Academy Raiders Blog

Still a little behind...

Our time with Galileo.....
I hung the key points from the ceiling in the school room, as the dc pulled down each star they read the key point.

They loved this activity and were eagerly awaiting the next star and the next bit of information.

They loved the Galileo mind map and were very excited that the we going to be able to drop oranges and marbles from the balcony!

I find that the colors really help them to remember information.

Dad helped the dc find the different planets and constellations so they could plot them on their charts.

 

Dad also made pendulums with the dc. We found a terrific web site that had Galileo's experiments. It was interactive and you could guess and check your answers. Once the children had their own pendulum they had them swinging from everywhere!!

We are slowly filling our world map. We are loving every minute of the adventure. I will try to get back here really soon to add more photos.

Happy adventuring
Simone and family.

Venturing Forth...

Some of our Wright Brothers & Columbus Adventure to share with you guys...

Today we made a model of the 'WRIGHT FLYER' - it's powered by elastic bands.  This was a great purchase ...no glue but not too quite fiddly!  I have put much more detail into the post on my own personal blog which I started last week.  You are welcome to go over there and see lots more pics of this activity.  We have also been working on Newspaper articles and Adverts.  It has been very enlightening to delve into the area of 'persuasive writing'... looking at Adverts and spotting all the persuasive techniques they use.

(xxx) & (xxx) had to discuss & sort the 'persuasive writing techniques' into 4 groups, then glue them onto a poster.

We played a BINGO game based on persuasive writing techniques which was funny.

(xxx) read out the questions as these techniques were downloaded from a UK    KS3 (ie age 11-14) site.

 

We enjoyed the activity putting Columbus' 4 journeys on a map.  (xxx) loves maps and produced an A4 map (as seen here) onto which the children copied the routes in 4 colours.  If anyone wants a copy of the map &/or the websites we used, just let me know. One of the things I love about this Adventure is how the children research discover & find things out then present what they learn in so many different ways... e.g. the SPACE GAMES back when we studied COPERNICUS or the SHAKESPEARE TRAIL of questions & answers etc.  Well, to try something new, I asked the children to produce a WORDSEARCH where they decided their own questions about Columbus, then searched for the answers hidden in the WORDSEARCH, made by somebody else.  This was very important to the youngest in our family. 

We drew large pictures of the 3 ships and plan to paint them.

(Notice (xxx)'s homemade choc-chip cookie while we work...isn't homeschooling great!)

If you like reading my blog entries...please leave a comment..I could use some encouragement right now.  :)   Love to see some pics of your Adventure.