Hands-on Learning on the European Regions

Mavi is into geography once again and we are revisiting the Continent of Europe.  My approach for this year’s study is to look at Europe through the different regions.  It’s easier to understand and internalize facts when they’re into smaller groups than attacking them as a whole.

So I created these label cards for northern (blue), western (red), southern (orange) and eastern (green) Europe.  The color coding is based on our map in Europe in a Nutshell.  The mini flags seen in the photo is from Flags of Europe printable.

Science Experiments: Twinkle Twinkle Stars and {Learn & Play Link Up}

I love simple and easy to prepare experiments.  That’s why when we received a Janice VanCleave’s book as present last year, I was so elated! I love her books of experiments!  So we are trying some of it and so far the boys are enjoying it!
Objective:  To simulate the twinkling of stars in sky.

Materials needed:

a large square foil

glass bowl (preferably 2 liters)

tap water

a torch/flashlight

pencil

Procedure:
1.  Crumple your square foil and place it on a table or on a floor.
2.  Fill your clear bowl with tap water and place it on top of the crumpled foil. 

3.  Darken the room by turning off the lights.  Hold the torch or flashlight above the bowl.  Distance from the bowl  is about 12 inches.
4.  Observe the foil through the undisturbed water.

5.  Now using your pencil, tap the surface of the water gently.  Observe the foil through the moving water.


What happened? 
The light rays reflecting from the foil when there was a movement in water appears to blur or twinkle. 

Why? 
The movement of the water causes the depth of the water to vary.  The light rays twinkle because they bend or refract in different direction when it passed through the different depths of water. 

This is similar to the light rays of the stars.  They appear to be twinkling when you are observing from earth because they refract differently as the light rays move through the different thickness of air in the atmosphere.  Scientifically, this twinkling phenomenon is called ‘scintillation’. 

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Source:  Janice VanCleave Astronomy

Welcome to the Learn & Play Link Party!

In relation to our activity this week, I am featuring space and astronomy themed activities!

Relative Size of the Sun Activity from Research Parent

The Earth, The Sun & Stars from Every Star is Different

Space Explorer Toolbox from Montessori By Mom

Sensory Play for Earth Day from Mama’s Happy Hive

Earth Day from Child Led Life

Now it’s time for this week’s link party! This is a BRAND new link up for all blog posts that include learn and play activities and hands-on education for kids. We are excited to read your blog posts and to see what you have to share! Please link up below and grab our button to display on your blog.

If you are a blogger, share your family friendly posts here. We are looking for things which include:

• Montessori Education
• Homeschool
• Sensory Play
• Tot and Preschool Trays
• Fine and Gross Motor Activities
• Kids in the Kitchen
• Healthy Recipes for Kids
• Arts and Crafts
• Natural Living
• Free Educational Printables
• Family-Oriented Activities
• Healthy Living

Your post will be featured on each of our blogs where we will pick our favourite posts every other week. That means there is more of a chance that you will be featured!

Everyone, please meet our link party hosts:

Christian Montessori Blog ~ Please visit our CMN FB group ~ Pinterest

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Marie from Child Led Life~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jae from Pinay Homeschooler~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Heather from Golden Reflections Blog~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Renae from Every Star is Different~FB~Pinterest

GUIDELINES FOR LINKING

• Please link up 1-3 posts
• Follow each of the hosts on social media
• When you link up, please add our button and place it at the bottom of your shared posts or link back with text link.
• By entering a link, you’re giving us permission to feature an image on our blogs. Proper credit & links will ALWAYS be given.
• Please visit a couple of shared posts and leave a comment for them
• Remember that you must link back in order to be featured

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Learning about Reptiles: Snakes

If you are in the UK or Ireland, you must have heard of Steve Backshall and his animal shows like the Deadly 60.  Mavi is obsessed with Steve, due to his witty and pleasant hosting of the show. You can learn about it here.  Now, going back, he’s been featuring reptiles lately, mostly how dinosaurs evolved into crocodiles, birds,  snakes etc. 

What are Reptiles?  We learned from our previous study of the Vertebrate animals that REPTILES have a covering of bony plates or scales.  They vary in sizes and shapes and include forms like snakes, alligators, crocodiles, turtles and lizards.  Reptiles make their homes in great variety of places .

