Week 24 ~ Bubble Gum, Lichtenstein, and Poetry!

We had a really good week. I love it when our learning just flows along at a nice and steady pace. Next week is our last week of this five week unit. I feel like it has gone much better with our shift to different priorities (more writing and science...a little less literature and history).

Bubble Gum Science ~ We had lots of fun with bubble gum science this week. We learned how gum was invented and the difference between chewing gum vs. bubble gum. We melted gum by boiling it. The kids studied the ingredients in chewing gum, organic chewing gum and bubble gum. We attempted to make bubble gum sink and then float with a combination of water and soda. This experiment failed, but was fun none the less. Tom Sawyer also learned how to blow his first bubble. He never gets bubble gum because it is filled with corn and there isn't an organic brand in the stores. We made an exception for this project and loaded him up with allergy reducing supplements. He turned some crazy shades of red, but didn't get any hives from the corn this time.

Art With Grandma ~ Grandma came over and taught us all about Roy Lichtenstein. Tom Sawyer is really into cartooning right now, so Lichtenstein was a great choice of artist this month. We started off by learning about Ben-Day Dots. We studied an old comic book from the library that had Ben-Day dots. Current comic books no longer use them.

We read WHAAM! The Art and Life of Roy Lichtenstein. The pictures were great inspiration for our own creations.

We then created our own works of art in Lichtenstein's style. This is always the most exciting part. It is fun to see what everyone creates. 

Clockwise from Crash ~ Twin 1, Love ~ Me, Nummy ~ Twins' Mom,
Boom ~ Little Red Riding Hood, Question ~ Twin 2, and French Fries ~ Tom Sawyer 
(Tom Sawyer spelled the word wrong on purpose because Lichtenstein often invented words.)

Lewis Carroll's Birthday and Poetry ~ We celebrated Lewis Carroll's birthday and learned about acrostic poetry. It was lots of fun. The kids are really enjoying learning different styles of poetry, and I am enjoying tricking them into writing more. LOL! You can read all about our Mad Hatter Tea here.

All the Rest ~ Timothy had a CT scan of the brain this morning and we had PT this afternoon. Everyone around here seems to be tired and a little bit under the weather. I can't pinpoint anything in particular wrong, so we will be boosting the vitamin C and resting up over the weekend. We studied The Tempest by Shakespeare today in anticipation of seeing the play next week. I can't wait, since I love Shakespeare. The kids are not quite so enthused.

Blessings, Dawn