Some School Projects :)

L and E with their mosquito traps made from bottles, tape, yeast, sugar and water! 

(Thank you Pinterest! )

J's spaghetti bridge experiment .. 

J had to put pennies in the triangle paper piece and see how many pennies both spaghetti and fettuccine could hold without breaking and compare the two. Pretty neat!! He really enjoyed it! 

The bridge he designed himself! 

His birds nest out of newspapers, a pipe cleaner and toothpicks... It held an amazing 136 pennies!! 

Bird Houses :)

Well this weekend we had a extra day and we got a couple extra things done! 

One was the bird houses got put up! YAY!!

L under the tree with his birdhouse. 

J3's bird house.. he was asleep when we put them up but he knows this is his. 

Each birdhouse has a letter on it.. J's has his name as it's short enough to fit :) 

E supervising Papa putting up her bird house.

J chose one of the last pine trees on the place for his birdhouse! 

One of the extra 3 went in this big old spruce tree beside the house! 

One of the few trees Papa and I want to keep around the house.

R wanted hers on the chick barn. 

There is also one on Papa's shed and another poplar tree right behind the house.

8 new bird houses! I was a bit worried we'd be too late with Spring all of a sudden showing up but there were birds fighting over at least two of the houses the next day!! YAY!! 

The kids are very excited to see if their bird house gets chosen and if the birds like the locations they picked! Time will tell :) 

I will HOPEFULLY keep you updated.. I'm able to sit for short periods of time these days but it's going to get even busier around here for the next oh.... 6 months :) lol. 

Funny Faces :) Drama Fun.

These two had to do a Drama activity where you only use your face to communicate  It was fun actually and they needed each pick a face and have their picture taken. L is going for angry and E is going for surprised. 

J's Puppet Show.

For Movement and Drama this term J had to do a puppet show, either Little Red Riding Hood or The 3 Little Pigs.. he choose The 3 Little Pigs and did a fantastic job with it. 

The first little pig and his house of straw.

The second little pig and his house of sticks.

The 3rd little pig and his house of brick.

The wolf talking to the first little pig. 

House one and two blown over, all the little pigs in the brick house and the wolf climbing up on the house to go down the chimney.  

Nutrition AKA FOOD FUN!!!

E and L's groupings of breakfast, lunch and supper using the Canada food guide 

They also had to fill in a chart with which foods they used and put them in the right heading... Grains, protein  etc. 

Rock Candy :)

Kids and I attempted to make rock candy again this year, grade two science, and it didn't really work.. it worked better then last year but not super well. At least this year we got crystals :)

J's Teepee

Side view :) 

The art on the back. 

J also had to make a teepee for school :) He did a great job!! 

Birdhouses

 J was suppose to make a 'stick house' out of a cardboard box, Popsicle sticks and tubes of paper.. I showed it to Papa and we both decided it was a useless thing. Then Papa put his foot down and said 'if he has to build something with wood it should be USEFUL" so we built bird houses instead of clutter.. It  also ties in nicely to our on going bird unit :) He did read the pages that went with the 'stick house' project :) 

J and his birdhouse :)

It really was a family project. Papa and I cut the boards, Papa cut the holes and helped the kids put them together. J, L and E pretty much put theirs together with the drill with Papa only showing and holding and  putting in a couple of 'holding screws.' R and J just passed him screws to put in to their birdhouses. 

 They are only missing one thing.. Papa is going to drill holes in the front under the entrance hole for a stub of a stick for a perch. 

L and his bird house :) 

E and her birdhouse. 

R and her birdhouse! 

J3 was SO very proud of his and that he got to 'help' Papa make it!! He loves it!! 

We marked them so when we put them up we will be able to remember who's is who's. The kids are very excited to put them up around the place and see who decides to live in them. 

Marshmallows And Toothpick Creations.

J with his shapes :) 

L with his shapes. 

L with his creation. I think it was a house. 

E with her shapes.

E with her train creation!! 

The BEST part of making shapes with marshmallows and toothpicks is....

You get to eat the marshmallows when your done!! 

Kids Projects~ Cheese Making.

Stir, stir stir the milk while it heats to 120F!!

 J is stirring, E is checking the temp.. they all had a turn doing both. 

L measuring the vinegar for this simple vinegar cheese! 

3/4 of a cup per gallon of milk.

Taking a look to see if it's the right temp yet! 

Yes they are in their PJ's!! It was a lazy fun day! 

Pouring in the vinegar!! While his sister stirs. 

Stir stir stir!!

Normally it changes color. The cheese stays white and the whey goes greeny. I'm not sure why it didn't.. maybe because she's not on green grass?? The cheese looks good though! 

We let it sit for 30 minutes, drained it off and let it drain for 4 or so hours before putting it on a plate in the fridge. I use this cheese for breadstix and lasagna's and IN stuff. You can also slice it and salt it and it's a pretty good melting cheese for sandwiches or what have you. You can drain it just a tiny bit, crumble it before adding salt and pepper and cream to make a cottage cheese but I prefer to use rennet for cottage cheese now that I know how :) 

Arm Trees :)

Today we made some leaves for our Thankful Tree, post coming soon,

 and these really neat arm trees with leaves from outside! 

Super easy, you just trace your hand and arm and glue leaves on :) 

School Patterns :)

Last week Friday we had a pajama day and did some fun hands on school.

E's Patterns with blocks :) 

Crazy faced L and his patterns :) 

We had quite a fun day, and did a lot more then just patterned blocks, but this post is for Mrs. Hunt the kids teacher down south :) and these are the only ones she needs in pictures :)