Beyond Co-op: Boxcar Children #4

I'm going to play a little catch up on my blog.  First a little about what is current.  Christopher is home!  I love having my whole family under one roof.  For a little while anyway.  We don't have much planned for the next couple of weeks and that is a good thing.  We have lots of planning and preparing to do for the upcoming year.  Him for college and the rest of us for our upcoming school year.  Its a time of big transitions for all of us.  I would love prayers for all of us.  I'm excited for Christopher.  I also know that this will be hard on the rest of us to have him gone.  Its a new way in which I need to learn to trust God and grow.  

I wanted to share a bit about our co-op.  This was our last formal meeting, though I also have another activity day to post.  I hope this is encouraging for anyone wanting to do Beyond.  It is a great unit study to use!  If you have any questions about it - know I'm happy to answer them.  

A fun ending to a fun year with Volume 1.  We covered the last chapters in the book.  One of the lessons we covered was on marathons.  We asked Christopher to talk with the children about running a marathon.  He gave some interesting facts on the history of marathons and told some of his experience in preparing for and running a marathon!  I loved having him share and think that the kids did too.

After listening and learning it was time to put them into action.

We had them run a race.  We marked out a 1/2 mile course for them to run and told them that a marathon would be like running this more than 52 times!

On your mark ... get set ...

GO!

They all found their pace.  Some running solo and others with a friend.

Next we focused on the part of the story about the names of two of the characters.  We talked about the meaning and family history behind some names.  We asked each of the children to share a little bit about their names and any meaning behind them.

For a fun art project we did potato prints.

I helped with the cutting for the younger students.

It is always fun to see the variety and creativity that they display!

We ended our day with a campfire.  This was from an earlier lesson in the book, but we were rained out on that day.  It was a fun thing to save for the last day together though!  Christopher showed the others how to build and start a fire.

They stopped for a group photo before starting to cook.

First we roasted hot dogs.

And then marshmallows to go in s'mores!

Gooey and yummy!!!

This has been a really special year.  I'm so thankful for this group of friends with which to learn!  We have had fun, learned a lot and made many sweet memories.  Thank you friends!!!

Love
Leslie

Beyond Co-op: Boxcar Children #3

Wanted to share about another fun Beyond FIAR co-op day with The Boxcar Children.  There are so many fun hands-on lessons to do!  I always enjoy seeing someone else's take on a lesson too!  The others always come up with something different than I would have done!  It's a great way to share experiences, talents and interests with each other.

We started with a devotion on this beautiful sunny day in April (yes, I'm behind still).  We sat around on the front lawn and enjoyed our outdoor classroom.  Today we were covering some of the lessons found in Chapters 7-9.

One of the first lessons was on classification and organization.  The children did an interesting exercise demonstrating how they could have some similarities and some differences, but none of these traits worked well or consistently for sorting and organizing.  (For example sorting by color of hair and then color of eye.  As we moved through traits the system broke down.)  The children learned about Linnaeus and his system of scientific classification.  As they learned each of the seven main categories, they learned a motion to go along with it to help them remember.  Below they are putting a crown on their head for Kingdom.  

Raising their hands for "Class".

Working on making paper cones as a means to collect some things later in the day.  Their cones were made with nothing but a single sheet of paper - no tape, glue or staples.

As always, we enjoy a bounty for lunch!

The next part of our lesson focused on ... eggs!  Isn't it fun to see the variety of colors that eggs can come in?

I copied some of the posters so you could see some of the interesting information on eggs.  For the first poster, they played an interactive game.  They were given a circle with a number on it and then tried to figure out where it went in the comparison of pasture-raised eggs and conventional eggs.  The answers below are correct.

Much of the lesson was spent talking about the benefits of pasture-raised eggs and how eggs come naturally.  Did you know that the egg yolk should be orange?  And that a green "egg white" is alright?

We were all intrigued by the variety of colors in the egg shells.  We learned about the types of chickens laying the different colored eggs.

After talking about eggs, it was time to find some!  As an interesting twist, the children 8 and under looked on the ground for their eggs and those older had to look up!

