Piwi Kids

Friday, January 4, 2013

M is for Magnets

At the start of the week we were still talking about opposite charges with our Magic School bus electricity experiments. I realized that the magnets on our Thomas trains were a perfect example of attraction. Mini Piwi was really interested so while Miss K worked on her Electricity notebook pages, I got out the big magnets. I showed Mini Piwi how much stronger they were than the one on the trains. She thought it was all hilarious!

I had some experiment sheets for Miss K to do with Magnets but no printables for Mini Piwi. Her enthusiasm inspired me to make a quick 'M is for Magnet sheet'. Today we had a mini scavenger hunt to find all the items on the sheet. The cat was the hardest to find as he was asleep up high in a bedroom.

....the leaf didn't move!

The spoon sticks!

Mini Piwi put a sticker by the things that the magnet could pull. She then went all around the kitchen looking for other things that she could pick up. A word of warning about working with Magnets...make sure your wallet/handbag/computer is out of the way. These things don't like magnets as much as Preschoolers do!

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Mini Piwi's version of Mouse shapes

As we continue with Letter M week, we have been re-reading all of the Mouse books by Ellen Stoll Walsh.

Our favorite is definitely still Mouse paint! Mini Piwi likes to 'read' it to us.

Today after reading Mouse shapes, we had this activity from Little page turners all ready to go. Mini Piwi had other ideas. She had another mouse in mind when I explained the craft.
I cut out the new shapes and she made her own version...cute!

Here is the finished product she proudly displayed on her M board...

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Tuesday, January 1, 2013

In search of Crispy pizza

In our household we are all about thin and crispy pizza. Up until now we have bought ready made thin bases and cooked them on our pizza stone (one of our best kitchen investments). It worked great! Recently we saw a re-run of Cooks country and they were making St Louis style pizza. It had a super thin, crisp base. It also looked easy to make. Suspiciously easy!

I found a version of the recipe here on Food.com. Mini Piwi and I made it on Christmas night for dinner. Miss K was busy with her guitar writing songs about Perry the cat. This recipe was everything it promised to be! It turned out exactly like on TV and everyone loved it!

I thought about it afterwards and it really was a great sensory activity for Mini Piwi. Rolling, kneading, sprinkling and spreading. She was also so proud of showing off the final product to Daddy and Miss K.

I even made myself a dairy free version with my standard pizza topping -1/2 c pizza sauce, 1/4 c silken tofu and 1/8 c nutritional yeast. I would usually put a bit of mustard and yellow Miso in there too, but I was out. For cheese lovers it doesn't sound super exciting. If you can't or don't eat cheese this is an alternative to get the pizza taste we love.

The Pizza stone we have had for nearly two years (it is well travelled too) is the one recommended by America's test kitchen.

We freaked out initially at the $40 price tag but then decided to buy it as a Christmas gift to ourselves -romantic! lol. Since then I have used a lot for pizza and breads. It is definitely something I would buy again.

While I am talking about America's test kitchen. We love watching the show, the recipes are made for everyone to be able to follow. They are also our reference for all things cooking. We have yet to be disappointed by any of the products and appliances on their list. We purchased the recipe collection years ago and it too has a section of recommendations in that. If I even mention perhaps needing something for the kitchen Piwi Daddy is off consulting the book. There is an update version put out each year....

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Monday, December 31, 2012

2nd grade-ish Curriculum plan for 2013

Last year we were virtual schooling so we had the year's lesson plans laid out for us. You can read more about our journey and curriculum here.

I had only planned our lessons until the end of the year so we could make any required changes in our curriculum. Here is what I have so far...I am still

Language arts/spelling

Copy work from St. Annes Helper. Miss K can review her Catechism and do copy work at the same time! We downloaded some samples last week and they were great. Miss K proudly showed Daddy her beautiful writing.

Continuing with Learning Language arts through literature (3rd grade)

2nd grade & 3rd grade word spelling list from Time 4 learning.

MCP phonics B

Math

The Math in Focus curriculum is sold in two parts, we had just purchased the first semester books just in case it wasn't a good fit. The lesson themselves are really good for Miss K. We just recently changed up the order we did the chapters. I felt Miss K needed more confidence in addition and subtraction before we could move onto multiplication. I got a bit sneaky. We did two lessons of math each day. One from the math in focus measurement unit (chapters ) and then later in the day some from Mammoth math addition and subtraction 2b. Usually miss K also does 20 mins on IXL...so that's kind of three math lessons. She has yet to notice because she doesn't consider measuring stuff and computer work 'Math'. Having said that, the IXl novelty is starting to wear off now that the virtual prizes are not coming as readily now as they do in the beginning.

History/Geography

We have a few more days left of Advent and then we return to our Galloping the globe.