South Korea

an-nyeong-ha-se-yo!

Our travels took us to South Korea this week as we learned about the peninsula east of China.

We started off learning a korean song, discovering the meaning behind their flag and doing some mapping activities.

We learned about the history of Korea and the conflict that has occured there over the years.  We read about what it is like to live in North Korea and prayed for the people there.

I found out that they are actually remembering what I teach them (always nice to know!).  Sean noticed that it was 'Korea week' and started telling them a bit of the history -

  Sean:  there is an area in between North and South Korea -

  Jennifer:  you mean the demilitarized zone?

  Sean  that's right.  It's a span of a quarter mile -

  Jennifer:  actually our book says it is 2 miles wide.


I guess they were listening to me- NICE!

Other activities of the week:

We learned about 6 animals and put them on our animal board.

We made and decorated some crowns while learning about Korea's history of metal craft and elaborately decorated metal crowns (ours were made of cardstock and stickers with a little glitter.)

Homeschool turned into "Hotel School" this week as we spent a few days on vacation.  While away we learned about and played some popular Korean games: Kawi, Bawi, Bo (known to us as rock, paper, scissors) and Jae gi cha gi (hacky sack).  No pictures of the games, but here's one from our trip.  We spent a lot of time swimming, and tired out all the kids!

We ended up our week with a recipe - Korean beef. 

This recipe did not go over as well as last weeks.  It turned out pretty good, but the kids did not enjoy it at all.

That's it for this week, time to say goodbye to Korea and continue on our travels...

China

Ni Hao!

This week we stamped our passports and headed off for a week of learning about China.  

We started by finding China on the map and learning some facts such as the capital city, the language spoken and a bit about the government.

We learned to sing a song in Mandarin, and write numbers from 1-10.  We also read about some families that live there and what their lives are like. 

The girls did some mapping activities and did some research on the Great Wall.  They then started making their own model of it.  It took awhile to get done, but now their playmobile people are able to go sightseeing in China and walk along the Great Wall!

Next we learned about 6 animals that live in China and put their pictures up on our Animal Classification Board.  The girls enjoyed researching these animals and were surprised to find out that the pangolin - with it's scaly skin - is actually a mammal!

Lots of other fun activities occurred throughout the week...

Making Chinese Lanterns:

And Chinese Fans:

And making some paper (which was invented in China):

We finished off the week making some Chinese food for dinner - fried rice, sweet and sour pork, and a cucumber salad.  I didn't expect this to go over well since my kids normally dislike rice with a passion.  But they did try it...





And they liked it!!

 

They asked that whenever I make rice from now on, could I please use this recipe.  I think the chopsticks made it taste better too.  After dinner Allie said "Now I know how HARD it is to live in China - the kids have to eat their rice with chopsticks!"



Chemistry Class - reactions

This week we looked at how molecules act when introduced to other molecules.  They always follow the rules, and sometimes a reaction will occur.  The girls enjoyed their lab this week where we were able to observe some reacions occurring.

First they made observations of the liquids being used (lemon juice, vinegar, milk, baking soda solution)...

Then they predicted what would happen...

lemon juice mixed with milk formed particles of curdled milk...

lemon juice mixed with the baking soda solution made many bubbles...

after the "bubble explosion" Allie was a bit apprehensive to do any more mixing...

vinegar mixed with baking soda made more bubbles...

Chemistry Class - molecules are made of atoms

In chapter 2 of our chemistry book, we learned that when atoms join together to make molecules, they must follow rules!  For our lab, we used marshmallows to represent the atoms and put them together into molecules using toothpicks.  At first the girls were allowed to be creative and make whatever they wanted.  We then imposed rules for the atoms to follow, and saw that that limited what we were able to do.

Of course we ate some of the molecules when we were through!

Chemistry Class - observations

We started our chemistry lessons learning how to make good observations.  We looked at cotton balls, flower petals, beans and strawberries and made careful observations using a magnifying glass.