Firstly the eggs get painted with acrylic.
These are then stuck down to black card with modge podge - the eggs crack as they are pushed down to glue them down. Once the glue dries, the card is cutting into lots of leaf shapes.
An autumn tree is painted and then the leaves are stuck down, a really effective picture.
Eden's tree.
First make salt dough, and find some leaves to make leaf imprints into the salt dough.
Niamh got really creative and made a frog.
Jude even got stuck in with the painting.
Niamh enjoyed putting the finishing touches on her frog - perhaps a paperweight ?
Niamh finishing it off with some modge podge.
Which seals it off nicely and gives it a nice shine.
Firstly the picture is drawn on material, and then the picture is glued with washable pva.
The material and picture is then painted over with acrylic paint.
The end pictures - above is Eden's, below is Niamh's. Note how the tree is totally covered over.
Once the painting is dry, the material is placed in hot water so that the glue(which covered the trees) comes off, and pulls the paint off with it.
To reveal the lovely autumn tree pattern below.
Niamh's tree.
On art day Eden also did a sketch of a Komodo Dragon, a reptile she is utterly fascinated with.
Niamh's painting.
Eden's painting
In this experiment a ping pong ball is dented.
The dented ball is placed in a cup of hot water.
The air inside the ball heats up, expands and pushes the dent out.
Eden has been learning about conduction of heat. In this experiment she had to find out what material would conduct the heat the best. The three different materials(wood, plastic and metal) are placed in a cup of hot water and a blob of butter with a raisin is placed on the top. The heat travels up the materials, melts the butter and the raisin falls into the water.
We have always dabbled in geography in some shape or form, be it map work or learning about geological topics. Eden is self studied in rocks and minerals as it is a pet love of hers, and the kids have done various topics on things like weather and volcanoes etc, but I have felt the need to get a bit more organized with geography and find a fun and interactive curriculum. I like the one below and the kids have had fun with it already too, it increases general knowledge and brings in map work alongside, as always I am learning as much as the children.
Ciara choosing some autumn colours.
Niamh's finished autumn tree.
This has perhaps been Eden's most challenging maths book so far. It has dealt with mostly fractions, algebra and decimals and area and volume. There has been a lot of explaining from my side as Eden is not naturally mathematical, but we got to the end, and she achieved a great 90% for the final tests, and dark mint chocolate was her choice for a reward well deserved.
She has also done quite a bit out of this Kumon book on fractions to solidify what she learned in her mathusee.
Jude has also finished his Alpha, he is so enthusiastic to do more and more, but he hit a wall when subtracting bigger numbers, like 14-8 in his head. Mastering is crucial in mathusee so you cannot move on until these kinds of facts are known automatically. He just wasn't get them quick enough and was getting frustrated, so we took some time out in the book below for a few months, and when he had come round to understanding these facts, he easily finished the rest of Alpha, and is so excited to start the Beta now. (And we still need to get him his reward.)
And Eden, Niamh and Ciara love to draw while I read, so they get lots of practice nearly every night.
Pirates, by Eden.
Swan, by Eden.
We also had some writing practice in flour. She is actually great with writing all the letters I show her to write, aswell as all the numbers, but all kids love playing a bit messy, and she had fun just forming the letters in flour.
Every time we make a new colour playdough it renews their interest in playing with it, and who can resist this lovely bright orange playdough. Thanks to gel food colourings the possibilities are endless.
She had fun making biscuits with her big sister, as well as rolling the balls for the biscuits.
And I think we have another budding little artist, she spends hours just like her big sister Eden used to when she was that age.
We used a favourite craft - stained glass water colour. Eden did the drawings for everyone.
Eden is getting more artistic with her use of shades.
Jude doing a tortoise.
Niamh painting a turtle.
