Amsterdam Souvenirs

Alexandra was happy that Daddy got back from Amsterdam - AND that he brought her some souvenirs. Daddy brought her this pink t-shirt that says "Fairytale Princess - Amsterdam" and these cute little wooden shoes that have windmills painted on them. He also brought me a box of "Rembrandt painting" wrapped chocolates and a box of "wooden shoe" chocolates (they are incredibly delicious!). He also brought home several ceramic "wooden shoes" that are white with blue painting. I'll have to take some more pictures!

Vincent Van Gogh

Today we finished up our quick study of Van Gogh by painting pictures like his. We both painted a "Starry Night" picture, and Alexandra painted a "Sunflowers" picture. Above is our refrigerator art.

Our favorite resources:

• Van Gogh (Getting to Know the Worlds' Artists) by Venezia - I'm sure I said it before, but we like thise series
• Vincent Van Gogh: Sunflowers and Swirly Stars (Smart About...) by Bucks & Holub - another series we really enjoy - it's written like a book report (but humorous) by a student - afterward, Alexandra had us write "reports" about Van Gogh
• at Starfall - http://www.starfall.com/n/artmusic/vangogh/load.htm?f - we read about Van Gogh, and also about Seurat and Gauguin who were a part of his life
• Camille and the Sunflowers by Laurence Anholt - a true story about a young boy who became friends with Van Gogh - pretty good

The Pony Express

We've been reading lately about the Pony Express to prepare us for a field trip next week to the Pony Express Museum in Missouri.

Books:

• Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express by Eleanor Coerr - one of my favorites
• The First Ride: Blazing the Trail for the Pony Express by Geis - lists the riders of the first ride and where they went - I found it kind of dull, but Alexandra said she enjoyed it
• Bronco Charlie and the Pony Exprss by Brill - we both really enjoyed this book about the youngest Pony Express Rider
• Ride Like the Wind: A Tale of the Pony Express by Fuchs - another of my favorites & Alex's, too - tells about a rider who got shot by an Indian arrow, falls off his horse, and his horse comes back to save him
• Pony Express! by Steven Kroll - has neat photos at the back of how mail delivery has changed over the years

Houston Livestock Show & Carnival

This week, we attended the Houston Livestock Show & Carnival for the 3rd time. We went at 2 pm and stayed until 7 pm - this was the first time we've seen the rides lit up at night.

I forgot my camera and at first I was glad that I didn't have to worry about taking pictures, and instead could just enjoy being with Alex and watching her have fun. But, then she did some neat "firsts" and I wish I could have taken some photos!

The photo above is from the following day. Alex took her white souvenier horse with pink reigns to school with her. She named her Pinky. She dressed up as a cowgirl to show Pinky for Show-and-Tell.

Some highlights of our day:

• first time riding bumper cars!
• first time riding a ride where it takes you to the top of a pole & drops you over & over (hmmm... not a great discreption...with I had pictures!)
• we watched a cow get mechanically milked and heard about the process
• saw baby chicks hatching from eggs
• she got her finger pinched on the ride that "drops you over & over"
• first time being 42 inches at the carnival, so she got to ride some "bigger kid" rides

Alex says her favorite part was "the rides."

The Netherlands

We've been studying about the Netherlands since Daddy will be going there next week. Here is a photo of the windmill we made. It is from 3D Canon Papercraft. You can actually blow on the vanes and they will spin.


Movie:

• Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates (Disney) - a wonderful movie that also shows the windmills, danger of the dikes, etc.

Non-fiction Books:

• Welcome to the Netherlands by Reynolds & Ngcheong-Lum - read a few parts, but we mainly looked at the pictures & read the captions
• Rembrandt (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists) by Venezia - we like this series - funny & informative
• The Netherlands (A True Book) by Heinrichs - we enjoy this series
• Boxes for Katje by Fleming - very good book - true story about the author's mother sending care packages to a Dutch family after WWII
• Look What Came From The Netherlands by Kevin Davis - pretty good series; this series is a good place to learn about the inventions, food, etc. from a country

Fiction books:

• Hana in the Time of the Tulips by Noyes - very sweet story - it also has Rembrandt visiting little Hana
• The Cow Who Fell in the Canal by Krasilovsky - cute
• The Hole in the Dike retold by Green, pictures by Eric Carle - retells the story in classic Carle illustrations
• Katje the Windmill Cat by Woelfle - nice, true story about a cat & a baby who survived the flooding of South Holland
• The Great Tulip Trade (Step Into Reading) by Brust - our favorite book for this study - tells about the tulip mania of 1637 in a fiction story
• The Boy Who Held Back the Sea retold by Hort

Cheese tasting:

• We tasted Gouda & Edom cheese. Alexandra had never tried either. She liked the Edom a little bit better, but didn't care much for either one. I was familiar with Gouda, but found I liked Edom better.

Samuel Morse & the Morse Code

Next week, we'll be going to the Pony Express Museum in St. Joseph, MO. We have learned that the Gold Rush was the event that created the need for the Pony Express and the completion of the transcontinental telegraph triggered the ending of it. So, today we read a book about Samuel Morse and the Morse Code. Then, we each took turns writing letters to each other in Morse Code. Then, we had to decipher it. Above is a copy of my message.

