Learning languages...

The girls have recently been interested in learning different languages.  I speak a little spanish, french, and know basic sign language. Georgia wants to learn Brazilian Portuguese, and Olivia wants to learn South American Spanish. I'll have to look up some resources for them, but I wanted to add a couple here so I can find them later...

Portuguese

http://www.easyportuguese.com/

 

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/portuguese.htm

 

http://www.elanguageschool.net/portuguese/

Natural Disasters

After hearing about the earthquake in Japan yesterday, the girls and I watched some news footage on tv, looked at some videos on the internet, then learned more about natural disasters.

Here are some sites we checked out:

Nat Geo Forces of Nature

BBC animated guide to Earthquakes and others

more Nat Geo resources

Nat Geo Natural Disasters

Think Quest Natural Disasters

FEMA disasters for kids

Free Brain Pop video on Tsunamis

Earthquakes through history facts

Chemistry



We somehow got into a discussion on molecules and atoms, and the periodic table of elements.  So we went to BBC and learned some more about them.

Compounds and Mixtures

The Particle Model

Atoms and Elements

The British accent made it all the more interesting!!

Elements, atoms, properties of matter, chemical bonds, metals, non-metals, compounds, mixtures, conductors, sonorous and non-sonorous, filtration, distillation, chromatography, evaporation, condensation...

Another site we visited was Chem4Kids.

Anatomy

Today, the girls were interested in what the liver does....so we read about the liver, and other organs, such as kidney, heart, and lungs....and played with the BBC's Interactive Body. From there, we also learned about some of the bones, and muscles.

Georgia told me about the organs in sharks and crocodilians, and how they differ from ours. She also talked about their sixth senses...how sharks use their Ampullae of Lorenzini, electroreceptors for detecting electric fields in the water, which living things give off when they use their muscles, and also how they can use the earth's magnetic field as their own mapping system....And she told us how crocs use their Dermal Pressure Receptors for detecting changes in pressure, making finding prey in the dark easier. That would be neat to have, huh?

We also talked about organ transplants.

Cool Math

This morning we checked out the site Cool Math 4 Kids.  Georgia reviewed fractions, factors, and reducing fractions.  Olivia worked on addition, subtraction, number values, meaning of equal, and using a number line. We also used cookie cereal and some empty fruit cups for playing around with addition.

Cetaceans

Georgia's new passion.

She's always been interested in whales.  Her favorite has alwasy been the Sperm Whale, ever since she read Moby Dick when she was 5 or 6 years old.  But with the Endless Ocean Blue World Wii game she has been collecting a list of cetaceans that she is looking up and reading more about.  We borrowed some library books on whales, dolphins, and porpoises, and her newest Ranger Rick magazine had an Amazon River Dolphin on the cover!

Yesterday we discovered the American Cetacean Society website.  She's been reading up about species there, as well as learning about the conservation efforts. They have a poster we are going to be ordering!

So neat to hear her talk about the ways different ones hunt or collect food, how they evolved differently from being seperated, why the narwol has a long tooth, their social activity, migrations, communication...and to know that she actually gets what she is talking about...not just remembering facts.  She goes into discussions about why something is or how it came to be.

We learned about the US Marine Mammal Protection Act.

We watched the TED talk on the Intriguing Sound of Marine Mammals, given by Peter Tyack.

Georgia and Olivia did some sketching yesterday...Georgia looked up specific species of whales so she could draw them accurately...showing their scars and all. She told me how she drew the further side of the tail smaller so it would look further away.  She also has been mixing colors to come up with the best one, and using different tools to come up with the look she wants.

SKETCHES HERE

Something else both girls really enjoy is the Safari Ltd Toob play sets.  We have the Jamestown and Powhaten sets from when we visited Jamestown on its 400th anniversary.  We have coral reef, ocean, horses, North American animals, and whales and dolphins. These sets are great for the girls to use their imagination and play out things they are learning about.  I love it!  Hearing Olivia ask Georgia, what did this one eat...they play it all true to life. And Olivia told me the other day that some whales have teeth, and some have baleen.



