Yesterday in math Gavin used his triangle to make perfectly diagonal lines on a clock.

We read a fiction book that was based on a true story that took place in Mexico in geography.  Then Gavin started painting a Mexican style blanket.

I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but we are starting a Book of the Centuries which Gavin will be filling in as he learns for the next several years.  It's basically a big timeline.  Every time Gavin learns about an important event or person, be it in history, the Bible, missionaries (we read about a missionary every Friday) or scientist, Gavin puts a picture and the date(s) in his Book of the Centuries.  It will be interesting to see how peoples lives and events overlap as we fill it in.  We have put in ancient Egypt, some specific Pharaohs, the Exodus, Howard Carter (who discovered King Tut's tomb), Thomas Edison and several missionaries so far.  

Yesterday in history Gavin used some Egyptian life stickers from the Dover company to make an Egyptian mural while I read the book Tutankhamen's Gift by Robert Sabuda to him.

This was the book we read in geography.

This is the book I read to him in history.

In science we learned about the periodic table and then did an experiment with ice and salt.  We learned that if you sprinkle salt on ice it melts.  Also if you put another ice cube or a piece of string on top of an ice cube with salt they will stick to it.

This morning Gavin put white pipe cleaners cut in half on the sides of his Mexican blanket to make fringe.  (I had punched holes on both ends with a hole puncher.)

We have been working on poetry on Fridays has well.  We have been reading the poem, "If You Don't Believe in Dragons" by Jack Prelutsky.  It goes like this:

If you don't believe in dragons,

It is curiously true,

That the dragons you disparage,

Choose not to believe in you.

Last Friday Gavin was given the assignment of writing his own poem, fashioned after Mr. Prelutsky's, about something you may not believe in.  Today he wrote that poem in his poetry journal.

If You Don't Believe in Monsters

by Gavin

If you don't believe in monsters,

When they're hiding under your bed,

They might come out and jump on you,

And then you'll be dead!

The illustration is at the bottom of the page.

After that he worked on finishing his Pharaoh mask.  He took it outside and sprayed with with metallic gold spray paint.

When it was dry he painted it with colors.

His kohl is running a bit but it happens to all of us.  Then ends of the mask started rolling up a little but it still turned out nicely.

He read this book today.

And I read this to him while he worked on his mask.

That wraps up our study of ancient Egypt!

Yesterday Gavin and Austin made Egyptian cuff style bracelets.  Gavin painted some toilet paper rolls with gold paint and when they dried both the boys stuck jewels on their bracelets.  I found this craft here:
http://artasticartists.blogspot.com/search/label/Egyptian%20Art

We made a snake shaped one as well but it was too loose to be worn as a bracelet.

Gavin read this book for history.

And a few more pages from this book.

We also read this fairy tale from Mexico.

This morning Austin worked more on the letter U and we read The Umbrella by Jan Brett again.  Since the story takes place in the rain forest, Austin worked on his geometric shaped snake.

Adelaide really wanted to do this as well so I got out the toddler pattern blocks.  Surprisingly, she was able to do them quite well.  She was able to get the ovals, circles and squares in but had trouble with the triangles.

For history, we got out this pyramid kit from National Geographic.

I wasn't too sure about this kit because kits can be hit or miss but this one was a BIG hit!  Both the boys were interested in it and Gavin was ecstatic!  It said it was for kids 8 and up but Gavin had no problem doing it.

First, each side of the pyramid had hieroglyphs you had to decipher to figure out where the opening was.  There was a key in the handbook that came with the kit.  Gavin thought this was really fun and deciphered 'Not here' and 'Try Again'.  The third side neither of us could quite figure out but finally we found the side that said, 'Entry Way'. 

The hieroglyphs were hard to see so we got out the magnifying glass to help.

After finding the correct side Gavin chiseled between the third and fourth hieroglyph until he found the secret key hole that he conveniently had the key to open.

Once it was unlocked he slide the top to the left and it was open!

The inside was full of packed sand.

So Gavin started chiseling away.

The first thing he found was a golden sarcophagus.  He accidentally cracked the top trying to get it out but he learned his lesson and was much more careful with his chiseling.

Inside the sarcophagus was a little mummy.  Gavin also found his death mask.

Then Gavin continued digging and found four canopic jars.  In case you are unfamiliar with canopic jars, they are the jars that held the internal organs that were buried with the mummy.  They usually had animal head lids.  Gavin knew exactly what they were when he pulled them out and was very excited!

Adelaide wasn't very interested in anything but playing peek-a-boo.

In science we learned about mixtures and compounds by mixing sulphur and iron filings together.  We were reading a chapter from a book called The Wonders of Science by Jean Henri Fabre that was written about a hundred years ago.  It's about an uncle doing experiments with his two nephews.  It's a neat book, a little much for Gavin now, but this was the first chapter so we read that much and duplicated their experiment as they did it, up until they set it on fire.  First Gavin investigated the sulphur.

Then the iron filings.  He made sure they were in fact iron filings by checking to see if they were magnetic.

Then he mixed the two together.

He figured out before I read it that you could separate them by using the magnet.

Then we talked about what would happen if we didn't have a magnet, would we still be able to separate them?  So we put the mixture in water and watched as the iron filings floated to the bottom and the sulphur stayed at the top.

Then we continued reading the chapter as they mixed them and put them in the sun so they turned into a compound.

When we were done we watched a couple of videos on YouTube.  I found these amazing chemistry videos put out by students at the University of Nottingham (England of course).  In each video, they focus on a different element and the students at the university show that element and play around with it in the laboratory.  The videos are very entertaining.  Then there is a professor who cuts in here and there with information about that element.  Gavin watched the videos for both sulphur and iron today and really liked them.  Here they are if you are interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGMR72X8V-U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euQUgp5AY-Y

Finally, Gavin read these two books for history today.