Butterflies

It so happens that May is always the Butterfly month in this house. It became an annual thing as it is third year in a row that we raise butterflies. This month caterpillars were a courtesy of D.'s co-op. We also had a trip to the Butterfly Pavilion with D.'s class.
Some books we enjoyed:
Backyard Bugs by DK publishing- lovely pop-up book that has interesting facts about insects

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is always a favorite, this time around we also read French version (we just started to learn French) "La Chenille Affamée" (or "La chenille qui fait des trous") power point presentation can be found here.

 Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons is also great

Our trip to the Butterfly Pavilion was great, kids got to meet interesting critters and talk to one of the keepers about all kinds of creatures that live in the Pavilion. Afterwards we had a walk among the butterflies.

Macley's Specter Walkingstick

Chocolate Pansy

White Morphs

When we got home we found that both of our butterflies have emerged from their chrysalis, joy joy joy!

We made another window decoration to celebrate :

Tissue paper over clear contact paper cut into shape of a butterfly and voila :)


D.'s impression from the visit to the Butterfly Pavillion:

Hot air balloons study

Lately D. was really interested in hot-air balloons, so last week we dedicated to learning about it.
We watched some videos on youtube, there is plenty that show how to set up balloon and how to fly it properly.
We read some books on the topic:

Anya's favorite books »

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D. made a painting (crayons and watercolor) of an "animal-themed" balloon with him and his sister on board :)

and this craft made his week I think. I found a lovely tutorial here. This mobile was so much fun to make and "crayon fairy/fuzzy girl" has a fantastic journey on it so far :)

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I'm waay behind on my postings, but I'll try to catch up in the following week since we did a lot of stuff and I'd like to share it very much.

Learning about Australia. Part 2

Our days are pretty chaotic as we prepare for my parents to leave for the summer.
Nevertheless we managed to finish our Australian studies (for now :). I mean they could go on and on, the interesting country it is :)) Maybe more next year :)
Part 1 of our studies can be found here
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We read some wonderful books that taught us about this amazing country and the culture of aboriginal people:

Anya's bookshelf: children-books-australia




More of Anya's books »

We learned about amazing wildlife. This particular short movie was especially fascinating:

We did Australia inspired art:

We listened to the music:

We did a card for our "destination" box:

What I love most about homeschooling that it gives me an opportunity to discover more about the world. I read a great book Dreamkeepers:A Spirit-Journey into Aboriginal Australia by Harvey Arden I learned a lot and will definitely continue learning.
I watched some great australian movies and again, can't wait to see more, so un-hollywood they are.
The journey will definintely continue :)

D.'s first book report

Last Friday at co-op D.was having his first official book report ever- kids were supposed to bring a book they can read by themselves and a little project associated with this book.
D. picked a little "Now I can read" book from "How to train your dragon" series. And since this book is talking about all kinds of dragons there is nothing more perfect than that for D.
His project was to make different dragons and talk to his classmates about it. Dragons are tricky to draw, so we used  "The Art of How to Train Your Dragon" as a visual inspiration. This book is absolutely fabulous.

Here are D.'s dragons:

Deadly Nadder :)

Gronkle

Hideous Zippleback

Terrible terror

The Night Fury

Spring Window display

Another window display.
This time we decided to make a "stain glass" leaves.
We cut out leaves from construction paper and then cut out middle par leaving only "frames". Then we applied frames to clear contact paper. Spring colored tissue paper pieces went inside.

Chameleon art :)

Chameleons are awesome.:)
D. is a huge fan of Disney's Pascal from "Tangled" movie. (By the way I just got a concept art book in the mail and it's incredible)

So yesterday afternoon we dedicated to creating chameleon painting of our own.
Our lesson was inspired by an awesome lesson from Deep Space Sparkle

"A color of his own" art lesson 
and this one too 
Watercolor Chameleon Art Lesson

We also read a book by Leo Lionni, sweet story, colorful illustrations.

We outlined a chameleon on a watercolor paper using crayons (I showed step by step how to draw one on a dry erase board and D. and his friend did their best to follow ).
Kids picked colors and painted their chameleons.
While chameleons were drying, we created an environment for them (talking a little bit about camouflage too). My only request was to have at least one "chameleon's color" on the scene. D. picked a "beach scene" with some splashes of purple from spray bottle.
While backgrounds were drying we cut out chameleons. Then we "introduced" chameleons to their new homes and voila:

D. is very very proud of his chameleon's curly-springy tail :)

Denver Art museum

Past weekend we had a visit to Denver Art museum. It was our first too (I can't believe how long it took us). We loved it so much, it's huge and they had lots of activities for kids that day.
I read a few good articles about preparing a child for a visit to an art museum, they helped a lot with organizing our trip and most important thing I learned was- don't try to see all at once (tempting it was to me).

Exploring the Art Museum: Making the Most of Your Child's First Visit

Visiting an Art Museum With Children

D. wasn't really interested in activities offered for children at the museum, save for the building section where children built towers with different materials.
Our main activities were :
1. Looking at portraits, we talked about different techniques, colors, clothing and facial expressions. We noticed that most people do not smile at portraits. I'm planning a portrait activity later in the week.
2. Couple of days before the museum visit I gave D. a small sketchbook, plus we dug up the pencil case I made for him a few months ago. He took both to the museum and then attempted to sketch his favorite painting. I think it turned out pretty good- he did outlines in the museum (seeing him sitting on the bench, his pencil case spread out, all serious and attentive was priceless) and finished picture at home using oil pastels.

D.'s pick-

By June the Light Begins to Breathe, Keith Jacobshagen

 

D.'s version

                                           
We had a really good time and again, hurray for free days, I'm really really grateful for those :) On the way out we picked lots of postcards at the gift shop and I found Dover art stickers books which we will use later for our lessons.

Dr. Seuss

Happy birthday Dr. Seuss!
Our little celebration  included :
Ever awesome read-aloud (D. read to me :))

 Awesome and silly game:

And a great art project (inspired by great idea from Deep Space Sparkle) :

them teeth :D