Swiss Family Robinson Book Repot

Elysia made a diorama for her book report this month. We had such a good time working on it together.  We started with a Scene-o-rama kit from a craft store.  She cut out photos from her old magazines and glued them to the cardboard to create a rain forest scene. She even remembered to add the thirty foot Boa Constrictor. 

Next she crumpled up paper and place it where she wanted the island to be.  Together we laid the wet plaster cloth over the wadded paper piles to create the illusion of hills.  This was probably one of the most crucial parts of the project but one of the easiest.  Just lay it down and blend plaster with fingers.

 

Rockberge was the Swiss Family's cave home, we made it out of a simple plastic cup stuffed into the mass of paper.

Once the plaster dried she painted it with earth tones. 

For the ocean, we used construction paper and clear glue.  The hardened glue reflected light like real water and gave the appearance that it was wet.  Next she sprayed glue on the island and sprinkled the green stuff on.

YES, I did help her construct the tree house, but she glued on the floor of sticks and made the ladder completely by herself.

I recommend this diorama kit to every student! It's so easy even an eight year old can do it! You can do all kinds of projects with this. Last year Elysia made a volcano and a little log cabin on a farm scene. 

I love sharing ideas and I look forward to hearing about yours.  I hope you will share.

Lessons with Makenna

Makenna is such a joy to homeschool.  She loves to learn and is easy to teach.  Unfortunately not all children are as easy going, that's why Elysia is in school this year.  Although Kenna enjoys doing her lessons she can at times get tired of book work.  At that point I try to think of some creative ways to reinforce what she is learning.

Now that Kenna can recognize her numbers and understand the value of each one, she is learning how to add.  I also thought this would be a good time to introduce number word recognition. I had her work out the problem with counting bears.  After figuring out the answer she had to find the word number card and place it  in the correct spot.

On a different day I gave her a number card that she placed on the floor.  Next I gave her another card and she had to decide if the new number came before or after the one on the floor.  We continued this until she placed all the numbers in the correct order.  I like these cards because it has the written form of the number as well.  We also do this activity with alphabet cards.

Other days when she finishes early I let her play with educational games.