This week we learned about the nervous system.  The kids made a brain and a nerve cell out of Play-Doh.

Here are their brains showing the cerebrum, cerebellum, and brain stem.

And Gavin's nerve cell, which wasn't as easy to pick up as the brain.  Austin did one too but I didn't take a picture of it.  I didn't take many pictures this week for some reason.

We went on a fall nature walk to observe leaves.  We picked out some different leaves we found and then drew them in our nature journals.  Then we labeled the shape, venation and margin of each leaf we drew.

It was a beautiful week to be outside.



This week Austin was learning how to divide numbers into three or four parts, and how those parts can change but still equal the same number.  He had a word problem that said he had 16 pet treats and three pets and asked him to write down how many treats each pet would get.  So, we got out some pet treats and 'pets' and shuffled them around to get possible answers.

We started a new country to study for the next few weeks.  Austin opened his Little Passports package to find out we will be learning about Canada.

He got a little whistle/compass thing.  I can't remember how they tied that in with Canada...maybe because it's mostly wilderness.  He thought it was very cool!

Gavin has been getting a geography packet from Highlights called Top Secret Adventures.  Each one is about a certain country and has a mystery that needs to be solved along with a book about the country and puzzles to do.  Gavin has been enjoying them.

We did another Degas project this week using chalk.  We talked about how there is a lot of movement in Degas' paintings and the boys tried to make a picture that shows movement.  They both attempted a picture of a running horse.  Horses are very hard to draw for some reason but they did their best.

They were supposed to use their fingers to blend the chalk together but our chalk wasn't super blendable.  I think I need to try another brand.  Here is Austin's picture.

 

And here is Gavin's picture.

This week we studied the heart and how it works so we made a heart model.  We started with foil to give it shape and put red modeling clay around the foil.

Then we started adding the aorta, pulmonary veins and arteries, and superior and inferior vena cava. Finally, we labeled the parts. It was an intense project!

We've been added the body systems we have been studying each week to the man in the background of this next picture.  The boys have really been enjoying it!  He started as a skeleton but is slowly becoming more complex.

So the directions said to put the two smaller foil balls on the top like Mickey Mouse ears.  We may have taken that a little too literally because our heart is actually in the shape of Mickey Mouse's head... so, it's not super accurate even after all that work but we had fun making it.

We went to the pumpkin farm this week.  It was a perfect fall day to be outside and enjoy the fun at the farm.  It's the same thing every year but here are some pictures.

 

Adelaide always searches for a 'baby pumpkin'.  It has to be the smallest pumpkin in the patch or she passes it by.

 

 



This month we have been learning about Brazil.  We made a couple Brazilian meals and read books about the country.  We also learned about the rain forest so we decided to make a diorama of a rainforest by layers.  We used three shoe boxes.  The bottom shoe box was the forest floor, the second the understory, the third the canopy and out of the top box came the emergent layer.  Then we added animals from a rain forest Toob in the layer in which we might find them in the actual rain forest.  It turned out pretty good and the kids love making dioramas.  Gavin was excited because he was able to use the hot glue gun.

 

The animals are hidden (because that's how animals would be in the rain forest) but they are in there.  Here is the understory.  The paper towel rolls are supposed to represent trees of course.  It has an explorer, tapir, cheetah and anteater.  I think there might be a snake too.  The yarn around the trees is supposed to be vines growing up the trees.

The understory with tree frogs and anaconda.

The canopy with monkey and toucan.

And a parrot in the emergent layer.

We started studying the paintings of Degas this week.  The kids tried their hands at painting a ballerina.  We used watercolors to paint a coffee filter folded in half for a skirt, then regular tempera paints to paint the person.  It was supposed to be 3D with the skirt but ours didn't really pop out too much after it was painted.  Here is Gavin's painting.  I love the legs!

And here is Austin's painting.

And here is Adelaide's painting.  She actually drew a decent ballerina but then she just painted all over the place.

 

 

In science this week we studied the circulatory system.  Next week we will focus on the heart; this week we focused on blood.  We made a model of the blood stream using water (plasma), Cheerios dyed with red food coloring (red blood cells), marshmallows (white blood cells) and purple pom poms (platelets).  In hindsight I think kidney beans would have made more realistic platelets.  When we put our red blood cells in the plasma it turned the plasma red which was strangely realistic.

We even had time for a little nature study this week.  Adelaide brought along her doll and took her for a walk.  Then we talked about how plants are making seeds like crazy before winter and then we looked for seeds. 

 

We filled an egg carton with different types of seeds and then picked six to draw in our nature journals.  The boys filled their old nature journals so they got to use nice new journals this week.  It's always fun to start a new journal.

I'm not sure what this look was for...

Thanks to a nice older gentleman who came by, we also found an Osage Orange tree with fruit on it.  He was gracious enough to point it out to us when he noticed what we were doing.  We had walked right by it and not even noticed!

 

And, Saturday morning Gavin was in a parade with his soccer team.  Here's the little ones waiting for the parade to start.