Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Activity, Change, Progress

Geography Based

Ocean Unit Study: Vocabulary Words –Wave Pocket

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Yikes, we did it! Our house is finally listed for sale.   I thought I would share a few pictures of it because I have been talking about it for months as we have been getting it ready to sell.

You know I like things not so cluttered, but I still had to move out a good amount of stuff for pictures.  Plus you know I have been sharing pictures with you as my furniture sells.  So I have to constantly rearrange furniture so we can have a place to sit and do school,etc.

I love our saltwater pool with waterfalls.  It is a tranquil place outside.

This is part of my front living room area.

I cleared off my kitchen stuff  for the picture, but my kitchen is basically open to the rest of the house.  Though I don’t know this picture might make it look small, but it is a bit bigger.

I love my office and this is my “sanctuary” and place where I blog to you from.  I had to close one shutter because the light was too blinding for the picture, but I LOVE light and I normally have both shutters wide open.

Those are just a few pictures.  As soon as I take some more, I will share them with you.

In between getting ready for that and 1001 things you need to do to get ready for a big move, we have been trying to scoot along on our Ocean Unit Study.

I have been determined to school as long as we can because I know we will have one longggggggg interruption and I think I have come to peace with that notion.

Why are we our own worst enemies when it comes to meting out grace for ourselves?

Ocean Vocabulary Words Collage

Today, I have vocabulary words ready for our Ocean Unit Study along with a wave pocket.

Remember I try to aim a lot of my lapbooks for about middle school age if I can.  It’s so easy to find printables and projects on this subject for the younger grades, but tough to find hands-on things as our kids hit the middle grades to high school.  I am determined to keep it both fun and hands-on all the way to high school.

Ocean Unit Study: Vocabulary Words

So I do use cursive font and try to steer away from babyish looking clip art where possible to keep lapbooking likable for the older kids too.

Tiny also decided to do some coloring on this lapbook for a cover page.  I will share that in an upcoming post too.

Download Vocabulary Words and Pocket here.

Hugs and love ya,

If you missed them, grab these other posts in my Ocean Unit Study – Ocean Lapbook

Ocean Unit Study Language Arts: Message in a Bottle

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I am pulling out all the stops today or is that corks? Ha ha corny I know.  But I have set aside a few things for Tiny in doing our ocean unit study for language arts and one of them is preparing a message in a bottle.

Ocean Unit Study Message In a Bottle Language Arts
Ocean Unit Study Message in a Bottle 1

Too, I want to be sure I use up some of the “treasures” I keep in what I call my “Mary Poppins Bag”.  They are usually games, fun hands-on items, books or some other manipulative that I buy or collect, keep in my “reserve” or stash and don’t let the boys know about.  Then I bring them out to add a twist to our day, ramp up a lesson plan or to use with a unit study.

In this case, I wanted to give Tiny a writing assignment outside of the box and well inside the bottle and I can’t think of anything more fun than writing a message in a bottle.  So we used this message in a bottle kit I had purchased.

Ocean Unit Study Message in a Bottle 2

I probably could have found a bottle around here, made some cool map and writing page, but I had this nifty little purchase already in my house.  Keeping hands-on activities easy for me him, why not use up what I have already.

Since my house is emptying out nicely, craft items are getting harder to find too.  But I knew that and I planned ahead a bit by stocking up my “Mary Poppins Bag”.

Ocean Unit Study Message in a bottle 3

Actually this kit had a cool ocean current map so he can predict where his bottle may go.  He made some predictions from where we will be dropping it off.  It also came with a box or container so he can store his bottle in the container until we get ready to fly out of here.

Since we will be flying out of Florida when we move, we can drop it in the ocean there. That’s the plan anyway.

I can tell you this morning he is not having any trouble composing his first draft.  Ideas are overflowing.  Give kids a purpose to write, include a few hands-on items and they’ll be inspired to communicate.

Hugs and love ya,

Also See: Oceans Unit Study

What is the Ocean Minibook

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I keep on pushing through with our home school schedule and created the minibook: What is the Ocean next.  What is the Ocean Hoping to squeeze in the Ocean Unit Study that we prepared together in our 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies by Creating a Unit Study Together before I have to completely stop homeschooling and prepare for the move might be too big of a goal, but nothing ever came from not planning.

I have learned through many years of homeschooling that with big changes you need to mete out some grace to yourself too.

Talking about moving, which you may get so tired of me talking about, but look what sold and was gone today.

piano - Copypiano gone

This sale pulled at my heart strings a wee bit because all of my boys learned how to play on this piano.   Focusing on the fun and wonderful opportunity we will have of living overseas though, I think I might be able to get over this quickly.

