Free 100 Number Grid

A fun way for kids to play with numbers, patterns and develop their number sense is with 100 grids. Here are some different patterns that can be colored on the grids.

The first one is all the even numbers or counting by two's.

Counting by three's creates a diagonal pattern.

On this all the double numbers are colored (11, 22, 33, 44,...., 99) which is the same as counting by eleven's.

Try coloring other patterns to see what happens. Try counting by fours starting on the number five  (5, 9, 13, 17.......) or the Fibonacci pattern (add the sum of the two previous numbers in the pattern to get 1,2,3,5,7,12,19,31......).

To make this activity easier I created a Blank 100 Grid and a Filled in 100 Grid.

Please feel free to make use of them.

Cell Unit Study - Week 8 - Golgi Apparatus

Week 8: We created a Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum and a Golgi Apparatus. Then we learned how they move proteins to other parts of the body.

We are continuing to follow David Macaulay's The Way We Work as a guide for our cell activities. Last week we learned how Ribosomes create proteins. Once the proteins leave the ribosomes they enter a Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum to be packaged in membrane sacs. Then they enter the Golgi Apparatus where digestive enzymes (Lysosomes) and waste products are added to the membrane sacs to be removed from the cell or recycled.

Our Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum is represented by the cardboard box filled with cardboard. The balloons represent the membrane sacs.

A second cardboard box filled with more cardboard represents the Golgi apparatus. The lysosomes are the red beads and the waste products are the other beads.

The proteins (fiber) leave the ribosome, get packed into membrane sacs in the rough endoplasmic reticulum, and enzymes and wastes are added in the golgi apparatus.

The kids packed and shipped the proteins through the factory.

Once the proteins are packaged in membrane sacs, they run along the microtubules (pipe cleaners inserted into straws) to the cell wall.

Wastes products are recycled for future use by the cell.

Be sure to check out our earlier cell activities.
Week 1 - Drawings
Week 2 - Atoms
Week 3 - Molecules
Week 4 - Cell Walls
Week 5 - Cell Structure
Week 6 - DNA
Week 7 - RNA and Ribosomes

We have more cell activities coming, but plan to take a little break. Please come back at the end of January for more.

This post is linked to:
Homeschool Creations

Ancient Greece History Co-op. - Week 8 - Temples

Week 8: We built Greek Temples using large cardboard boxes.

The temples of the ancient Greeks were somewhat similar to Churches in our culture. They were religious places where people could make sacrifices to the Gods.

My friend was able to obtain several enormous boxes from a local store which the kids enjoyed turning into Ancient Greek Temples.

The oldest and youngest child both decided they wanted to create the Temple of Athena Nike, so they worked together. When they drew their Ionic columns they learned about the three different styles (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian) of columns. Then they drew small pictures all around the top of the temples. These are the friezes which were carving around the tops of temples that often told the stories of Greek myths.

A turkey carving knife works perfect to cut cardboard.

Nike was the goddess of victory. The temple of Athena Nike is located in Athens in the shadow of the Acropolis and actually missed by many visitors because it is much small in size and a bit out of the way.

When the kids were finished working on the temples many of them decided to make their own shoes. Since they came up with their own designs and materials they had a chance to see how shoes may have been originally made and improved through trial and experimentation.

Christmas Tree Hats

Grandma knitted these darling Christmas Tree hats for the kids. They are easy to construct from a basic hat pattern.

The bottom three inches is knit. Then two rows of pearl stitch are done every inch to inch and a half all the way up the hat. She added a yellow pom-pom for the star and red stitching for the decoration. The kids love these hats and wear them every year to our local German Christmas Markets and Christmas parties.

Shall I Knit You a Hat?: A Christmas Yarn is the perfect book to go with these Christmas Tree Hats. It is the story of a little rabbit and his mother who decide to knit Christmas Hats for the other animals in the forest. My five year old just loves this darling book.

