middleschool

Hands-On Mixed Media Flower Art Fun Nature Study

May 14, 2018 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

You’ll love this fun mixed media flower art project.

Every spring, my youngest son and I go to the local nursery and pick out a few, inexpensive, flowering plants. He brings them home and plants them in “his pot.”

It’s a springtime routine we have enjoyed together since he was a toddler.

He likes to get his hands in the dirt. I love the look of flowers on my patio. It’s a win-win.

Picking out a few inexpensive flowering plants, adding in some gardening activities and art, and you’ll have a fun hands-on mixed media flower art fun nature study! Check out how easy it is to do this fun hands-on nature activity!

This year, I decided to take this gardening activity and use to it to fuel a quick nature study as well.

Hands-On Mixed Media Spring Nature Study

What you’ll need for this activity:

Flowering plants (either purchased or in your own yard)
Something to draw and color with (we used chalk pastels because they are very forgiving, but color pencils, crayons and even markers will work too)
A large piece of white construction paper (make sure it’s pretty heavy)
Clear glue

Nature Study At Home

The day after my son planted his special spring pot, we completed a basic geology lesson about soil.

I began by asking him what components he thought made up soil. He was easily able to answer broken down pieces of rock, but we decided to do some more research.

Soil is defined by Dictionary.com as the loose top layer of the Earth’s surface, consisting of rock and mineral particles mixed with decayed organic matter (humus), and capable of retaining water, providing nutrients for plants, and supporting a wide range of biotic communities.

We learned that different soils exist in different locations around the globe, based on their environment and weather. This came as a bit of surprise to my son, so we spent some time discussing a the clay soil we saw on our last family trip, verses the rocky silt that exists in our backyard.

Then, we decided it was time to move on to the fun, hands-on part of our learning.

Mixed Media Nature Study

In the past, we have collected items from the beach and from our hikes in the forest, and then used them to create mixed media art as a record of our experience.

Instead of using shells or pine needles, for this activity, we used the soil, leaves and flower petals available in our own flower pot.

He started by drawing his potted flowers with chalk pastels. (Because he dislikes the feeling of chalk on his fingers, he always wears latex gloves, but it works.)

After blurring the chalk lines, we then took some of the leaves and flower petals from our plants (only a few to keep the pot looking pretty!).

You’ll love these nature living books curriculum!

We then glued the leaves and petals to the picture in various locations.

More Ways to Learn about Nature in Your Homeschool

After allowing the glue to dry, he grabbed a handful of our soil and we observed the various bits of rocks and sticks that blended together to create our top layer.

We then spread glue around the bottom of the picture and rubbed the soil into it to create an additional area of interest in his art.

That’s it! The result was a beautiful representation of our hands-on, spring time activity.

I really love this idea for anyone not able to get out into more obvious natural environments like a hike through the woods or a tide pool at the beach.

Nature study can happen anywhere, with the help of a few pants, some soil and an interested learner!

Written by Shawna at Not the Former Things.

Hands-On Middle School Math: The Pythagorean Theorem

April 6, 2018 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

One important mathematical concept kids run into sometime in middle school or high school is the Pythagorean Theorem. Also, look at my page homeschool middle school for more fun tips

Pythagoras, an ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician, who was born around 569 BCE is credited with the discovery.

The Pythagorean Theorem is that theorem you probably remember from your own middle school and high school years: a² + b² = c². Today we’re going to teach our kids the theorem with a hands-on activity!

Hands-On Middle School Math: The Pythagorean Theorem. One important mathematical concept kids run into sometime in middle school or high school is the Pythagorean Theorem. Pythagoras, an ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician, who was born around 569 BCE is credited with the discovery. Click here to do this EASY hands-on activity!

But first let’s take a look at what a mathematical theorem is.

Hands-On Math: The Pythagorean Theorem

A mathematical theorem is a statement that can be shown to be true by accepted mathematical operations.

This means you can’t just make up a proof and say it works. You have to use logic, reasoning, and accepted mathematical operations to show the theorem is true. Today we’ll be using squares and areas to show the Pythagorean Theorem is true.

So what exactly is the Pythagorean Theorem?

Pythagorean Theorem: The square of a square drawn on the hypotenuse of a right triangle equals the sum of the areas of the squares drawn on the other two sides.

Put another way: a² + b² = c².

In other words. If you have a right angle and measure each side, the square of side a plus the square of side b is equal to the square of the long slope we call the hypotenuse.

