Earth Trip : Norway

A friend and I got chatting at the end of last year and decided our boys needed more geography in their educational diet. We talked about various things we could do, but how to make it fun and appealing to a 6yo and and 8yo who are Lego/Star Wars obsessed?

Well she came up with the idea of having a story where a boy is trying to win a trip to the moon, but before he can go he has to do a tour of the Earth and complete several missions en-route!

So we started our first mission 2 weeks ago, to Bergen in Norway.

Here are some of the things we covered:

Made a passport

Located Norway on the Globe and the World map and marked our starting point.

We read about Scandinavian Sami people from the Children Like Me book.

Talked about fjords and had a look at some photos. We put these in our travel scrapbook

Did some map work locating different points.

Did a country fact sheet finding out what languages are used, currency, population size etc.

Learnt how to say "hello" in both Norwegian and Sami

We read about 'Lefse' a kind of Norwegian pancake and made some and ate them for lunch, yummy! We then put the recipe and photos in our World Recipe Book.

We read a book on orcas and did a quiz to see how much we had learnt. We also did some simple experiments about buoyency.

For another little science project we made a 'floating killer whale' using magnets. You can't tell from the photo but the whale is fixed to the bottom of the box using thread. You then place a strong magnet on top of the box, which attracts the paper clip, making the whale appear to float.

We made the Norwegian flag in HAMA beads.

We read several books on Vikings, THIS was a particular favourite. One of the things we read about was how the Vikings preserved their meat and fish using salt. We found out the Vikings got their salt from boiling up sea water, so we got our own "sea water" and boiled it up on the hob until all the water had evaporated.

We then did a simple Viking craft from here

We finished up the week by doing a Viking skills task which was all about weighing and estimation.

We've had lots of fun with this, on to Russia next!

Birthday Outing

It was Mick's birthday last Tuesday so he took the day off work and we went on a family outing to this place , we had a lot of fun.

The planetarium was a big hit. We saw two shows there, a film show called "Astronaut" which Isaac, in particular, loved and a live show called "Flight Through the Universe" which took us on the most amazing journey. The woman giving the talk obviously had a real passion in the subject which made it very enjoyable, so much so she over ran the time slot!

[caption id="attachment_826" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Here is Isaac learning about pendulums - or more accurately trying to hit Mama on the head whilst she is busy taking a photo."][/caption]

 

 

Here is Emily placing magnetic cogs in sequence so that the alram bell will ring.

 

 

[caption id="attachment_828" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Isaac having lots of fun."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_829" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="You can't see this very well but it is a big tank of water used to demonstate a vortex."][/caption]

Volcanoes

It's like waiting for a bus round here, nothing for ages then two posts at once!

We are coming to the end of our volcano project now. We used the In the Hands of a Child volcano project pack which worked out ok, though I think it was designed with older children in mind. Emily wanted me to blog the ubiquitous "exploding volcano" experiment but the video she made is too long to YouTube so here's a picture instead


I'll post some pics of her lapbook when it's all put together. Meanwhile you can have a look at her "Water Cycle" one that i was also supposed to blog weeks ago, (tut tut).

www.flickr.com

More Picture Heavy Lazy Blogging!

We went to London on Friday to catch the Dino Jaws exhibition at the NHM before it closed. Emily has been wanting to go ever since she saw it on Blue Peter. It was really good - just the right amount of information for her not to get overwhelmed or bored and she really liked the interactive bits. We were hoping to look around the dinosaur galleries once we'd finished but it was unbelievably busy. I think Night at the Museum had a lot to do with it. The queue snaked its way all around the main hall! So we did a quick scoot around the human biology gallery before going on to the Earth galleries as E wanted to see all about volcanoes.

Touching real Dino Poo!

Afterwards we went to somewhere else E has been desperate to visit the Diana, Princess of Wales' Memorial Playground. It was of course EXTREMELY busy due to the lovely weather but they still had fun and I have promised them (rather rashly) we will return during school hours. Not sure how I will cope with Isaac on my own. When Emily was little she always stayed close by but Isaac will just wander off anywhere. It makes trips out quite exhausting because you have to watch him constantly.

Saturday was spend in the garden doing more digging. Emily wanted her bike out to try riding without stabilisers. She has barely ridden this bike (our fault) and she hasn't been on it at all for the past year, as it has been shut up in the shed under piles of stuff while we were having the extension built, so we weren't too optimistic. However she amazed us and herself ,after a couple of wobbly starts and tumbles, riding by herself!

Sunday started off with an Egg hunt in the garden. We were very lazy this year and just hid them instead of doing clues. Emily didn't seem to mind and all Isaac cared about was the chocolate! I also made them these ...


From Hillary's free pattern. I had intended to make it last year but never got around to it.

I already know what I am doing next year - this loveliness from Mollychicken.

Right must go and get more gardening done while the sun shines :o)

This week started off really well but fell off a bit towards the end due to lack of planning on my part. I'm really exhaused - due to too many late bedtimes and Isaac who (still hasn't weaned - did i mention I found him trying to nurse off Wendy the other week?!?) continues to pester me throughout the night.

Emily has been reading more and more over the past few months and her confidence in what she is actually capable of is increasing. She picked up the set of Farmyard Tales books the other day and decided to try and read one to Isaac. She surprised herself by finding it quite an easy read! She was so thrilled she could read a book she'd never looked at before i think.

Mick found an old Ikea inflatable chair in the loft the other night. He brought it down to put in the playroom and E is delighted with it. She says she feels like she is in one of the squashy armchairs in the Gryffindor common room! So yesterday I found her sat there with a huge pile of books - obviously a budding Hermione in the making :oD

Following on from finding the frogspawn in the pond the other week i dug out the "Parts of an Amphibian" and "parts of a Tadpole" Here is E after completing then - looking very pleased with herself!

I also got out the cloud nomenclature cards, to tie in with project work, and although she found it tricky she completed them getting only a couple in the wrong places.

Isaac is like a little parrot copying everything i say and everything his sister does. He is getting really into drawing at the moment...unfortunately he's not fussy what he does it on :o(

I decided to get the maxi HAMA beads out and try him with those but he mainly just liked tipping them on the floor. E had fun with them though making some colourful creations.

We had a lovely weekend with Mum and Dad, if rather busy. Dad fitted my new oven which has been cluttering up the floor for 6mths or so (long story of errors on my part) and he also fitted the plinth which means Isaac can no longer keep posting his toys underneath the units :o) So Mick just has the painting and floor to finish and then the kitchen/diner part of the extension is complete - YAY.

Isaac enjoyed some Daddy time (Mick had Friday and Monday off work) and helped him to construct another storage unit for the playroom...

While Emily took the opportunity to finish her wren purse without small fingers helping!

She's Rather proud of it, can you tell?

I'd rather like it for myself ;o)

I got spring fever early and spent a fortune at the garden centre, then Mum and I tidied up the garden a bit in between rain showers.

My parents insisted we went out on Saturday night, as we still hadn't managed to have our Anniversary night out ( that was in September). We went to a very nice Indian restaurant, which was yummy, but ate far too much.

This week we've been doing more on our Land and Water project. Emily constucted her own aquifer which was a lot of fun.

We left it overnight to watch how the silt settled and then we added food colouring to represent how chemicals can cause pollution to the underground water as well as lakes.

Electronics Project?

I thought these were cool (see the Walkman one too)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52722292@N00/sets/72157594488080995/
Found via the MAKE blog.