My plan for now is to not slow down with any school since I know we will have a long stop when we move.

We will go ahead and start our Ocean Unit Study.  I have already started creating printables.  As usual I have tried to create some of this minibook with cursive writing so it is not babyish and because if your kids are like mine they can always use the practice reading all kinds of cursive fonts.

Also, this minibook is easy enough to find the answers to because it is just a matter of locating Oceans and Seas in their Atlas on online, whichever you prefer them to do.  I will eventually be creating a page with links too, but I have already collected several links when we prepared this unit study together and will be sharing them again together as I round them up.

So the title of this minibook comes right off one of the chapters from the book I told you we would use as a simple spine when we did our 10 day unit study series together, which is Discover the Oceans: The World’s Largest Ecosystem.

Download here What is the Ocean free minibook

Hugs and love ya,

2014Tinasignature

Fun Ocean Unit Study Resources

How To Make An Easy Ink pot & Quill Pen with Berry Ink

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If I do start a series called hodgepodge homeschooling it would include how to make an easy ink pot and quill pen with berry ink that Tiny did today. This is such an easy and fun hands-on activity that can go along with any topic on westward expansion, Lewis & Clark or just the life of a pioneer.

Howtomakeaneasyinkpotandquillpenandberryink

While I worked in the kitchen pricing my items for the moving sale this weekend, Tiny could do most of this on his own.  Plus, this easy activity went along with the Free Westward Ho History cards he is memorizing right now.

How to Make an Easy Ink pot

The first thing we did was to make an easy ink pot so that the paint could dry while we made the berry ink.

Here is the list of what we ended up needing:

  • 1 empty plastic bottle.
  • sharp craft knife.
  • 1 small piece of cardboard.
  • masking tape.
  • black acrylic paint/paintbrush.
  • one sharpie.
1inkpot2inkpot
3inkpot4inkpot

Cut the top off the plastic bottle because the top is the perfect size for an ink pot.  I actually did the cutting because the knife was just too sharp to let Tiny do it by himself.

Then place the cut lid on the cardboard and trace a circle or template out of the cardboard with the sharpie.  The cardboard circle is the bottom of the ink pot.  Using the craft knife, cut the circle out.  Then start wrapping masking tape around the ink pot and taping the bottom round cardboard piece to the ink pot.  We ended up not using the cap that is for the lid.

5inkpot

Then Tiny painted the ink pot with the black acrylic paint and set it aside to dry.  How easy was that?

Easy Berry Ink and Quill Pen

The next thing Tiny did was grab some ingredients he thought he would need for the berry ink and quill pen. He was pretty close.

Look at this list for making the berry ink and quill pen.

  • 1/2 to 1 cup berries.  We actually had mixed blackberries, blueberries and some raspberries that were overripe in the refrigerator.
  • 1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt depending on how much ink you make.  We used a full one teaspoon because he used a whole cup of berries.  So about 1/2 teaspoon of salt for 1/2 cup of berries is the measurement.
  • 1/2 to 1 teaspoons of vinegar depending too on how much ink you make.  Again, we used a full one teaspoon because we used a full cup of berries.
  • 1 feather. A contour feather is better.  We had feathers laying around the house from some Native American head dress we had, but you could easily buy one or better yet, send your kids outside to find a couple of feathers.
  • 1 small bowl for mixing.
1 quillpen4quill pen
2 QuillPen3quillpen

First, he tried to smash the berries because I knew they needed to be strained and the pulp taken out.  It wasn’t too easy and that seemed like too much work to me.

So I pulled out the hand held lemon squeezer and it worked much better.  No need to mash, then strain because it’s all done at one time in the hand held lemon squeezer.  So we added berries, squeezed and out came the juice and we threw away the pulp.  The squeezer took a little bit more time, but I think that process helped Tiny to understand the effort the early pioneers had to put forth to produce ink.

Add the salt and vinegar and stir.  That’s it.  If it’s too thick, add a wee bit more vinegar.   Our concoction came out just right the first time.

6inkpot17quillpen
7inkquill8 ink quill

The feather required some kitchen shears to cut it to a point.

You probably have most of this stuff laying around your house like we did.  It was a fun way for Tiny to spend the morning learning about the early pioneers and Lewis and Clark.  He had to try his hand at writing a bit more like Lewis and Clark did.  It makes you appreciate how fond Lewis and Clark must have been of journaling because of the sheer effort it took to make ink and then to preserve their writings for generations to come.

GRAB THESE OTHER RESOURCES AND HANDS-ON IDEAS

If hodgepodge homeschooling tastes like this today, we might add it a bit more.  No complaints from Tiny or his mom on the fun we had today.

