Almost Earth Day

GET ON THE GRID: Thanks to the Seattle Homeschool Group email list, today we discovered the fantastic Math 6 Spy Guys. It's an Alberta, Canadian-based site - with a kind of James Bond-ish graphic theme. Cool graphics and music, by my ears and eyes.

Though its intro page says it's for grade 6, I didn't let that stop us. We know no limits! ;) I looked around the lessons and decided we'd go with ordered pairs, because just last Friday at Musikgarten, teacher Nancy was talking about the kids learning to place notes on the musical staff and how that is like the X and Y axis in math.

We had good fun with Lesson 18, all about ordered pairs and plotting them on a grid. First, we simply plotted pairs of numbers, creating intersection points of X and Y. Then, the lesson evolved into having to guess where the secret agent was hiding. (We were given his original coordinates and told he was heading north and west.) And lastly, they were given several coordinates, had to plot them and then figure out what shape they'd made when those plot points were connected. Really great stuff, definitely above k1 grade level, but the kids had absolutely no trouble with it.

In fact, as I told them, it's really no different than playing "Battleship," a game I played for hours on end as a kid. I need to find them one at Goodwill, Value Village or a garage sale. I did find this free Yahoo! game called Ship Sinker online. While it didn't have letters or numbers on the X and Y axis, it did involve a grid, of course, and then deduction regarding where the opponent's (in this case a computer) ships were located. It was fun - the kids got pretty excited toward the end when we were neck-and-neck with the computer. I am happy to report, we sunk their battleship. :)

OH SAY CAN YOU SYNONYM? This morning started at the kitchen table with some language arts for the kids. CJ had to read a passage about water and answer some comprehension questions. One of the questions was "The word 'forms' means 'kinds' or 'spots.' CJ picked 'spots' for some reason. I referred him back to the passage and asked him to find the word 'forms' and then substitute both 'kinds' and 'spots' and tell me which one makes more sense. When he did that, he quickly saw it was supposed to be 'kinds.' I explained this was a synonym - a word that means the same thing or could be substituted.

Coincidentally, Annabelle's worksheet had lists of word pairs and she had to circle the ones that were synonyms.

After they both finished, I suggested we play the synonym game. I had them stand up and I'd say a word and when they came up with a synonym, they were to raise their hand. They did really well and came up with some interesting answers. For example, once when I said 'hard' Annabelle offered "firm" while CJ said "difficult." Those were synonyms for different kinds of hard, but they're both right, of course.

Other interesting offerings were "horrible" (Bee) and "naughty" (CJ) for my "bad." When I said "puffy," CJ said "fluffy" and Bee pondered it for awhile before coming up with "cottony." I thought that was pretty clever. When I said "slow," CJ came up with unfast, which I don't believe to be a word, but I was glad that he thought to use un with fast, because that shows he knows "un" means "not," and of course he knows "fast" is the antonym for "slow."

We played the game for about 20 minutes this session and I'm sure we'll do it again another day. Oh, and Annabelle suggested that we play "The Antonym Game" someday soon, too.

EARTH DAY EVE: There is no shortage of resources available for Earth Day-related learning. In fact, there are so many, we don't dare wait until Earth Day to get started!

Today we checked out Animal Planet's offerings. They have a special "The Animals Save the Planet" site and on it are several short videos with environmental messages - everything from eat less beef to help lower methane/greenhouse gasses to using electricity efficiently.

We also took a virtual field trip today, hopping on board the Magic School Bus to learn a bit more about climate change.

The half hour program was, in large part, a promo package for the new book "The Magic School Bus and Climate Change." However, there was some good info in there, including facts and demonstrations of solar, hydro and wind power, and some (very standard) reduce, reuse, recycle type how tos.

It was fun for the kids to get to "meet" Magic School Bus author Joanna Cole and illustrator Bruce Degen and hear a bit about their thought/production process.

A third Earth-Day related lesson we used today came from a fave, BrainPOP. The kids watched a video about air pollution, took a couple of quizzes to see what they'd learned or retained, and then we did an experiment using a clear plastic bottle with a cap, a half cup of water, and a match.