Resources:

• Lives and Times: Samuel Morse by Hall - a nice, 32 page introduction to Morse, the Morse code, and his telegraph
• Samuel Morse by Kerby - I actually read this children's book to myself as it is a lot longer. There is a diagram and instructions of a telegraph set you can make yourself & I think we'll try it! (see below - we tried it with Papa doing the work!)
• Quick, Annie, Give Me a Catchy Line! by Quackenbush - has some humor, too

• 

While we were visiting, Alexandra's Papa built her this telegraph set. He remembered making one when he was in school.

The picture above is of Alexandra watching her Papa build the telegraph. It was fun to play with and see how they actually work! Thanks Papa!!!

Graphs

We've been learning to graph using the following books:

• Graphs (An All Aboard Math Reader) by Bonnie Bader - cute story about a boy doing his homework by making graphs at a family reunion
• Lemonade for Sale by Stuart J. Murphy (we've read several times - pretty cute!)
• The Great Graph Contest by Loreen Leedy - a new book by her - shows different kinds of graphs

Cephalopods

While we were at a museum last week, we observed a cuttlefish. We were fascinated by it and so I looked it up when we got home. As I suspected, it is closely related to the octopus & squid. (They are all cephalpods.) So, we did a very quick study on these fascinating creatures!

We made an octopus out of a hot dog, but my camera batteries are low and I guess it didn't save the photo. Last night for dessert, we made these cute little ice cream octopi. (We made them just like we had made the insect & arachnid desserts, because they were so yummy!!!)

Movie:

• See How They Grow: Sea Animals - showed several animals, including a cuttlefish, from egg to adult

Books:

• we read several short books at the library, but I didn't write them down
• Giant Squid: Mystery of the Deep by Dussling - wow! the squids are amazing!
• Tentacles! Tales of the Giant Squid (Step Into Reading) by Redmond - Alexandra thought this was a little scary at first - it shows giant squids grabbing boats & people, but THEN it tells you that it isn't true, since giant squids live very deep in the ocean - it would have helped if I'd warned her!

Math:

• How Do Octopi Eat Pizza Pie? by Time-Life for Children - only the title and one part of this math book is about Octopi, but it's a great math book! - part of a series we love

Finishing Up Greece

We are now finishing up our study of Greece and the Olypmics. I made Alexandra a better tunic out of an old blue sheet. She has worn this several days as she plays she is a Goddess.
We also made little "ceramic" horse toys (out of clay pressed on to pipe cleaners shaped as a horse). Unfotunately, we'd bought 2 different types of clay - one you are supposed to cook, and one you are not supposed to cook. I put our poor horses in the oven, and they melted.



We also made a chariot - riding in it is baby Jesus, from our King Cake.


Lastly, we wrote our names in Greek. It's so much easier than writing in Chinese!
Additional resources we used:

• Hercules Disnney movie
• Trojan Horse - A Crayola Kids movie - Alexandra LOVED this and probably watched it 6 or 7 times. They have 2 more movies, but our library doesn't carry them. I'm thinking about buying all 3.
• read some Aesop Fables from a few different books
• Alexander the Great, a What's Their Story? book by Langley - just a good intro to this man, but I skipped over a few sentences about death, killing, etc.
• Androcles and the Lion by Janet Stevens - one of the few myths that wasn't too scary to read!
• Greek Myths at http://www.starfall.com/n/level-c/greek-myths/load.htm?f
• Adventures in Ancient Greece (Good Times Travel Agency book) by Bailey - we love these books - fun & informative - just to let you know, this one has drawings of Olympic athletes without clothes (backside only)
• The Librarian Who Measured the Earth by Kevin Hawkes (added April 2006) - great book about the man, Eratosthenes, who measured the earth pretty accurately more than 2000 years ago - a few pages got pretty technical with angles and degrees, but besides that it was very enjoyable even for a 5-year-old

Living Math

A few weeks ago we came across a Living Math book web group. We'd used some of them before, but didn't know them as "Living Math books." And, with the group, we've gotten access to long lists of math books! Alexandra & I are both loving these.


In the picture above, we were working on fractions after making some paper plate "pizzas."

Here are some of our favorite books from the past few weeks:

• Mission Addition by Loreen Leedy (one of our favorite math authors!)
• Math-terpieces by Greg Tang (another favorite math author!) - has art pictures by famous authors & then you have to group objects to make a certain number
• Math for All Seasons by Greg Tang - practices "skip counting" in a cool way
• The Go-Around Dollar by Adams - we both learned alot about our dollars
• What's Faster than a Speeding Cheetah? by Robert E. Wells (another great author)
• What's Smaller thana Pygmy Shrew? by Wells - talks about atoms, electrons, etc, in a fun way
• How Do You Lift a Lion? by Wells - talks about simple machines
• Can You Count to a Googol? by Wells
• Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is? by Wells - talks about the universe, solar system, etc.
• Counting Time: From Seconds to Centuries by Joan Sweeney
• How Do You Know What Time It Is? by Robert E. Wells
• Safari Park by Stuart J. Murphy - addition to 20 & finding out how many more you need to make a certain number (i.e. 20) - Alex really enjoyed this one!