Indoor Olympics

Well, my plan was to have some outdoor Olympic Games for the boys to play, but T.S. Fay had me rethink my plans. Instead, we opted for out Indoor Olympics, and boy, did Brian, Sean & even Colin, have fun!

We began our events with the Towel Scootch Obstacle Course. The object was to sit on a handtowel and scootch your way around the chairs to get to the finish line. I forgot that I have 2 very competitive boys, so we ended up having each boy make his way through the obstacle course on his own rather than race through it. Fun for them, sanity for Chris and I.
Next up, Cloud Blowing. The boys used straws to blow the clouds (cotton balls) off of the sun and off the table. Chris was trying to get Colin to blow "out" instead of sucking in!
We then took the straws and used them for the "javelin" toss. The boys all stood against the wall and threw the "javelins". They then counted how many tiles they threw the "javelin".
Finally, we had Cloud Catching. I think they enjoyed this one the most. Here they are in anticipation of the clouds falling.
I went upstairs and tossed scarves over the wall to the waiting boys below. They scrambled to catch the scarves before they hit the floor. Then they would trek back up the stairs, hand me back the scarves, race down the stairs and be ready to start all over again.
After playing our Olympic Games, we read Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Imperial China. We talked about the different things that were invented by the Chinese: kites, paper, paper money, umbrellas, fireworks, steel.

Food, food and more food

Today, even though our county is off because of Tropical Storm Fay, St. Anne's Academy was still in session!

Today's focus was on food - how much food we need to eat, the types of food we need to eat to be healthy, and comparing that to what an athlete needs to eat. We also talked about how we need to exercise to stay healthy as well.

Brian and Sean colored in a food pyramid while we talked about the different food groups. Later, Chris "quizzed" them and asked them to come up with food items for each of the different food groups. We are also tracking what the boys are eating today to see how they are doing with getting all of the right amounts of food in their bodies. Tomorrow we will review how we did today and see where they need - since I know what they eat already I can tell you they are not going to "pass"!

The boys divided their wooden foods into the different food groups, and later today we are going to play a game on My Pyramid.gov.

Dumplings are White

In keeping with our study of China and the Olympics, we ordered Chinese food for dinner. Of course I really didn't expect my finicky eaters to actually eat the Chinese food. I ordered the special "Chinese Chicken Nuggets" for the boys to eat for dinner. However, in a nod to the Chinese, I ordered them with a side of fried rice instead of french fries - how international are we? Brian and Sean enjoyed "using" their chopsticks. Brian actually spent the majority of the meal trying to figure out how to pick up his chicken nugget with the chopsticks. Sean, of course went right to his fingers!

I was surprised that both Brian and Sean asked me where the dumplings were. In Red is a Dragon, when the book talks about the color white it refers to dumplings. I showed my dumpling to them and asked them if they wanted to try it. Brian said no thank you, but Sean asked me if he could smell it. Then he said "It doesn't smell like a dumpling." Um, how exactly would you know what a dumpling smells like?

We used the red crayon a lot...

So our journey into the world of China and the Olympic is under way. We started earlier this week reading our new China books and talking about what the Olympics are - games!

Today we "checked off" some of our unit study plan. I forgot how much I enjoy the Enchanted Learning's site. I was able to find even more information to add to our plan today - like our study of the animals that are indigenous to China.

Social Studies

• Locate China on the map
  
• Color the Chinese flag
  
• Find out names written in Chinese - we even found out what our last name would look like

History

• Discuss the symbols of the Olympics - flag, emblem, wreath (we colored our own wreath), flame
• Color the Olympic rings

Brian is getting really good at coloring (I was really worried about his perfectionism and not wanting to color b/c he didn't want to ruin the picture)

Science

• Learn about different animals that are native to China.We also read our books - even Colin read to himself as the bigger boys and I were talking about China and the Olympics.

In addition to our unit study work, the boys also worked with their movable alphabet today - self directed I must add. We also went online to Starfall and both boys read all 15 of the stories they have in the learning to read section. Sean's reading was much smoother, but I really got a chance to see Brian shine some in this area.

Olympics and China - Our First Unit Study

So, my great big plan to start "school" this past Monday was derailed when I went to Barnes & Noble last week and saw a big display of picture books on China. I realized what a great opportunity we had to study this country and the majesty of the Olympics in a timely manner.

I picked up 3 books to read

The Seven Chinese Sisters
Red is a Dragon
Magic School Bus - Imperial China

We are also checking out a lot of resources online to learn more about China and the Olympics. Homeschool Share has a wonderful lapbook idea for the Summer Olympics. While we aren't doing anything as formal as a lapbook (although maybe we will - who knows?), we are using many ideas from there.

Social Studies

• Locate China on the map
• Color the Chinese flag
• Find out names written in Chinese
• Talk about what the people of China eat (order Chinese food? - not that my kids will eat it!)
• Review all of the "firsts" that happened in China - from the Magic School Bus book
• Make paper lanterns

History

• Discuss the symbols of the Olympics - flag, emblem, wreath, flame
• Color the Olympic rings

Science

• Talk about the food pyramid and what an athlete needs to eat compared to what a child should eat

Math

• Read Grandfather Tang's story
• Use our tangrams to make shapes

Language Arts

• Discuss the different sporting events and what they mean

Fun Stuff

• Make an Olympic torch for our Olympic days
  
• Have a Preschool Olympics day
• Have a Backwards Olympics day
• At the end of the Olympics we will make a cake and use M&M's to decorate it with the Olympic rings (HT: Candace)