into action before Tessa totally outgrows them. Yeah, they're pretty easy for her now, but she's enjoying them and they serve as a nice little warm-up right before her reading lesson each day.

Trend Picture Word Puzzles cards are a fun way to warm up right before settling in for a reading lesson. The cards are double-sided and feature phonetic rhyming text.

Life Science - Week 5

Bodies Grow & Change

We have officially kicked off our study of the human body. I haven't counted up the weeks, but we'll be hanging out here for a while...at least a couple of months. Should be fun! Tessa started wanting to learn more about the inner workings of the body at the end of summer. I'm so glad we're finally here. I felt guilty constantly putting her off, saying that we would study it very soon.


Wednesday

• Read I'm Growing! by Aliki.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: How Your Body Works, Grades 1-3 "Bodies Change as They Grow Older - How Have We Changed?" and "A Book About Me" activities (pages 6-7) from TeacherFileBox.com.

Tessa created an accordion book that highlights how she has grown and changed over the years.

Friday

• Watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Life Cycles DVD by Disney.
• Read Scholastic Discover More: See Me Grow by Penny Arlon.
• Read The Growing-Up Tree by Vera Rosenberry.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: How Your Body Works, Grades 1-3 "Bodies Change as They Grow Older - Human Life Cycles" and "Other Life Cycles" activities (page 8, minus growth-record booklet) from TeacherFileBox.com.

Other Books of Interest

• The Growing Story - Ruth Krauss
• Growing Like Me - Anne Rockwell

Ancient History, Week 5

Sumerian Crafts & Kings

We finished up our survey of the first civilization of Sumer by learning more about Sumerian daily life, their crafts, trade, and King Sargon of Akkad.


Wednesday

• Looked up and defined HO dictionary word for Lesson 3, Main Lesson Part 2.
• Read Usborne: Ancient World by Fiona Chandler (pages 8-9).
• Completed corresponding Blue House School ancient world worksheets.
• Listened to Tales from the Arabian Nights audiobook (story of Sheherezade) by Andrew Lang/Tavia Gilbert.

The stories of Arabian Nights don't feel as though they fit perfectly here, but some apparently root back to ancient Mesopotamian folklore and literature. The SOTW activity guide makes brief mention of one selection written by Andrew Lang. I flipped through the rest of the guide and found no additional references to Arabian Nights in chapters from other time periods (nor in HO), so we went ahead and listened to three of the most popular tales during lunch this past week. Although Tales from the Arabian Nights is a sanitized version of Arabian Nights, it still contains considerable violence. Then again, what part of ancient history isn't considerably violent?

Thursday

• Completed "Ancient Mesopotamia" history pocket (puppets, and interactive map with model ship).
• Read You Wouldn't Want to Be a Sumerian Slave! by Jacqueline Morley.
• Watched Ancient Civilizations for Children: Ancient Mesopotamia DVD by Schlessinger Media.
• Listened to Tales from the Arabian Nights audiobook (story of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp) by Andrew Lang/Tavia Gilbert.

Tessa created Mesopotamian puppets on craft sticks. She also completed an interactive map with model trading ship. By moving the craft stick attached to the back of the ship, she can sail it down the Tigris River to the Persian Gulf.

Friday

• Read Evan-Moor Read and Understand Literature Genres: Myths & Legends, Grades 4-6 "Gilgamesh and Enkidu - Middle Eastern Legend" story sheet from TeacherFileBox.com.
• Completed "Long Robe" from Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide by Marian Broida.
• Listened to Tales from the Arabian Nights audiobook (story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves) by Andrew Lang/Tavia Gilbert.

I kind of messed up here. I couldn't figure out why the Gilgamesh myth wasn't mentioned in HO or the SOTW activity guide since it derives from ancient Sumerian poems. Turns out it is...further down the road. That's okay, there are some really cool looking children's books about Gilgamesh that I didn't get a chance to check out from the library. We'll be sure to snatch them next time.

Tessa in our version of a Mesopotamian long robe.

* HO = History Odyssey, SOTW = The Story of the World

Looking for more Sumerian lesson ideas?

Check out my Label a Sumerian Chariot Diagram and Standard of Ur Writing Paper & Toppers digital curriculum helpers!

Life Science, Week 4

Plant Cells vs. Animal Cells

We finished up our brief study of cells this week by determining the differences between plant cells and animal cells. Tessa also learned the name and function of select cell parts of each.


Friday

• Completed RSO Cell Lab 2: Plant and Animal Cells Differ.
• Watched "Cells" music video by They Might Be Giants via YouTube.
• Watched The Magic School Bus: Goes Cellular by Scholastic via YouTube.

