Rowing~The Storm in the Night

Rowing the Storm in the Night, was a bit more difficult than The Story about Ping. The language of the book, was a bit more advanced than the girls were used to. However, after two weeks of reading the book every school day, the girls really began to love the story.

In the beginning it was very hard to keep their attention; on the dialog especially. Towards the end Sweetie almost had the story memorized. I am a bit pleased with this. Now we will be able to read more advanced books without her attention falling short of the story.

This book was jam packed full of Science and English. Here are a few of the areas we explored with Storm in the night.

1. Clouds. How they are made, and different types of clouds
2. Rain. How it rains
3. Electricity
4. Family relationships
5. Fear
6. The Five Senses
7. Facial Expressions
8. A little bit about America
9. Similes
10. Onomatopoeia
11. Sources of light
12. Vocabulary

The Batteries in the camera were low during this book, so I didn't get as many pictures as I did with The Story About Ping. When I make a post of the Learning Folders of The Storm In the Night, I will take some detailed pictures of that, and then you will have a chance to see more of the girls work.

In Case you are wondering what an Onomatopoeia is, it is a sound that an object makes. For instance a Clock says, "Tick tock, tick tock" a car says, "Vroom Vroom!". Those are examples of an Onomatopoeia. Pretty Interesting Huh? :)

One of the girls first projects was exploring family relationships. The Storm In the Night's main characters are a little boy Thomas and his Grandfather. Thomas admires and respects his Grandfather very much. So I had the girls write a letter to their Grandma & Grandpa and their Nana & Papa. Then they made them a magnet for them. We haven't sent them yet, (Sorry grandparents!) because I just haven't gotten a round to it yet. Dumb excuse I know. :-

The finished Product

For Art, the girls cut out Clouds and colored them. They made a thunderstorm scene with the clouds. You will be able to see this in their learning folders.
This is Bean intently watching our own rain maker. We put boiling water in the bottom of a jar, closed the jar, and put ice on top of the lid. This showed how the sun heats up the water, causes it to evaporate, where it comes into the cold air, and then rains.

We also did a little experiment with why it thunders. I tried explaining to the girls why there is sometimes lightning in a rain storm. It was a little above their heads, as I am sure alot of this stuff is. But it is still fun, and they are enjoying this.

Anyway, I lit a candle, and I told the girls to pretend that flame was like lighting. Lightning is very hot, just like that fire. I then place a balloon on top of the flame, and it popped. I was hoping to show the girls that the heat of the lightning caused the air around it to *pop*. Well, it didn't quite work that way. Sweetie started to cry because I popped her *favorite* balloon! :)

We also did an experiment to introduce the five senses to the girls. I got a pile of colorful toys, and placed them on the floor. I told the girls not to touch them. I then asked them to describe the toys to me.

For smell, I blind folded them, and had them smell vinegar, lemon juice, perfume, and eucalyptus oil.

For touch they felt a nail file, A nail smoother, a hard ball, and a soft two headed cow.

For taste they tasted, pretzels, chips, taffy, honey, and lemon juice. The picture above is them tasting some things. They had to tell me if it was salty, sweet, or sour.

Last but not least for hearing, they listened to beans, rice, pellets, and oat meal in containers by shaking it. They had to tell me if it was loud or soft.

Later on Daddy did an experiment with them using pop corn. They had to listen to it, smell it, feel it, see it, and taste it.

This is Sweetie feeling the two headed cow! :)

There were some interesting things that Bean said that I want to share with you. When we were studying electricity, I showed them our power lines, took them to our meter box, showed that it connected to our breaker box. Showed them that there were wires in the breaker box, that connected to the lights and outlets.

For one of our projects I asked the girls to name some things that give light. Bean says, "Electricity!" I said, "Yes it does!" I then asked, "What about a light bulb?" Bean matter of factly shakes her head and says, "Nope, the electricity makes the light bulb work."

So I guess, not *too* much of this stuff is way over their heads. They do get alot of what is going on.

This week we are Rowing The Glorious Flight. Have a good afternoon!