What You Need for This Activity:

Graph Paper
Ruler
Scissors
Pen

Directions
According to the Pythagorean Theorem, if I draw a right triangle, the square of the two sides added together will equal the square of the hypotenuse. Let’s see if this actually works!

Step 1: Pull out your graph paper and draw a right triangle on it. I’m going to use sides with the length of 3 boxes and 4 boxes.

Step 2: Measure the hypotenuse.

Step 3: Remember square of a number is the area of a square with that length of side. So I’m now going to draw and cut out my squares. One square will have sides the length of 2 squares on the graph paper. One square will have sides the length of 3 squares, while the third will have the length I measured!

To make the next step more clear I’m going to highlight the squares in different colors. The small one will be yellow. The medium will be green. And the large one will be blue.

Step 4: Let’s see if the area of the two small triangles will equal the area of the large triangle! We’re going to do this by laying the medium square on top of the large square.

Now you have a choice. If you count the squares left over on the large triangle, you’ll notice there are 9 squares. And what’s 3²? 9! Or you can do what I did and cut the square to fit the left over area.

As you can see, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the sides. The Pythagorean Theorem works!

Now let’s run through all 4 steps again with different numbers. This time I’m going to use sides with lengths of 6 and 8.

Step 1: Again we create the right triangle.

Teaching the Pythagorean Theorem to Kids

Step 2: Now measure the hypotenuse.

Step 3: Create the squares.

Easy Way to Teach the Pythagorean Theorem to Kids

Step 4: Do the squares of the sides equal the square of the hypotenuse? The highlighter caused the sides of my squares to curl, so I used a touch of tape to force the squares to lie flat. Even so, as you can see the answer is yes!

Teaching the Pythagorean Theorem for Homeschoolers

Try the activity yourself using varying lengths for the sides.

No matter what the length of the sides of your right triangle, you’ll discover the squares always equal the square of the hypotenuse or a² + b² = c².

You’ve shown the Pythagorean Theorem works!

Written by Sara at Classically Homeschooling.

So what lengths did you use for your right triangles?

Teach math with these other fun homeschool activities!

Hands-On Middle School Math: Everyday Math Scavenger Hunt (Printable)

January 31, 2018 | 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have a hands-on middle school everyday math scavenger hunt free printable.

My children learn best through hands-on activities.

So far, I have managed to easily incorporate experiential learning into our history, science, and language arts studies.

Math, however, has been a different story. Finding age appropriate and relevant hands-on math for my middle schooler has been a challenge.

Add to this the fact that he doesn’t see the point in doing his math work at all, and it becomes clear that I need to find an out-of-the-box approach to this subject.

Hands-on Middle School Math and printable scavenger math hunt

I knew that the first thing I wanted to incorporate was an activity that would take math out of the textbook and into everyday life.

Too often, I find myself trying to simply tell him all the ways we use math everyday.

Hands-on Math for Older Learners: Everyday Math Scavenger Hunt

I am pretty sure he hears about 10% of what I say and then I become one of the adults in the Charlie Brown movies.

Rather than lecturing him about everyday math, I decided it was time to save my breath and create an activity that would allow him to explore it on his own!

What you will need for this activity:

Everyday Math Scavenger Hunt Printable
A Pen or Pencil
Time to Explore and Think

It’s super simple, to be sure, but I found it to be super effective as well!

After printing the scavenger hunt, I reviewed the different types of everyday math listed with my son.

The hunt requires the learner to look for examples of:

Temperature
A Recipe with Fractions
A Decimal
Numbers Written in Word Form
A Number Greater than 200,000,000
Height and Weight
Percentage
A Price
Volume Measurement
A Repeating Pattern
A Graph
Date and Time
An Angle

It also asks the learner as a bonus, to find three examples of everyday math on their own.

The only rule for this activity is that no textbooks or typical “school materials” can be used. The learner must find examples of math in everyday places.

In order to make it a little more challenging and also a bit more fun, I asked my son to first try to find as many of the items as possible outdoors.

Hands-On Middle School Math

My son did really well, and he really had to think a bit to find some of the items.

(Let’s just say percentages are not all over the place in our home – an old grocery receipt, with savings listed, did the trick, but it took a while to find.)

Overall, this was a great way to help my son understand why we learn math in the first place.

It also allowed to him to see first hand, how critical basic math skills are for his success in life.

More Every Day Math Activities

Having to critically think of how these math examples are present all around us, combined with having to come up with three of his own examples made for a math filled afternoon (with zero complaints!).

Hands-On Middle School Math: Everyday Math Scavenger Hunt. Making homeschool math of your everyday life by doing this fun hands-on middle school math activity of a scavenger hunt. Download a free printable everyday math scavenger hunt. CLICK HERE to grab the free printable and teach your kids out of the box middle school math!