They used their paper cones to collect eggs.  What a fun way to end our morning!

Thanks Julie and Vickie for a wonderful day!

Blessings
Leslie

Beyond Co-op: Boxcar Children #2

For our second Co-op of Boxcar Children, we covered chapters 4-6.  What a fun hands-on day of learning! We've done a lot of learning with this unit on food, nutrition and health!  Its been neat to see a lot of things tying together as we continue to move through the lessons.  

 After talking about grains and the nutrition of whole wheat and white bread, it was time to put our hands to work making bread!

 First they readied their work surfaces.

 Next it was time for the dough.

 They each received a hand full.

 Rolled it into a snake.

 Ended up with a knot!  Then we had to wait for the dough to rise again.

 The kids then played a fun activity to get to know each other better.  They used this time to talk, learn and also to encourage.

More nutritional information - this time on berries.  We also learned that its not just fun to eat produce, but also to use it to make homemade watercolors!

 The kids each drew a picture and then chose the colors that they wanted to use on their pictures.

 I love the creativity and variety in art work that I always see in groups of children!

 More cooking lessons!  What fun to make your own snack by following a recipe!  I really should let my younger children do this more often at home!  They all loved it.  Simple, delicious and fun!

 Mmmm ... don't these look good?!

What a fun day!  Wish you could all be there for the fun!  I'm hoping some of these ideas will help others who are co-oping these great books!  Thanks Lea and Julie for all you did!  We had a blast!

Blessings
Leslie

Beyond Co-op: Boxcar Children #1

Oh, what a delightful day!  A fun way to start out new unit on The Boxcar Children!  We had beautiful weather and amazing teachers!  First we entered "the Bakery" to start our learning.

So many fun things to learn about ... wheat, grains, expressions related to bread and more!

A display of various grains and breads.  The children each had either a picture or a word and they went to match up their card with the actual item on the table.

They did pretty well too!

Can you read this list?  It's expressions or saying that relate to bread in some way.  An example is that wealthy people are sometimes referred to as "upper crust".  The story behind this is from several hundred years ago when wealthy people were served just the upper crust of the bread while the bottom of the bread which sometimes burned in the baking was reserved for the servants or poorer people.  

They learned about various grains and the scientific group/family to which they belonged.  Some are actually grasses.  All of this was very interesting to me as I'm learning about grains as we prepare to go gluten free most likely this summer.

A drawing of a piece of wheat and a discussion about it's various parts (and the difference between white and whole-wheat).

Next the children acted out the story - or the first several chapters of it.  They were each selected to act as one of the characters in the book might act.  (Older boys were Henry, younger boys were Benny, etc.)  Below is "Henry" carrying "Benny" at the beginning of the story as they leave the bakery.

Their travels took them all around the yard.

Stopping for some water at the "fountain".

Bread from the bakery.  (This was rice bread - gluten free.  I was not excited about how it tastes and neither were most of the kids.  LOL)

The found a boxcar which was just perfect for sleeping in!

Milk was kept cool in a nearby stream in the "refrigerator" that they made.

The last lesson was on nutrition.  They discussed the food pyramid and the importance of having items from each part of the pyramid.  They were then given things in order to make up a menu for their own restaurant.  What an awesome job they did with it too!  I loved seeing how hard they all worked to come up with menu items and some even listed prices!  They named their restaurants too!

They spread out all over the back yard to think, create and work.

A bountiful snack!  Some of the cookies were gluten free and they were amazing!!!  I was very excited about that possibility!  Thanks Lynn!

They were each given a pocket with the food pyramid on it.  Attached to the pocket was a ring with all of the items that they should be eating in a day.  As someone ordered from the menu, they would place the appropriate item in the pocket.  This allowed them to see how well they did in eating from all of the food groups.  Isn't this neat?!!!

This is a great tool that we'll be able to use again and again!

Thanks Lynn and Adele for an amazing day!  We learned a lot and had a great time too!  I love learning with friends.  

Blessings

Leslie