This week we have been delving into the ancient Indus River Valley.  Gavin made a map of an Indus city using Legos.  The blue Legos are the raised citadel in the middle of the city, the yellow are the granaries, factories, markets, etc. that surrounded the citadel.

The red Legos are the houses and the small blue ones are wells.  He learned that each house had access to a well close by and they also had indoor plumbing!

Finally he added a wall around the city.

Adelaide has been busy this week too!

These are the books Gavin has read or is reading so far this week.

We actually read this book together as part of geography.

In science we have continued to learn about different elements, focusing on different groups each day and watching corresponding videos on the Periodic Table of Elements channel on YouTube.  He is also working on a Chemistry lapbook as we go along.  This week he did an experiment with an egg to learn why fluoride is important for our teeth.  He placed an egg in a cup half filled with a fluoride toothpaste and left it for several days.  When we took it out he noticed that the side of the egg that was in the toothpaste was whiter than the other side.  Then he put the egg in a cup of vinegar and noticed bubbles coming off the side of the egg that was not in the fluoride and he knew it was because a chemical reaction was taking place.  After a few hours he took the egg out of the vinegar and tapped it on both sides with a pen.  He found that the side that had been in the fluoride was much stronger than the side that had not been in the fluoride.

Our neighbor gave Adelaide this adorable little witch hat but she refused to let me take her picture in it although she does like wearing it!

Here is Gavin tapping the egg to see which side is stronger.

In math Gavin has been working on coloring in multiples (of 2-9) on a hundreds chart to see the patterns they make.

For geography Gavin has been reading about what India's like today.  He tried to make this mandala using different seeds.  It didn't fill in as well as I hoped but he enjoyed gluing them onto his paper.

He also made a salt dough map of India.  Here it is unpainted.

Austin has been busy working on the letter O this week.  Yesterday he painted a piece of paper blue with watercolors (except for a little part that's brown for the ground).  Today he added an octopus to the scene.  He also insisted on adding a shark.  First he glued down the octopus' head and then added eight legs.

Finally, he wrote the numbers 1-8 on each leg and then glued that number of Cheerio's to the leg.  Hard to explain but the picture is below.

Adelaide really liked this craft because she got to eat while he worked.

Here it is.  I thought it turned out cute!

Gavin is working on labeling geographical features in India.

For our India activity today we played Parcheesi, the royal game of India, or so it says on the box!