Cloud Unit: The Heavens Declare His Glory

The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the works of his hands.
Psalm 19:1

Old Crow shared with us that he was interested in learning about the clouds.  So I set out to make that happen.  As I began looking for ideas and projects, a unit began to take shape.

Here's a look into our fun with clouds. :)

Books We Enjoyed

          

               

Nature Study

Each day we spent time outside cloud watching.  We would talk about the clouds we saw and take pictures with our camera.  (I saved these pictures in a separate file on my computer for a later activity.)  Then Old Crow would draw in his nature journal.

Bible Study

As I began gathering ideas, I was fascinated by how many times in Scripture the Lord used clouds for his purposes.  Here are the verses we read and discussed.

Our main verse for memorization was Psalm 19:1.

Exodus 13:21   God went ahead of the Israelites in a cloud.

Exodus 16:10   The glory of God appeared in a cloud.

Exodus 19:9   God comes to the people in a dense cloud.

Exodus 24:15-18   The glory of God settled over Mt. Sinai in a cloud.

Luke 21:27   Jesus will return in a cloud of power and great glory.

1 Thessalonians 4:17   We will be caught up in the clouds with the Lord.  

Craftivities

Cloud People:  Our first activity was to make "Cloud People."  I made 3 different clouds in their typical shapes and 3 different pairs of legs in varying lengths.  Old Crow looked at each cloud shape and labeled them and then added the correct pair of legs.  So the stratus clouds are low in the sky.  Cumulus are in the lower/middle part of the sky, and cirrus are high in the sky.

Cloud Art:  To create a puffy and textured paint, we mixed together equal parts of Elmer's glue and shaving cream.  Then Old Crow created his clouds.  Once dry, the paint is a soft and puffy!  Very cool!!!

Then he wrote his memory verse and we added it to his painting.

It looked like a... activity:  After reading It Looked Like Spilt Milk, Old Crow designed his own cloud shape with cottonballs.

Cloud Flip Book:  Old Crow used cottonballs again for this activity as he depicted the three different clouds.  You can get the labels here.  

 

Sensory Play

Cloud Dough:  Instead of "playdough," we created Cloud Dough.  By mixing together 8 cups of flour with 1 cup of baby oil, we had a soft, cloud-like sensory activity.

Soft enough to feel like a cloud...yet it held its shape.  

I suspected Crazy Horse would love this...and boy, was I right!  He played, played, and played!  :)

Ivory soap cloud experiment:  We put a bar of original Ivory soap (and it must be Ivory) in the microwave and watched as it transformed into a soap cloud.  It grew and grew and grew!!  It feels stiff in the expanded form but can be easily smashed into smithereens...looking like snow.  So beware of doing this part in the house.  We also took it into the bathtub and let it snow!  You can find more great ideas for the soap cloud here.

Shaving Cream:  We sprayed shaving cream onto the tabletop and had fun.  Drawing, writing, and playing in the cloud-like shaving cream!

Extras

All About Clouds...YouTube Children's Video

Clouds...YouTube Children's Video

Science for Kids: Clouds...website

All About Clouds reponse sheet for recording information from videos, websites, books, etc.

Cloud Snack...jello and whipped cream.  :)  

Now as for all of those daily pictures we took of the clouds...

Once we have several pictures of all the different types of clouds, I will have them printed.  Then we are going to sort them by type and create a booklet.  We'll also add our craftivities to the booklet to have all our projects in one place.  I made these booklets once we finished our Butterfly study and Crop studies.  We keep them in our Nature Center, and Old Crow loves to go back through them and look at the things we have done.

Happy cloud hunting!  And I hope you see more than just clouds when you look into the sky...I hope see the glory of God and the works of His hands.

Jenny

P.S.  I'm sure family and friends may wonder where Memphis Belle was during this entire unit.  I assure you we have not given her away. :)  Most of these activities were done during her naptime.  We saved the cloud dough...she'll get her turn. ;)

Tuesday's Top 10: Learning about Pilgrims

Thanksgiving is such a special time.  We remember the history of our country, enjoy the harvest of crops, spend time with family, and share our blessings with others.  Turkeys are a big part of the Thanksgiving celebration, but this year in our homeschooling we will focus more on the Pilgrims and their journey.  I've gathered together 10 activities that will help us both learn and celebrate the Pilgrims' voyage.

Top 10 Activities for Learning about Pilgrims

1.  Read Stories of the Pilgrims.

As part of our Heart of Dakota curriculum, we will be reading about the faith, bravery, and hardships of the pilgrims.

2.  Watch Charlie Brown:  The Mayflower Voyagers.

This film is added as a bonus feature in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.  

