Atelier Art, Level 1 - Module B, Lesson 5

Zoo Animals

I had a hard time coming up with a large sheet of dark blue paper for Lesson 4, so we skipped forward to Lesson 5. We'll go back to Lesson 4 another time.

"Zoo Animals" is another lesson on media. Tessa primarily used glue and chalk to create a fairly unique piece of art. She learned to draw with glue and "color" by smoothing and blending chalk with her fingers.

This lesson must be completed over two days since it requires a full 24 hours for glue to dry.

After selecting a plastic antelope as a model, Tessa first sketched her design onto warm-up paper and then a sheet of black poster board.

Next, Tessa traced her sketch with school glue. We typically use glue sticks for our art projects, so she found this more challenging than we both expected.

After the glue dried and left an embossing of Tessa's antelope sketch, she "colored" in her design by rubbing and blending chalk with her fingers. She really enjoyed this part of the project.

Tessa completed zoo animal! She was very pleased with her final product. She thought it a neat project.

Earth Science: Weather, Unit 1

The Water Cycle

Evan-Moor doesn't offer an age-appropriate ScienceWorks book for weather, so I am drafting my own lessons for this segment of Earth Science with the help of The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3. It provides a great selection of experiments, demonstrations, paper activities, etc., but no actual lessons or schedules. So far, it's working out well and Tessa is enjoying it...just takes a little more planning time on my part.

First up was the water cycle. Having studied this before, Tessa already had a pretty good handle on the basics and components of the water cycle, so we focused on expanding her science vocabulary and zeroing in on details.

Tuesday

• Read What Is Weather? by Ellen Lawrence.

Wednesday

• Read What Is the Water Cycle? by Ellen Lawrence.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "The Water Cycle: An Itsy-Bitsy Water Cycle" (page 6). 
• Watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Water Cycle DVD by Disney.

Following Monday

• Read A Drop Around the World by Barbara McKinney.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "The Water Cycle: Watching the Water Cycle" (page 4). 

Following Tuesday

• Read Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean by Arthur Dorros.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "The Water Cycle: Wonderful Puddle Project" (page 5).

Medieval Times, Lesson 12

The Feudal System

Tessa learned the hierarchy of the feudal system...Kings, Nobles, Knights, then peasants. 

Wednesday

• Read The Usborne Medieval World by Jane Bingham (pages 22-23).
• Made a chart of the feudal system as listed in HO Lesson 12, Main Lesson.
• Read "When Were the Days of the Knights?" (pages 8-11), "Where Did People Live?" (pages 36-38), "Did People Work Hard?" (pages 36-38), "Did Children Work?" (page 39) and "Who Worked in the Castle?" (pages 40-42) from If You Lived In The Days Of The Knights by Ann McGovern.

Friday

• Read A Medieval Feast by Aliki.
• Read The King Who Sneezed by Angela McAllister.

* HO = History Odyssey

Lupe the Lupine (Light Blue), Honest & Fair Petal

I have looked for a good character education program off-and-on for a couple of years now. Nothing has ever impressed me enough to buy. So, I was delighted to discover that earning the Daisy petals is just that...character education.

Our troop is informally earning petals this year during troop time, but I wanted to really take advantage of this opportunity, so we are earning petals on our own time as well. Tessa constantly flips through The Daisy Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting and can't wait to complete all of the Flower Friends' stories and activities.

What We Did

• Discussed the Lupe the Lupine (Light Blue), Honest and Fair petal.
• Read "Lupe's Story: A Fair Turn in the Flower Garden" from The Daisy Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting.
• Talked about "Lupe's Story" per patch requirements.
• Acted out "Lupe's Story" with Flower Friends craft stick puppets.
• Practiced being honest and fair by playing a cooperative flower friends drawing game that I designed based on the Pick and Draw game. I also had Tessa pass out napkins to every girl at a previous troop meeting.
• Completed the "Congratulations!" portion of the Lupe the Lupine (Light Blue), Honest and Fair petal.

Tessa and I acted out "Lupe's Story" with Flower Friends craft stick puppets. Tessa loved this part of earning Lupe's petal. It was her idea to use her wooden cheese as props.

To practice being honest and fair, Tessa and I played a flower friends drawing game where we took turns drawing and coloring parts of flowers. Tessa tends to be a poor sport while playing games. She really wanted to sneak the pink color card but I reminded her that wouldn't be honest nor fair. She instantly agreed. I was surprised how big an impact "Lupe's Story" made in her overall sportsmanship. Granted, this was a very low-key game, but I could tell a difference in her actions and attitude.

Our flower friend drawings after playing three rounds. Tessa was being fruity and sneaked into my pic.

