SCIENCE & TRADITION, THEY CAN WORK TOGETHER.

Planning for this week started off based on 3 things from last week

1. I promised the kids that ancient history would be replaced with extra traditional studies of their choice.
2. SW suggested more cultural content outside of our traditional studies
3. we did not do any science last week

So surfing the web, flipping through books, and as it happens our next subject in our geography book i came up with three subjects of science. 2 of which I could bring in traditional studies. (we will also fulfill some of the kids requests (corn husk dolls will have to wait for next week).

THE MOON
we will study the moon both traditionally and scientifically, at the same time. Showing how science backs up our teachings. So when we talk about why the moon never faces the sun when they share the sky, I will have the science to back it up. we are also going to use oreos to demonstrate the moon phases (I have seen this on the internet 3 times this school year, I think it was calling me). This is a good week to because the Full Moon is the end of this week. I also am pulling in Aunty to go over the 13 moons. I promise each day I will post pics and links that I used and links to the PDF files I made for the kids. I have not written down the teachings into the kids work pages. Part of our traditional teachings is to NOT write such things down. If you want to use my pages that I post each day you will need to find the teachings on "why the Moon never faces the Sun" and a list of the 13 moons (which are different in each Nation). we also have a demonstration where we will use a shoebox (with several holes), ping pong ball and a flashlight to create the phases of the moon as we see them using light and shadow. I am excited about this one.

THE EARTH
We have told many teachings of the earth but this week Aunty (Mohawk) will teach them about Sky Woman and Turtle Island (North America). We will also be discussing erosion and weathering and how it effects and shapes the land. The kids and I love geology and geography (well 2 of us love it entirely and 2 love some of it). This set of papers are a little heavier in content and will be in addition to the chapter "Shaped By Sun,Wind & Rain" in our Book Of Canadian Geography. Often I make work pages related directly to the chapter, but this one is more inspired by the chapter. Again Aunty's teaching are not written down. I also came across a site "Eat Your way Through Earth Sciences" we are doing the earth layers desert. YUM

THOMAS EDISON
After reading today's Homeschool Bits blog post about it being the anniversary of Thomas Edison's light bulb invention, I had topic number three. Luckily SW also reminded me today that it was library day. So I got a book on Thomas Edison and found a cool experiment to make a light bulb and got to work. did it all in one evening too. DH went out this evening and got the supplies:
6 volt battery (got it attached to a flashlight for the phases of the moon demonstration)
glass bottle
coated copper wire (from his work room)
picture hanging wire (Aunty has)
cork - no go, but we will replace with one made of clay.
Apparently the glass bottle not so easy to find. I am a little worried about the size of the opening but we will see. I think this will kick off the week. I also found a web page where you cn create word searches (FOR FREE). I had often seen the one at Edu Helper but did not want to pay their fee. So if you want to create word searches (and I did) click on Discovery Education's Puzzle Maker. We will also start off with learning some requested drum songs (which we will work on all week). spelling list for the kids this week is science related Here's My List It will be on the easy side for SW, but that's OK for one week I think. I use ESL Writing Wizard to create spelling lists (also free).
And for a movie I got "ATANARJUAT The Fast Runner" We have some Inuit friends we are very close too. They are going to come watch with us that day and tell us about the Fast Runner. I m really looking forward to this. In fact I am really looking forward to our week.

As for today, we did make it to the library and when we got home the kids all read for a while. I finished up the weeks work. Usually I have the weeks work done by Saturday or Sunday. The fact that I didn't worked out this week. see you all through out the week with pics and links!