I'm not much of a music buff, so my discovery of the band They Might Be Giants is probably way old news for most people. I came across one of their videos entitled, "Cells" while searching YouTube last night. I played it for Tessa today. She absolutely loved it! We watched it at least ten times. (Remember, if you have cruddy internet access like me, use SaveVid to download YouTube videos to your hard drive, then play them without interruption later.)


Other Resources of Interest

• "Animal and Plant Cells" free printable diagram from Education.com.
• Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids, Grades 4-6+: The Human Body "Cells Are the Fundamental Unit of Life" unit (just the animal and plant cell diagram) from TeacherFileBox.com.

* RSO = R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey


Fruit and Gelatin Cell Models

Cell Lab 2: Plants and Animal Cells Differ is a great little hands-on lab. It requires just a few simple ingredients besides basic household supplies...gelatin, green grapes, an orange (or strawberry) and toothpicks. Since the gelatin is to be softly set, I prepared it and sliced the fruit the morning of the lesson.

Tessa pushed orange slices and grapes into lemon-flavored gelatin. The oranges represented nuclei and the grapes stood in as chloroplasts (for the plant cell).

Tessa labeled the parts of her fruit and gelatin cell models. 

After assembling the cell models, Tessa drew, colored and labeled the cell membranes, nuclei and chloroplasts on her cell lab sheet. She learned that animal cells are round, plant cells are rectangular, and only plant cells have chloroplasts.

Ancient History, Week 4

First Civilization

History Odyssey Lesson 3 focuses on Mesopotamia, the first civilization of Sumer, cuneiform writing and ancient temples called ziggurats. Since the number of activities for Part 1 and Part 2 seemed a bit lopsided, I decided to divide the workload a little more evenly. What isn't listed below, we will complete next week. I also felt like the recommended ziggurat project was a bit much for us, so we went with a much quicker and simpler one.


Monday

• Looked up and defined HO dictionary word for Lesson 3, Main Lesson Part 1, word number one.
• Read Usborne: Ancient World by Fiona Chandler (pages 6-7).
• Completed corresponding Blue House School ancient world worksheets.
• Completed HO map work for Lesson 3, Main Lesson Part 1.
• Read The Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella Story by Rebecca Hickox.

Tuesday

• Looked up and defined HO dictionary word for Lesson 3, Main Lesson Part 1, word number two.
• Completed "Ancient Mesopotamia" history pocket (student booklet, words to know, and ziggurat pop-up book).
• Read A True Book: Mesopotamia by Sunita Apte.

The pop-up ziggurat book was Tessa's favorite part of the "Ancient Mesopotamia" history pocket. This activity required precision folding, cutting and gluing, all of which were challenging for her.

Tessa's completed pop-up ziggurat book! How cool is that?!

Wednesday

• Completed "Quick and Sweet Ziggurat" from Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide by Marian Broida.

Other Books of Interest

• City of Rainbows: A Tale from Ancient Sumer - Karen Pollinger Foster
• History Opens Windows: The Sumerians - Jane Shuter

* HO = History Odyssey

Quick and Sweet Ziggurat

History Odyssey lists "Model Ziggurat" from Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide by Marian Broida as this week's recommended project. While I think it's a worthy project, it requires way too much prep work, skill and drying time for Tessa's age set. Maybe we'll try it during our second cycle of ancients when Tessa is a middle schooler. Instead, we completed "Quick and Sweet Ziggurat", which is listed as an alternative project at the end of "Model Ziggurat". Most supplies for "Quick and Sweet Ziggurat" can easily be found around the house. We only had to buy a $1.50 box of sugar cubes from Wal-Mart.

Tessa began her "Quick and Sweet Ziggurat" by arranging the bottom layer of sugar cubes on a disposable plate, drawing about its perimeter, removing the cubes, then painting with glue within the marked area. We later discovered that it is more efficient to simply dip the sugar cubes into a puddle of glue.

Tessa created a rectangle with rows of six cubes, four cubes deep. She stacked the rest of the cubes pyramid style to the top. 

Sugar cubes cut into halves made perfect stairs.

Although we were not directed to do so in the instructions, we applied a layer of glue all over our assembled ziggurat and then sprinkled it with sand to add a bit of color and realism. Afterward, we carried it outside and blew off the extra sand with a hair dryer set to its coolest setting.

Tessa's sugar cube ziggurat. Quick and sweet for sure!

Looking for more Mesopotamia lesson ideas?

Check out my Label a Sumerian Chariot Diagram and Standard of Ur Writing Paper & Toppers digital curriculum helpers!