Science Fair 2011

Our homeschool group had our science and social studies fair this past week. Elijah entered a science project, How are Rocks Made?   Elijah made his project into a little learning center.

The board was interactive, the cards in the pockets can be taken out and moved around.The big white flap opens up and had matchbooks on the inside. At the top it says Can you name these rocks and minerals? Each little flap opens and has the name written in the matchbook. 

Elijah’s board had a lot of information and little booklets about rocks. Even a magnifying glass to use to take a closer look at the rocks.

We only took a few rocks to the fair. We have a ton of rocks, but the load would have been so heavy to try to take them all so I told Elijah to just pick a few of his favorites.

Elijah won 2nd place with his project. He was very pleased and of course I reminded him that I would have still been proud of him even if he didn’t place. The great thing about our fair is that everyone gets something so even if a project didn’t place 1st, 2nd or 3rd that person still got a medal.

Here is Elijah with his project and his trophy.

The Brain!

Elijah and I are going to be learning about the different parts of our body. We will do a unit and project on our body in between other studies.

We will be using this Anatomy book by Jeannie Fulbright.

 

We started with the brain. I set up the learning center with brain information.

I bought this styfoam head at Hobby Lobby for Elijah to draw the brain on it and label it.

  Some information about the brain.  What boy wouldn’t love eating a marshmallow brain?

Elijah did have fun cutting up that brain and eating it. It was too funny!

I’ll post a picture of the head after Elijah has finished drawing the brain on it.

Life Cycles

 

Remember the Learning Center I made for Elijah a while back? I decided to keep that one as our morning center so I made a new one that I change out for different units.

On this day the Learning Center was Life Cycles.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Items are either velcroed on or in pocket charts. It’s very interactive. Elijah can move things around as he is learning.

Above Elijah labeled the stages of a butterfly and below he is labeling the stages of a frog.

Elijah likes the interactive board and I have many many units planned to use with the board with so check back to see what we use it for next.

We also made a Life Cycle lapbook.

 

Table Time Learning Center

We have something we do in the mornings that we call Table Time, even though we don't always do it at the table, sometimes it is from the couch or could even be while lying in bed.

Basically it is where we go over skills, such as months of the year, days of the week and how to spell those and some flash cards and some quiz question from different subjects, Bible verse, states, presidents and other quick things like that.

Today we are using our new learning center as our Table Time Center.

That probably looks like a lot of stuff, but really it doesn't take long to go through it. It's hands on and  kind of fun and it's information Elijah needs to learn. Learning this way is quick and easy and the information really does stick by doing just a little each day.

On this side we have some multiplication flash cards, continents, days of the week, two math word problem cards each having 3 problems, presidents, months of the year, states and Bible verse that I stuck in the bottom pocket after the picture was taken.

In the middle we have 6 spelling cards, 4 vocabulary cards, 4 space cards, 4 geography cards, 3 science quiz cards, 3 history quiz cards (each with 3 questions on each card), 4 landmarks of the world cards. A globe showing the 7 continents and a map showing the 50 states.

I also have a magnifying glass with Velcro stuck to the board that can be used when the board is a science center.

On this side of the center we have a container clipped to the top to put cards in as we finish with them, a chart showing numbers and how to spell them, a dry erase board, a reminder card about telling time. a hundreds board, a card showing math symbols and telling what they mean, a money chart and a multiplication chart.
There is also a calculator clipped to the side of the board.

On the table we have a small stack of flash cards that we go through each day and a pointer stick for Elijah to use as he is telling me about stuff in the learning center. He already knows the answer to these flash cards, but I keep going through them anyway. It only takes a few minutes to go through that stack of cards.

So that is how we used our Learning Center today. I have a small box I keep our Table Time stuff in so it is kept all together and easy to change up or add new items.

Pretty much what we are doing for school these days is Table Time, Teaching Textbooks math on the computer, and then work on our unit study or lapbook.

I have a lot of ideas for using the center so check back to see how we change it up.

Elijah's Learning Center

I made Elijah a learning center that I am so excited about. It can be changed up to whatever subject we are working on. I'll be making some post to show different ways we use the center.

In the pictures below the board was set up with spelling information and a few spelling cards.

I bought the pocket chart in the middle from Target for $1 and I made the blue pocket chart myself. Elijah can use the small white board to write spelling words on. Everything is attached with Velcro. The board is a science project tri fold board that I covered with felt.

We went over a couple of rules and then looked at those 6 spelling words.

The possibilities are endless with our learning center. Everything is attached with Velcro so it can be moved around and changed up according to subject and material I have. Think mini bulletin board set that is interactive for your child. = FUN LEARNING!