This post is linked to:
BloomDesign
Pin Me Linky

Speed! - Multiplication - The Right Age to Begin

When little ones start playing Speed! they usually look at the bead chain pictures in the middle of the cards or count to figure out what card to play next. It doesn't take them long to speed up because they want to win.  If kids can count and have an attention span long enough to learn a few rules of play they are old enough to play Speed! For some this happens around 4 or 5 years old.

My daughter wanted to play at 4 years old because her siblings were playing. I didn't think she was ready, but she had an excellent attention span so I let her try. Surprisingly enough she did well. At five years old she has mastered Two and Three Speed and can now easily skip count by both numbers. She is starting to understand the concept of multiplication, and her head is already filled with the answers.

The competitive nature of Speed! really appeals to kids starting around age 7 or 8 and continuing through adulthood. My son is nine and loves playing Speed! It makes him feel independent because he is playing a grown-up game. He uses skip counting to figure out multiplication. He doesn't need a calculator or cheat sheet and can use this skill to work higher level problems.

Cell Unit Study - Week 7 - RNA and Ribosomes

Week 7: We made mRNA, tRNA, ribosomes and proteins.

Ribosomes are factories inside the cells in our bodies which produce proteins. mRNA and tRNA are the instructions which tell the factories how each protein is made. We built a model of these factories along with the instructions by following the information in chapter 1 in The Way We Work by David Macaulay. Please note this is not an activity book, but a book which explains cells well. I developed this activity to compliment the book.

To build the ribosome, or factory, we used two toilet paper rolls, a cylindrical container and a cardboard box. Holes were cut in each end of the box and on both sides of the cylindrical container.

DNA contains instructions for creating proteins which are used in all parts of our bodies. DNA is so important that it always remains in the nucleus. Our DNA was represented by two strands of multicolored yarn. With our yarn (the molecules) purple always matches with red, orange with blue and pink with green.

mRNA is a copy of a small portion of DNA. Since purple molecules always match with red molecules, orange molecules with blue molecules and pink molecules with green molecules, only one strand of the DNA is copied into mRNA.

The mRNA is fed into the bottom of the ribosome.

The molecule on the mRNA is read by the ribosome and a corresponding tRNA with an attached amino acid is fed into the toilet paper roll in the ribosome.

The amino acids are represented by fiber.

This picture shows the inputs. mRNA on the bottom, and three corresponding tRNA with attached amino acids.

This picture shows the outputs. mRNA on the bottom which can be reused in another ribosome, tRNA on the left and a protein formed by combining amino acids.

tRNA comes out the toilet paper roll while the newly formed protein comes out the center container.

This post is linked to:
Share-It Saturday

Ancient Greece History Co-op - Week 7 - Olympics

Week 8 - We made Olympic Champion Crowns.

The Olympics Games were started by the Ancient Greeks almost 3000 years ago. They were held every four years in the city of Olympia Greece. The site was filled with athletic facilities such as a gymnasium, race track, hotels, monuments and baths. It was only used during Olympic years. To learn more about the Olympics we discussed our trip to Olympia, Greece and watched this video.

Then we made Olympic victory crowns from vines.

This Olympic crown was actually made by my daughter several years ago. She used short vines to tie longer vines together around her head.

 With Jemma's Leukemia she isn't allowed to touch leaves, plants, or any other outdoor natural items as they could contain mold or fungus that can be very dangerous to her weak immune systems. Therefore, we used decorative fall leaf vines to make our Olympic crowns.

 This was a very simple project as we just taped the vines into a circle to fit the head and were done.

In conjunction with studying the Olympics we read the picture book Run With Me, Nike!by Cassandra Case. This short book was very easy for my 6th and 4th graders to read on their own. It is ideal for 2nd-3rd grade. Even so, the kids enjoyed it and learned a little more about the Olympics.

This post is linked to:
No Time for Flash Cards 
2 Posh Lil Divas