Earth Cookies, Planting Herbs and Earth Day Minute To Win It

Both of these ideas were found on Pinterest, and adapted to my needs.  April 22nd, is Earth Day, and the kids and I love to do something each year to show our appreciation for Earth.  Last week, DJ and I watched, Plastic Paradise, on Netflix.  It was a very eye opening documentary.  We are not zealots, but we do think that if you can make some simple changes in your life to reduce, reuse and recycle, then you should do it.  Water bottles, and plastic bags are the two biggest offenders.  If you really want to know the true stats of those two items, I would suggest some basic research.  It will stun you.  I was stunned, and a little ashamed.  So, all this week, we are dedicating a little bit of school time to Earth Day.

Today, Caitlin and I planted an herb garden.  Now, we had been wanting to do this anyway, we just chose this week to actually do it.  We planted Garlic, Parsley, Cilantro, and Sweet Basil.  We also decided to try and propagate a Mimosa Tree, by planting a clipping.  It will hopefully grow roots, and become a beautiful tree.

Because, we have 4H tonight, and we all bring a snack to share, we decided to make Earth cookies.  They are easy, just a standard sugar cookie recipe, add blue and green food coloring, shape in a ball and bake.  Also, because DJ is the VP of our group, we come up with a fun game, or Ice Breaker, for each meeting.  Again, keeping with the theme of Earth Day, we came up with a Minute to Win It game using a styrofoam egg container.  Because I forgot to print stuff for Caitlin today, she had a little extra time.  So, I told her to paint it blue, like water, and then use green to make the numbers.  The idea is to get as many beads in the number slots in a minute.  The player with the most points wins.  Of course the kids had to try it, because they said it was too easy.  Ha, no it isn't.  Caitlin of course will save this, and torture her father with it at a later date.

I haven't decided what tomorrow will bring, but I think a writing assignment for both of them will be good.  

Earth Day 2011, Flowers For Butterflies

Earth Day is April 22nd this year. I have probably mentioned before that my kids love anything that has to do with plants, animals, and are very interested in conservation. While we are not perfect little green people, we do our best to conserve water, food, power, and to be kind to Mother Earth as much as we can. I mentioned we already planted a baby pine tree, so I was unsure of what we were going to plant for Earth Day this year. We have quite a few rose bushes now, and tomatoes and cucumbers are trying to grow. So I thought I would try to find a plant that will grow in Florida, that will attract butterflies, and or humming birds. I found a cool website that tells me what plants make butterfly and humming bird nectar. Now I just have to find the plants by Friday. I suppose if it is a little late Mother Earth will forgive me. We have a busy week, this week. I am pushing hard to finish up all the curriculum in this last semester. It shouldn't be a problem, but sometimes I can be a bit aggressive. Summertime you would think would be a time of rest for me, nope it is the busiest time of the year for me. I have to get ready for the next school year, round up and evaluate the last school year, yearly doctor appointments, all my classes for my nursing renewals are due, I hold two state licenses NY and FL. Plus all my mandatory education classes for my job. That is just the beginning, but you get the idea. Plus my husband is taking his certifications for fire rescue, but I am hoping they will be closer to the Fall. Oh and my poor pool needs a new pump, which is on back order until the end of May, so cleaning the pool is more time consuming than normal, and you can't very well call it clean yet. Ugh!

Happy Earth Day!!

It is Earth day today, and while I could discuss some very controversial topics, I have decided to keep it light, and beautiful. Below is pictures of Earth from space. I hope you enjoy it.

We moved our cukes into the ground today, and our tomatoes have been planted as well. The peppers are taking their sweet time. We also planted seed pods that fell from our tree, that Caitlin confiscated. It is always a habit of ours to conserve water, and power, so those are ingrained in our brains already. If I could run my computer by candlelight, we could save even more power LOL.

A while ago my mom gave the kids some sand dollars. I have been holding onto them wondering what to do with them, until now. Caitlin actually came up with the idea that we should paint pictures on them, and make decorations. So we will be doing that, sometime this weekend. I will be sure to share pictures of how they come out. If you don't know the beautiful story of the sand dollar, the video will help you.

