Fun with Carcassonne Jr.

Shapes!
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Mathematics: Shape and space

Endangered

Today the boys were organizing their Schleich animal figurines into habitats. They had forest, grassland, desert, and Arctic regions.

They weren't sure where their snowy owl would fit - Arctic or forest - so we looked it up in our Animals Visual Encyclopedia. Unfortunately, this not-so-complete encyclopedia didn't include the snowy owl, so we found some information online at Canadian Geographic Kids instead.

Once the snowy owl was placed in the correct area, we continued to browse through the animal encyclopedia. We noticed that each animal description included its status regarding whether or not it was endangered. This lead us to the IUCN Red List categories and criteria. We also explored both types of threats that cause species decline and possible conservation actions that can be taken.

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Science: Observation and description
Social Studies: Caring for the environment

Dinosaur plant

The boys received a Dinosaur Plant from one of their aunts this Christmas, and they were eager to get home to see what it would do.

According to the information that came with it, the dinosaur plant is one of the longest-living plants in the world. During the Carboniferous period, it grew to over 120 feet, but it mutated and became very small during the ice age. The plant is hygroscopic; when lacking water, the plant curls in on itself to "sleep", then blows around until it finds a source of water again. It does not need to bury its roots when it does find water, and the leaves and stems can uptake water directly. The plant can sleep for up to fifty years and still spring back to life within a day when placed in water!

The plant is currently native to Mexico and Texas, in desert and semi-desert regions.

We found that the plant did indeed open very quickly when filled with water. After a couple of weeks, we let the plant dry out and, as claimed, the plant soon curled up to "sleep".

A month later, we refilled the bowl with water and watched it wake up once again:

Adding the water

Starting point

Five minutes

Ten minutes

Twenty-five minutes

One hour

The center of the plant unfurled even further over the next couple of hours. This was fun to watch and discuss.

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Science: Observation

Our favourite math-based games

Uno and Dutch Blitz

Perfection

Blokus

Tangrams (Magnetic Travel Tangoes are our favourite sets)

Melissa & Doug Magnetic Pattern Blocks

Cuisenaire rods
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Mathematics: Numbers, patterns, shape and space

Lego water wheel

Today the boy created a water wheel out of Lego pieces. He wanted to test it to see if it was both strong enough to withstand the force of the water and not too stiff to spin without breaking.

Success!
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Science: Observation

Fishy fishy

The boys completed their first swim class together in January. They had a great time working with their teacher and getting to know the one other child in the class.

The boy passed the level and has moved on to the next! He's enjoying learning to float and glide on his own.

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Physical Education: Physical activity, skills

Click!

After yet another read-through of one of their favourite insect books, The Beautiful Beetle Book, the boys became particularly interested in click beetles. We discussed their defense mechanism in detail and looked at pictures of the beetles.

The boys then spent the next several minutes acting out the scenario. One of them pretended to be the predator while the other laid down, pretended to be dead, and then jumped up suddenly with a loud "CLICK!" before scrambling away, leaving the startled predator behind. Then they swapped roles and repeated the scenario.

The boy is very interested in the variety of ways animals and insects protect themselves, including camouflage and self-defense, so this was a fun addition to that list!

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Science: Description
Fine Arts: Drama