Riddle Writing

We read, solved and wrote a few riddles as suggested in my daily writing tip email from Brave Writer.

The website Your Dictionary explains different types of riddles and contains several examples. Daily Brain Teaser is a blog which contains many different types of thinking puzzles including riddles.

Here's an example; Three eyes have I, all in a row; when the red one opens, all freeze.” The answer is traffic light.

After reading through several riddles we attempted to create our own. First we thought of an object and then wrote 2-5 sentences describing the object.



Here's what we came up with.

7 Year Old Daughter
I do not see you in the day. I see you in the night. 
Answer - Bat

I am prickly in the sun. 
Answer - Cactus


13 Year Old Daughter
I am way up north or south. I can be pink or purple but am primarily green. I normally come at night. I'm created by the Earth's magnetic field.
Answer - Northern Lights

I am leg extensions. I was invented in medieval times.
Answer - Stilts

My Riddle

Even though I'm dead and gone I'm still worth a lot. In fact, I travel all around the world each and every day. 
Answer - Benjamin Franklin $100 dollar bill





Rainbow Shaded Silhouettes

Following the example on Artea Scuola, we created rainbow shaded silhouette paintings.

This was a two-day art project. One day to paint, and the second day to cut and assemble the pictures.

Day 1
Beginning with acrylic paints, one full sheet of paper was painted from yellow to blue, blending the colors as we painted.


Then a second sheet of paper was painted yellow to red, again working to blend the colors.

 Day 2

A dot was placed at the center of both sheets of paper and they were cut in half.


One-half of each sheet was glued to a sheet of yellow construction paper.

Stencils were used to cut a shape from the other half of the paper.

 Then the cut-outs were glued to the top of the rainbow shaded sheets.

More of our art projects can be found on our Arts and Crafts Page.




Check out these great blogs full of educational activity ideas.

Mandala - Evenly Spaced Concentric Circles

We created a mandala by creating evenly spaced concentric circles.

The mandala shown below contains a series of concentric arcs. Constructing it by first creating concentric circles and then erasing the unused lines works well.


The trick was figuring out how to create concentric circles which increased by the same amount without measuring or guessing.

 The secret to evenly spaced circles is actually quite simple. After creating perpendicular lines which cross near the center of the paper, the compass should be set to a relatively small radius when compared to the paper. Beginning where the lines cross a series of tick marks are created along one access of the line. They are visible along the outer portion of the left axis in the above photo.

Next the compass radius is set to match each of the tick marks and circles are drawn.

Once the circles are all constructed, the 90 degree angles can be bisected and unneeded lines can be erased.



Other Mandala construction tutorials are available on our Math Page.

Pig Eye Dissection - Dissecting with Children

We dissected pig eyes.

Biology with laboratory is a subject that can be intimidating to many home educators. Some parents don't feel confident in their own knowledge of the subject, and others aren't excited over figuring out where/how to secure the materials. Fortunately, the most important part for kids is the opportunity to explore. A textbook, library book on the subject or videos such as these can be the teacher. That just leaves supplying the dissecting materials for the parents.


Eyes


Human eyes are similar to the eyes of other mammals, but there are some differences. They all have optic nerves in the back which connect to the brain and muscles surrounding the eye which work to alter the shape of the lens for focusing and moving the eye within the socket. The white part of the eye, known as the sclera, is not visible on most mammals, but is clearly visible on humans.

Rods and cones are the photoreceptor part of the central nervous system located in the back of the eye. Humans have around 120 million rods which are very sensitive to light, but only about 6.5 million cones which are sensitive to color. Most fish and underwater reptiles have no cones, thereby making them colorblind.

Eyes don't grow or change size with age. Instead, the muscles surrounding the eyes change creating the illusion that the eyes grow. Most mammals have only four ocular muscles surrounding the eye, but primates have six which allows them to roll their eyes.

 
Filling a plastic bag with water acts like a magnifying glass and the lens of the eye. The lens actually looks just like a sack filled with water, only it's much smaller.