How to Get the Free Printable

Now, how to grab the free printable. It’s a subscriber freebie.

When you sign up to follow me, you get access to this freebie.

1) Sign up on my email list to follow me and get this freebie and many others.
2) Grab the printable.
3) Last, look for my emails in your inbox as a follower. Glad to have you.

If you’re looking for a way to bring math to life, you’ll love the book, Loving Living Math for homeschoolers. This how-to guide for parents will help you understand and implement living math principles at any grade level.

We gave this activity an A+.

Written by Shawna at Not the Former Things.

How to Teach Limits: Hands-on Middle School Math

December 31, 2017 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Eventually kids run into the concept of limits during their math classes. In traditional classes, it’s common to use graphs to explain this idea. Also, look at my page homeschool middle school for more fun tips.

But when you homeschool, you can make learning a bit more hands-on, which is how I prefer to teach my children.

This fun hands-on math activity is a great (and simple) way to explore this concept with middle school students!

How to Teach Limits: Hands-on Middle School Math

Sometime around 450 BCE, Zeno of Elea, one of the ancient Greek Philosophers, gave a puzzle to his students.

A tortoise came up to Achilles and proposed a race.

You know who Achilles is, right? The hero of the Illiad (think Trojan War). The guy who died of an arrow in his ankle. The mighty hero himself!

Well we’ve met the tortoise in Aesop’s Fables. He’s a pretty smart guy.

So the tortoise comes up to Achilles and proposes a race. Achilles fell down laughing. A slow, crawling, reptile is challenging ME to a race?

Why yes. However I need a head start. 10 meters should be enough.

Achilles laughs harder, even with a head start he’d quickly catch the tortoise!

Then the tortoise begins to explain.

No matter how fast you run, you will only catch up to where I WAS, not where I am now. After you’ve run the 10 meters, I will have moved farther ahead.

No matter how fast you run, you will only run to where I have been. Not where I will be. I will have always added a small distance before you reach where I am. So you can never catch up to me.

Achilles sadly conceded the race.

So let’s take a look at this concept on the kitchen table.

Pull out your Achilles and Tortoise. We used two different Lego minifigures.

Set the Tortoise ahead of Achilles. Place a piece of tape or use a piece of posterboard to mark the spot where the tortoise is standing.

Now move “Achilles” to the designated spot, but move the “tortoise” slightly ahead.

Do this again and again and again. No matter how fast Achilles runs, he always ends up where the Tortoise WAS, not where he is.

In the pure world of mathematics, Achilles will always run the where the Tortoise WAS, not where the Tortoise IS. Achilles will get close to the Tortoise. He may be atoms away from the Tortoise, but he will never catch Achilles.

The tortoise is the limit for Achilles in the race.

A limit is the value that a function or sequence approaches as the input, or index, approaches some value.

Achilles can approach the tortoise but never quite reaches the tortoise. The tortoise is the Achilles limit!

Isn’t the pure world of mathematics fun!

Let’s take another look at limits through a joke my math professor once told us.

An engineer, physicist, and mathematician were placed on one side of the room. A line was drawn on the other side. They were told they could only go halfway each time.

So the engineer whipped out a calculator and measuring tape. After a few measurements and calculation, he quickly crossed the room.

The physicist pulled out a slide rule and a yard stick. After a few measurements and scribbled calculations, she quickly crossed the room as well.

The mathematician…. well the mathematician has yet to arrive!

So again, we pulled out the LEGO figure to take a look at what’s going on.

First you place one figure at one end of the table. Now measure the table and go halfway.

Measure the table and go halfway again!

As you can tell, if you only go halfway each time, you’ll never reach the end of the table.

The measurement of the table is the limit of the infinite series 1/2(table) + 1/4(table) + 1/8(table) + 1/16(table) + 1/32(table) and so on. Once you reach infinity, supposedly you’ll have reached the end of the table.

But not until then!

Hence our poor mathematician is trapped trying to get to the other side of the table.

Try again moving the mathematician 1/4 or 1/8 of the way each time. Does it change the limit or does the limit remain the length of the table?

Written by Sara at Classically Homeschooling.

Limits is a fascinating and fun concept to explore with kids!

Check out these other math activities for homeschoolers!

How Animals Cope With the Cold (Easy Nature Study)

December 29, 2017 | 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

How animals cope with cold.

Winter is a wonderful season for learning about animals with kids.