Hugs and love ya,

If you want some other activities to go with an early American history unit study, then grab these other ones too. Free Printable History Board Game – Learning American History Through the Life of Wyatt Earp, make soap and make hardtack.

Check out some other fun resources for studying about Westward Ho, Lewis & Clark and Pioneer Life

Learn About the Geography of France by Creating A Solar Oven

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, we are learning about the geography of France by creating a solar oven.

Wanting to add in a bit of geography by exploring about France, we had read in our atlas how France will be providing the United Kingdom with enough electricity to power one light bulb in every home. 

This lead to our discussion of the world’s problem of energy consumption and how the sun is an unfailing source of energy.

Soar Oven. Learn About the Geography of France by Creating a Solar Oven

The only way to test out the power of the sun is to bake chocolate chip cookies of course.

Learn About the Geography of France by Creating A Solar Oven

Creating a Solar Oven

What you need:

  • 2 pizza boxes, one small, one large
  • craft knife
  • newspaper or polystyrene foam
  • non-toxic black paint, but we used black paper
  • non-toxic glue
  • aluminum foil and clear plastic sheeting to cover the larger pizza box
  • string, sun glasses, tape, a marker and either a single hole puncher or way to make a small hole. We used our ice pick.
  • chocolate chip cookie dough or make your own

Place the small pizza box on top of the larger pizza box with one side touching.  Using the marker, draw an outline on top of the larger pizza box because you will be cutting on that line.

Learn About the Geography of France by Creating A Solar Oven

Cut on the line with your sharp craft knife and don’t cut all the way through.  Basically you will be creating a lid on the bigger box when you cut on the line.

Learn About the Geography of France by Creating A Solar Oven

Then next we lined the inside of the bigger box with aluminum foil and then we stuffed newspaper or if you have polystyrene to fill the space on the outside edges.  We just did our best in wadding the paper up small so it fit snugly all the way around the inside edges.

Learn About the Geography of France by Creating A Solar Oven

Next, we worked on the small pizza box.  Instead of using non-toxic black paint to paint the bottom of the small box because we only had acrylic paint and I don’t think it’s so non-toxic (you certainly could make your own natural paint too), we used black construction paper to put on the bottom inside box.

Learn About the Geography of France by Creating A Solar Oven

Then, we placed the small pizza box with black construction paper and put it inside the larger box. 

You see from the picture above, we have two lids as well.  

Be sure the lids from each box are next to each other and not both on the same side because you will be using the lids to grab the sun and form a “corner”.   

After that, we got more newspaper and wadded it up real good and stuffed more down in the crevice between the larger and smaller box just to be sure we had it insulated real well.

Learn About the Geography of France

By the way, we used plain old Elmer’s glue (non-toxic) to hold the black construction paper in place on the small box. 

Also glue black paper or use your non-toxic black paint to paint the outside edges of the bigger box too.  This helps to hold the heat in.

Learn About the Geography of France by Creating A Solar Oven

As you can see in the picture above we have added our black construction paper to the outside bigger box.  T

he next thing we did was to line the inside smaller box and lid and the lid of the bigger box with aluminum foil. 

I wish we would have known earlier too, but try to keep the aluminum foil as wrinkle free as possible so it reflects light into the box and it is not bouncing.

Almost done!

Learn About the Geography of France by Creating A Solar Oven

The next thing now to do is to make a small hole at the top of both lids, wide enough for your string to go through. 

You want the lids to stand up and form that “corner” I mentioned earlier. 

Just tape the string on the back of the box after you pull it tight to keep the lids up.Make A Solar Oven 8

The final touch is to add some chocolatey goodness to your solar oven and you’re ready to bake!  One more thing, be sure to cover the cookies with some plastic wrap.  Seal it tight because you want to hold the heat in.

Learn About the Geography of France by Creating A Solar Oven

Using his sunglasses so the sun and reflection from the foil doesn’t hurt his eyes, Tiny adjusted the oven for best exposure, and we waited, waited and waited.

Doing this in the winter, we didn’t have real strong sunlight the whole day and the mornings were cool.  But even with those factors, we were pretty happy with the results after a few hours.

More French Revolution Activities and Learning About France

It could take anywhere from 30 minutes to hours before you see progress depending on weather factors.

Learn About the Geography of France by Creating A Solar Oven
Learn About the Geography of France by Creating A Solar Oven

And then presto! Tiny was pleased. 

Our cookies took several hours to cook, (tip: don’t let your kids know, but try to keep them small so they will bake faster) but then again it probably didn’t help that Tiny had to check on them about 300 times and with a magnifying glass to speed up the process.

It was a great way to spend the day waiting and anticipating chocolate chip cookies!

And oh yes, talking about the culture of France too!