Looking for more Lupe the Lupine badge ideas?

Check out my ...Three "Fair" Bears - Girl Scout Daisies - "Lupe - Light Blue Petal" (Step 3) printable scouting helper.

Girl Scouts Global Action Award 2013

For Daisies

One thing I love about Girl Scouts is how well it compliments homeschooling. I am super excited that the patch-earning opportunities provide reason and motivation for us to study important skills and issues that fall outside the realm of our standard curriculum.

When I learned of the Girl Scouts Global Action Award, I knew it was something I wanted to do right away with Tessa. Tessa is passionate and empathetic, so I knew earning this patch would make an impact. To me, the award embodies what Girl Scouts is all about...growing girls who as adults will have the confidence, motivation, skills and education to confront the major issues of the world.

There are several options for earning the Global Action Award. While the activities we completed touched upon several of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, we primarily focused on 1. Ending hunger and poverty. We completed activities one and nine from the Global Action Award for Girl Scout Daisies activities list.

Heifer International offers some wonderful learning resources that I think do a good job covering hunger and poverty for Tessa's age set. The lessons I chose to use revolve around the book Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier.

 What We Did

• Completed Global Action Award for Girl Scout Daisies activity one, which involved discussing questions about hunger.
• Read Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier.
• Completed "Understanding the Story of Beatrice and Her Goat, Lesson 1" by Heifer International.
• Used components of "The Places We Live: Comparing and Contrasting, Lesson 4" by Heifer International to help Tessa locate Uganda on our globe.
• Completed Global Action Award for Girl Scout Daisies activity nine, which involved Tessa drawing a picture of a girl (Beatrice) in another country. I extended the activity by having Tessa draw herself and items that symbolize how Beatrice's life differs from her own as well. I got this idea from the previously mentioned Heifer International lesson.
• Read A Good Trade by Alma Fullerton.
• Looked at pictures, read excerpts from, and discussed the African and United States sections of What the World Eats by Faith D'Aluisio.
• Purchased a share of a goat via Heifer International.
• Used "When Life Hands You Milk, Make Cheese" recipe to make cheese from milk.

Tessa drew a picture of how Beatrice's life differs from her own. It included items that symbolize the differences in the food they eat, how their houses are built, education and chores, among other things. 

Since Beatrice's goat made such an impact in her life, Tessa and I purchased a share of a goat via Heifer International in hopes of helping a family in need in a similar way.

Tessa helped stir the milk for our homemade cheese while it warmed.

We enjoyed our crumble cheese on crackers. Yum!

...3 Cheers for Animals! - Session 2

It's Your Story - Tell It!: A Leadership Journey
Girl Scout Daisies

"Girls explore the many ways that caring for animals is like caring for themselves."

Download ...3 Cheers for Animals! - Session 2 handout.

Session 2 - Caring That Counts

Opening Ceremony:
Animals Around the World, pages 37-38 from "How To Guide"
(Lion: Iran)

• Introduced the Flower Friends and then pointed out Tula, the tulip, on "The Flower Friends and Their Girl Scout Law Values" poster. (May also be found in the back of the "How To Guide.")
• Used ...3 Cheers for Animals! - Session 2 map to show where Tula is from and then located the Netherlands and Iran on a globe.
• Visited National Geographic Kids: Animal Creature Features for facts, photos, sounds, videos and more pertaining to lions.
• Wrote two facts about lions on orange strips to help form the lion's mane for the Team Animal Mural.

A sample of the lion I designed for the Team Animal Mural. The girls wrote two facts about lions on orange strips and then used them to create the lion's mane at the following troop meeting.

Story Time:

“A Purr-fect Surprise in the Garden,” page 38 from "How To Guide"

• Read pages 6-13 from the girls' book.
• Discussed the story as directed in the “How To Guide.”

Animals Safe and Sound
(with Guest Speaker), pages 39-40 from "How To Guide"

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) provides some absolutely wonderful teaching resources on their Web site. In lieu of a guest speaker, we used some of the Cats, Dogs, and Us materials for this part of the Journey.

• Watched Cats, Dogs, and Us video. (This super, high-quality 20-minute video is a near perfect fit. I highly recommend it! Scroll down to “Classroom Video” and then choose either “Vimeo” or “YouTube.” If you have problems streaming, Vimeo allows you to save the video to your desktop to play offline. I copied the video onto blank DVDs for the other girls in our Journey group.)
• Completed IFAW Animal Explorers: Dogs & Cats activity booklet. (Awesome! Fits with the aforementioned video. Please note that the file is graphic-intense. I ended up having to print it one page at a time. Otherwise, half of the pages printed funky for some reason.)
• Instead of creating an “Animals Safe and Sound” chart, completed “Team Talk” draw and write prompt cards to place in the Team Birdbath.