Animals go through so many different behavioral changes to adapt to cold temperatures and, when you can study those changes in your own backyard, it really makes scientific concepts come alive.

So I was excited to try the NaturExplorers ebook “Coping With the Cold”. I’ve been wanting to add in nature studies to our homeschool but didn’t need anything that requires a lot of fuss.

Winter is a wonderful season for learning about animals with kids. Animals go through so many different behavioral changes to adapt to cold temperatures and, when you can study those changes in your own backyard, it really makes scientific concepts come alive.

NaturExplorers ebook “Coping With the Cold” is a Charlotte Mason-inspired nature study program for learning about how animals adapt to winter temperatures. And it’s loaded with simple DIY projects, science activities, and plenty of notebooking pages too!

I was given this product free because I asked for it and couldn’t wait to use it. ALL opinions are my own and for sure I will always tell you what is on my mind. When I do accept a product it’s because I’m giddy to tell you about it. Read my full disclosure here. Now on to the fun stuff!

Take a look at what all is included in this excellent science curriculum!

NaturExplorers Review: Coping With the Cold

Since NaturExplorers is a Charlotte Mason-style program, the curriculum includes plenty of nature study activities and hands-on learning ideas for studying winter animal behavior.

And, along with all the printed activities for kids to complete, there are loads of notebooking pages and drawing prompts so they can record what they observe outdoors.

Nature Explorers Winter Animals Notebooking Pages

What I really like about NaturExplorers is that the program encourages kids to spend plenty of time outside in nature, finding out what animals do for themselves.

For example, the activities about bird migration were really informational and geography-based too.

Did you know that birds actually follow “flyways” – a version of bird highways? I didn’t!

This migrating animal research planner was such a neat idea, because it’s a great way to help children plan a research topic, organize their ideas, and outline an essay.

This is an excellent activity for middle school language arts.

By the way, these are just some of the notebooking and journaling activities in the program!

Easy Nature Study!

Charlotte Mason strongly encouraged art and journaling and NaturExplorers does a fantastic job of prompting kids to draw what they see and note what it tells them about animal behavior.

It’s art and science in one activity!

And, because I always love to encourage reading, I was thrilled to see that the program featured an activity for kids to complete using a nonfiction book about winter animals they choose from the library. (My favorite place!)

Even if you can only observe one or two different kinds of animals (depending on where you live), the idea of adaptations is so thoroughly covered that kids will be able to spot other adaptations in animals they read about.

Some of the other notebooking pages include questions for kids to answer, based on their own observations, and charts for them to fill out.

I also loved that NaturExplorers is so open-ended. There’s no weekly schedule or layout included, so you can pick up and pause as you need to. It’s a very relaxed curriculum and you adapt it to your own schedule.

Perfect for us eclectic homeschoolers!

I’ll be sharing a few of the NaturExplorers activities in upcoming posts, but – trust me – this is a fabulous winter nature study program that you’ll love as much as the kids do!

How to Purchase It.

►Product Name: Coping With the Cold.
►Website: Our Journey Westward.
►Type of product: Ebook instant download.
►Ages: Multiple grades 1st to 8th grade.
►Price: $12.00

See even more ways to include hands-on science in your homeschool!

Hugs and love ya,

middleschool

Hands-On Mixed Media Flower Art Fun Nature Study

Hands-On Mixed Media Spring Nature Study

Nature Study At Home

Mixed Media Nature Study

More Ways to Learn about Nature in Your Homeschool

Hands-On Middle School Math: The Pythagorean Theorem

Hands-On Math: The Pythagorean Theorem

Hands-On Middle School Math: Everyday Math Scavenger Hunt (Printable)

Hands-on Math for Older Learners: Everyday Math Scavenger Hunt

Hands-On Middle School Math

More Every Day Math Activities

How to Get the Free Printable

How to Teach Limits: Hands-on Middle School Math

How to Teach Limits: Hands-on Middle School Math

How Animals Cope With the Cold (Easy Nature Study)

NaturExplorers Review: Coping With the Cold

Easy Nature Study!

How to Purchase It.

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middleschool

Hands-On Mixed Media Spring Nature Study

Nature Study At Home

Mixed Media Nature Study

More Ways to Learn about Nature in Your Homeschool

Hands-On Math: The Pythagorean Theorem

Hands-on Math for Older Learners: Everyday Math Scavenger Hunt

Hands-On Middle School Math

More Every Day Math Activities

How to Get the Free Printable

How to Teach Limits: Hands-on Middle School Math

NaturExplorers Review: Coping With the Cold

Easy Nature Study!

How to Purchase It.

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