Another great week at Branches...
We've begun our science unit on 'Forces'. We were encouraged to first think about where we would see evidence of a force, such as a push or a pull. We had a ball and a string and we tried to find as many ways as we could to move them. We saw that we could kick the ball, throw it, or blow it, and those are evidence of a push. We saw that we could 'pull' it using the string and pulling it by hand. Some thought about trying to tie the string around the ball, but that proved difficult. We saw that we could just drag (pull) the lightweight ball with the string. The students discovered it was much easier to push a chair across the tiled floor than across the carpet (we threw in the a little friction discussion, too). We pretended to have a shovel and tried to "dig" a swimming pool and found out how much effort that would entail. Machines like excavators have been built to make our jobs better and faster.
In History, we learned about the invention of the car and saw how automobiles have made our lives so much easier to travel. This wonderful invention however, was snubbed by President William McKinley. He was afraid it would blow up any second! Others saw how unsafe it would be for pedestrians, who weren't used to this means of travel. The invention of the 'motorcar' gave way to jobs opening up for thousands of workers: the need for paved roads, stop signs, traffic lights, mechanics, and much more.
We enjoyed a story called "Drawing God" and drew our own versions of who what we think God looks like. Ask your child to see their drawing. Our bible verse "You are the light of the world" Matthew 5:14 had us singing "This Little Light of Mine" and discussing ways we can be a light for Christ out in the world.
In IEW, we read the Gingerbread Man story, orally summarized it and looked for nouns and verbs. We discussed what is necessary to make a sentence: a noun and a verb, and for it to make sense.