Tessa had a lot of fun with IFAW's "Animal Explorers: Dogs & Cats" activity booklet. She especially enjoyed making the simple origami dog on the last page.

Get Creative!

All About Me Nests, page 41 from "How To Guide"

• Read pages 14-15 from the girls' book.
• Used a paper lunch sack to create an "All About Me" nest as directed in the "How To Guide." (In the packets I provided to the rest of our Journey girls, I included brown paper lunch sacks and a variety of colored feathers, yarn, pom-poms, colored paper for cutting out leaves, and crinkle paper. They could use whatever else they might have on hand at home to craft their nests as well.)
• Tessa drew a picture of herself showing one way she takes care of herself on a blue bird cutout. She placed the drawing in her "All About Me" nest, which she took to the next troop meeting so others could view and enjoy her work.

Tessa remembered a sack of abandoned faux flowers in our basement that she decided to use to craft her "All About Me" nest. She learned how to use a hot glue gun at the fall camporee she attended a couple of weeks ago, so I let her have at it. This was her first time doing something like this, so I provided some pointers on floral arrangement along the way. 

Tessa's completed "All About Me" nest. I think it turned out pretty doggone cute...or, should I say pretty tweet!

Closing Ceremony:

Being Courageous and Strong, page 42 from "How To Guide"

• Colored "Courageous and Strong" coloring sheet. (This was an optional activity that Tessa did on her own time.)

The majority of Tessa's completed work from "...3 Cheers for Animals!" Journey, Session 2.

Looking for more activities to complement the ...3 Cheers for Animals! Journey?

Check out my Girl Scout Law Ring Book - Pets Version - Girl Scout Daisies & Brownies printable scouting helper.

Medieval Times, Lesson 11

100 Years War and the Black Death

I guess the morbid fascinates at every age. Tessa was completely enthralled by the Black Death. If there would have been more resources available, I think she would have gladly studied it for another week. Tessa also loved the story of Joan of Arc. I could tell she was craving more, so I probably should have taken time to read at least one more book to her. 

Wednesday

• Read Joan of Arc by Josephine Poole.

We read The Usborne Medieval World (page 21) that was listed in Main Lesson Part 1 as part of Lesson 10.

Thursday

• Read The Usborne Medieval World by Jane Bingham (page 44).
• Completed HO map work for Lesson 11, Main Lesson Part 2.

Friday

• Read "Black Death" (pages 14-15) and "The Plague Spreads" (pages 16-17) from Plagues, Pox, and Pestilence by Richard Platt.
• Read Run Far, Run Fast by Timothy Decker.

* HO = History Odyssey

Earth Science: Geology, Unit 8

Fossils

I can't believe this is it for our study of rocks. Tomorrow, we begin weather!

Tessa studied fossils last year during Ancient History, Week 2 and completed a lab very similar to the one featured in ScienceWorks. Many of the unit's worksheets are redundant and not altogether enlightening, so I chose to condense the unit down to one day.

Monday

• Read Fossils Tell of Long Ago by Aliki.
• Examined real fossils (fern, coral, mollusk, petrified wood and shark tooth).
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Geology, Grades 1-3 "Some Rocks Contain Fossils That Tell About Life On Earth Long Ago - Mini Book" (page 71) and "What Was I?" worksheet (page 74).
• Watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Fossils DVD by Disney.

Earth Science: Geology, Unit 7

Earth's Resources

A little education goes a long way. In less than an hour, Tessa went from local litterbug (okay, not entirely true, but you know how careless little kids can be with their trash), to resident green freak.

Wednesday

• Read the rocks and people section from A True Book: Rocks by Ann O. Squire.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Geology, Grades 1-3 "The Resources We Use Come From the Earth - Follow Up" (page 62).

Friday

• Read Earth Smart: How to Take Care of the Environment eBook by Leslie Garrett via the Pearson Foundation's We Give Book initiative.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Geology, Grades 1-3 "The Resources We Use Come From the Earth - Make Conservation Posters" (page 63).

You wouldn't know it from her "smile," but Tessa had a blast designing her own conversation poster. She chose to remind people to recycle cans, paper, plastic and glass.

Medieval Times, Lesson 10

Normans

Another short and sweet lesson.

Friday

• Read The Usborne Medieval World by Jane Bingham (page 20-21).
• Completed HO map work for Lesson 10, Main Lesson.

We had plenty of time, so I added page 21 from Lesson 11.


Bedtime Read-Aloud

• Ivanhoe - Marianna Mayer

* HO = History Odyssey