Learning About Your Local Community, Playgroup Date

Tomorrow is our second playgroup date, and it is Earth Day, and learn about your community in Social Studies. So if you go here you can learn about one of our local community attractions, Hart Springs. Florida is famous for its natural warm water springs. Here we have three, that are close to where we live. Hart Springs, Manatee Springs, and Fanning Springs. Crystal River, in Homasassa Springs, is about 1 hr from us, and that is where we have seen the manatees in their natural habitat. We visit our local library every two weeks. My kids love to take out books, and they are somewhat of celebrities there. Tomorrow we will be meeting our small playgroup there, for a book exchange. This is our second meeting, and everyone seems to get along well. If anyone that visits my blog lives in the Gilchrist county area, we are still accepting members. So far two of us moms homeschool, the other does not, though she is considering it for her youngest child.

As part of Earth day tomorrow, we will be planting a rose bush, that my husband bought, in rather sad shape, and we have nursed it back to health. It is sprouting new leaves, no buds yet, but soon I hope. This is my fourth rose bush, and they are doing amazingly well. My kids love nature, and especially bugs. Lord knows there are plenty of them here. It seems like every year, they find a bug they did not see last year. Like the very funny looking black grasshopper they found under their slide the other day. What they were doing under there I have no idea. I thought it must be a cricket, because I have never seen a black grasshopper before. So of course I googled black cricket with red stripe, to no avail. When I googled black grasshopper, this lovely creature came up. It seems my kids happened to be rummaging around under the slide at just the right time, because these were very small, young grasshoppers just being born. They climb up out of the dirt from where they were laid, in the fall. They did capture some, and have made them a home, in a jar with food, water, and air. I do not know how long they will live for, but they are excited. My daughter takes them out, and plays with them like they are toys. They are supposedly a pest, but my kids would beg to differ that. If you would like to learn about this very interesting bug you can go here

Lesson Plans for 4/22/09:

Social Studies: Local community
Writing: Write a story about your community
Math: graphs, multiplication, division
Spelling: Lesson 28- write each spelling word and circle the vowels
Vocabulary: Lesson 28- use each vocabulary word in a sentence
Language Arts: Action verbs, visual sequencing

Earth Day, and Scientific Method

Tomorrow in Science we are learning about Scientific Method. Since my son is only in third grade, we are not covering the more complicated issues this year. We will be watching the short video below, with discussion to follow.



Earth Day is Wednesday April 22nd. We already do a lot of the things to help save our Earth. We pick up garbage, when we are out walking. We turn off our lights when not in use. Car pool, when we can, and do not drive if not necessary. We do not turn on our air conditioning until we have to, and then set it at the most bearable level. We reuse items when we can, rather than throw them away. We conserve our water, whenever possible. We also use those new GE energy lightsaver bulbs. I have to say they are pretty cool. We also plant a small garden ever year, I will get to that another day.

On Wednesday we will be planting a rose bush, for Earth Day. We already have quite a few trees, so we decided with the plant this year.

School Express offers several free themed units, for Earth Day. We chose the one on Pollution, and will be starting it tomorrow. I also found some other great sites for Earth Day, check them out, and use them in your teachings, if you choose.

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/earth-day/printable-book/54010.html?detoured=1
http://www.theteachersguide.com/earthdaylessonplans.htm
http://www.earthday.net/kthrough4


Lesson Plans for 4/20/09:

Reading: Pages 77-97 Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone
Math: Problem solving, multiplication, division
Movie Day

Lesson Plans for 4/21/09:

Science: Scientific Method, Pollution themed unit
Writing: Write a science story
Spelling: Lesson 28- Write each spelling word 2x each
Vocabulary: Lesson 28- Look up the definition for each vocabulary word
Math: Problem solving, multiplication, division
Language Arts: Practice spelling with double consonants, pronouns
PE: 30 minutes