Co-op Ramblings

Our little co-op has taken on a different look these days.  Since it is now down to only four of us, I suppose we could call it just getting together.  But I stubbornly refuse!   Really, though, 

co-op is cruising along, and we are settling in to our different look.  

Sammy adores going to co-op!  I mentioned in a previous post that we bought Sammy a Spiderman backpack for co-op.  Unfortunately, I could not get a good picture of the backpack, but here is Sammy more than ready to go to co-op!  He starts asking to leave as soon as he realizes that Aly and I are there in the mornings.  I think he might push Madi and Makenna out the door early if he could.

Our first co-op of January was cancelled do to ice, so this day was a make-up day.   We had only a partial schedule and then lunch out at Chick-fil-a (yeah!)  Today in science Priscilla and Aly built a well from the K'Nex Simple Machines Wheels, Axels, and Inclined Planes set.  I had purchased this to go along with one of their Physical Science chapters.  There was so much information contained on the teacher's disc that came with the kit!  Originally, I had planned for them to build more than one model from the kit, but between the actual building time and the extras on the teacher's disc, well, we ran out of time.  We are thinking of setting aside a separate day just to dive headlong into the whole kit.

After the well was built, Priscilla and Aly did some experiments.  Eleanor and Sammy were having a snack, well Sammy was having "elevenses" like a hobbit as he had already had breakfast and second breakfast lol!  The little ones were a bit fascinated with the girls' experiment which was made funnier when Michelle found a little person in the toy bin to ride up and down in the well bucket!  Both Aly and Priscilla love the hands on aspect of science.  I love their enthusiasm!  

In Art class we began learning about value.  I've had a value lesson pinned on my Pinterest board for quite a while, just waiting for the right moment.  Which will actually be our next co-op as I found another value lesson that I thought would be a great winter project as well.  The Snowmen at Night Chalk Pastel drawing turned out lovely. We ended up using the book, Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner for our inspiration as Snowmen at Night had a huge wait list at our library!  Anyway, I was so pleased with their results!  

Aly drew on Calvin and Hobbes for inspiration for her snowmen!

Tea time was cut short today, but we were able to fit in Aly and Priscilla's I AM Poems.  I love these simple formulaic poems.  I was assigned to write one in high school, and I love how it shows personality.  Aly's is as follows...

I am a fighter and a geek

I wonder what I can unlock

I hear the typing of the keys

I see the codes of my computer

I want to break them all

I am a fighter and a geek

I pretend the enemy is easy

I feel my sword in my hand

I touch my opponent with its blade

I worry I won't hold him off

I cry when they reach my family

I am a fighter and a geek

I understand that these are dreams

I say that I will do them 

I dream about the time I will

I try to grow stronger

I hope that I'll fulfill this wish

I am a fighter and a geek

Skyeler's little pre-schoolers theme was snow today.  They read The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett, glued cotton balls on polar bears, made puffy paint snowmen (though they turned out just a bit abstract since they thought that the puffy paint should encompass the whole of the page!), and had pretend snow in their sensory bin!  As you can see the pretend snow was a HUGE hit and completely messy!  Sammy made it a full body experience LOL.  

Our second co-op day of the month dawned with a two-hour school delay!  So once again we were strapped for time.  It was our annual Pajama Day, and it couldn't have been a better day for it!  Michelle had the science experiment today which dealt with electricity.  Priscilla and Aly not only lit up a light bulb but tested different objects that they found around the church for conductivity.  They also spent some time with Aly's set of Snap Circuits.  

We moved on to our value lesson with painting this week.  Mixing colors was more difficult than I anticipated as getting a gradual increase from light to dark was a bit tricky.  Today's lesson was just to get the background painted.  Next co-op will be adding an image to the value background.  

Tea Time was a bit off kilter since we missed our first co-op of the year.  So we had poetry day again.  I assigned a project for the girls to work on for the rest of the year.  Their mission is to find a poem they like for each of the 36 poets assigned.  Since we alternate our poetry with our literature pick each month, I felt they were not getting exposed to a wide variety of poets and poetry.  I hope this assignment will broaden their horizons some.  In class we studied Haiku (which the girls were very familiar with), Lantern Poems, and Cinquains, as well as a short interactive lesson on cliches and how NOT to use them in your poetry writing.  It was Aly's turn to choose the next book to read, and she chose Sherlock Holmes.  Since there is only two weeks until our next co-op, I assigned only seven of Doyle's short stories.  I look forward to this as I haven't read any of them.

The Arctic was today's pre-school theme.  Skyeler used one of the books from her childhood (thanks Aunt Sherry), Shamu and the Adventurous Seal Pup, as the focus of their theme.  The pictures in this book are so adorable.  Sammy and Eleanor made their very own stuffed seal pup (which was a huge hit), glued marshmallows onto to a seal pup, and painted a seal pup with watercolors (very colorful that!).  We even found a special arctic snack to make, a polar bear ice cream cup!  I love having the little ones at co-op!  Skye does an amazing job with them.