It is also available on YouTube.

3.  Use Pilgrim and Native American figures to retell the story and for play.

Another mom shared these on our Heart of Dakota facebook page.  These figurines will be perfect to go along with our stories of the pilgrims and their encounters with Native Americans.  

Jamestown Settlers

Powhatan Indians

4.  Make a Mayflower craft.

Here are two handprint ideas I have found.

And here is a Mayflower ship that the boys can easily build.

It will go great with their Jamestown settlers. :)

As a Mayflower craftivity, we will also make a suitcase for the Mayflower with a list of items needed for the journey.  The writing can be expanded to tell a story of someone on the trip.  Many possibilities!!

5.  Compare and contrast our life today with what we learn about the life of Pilgrims.

We will use a Venn Diagram to compare modern times to Pilgrim times.  

Two books that describe the life of pilgrim boys and pilgrim girls are Samuel Eaton's Day and Sarah Morton's Day.  After reading them, we can compare and contrast the lives of pilgrim boys and girls.  Here is a Venn Diagram example:

6.  Thanksgiving Story Bracelet

We plan to read this poem about the Pilgrims journey and the first Thanksgiving.  The colored beads on the bracelet match the poem.  You can download the poem here.

7.  Pilgrims Blessing Mix

Here is a snack mix that represents the Pilgrims' life.  It could make a great gift. :)

Here is the original post.

8.  Make a Pilgrim hat and Native American headband.

You can find the Pilgrim hat directions here. 

And here are the directions for the Native American headband.

9.  Visit a Colonial Village

The American Village in Montevallo, AL is a "nationally pioneering classroom and American history education center."  They offer a one-of-a-kind Thanksgiving experience for children...Living America's Story.  This is just one example of such a place near our home.  I'm sure there are many others throughout the states.

10.  Read Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving.  

This entertaining and historical book shows that God is the hero of Thanksgiving...not white men or Indians.  It comes highly recommended!

After reading about Squanto, we will make a craft (with goldfish and corn) to show the way Squanto taught the white men to plant corn.

We will make a Squanto Snack to go along with his planting corn technique.

And we will also create Indian names for everyone.  Hmmm, maybe something like...

"He Who Talks too Much." ;)  This should be fun!

I can't wait to get started!  And I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Jenny

    

Pumpkins Everywhere!

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere.  Once the calendar reached October, we were ready to bring out the scarecrows and pumpkins.  Our crop studies on corn and peanuts were such a hit that I decided to spend some time on the pumpkin as well.  :)

  

We kicked off our pumpkin celebration by reading The Pumpkin Patch Parable.  This charming story shares how a farmer picks, cleans, and turns the pumpkin into a glorious sight.  On a much grander scale, God's love transforms our hearts...he chooses us, cleanses us of the "yucky" stuff, and gives us a new face in Christ.  This has become a favorite book, and we read it each October.  I also share it with our 4 yr. old Sunday school class.  It also allows kids to see the growth process of the pumpkins from seed, sprout, vine, to pumpkin.  Here's a great YouTube video that shows a time lapse of the pumpkin vines growing.   

  

Of course, making a sweet treat was agreed on by everyone!!  So we baked pumpkin cookies with sprinkles.  They didn't last very long. ;)

Then we gathered our pumpkins for a little investigation.  The boys used unifix cubes to measure the height of their pumpkins.  Then they compared their towers to see whose pumpkin was taller.  

I introduced the word "circumference" and Old Crow used a tape measure to measure around his pumpkin.

Next, we cut into our pumpkin to learn about the inside.  We found lots of slimy, stringy, yucky pulp and tons of seeds!  We compared the amount of pulp found in the two pumpkins.  One pumpkin had a lot more than the other...each pumpkin is unique!!

Memphis Belle enjoyed scooping and playing in the pulp.

We added faces and candles, and now we were all set for a fun time of trick-or-treating.  

Crazy Horse loves to play Starfall on the computer...especially the pumpkin activity.  So I found that they offer a pumpkin app for the ipad.  The boys were able to weigh different pumpkins, balance the scale, and then compare the weights.  They also enjoy playing with the faces of the pumpkins.

We played with paints and worked together to come up with orange paint.  Old Crow and Crazy Horse were quick to realize that mixing together red and yellow would give us orange.

Lastly, we took our pumpkin seeds and some yarn (the pulp) and created a picture to represent what we found inside the pumpkins.  

I'll end with this Scripture that was included in The Pumpkin Patch Parable:

"In the same way, let your light shine before men,  that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

Matthew 5:16

Jenny