Aquatic Life Exploration

Along with the girls' interests in learning about crocodilians and the oceans and rivers of the world, the girls have also been into learning more about ocean and freshwater creatures.

Georgia has been very interested in the Amazon River, and especially the arapaima, largest freshwater fish on Earth.)  Through her research, she's also come upon the ceolocanth, a fish previously thought to have been extinct! At PBS she viewed its' anatomy.

We made a trip to the Newport Aquarium where we all met Might Mike the American Alligator, on tour from Florida.  We also saw the....ARAPAIMA!!!  She was so excited.  Said while in the Amazon exhibit, "I know these fish the best, this is my favorite part."

We saw several species of shark, rays, jellyfish, freshwater fish from around the world and from our own backyard, shore life, coral reef life, and fish from the Amazon. We experienced the touch tanks both at the shore life gallery, and in the shark exhibit. We even got to watch scuba divers in the tank, as it was apparently cleaning day.

The girls have also been playing the game Endless Ocean, Blue World on the Wii. They have learned so much from that game! Not just about different types of fish, but learning about the different habitats, life in the deep verses the shallow regions, food webs, conservation, geology, salvaging, taxonomy, diving safety, budgeting and saving, geography, and so much more.  We keep a piece of paper handy while playing so the girls can jot down creatures they want to research further.

After playing, the girls gather their extensive collection of stuffed animals and small toys of the animals they were learning about.  They have quite the collection, too!  I love listening to them...Olivia asking Georgia about different animals, what they eat or where they live.  We just did some quick research this morning from their play...they wanted to know the life span of their animals to see which ones lived the longest!

They also enjoy the Zoo Tycoon PC games. They have learned SOOO much from that as well.  Again, not just about animals. That is another game that we really like.

Crocodilians

That has been a fascination of Georgia's for a few weeks now.  We've recorded a lot of documentaries on the subject, borrowed library books, and surfed the web for sites, photos, and videos.

One of her favorite sites is this site hosted by the Florida Museum of Natural History. (also found at http://crocodilian.com/ ) She has studied the species list and had me quiz her on the scientific names.  Phew...she got all but one of them...and there are 23 species! We looked up some of the scientific prefixes and suffixes and learned that suchus comes from Greek for crocodile. (and crocodilos from ancient Greek for lizard.)  She already knew what paleo meant. She also told me that the -ensis at the end is Latin and means that it is from that place, as in the American Alligator, Alligator mississippiensis.

She loves that site.  It has maps showing the distribution of crocodilians worldwide.

They talk about the taxonomy and how they are classified...and the debate about it.

And of course their species list, where you can click on a crocodilian to learn more about it.

There is also extensive information on crocodilian biology, including evolution and morphology.

And it wouldn't be complete without some mention of conservation.

Other sites to check out include:

The Visable Alligator Skull from the University of Texas Morphology Group

Gharial Fact Sheet from the National Zoo (we've visited there!!)

Gharials, Nile Crocodile, American Crocodile,  Saltwater Crocodile, American Alligator all at National Geographic.

Why do animals have scientific names? and Make your own scientific name from the San Diego Zoo.

And she made a salt dough crocodile that, once dry, she will paint!

 

This all of course led to other interests.  She's read up on estuaries, and she now wants to learn more about India and the Yangtze River in China.

Doodling in Math Class

Found a really neat site from a recent NPR piece.

Ulam Spiral.... Pascal's Triangle.... graph theory.... Ouroboros.... Borromean Rings... Knot Theory... you still with me????

This site  is by Vi Hart, who puts fun back in math with her videos and tips and tricks.  Vi describes herself as "a recreational mathemusician" and as evident in her videos, loves math, music, being creative, and having fun with it all.  Georgia sat in front of the laptop for over an hour watching her videos with sketch book in hand.  She had a lot of fun trying the techniques shown in the videos...especially this one.

I'll put Georgia's sketches here when I get to the other computer.