We put the water in the bottle, I struck a match, dropped it in the bottle, capped it and then the kids squeezed the bottle. When they squeezed it, the air in the bottle was clear. When they let go, a whitish cloud filled the airspace in the bottle. As the experiment instructions explained, the smoke from the match gives the water vapor something to collect on, just like smoke combines with fog to make smog, which was something the kids learned in the BrainPOP video.

READING FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Today, via a Reading Rockets post on Facebook, we learned about We Give Books. The organization describes itself as "a free website that enables anyone with access to the Internet to put books in the hands of children who don’t have them, simply by reading online." The project is created by the Penguin Group (publishers) and the Pearson Foundation.

On We Give Books' Web site, visitors find picture books appropriate for children through age 10 or so. There's a mix of fiction and nonfiction, and an array of authors. The site says they'll be adding news books every month, together with special seasonal offerings.

To help make books available for those in need, all you have to do is choose one of the campaigns to support listed on the We Give Books site, and then proceed to read the book of your choice online.

I selected "The Little Engine that Could" by Watty Piper. (I am somewhat ashamed to admit I've not shared that classic with CJ and Annabelle until today.) The version online is "the complete original version" - its first copyright in 1930. The illustrations were a delightful throwback - except for the scary clown. Naturally, CJ took great pleasure in the fact there was a clown that creeped me out. ;)

We read about the stranded train full of toys and food for good girls and boys. And we watched one engine after another come by and refuse to help for one lame reason or another (most along the lines of that wasn't their job, and one because he was old and tired and didn't think he could do it). Finally, a little bright blue engine came along. She was wee, but optimistic, and decided to at least try to help. Of course her "I think I can, I think I can" chant carried her to the mountaintop and beyond.

After we read the book, I asked the kids, "Why do you think the blue engine, even though it was the littlest, was successful?"

"Because he thought he could!" declared CJ and Annabelle.

Lesson learned. :) They promptly hopped up out of their seats and started chugging around the house, chanting, "I think I can, I think I can!"

A BREAK IN THE ACTION: Christian and CJ got a surprise at Tae Kwon Do tonight - the session ended with a board breaking exercise! FYI - they didn't use real live wood boards, they're some composite about an inch thick. They click together and are not easy to break apart, I'm told.

CJ wasn't successful on his first attempt. Or his second. Or his third. Or fourth. Or fifth. Or thirteenth. Or twentieth. After that, it was time for a break - and a gut and brain check.

CJ was pretty discouraged with his lack of prowess, and so Christian took him aside and they had a little pow-wow talking about technique and attitude. (I wish I'd told Christian that we'd read the "Little Train that Could" earlier that day - and/or that CJ remembered the life lesson therein.) Of course, as it turns out, their conversation pretty much evolved into that with Christian reminding him that two of the tenets of Tae Kwon Do are perseverance and indomitable spirit. And he also got CJ to finally adopt an "I can do it!" mindset. In fact, he declared just that before he stood up, marched back over to the board and, after a few more attempts, finally broke it!

ANOTHER NAME: Fishermen's Terminal is one of our frequent destinations on jogs/bike rides. There, hundreds of fishing vessels are docked, many of which work the waters around Alaska. Last night, one of the last things I read before going to bed was that the Northern Belle had gone down in the Gulf of Alaska, and its four crew members had been rescued. We've seen the Northern Belle docked down there lots of times. It was a beautiful boat (there's a photo of her on Flickr here.)

First thing this morning, I learned that one of the crew - the captain - did not survive. That means that soon there will be one more name on the memorial we so often visit. A Seattle PI blogger has Coast Guard footage of the rescue and audio of the distress call.

A bit of history: There was another Northern Belle, this time an American transatlantic ship, which was was involved in a dramatic rescue effort in 1857. It ran aground near Thanet, England. All 14 aboard were saved after a harrowing rescue, and timber salvaged from the shipwreck was used to renovate a pub (named "Northern Belle" natch) in Margate, England.