An important prerequisite to dissecting is preparing a dinner which contains meat. This is very important for cutting skills.

The pig eyes were obtained from a local butcher and since they were fresh, they did not have a strong smell.

Dissection of the pig eye was accomplished in only about four steps.
1. The excess fat and skin was cut off.


2. The cornea was punctured to drain the aqueous humor.

 
3. The sclera was punctured and then cut around the perimeter to create two halves of the eye.

4. Once the eye was separated into the two halves, the iris, cornea and lens were pulled out and inspected.

The kids found the vitrious and aqueous humor within the eye had the consistency of egg white.


Really - it wasn't gross. Several kids couldn't wait to get at the eyeballs. Handling them wasn't much different than handling uncooked meat to be prepared for supper.

 He has three eyes!


To see more of our biology unit study please visit our science page. Also on the science page are several human body science projects geared for younger children which provide a good foundation for this activity.

Dance during the Renaissance


Week 17: We created dance cards and learned how western style dance evolved through the ages.

Dance has changed quite dramatically during the past 50 years. Up until the mid twentieth century, it was done primarily by couples, but today, many people dance alone or in small circles of friends.

During the Renaissance men were careful only to dance with each lady once at a ball. Dancing twice meant the man wanted to marry the woman. Women sometimes wore cards on their wrists which contained the dances they could do.


Charleston, the twist and the Lindy hop are just a few of the dances which became popular during the 20th century. This video shows a quick sample of several dances.

After learning about popular dances through the ages the kids had a chance to try them out. Then the girls made their own dance cards. They were sure to write the names of dances they knew and were willing to do if asked.



This was the last week in our Renaissance History Unit.

Shaded Hearts - Teaching Kids Shading Techniques

We used watercolor paint to shade hearts.

Shading makes artwork more interesting and is a fun technique to experiment with. Valentine's Day and the Heart Balloons on Art Projects for Kids inspired this heart painting activity.

Beginning with a sheet of watercolor paper, the kids were asked to paint hearts with light shades of warm colors.

Next darker tones were added to one side of the heart.

Then using water or only a small amount of paint the colors were blended together.
 
After the papers were filled with hearts, a cool color was chosen for the backgrounds. I was astounded at the results of this project. It was the first time any of us has tried to shade artwork and the light effects could be seen right away.

10 year old son

My Hearts

I love they way may 7 year old daughter painted two upside down hearts.

12 year old daughter

This project was perfect for experimenting with shading because the kids could choose their own colors to work to blend together. It gave them the opportunity to see how colors mix. Plus the numerous number of hearts gave the kids lots of chances to practice.

Mandala Geometry Challenge - Elementary School

I recreated a Mandala with my 7 year old.

After watching her 13 year old sister recreate a mandala - Mandala Geometry Challenge - 13 Year Old daughter, my 7 year old was up for the same challenge.

Obviously she needed lots more help with the steps and couldn't create the mandala on her own, but with assistance, this activity was an age appropriate, math learning extravaganza.

First, a mandala was selected to recreate using only a compass and straight edge. There was no measuring or guessing allowed in the reconstruction process, and I was happy that my 7 year old selected a fairly simple mandala.

There are several different ways to recreate the above mandala which are simple and work well. Here are the basic steps we followed:

1. Draw a circle with a line passing through the center.

 2. Create a perpendicular bisector.

3. Create perpendicular bisectors through the at least one radial segment. The bisectors are represented by tick marks in the above picture.
4. Set the compass radius from the center of the circle to the tick mark shown in the above photo. Draw a light circle concentric with the existing circle.
5. The centers of four of the circles are now known. To find the centers for the remaining four circles, bisect each of the 90 degree angles. The center points will be where the bisectors cross the small circle.

 6. Draw the eight circles.

 7. Outline.

 8. Color.


Other Mandala construction tutorials are available on our Math Page.

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