Oct-Tetra and our Botany Books

This week we folded special paper into tetrahedrons and octahedrons. What you do is you fold the special paper on the fold lines and then connect the flaps that are on the sides with paper clips. To make an octahedron, you have to fold two pieces and then attach them together. For the tetrahedron, it comes in one piece. We connected an octahedron and a tetrahedron to form an Octet-truss. It looks like this: We can connect a lot of the octahedron and tetrahedrons (or octas and tetras) to form bigger things, like a giant tetra or a pyramid.

This week we did a bulb observation for our bulbs that we planted a couple months ago. They are finally starting to grow! We planted tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths, and some pansies to put on top. My daffodil is getting really big. It is about 7 in. tall. I think it's gotten so big because I planted the pansies unevenly, and it's in the spot where there is the biggest space between all the plants. So, we are doing a bulb observation and then drawing a picture of the bulb in my Botany book every two weeks.

2/7/09-2/13/09

This week we started to learn about volcanoes for Joey's science. For Story of the World, we learned about the Plague, or Black Death. I made my yarn for my flute case also this week.

I made the yarn for the case out of some dyed wool and some fiber that we already had. First we dyed some white fiber with a light red (Brazilwood), and it turned out a peach-ish color. Then I alternated using the yarn we had, a combination of yellow and deep red, and the one that we dyed to make the yarn. I am going to crochet the yarn to make the case.

Here is a picture of the yarn:

For the Plague, we learned that the actual name is the Bubonic Plague and that it came from a disease that is carried by fleas. The fleas gave it to the rats, who in turn gave it to all of Europe, one part at a time. Once the Black Death subsided, the need of peasants and farmers increased, so they could demand to be paid instead of just being given a place to live. Because of this, the Feudal System of Europe where there is a lord who owns the land and gives the peasants and farmers land in return for working for him, broke down. Now, the lords started to get poorer and peasants slightly richer.

We just started to learn about volcanoes. We learned about the different types of eruptions, about the Ring of Fire, and about earthquakes.

Crayoning and my Middle Ages "S.S." book.

This week we used a lot of crayoning techniques for drawing. We used block crayons, which are just sticks of colored beeswax. First we had to condition the crayons, which means that we have to wear down the edges to get them rounded. We learned how to use all of the sides of the crayons, and how to draw certain things with them. First we drew some trees, then we did a landscape with one tree. We did a stereotypical tree with fluffy-looking leaves, and a pine tree.

Here are pictures of us doing the crayoning:

The top one is Wilson drawing his landscape. The one on the bottom is one of Joey, Wilson, and our Mom doing their landscapes.

Over the past couple of months, I have been creating a Social Studies book for the Middle Ages. I started with "The Fall of Rome" and the most recent one was "Australia and New Zealand". I draw a map or picture of something that had to do with whatever area I was studying, then I write some facts and events of what happened during that time. Then, I drew designs and colored in the empty spaces.