In this post, I will be focusing on snakes, as Mavi and I had a brief discussion about them a few days ago.  This is the book we’ve got of Steve Backshall and we used it as a reference.  We had a few snake figures from Safari Ltd Reptiles TOOB .

Books.  These are the books of Steve Backshall we borrowed from the library.  Youcan check them out here:Steve Backshall's Deadly 60  

Characteristics of Snakes (things we learned):

Snakes’ coverings are dry with perfectly dry scales, they are not slimy.

A snake’s tongue is a sense organ, just like an insect’s antennae.  Therefore, when a snake thrusts its tongue, it is simply trying to find out about its surroundings and what is going on.

They are the only creatures that can swallow objects larger than themselves.  This is because they have elastic body walls.

Snakes have an extra bone hinging the upper to the lower jaw, which allows them to spread widely when swallowing an object.

The noiseless and graceful movement of the snake is brought about by the crosswise plates of the snake’s body that is connected to the ends of its ribs.

Life Cycle of a Snake

This life cycle material is for FREE and you can download it from my SCIENCE PRINTABLE PAGE.

So we looked into the process of how snakes give birth.  We also learned that NOT ALL SNAKES GIVE BIRTH BY PRODUCING EGGS. ANACONDAs give birth to their young!

Snakes Around the World

So I gathered a list of snakes and we looked at them over the internet.  I didn’t produce any printable file as the images are all copyrighted.  But I provided the link below on where you can find them, and see how they look like or learn about their habitats.

• Ribbon Snake [wiki]
• Coral Snake [wiki]
• Rubber Boa  [link]
• Rough Green Snake  [link]
• Timber Rattler  [link]
• Desert Gopher Snake [link]
• Ring Necked Snake [link]
• Sidewinder or Horned Rattlesnake  [link]
• Pike Headed Tree Snake  [link]
• Pilot Black Snake [link]
• Copperhead Snake [link]
• Southern Hognose Snake [link]
• California Lyre Snake [link]
• Water Moccasin [link]
• Gray Pilot Snake [link]

You might also be interested in these amazing Snake Units:

Pre-K Problem Solving Cards

Mavi didn’t like math.  When he was around 5yrs old, he would rather read books than work with math.  He’s excuse would always be “I’m tired” or “it’s difficult”.  I can truly understand him though. I didn’t enjoy math when I was younger.  Until I stepped into secondary school and discovered why we need math.

So instead of forcing him to solve arithmetic problems and giving him number activities, I exposed him to real life problems so he can appreciate math.  I made him understand WHY WE NEED TO LEARN NUMBERS AND MATH.  We would go to the groceries and count our items all together, doing addition and subtraction in between.  Of course, he’s not aware we’re doing math, all he knows is that he’s helping Mommy do some groceries.  At home, I secretly incorporate addition and subtraction by counting his missing pens, his toys and how many books he has read.

He loves the real life math! He can’t stand arithmetic problems but he enjoys real life problems.  So what I did was create a bunch of colorful cards for us to work on, making sure there’s pictures (and we mostly use counters as well) to make it attractive.  In the problems, I used his friends’ name so he’ll like it, and of course he finds it funny!  He kept asking for more, more questions as he liked solving the problems.    And that was the game changer.  

Through these problem solving cards, he was able to appreciate math, and could now understand why he needs to practice arithmetic.  He loves to solve math problems these days  on his own and still loves solving problems. 

So I created these problem solving cards for Pre-K students.  It contains:

• 1 step problem solving for addition and subtraction
• 12 unique questions for addition within 10 (with pictures)
• 12 unique questions for subtraction within 10 (with pictures)
• 12 fill-in questions for addition to let the parents change the numbers for more practice (for advanced students, based on the questions with pictures).  You can use counters for this.
• 12 fill-in questions for subtraction to let the parents change the numbers for more practice (for advanced students, based on the questions with pictures).  You can use counters for this.

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Mavi worked on these cards when he was 5-6yrs old.  Though this is intended for 5-6yrs old children, older or younger kids can still use the cards as a practice material. Hope you like it and find it useful like we do.  Thanks!