Legoland 2013

Our Journey through LEGOLAND in photo's

 

K and I had the chance to go to LEGOLAND with our homeschool group again.  I kept this a secret until The 6 AM wake up call.  K jumped for joy with the surprise!

Look at this amazing Christmas tree made from Legos.

 K was living up the chance to go on rides with his friends!  Sometimes being an only child is BORING! 

                      
                                                  Merry Christmas from K and Mrs. Moliassa

Enjoying the Fall with Friends

Back in November K and I made the trip to Tavares FL to ride the Orange Blossom train.

We had a great time with some of our friends.

 

 Just love this photo of K and N looking out the back of the train.

After the train ride we headed for the corn maze.   While we waited for everyone arrive the kids played in a small maze and climbed a tree.

Here we are heading into the corn maze!  Our team meant some serious business.

We Made it out of the maze with all kids.  I call that a success!

After the maze the kids played on this huge air pillow.  K loved that thing!

Unit Study: Apples

Apple Unit!

September

 

We started out by matching apples to the chart using the stickers on the apples. 

 100% WA apples used!!!!

Getting ready for the taste test!  Slices are ready to go.

I was taste testing along with K so there isn't any photo's of the tasting.

while testing all the apples I had K describe each apple as he sampled them. 

K's favorite apple ended up being the red delicious and Gala

My favorite was the honey crisp.

 

least favorites:

K- Granny smith

Mom- Red delicious

 

After the taste test I showed K the apple star.  He thought that was pretty neat.

 

 

For art we water colored a plate of apples.

(Art Lesson posting Monday 11/4)

 

 

We labeled the parts of an apple and colored. 

While reading one of our apple books we learned some neat things about apples  . Did you know a see from a gala apple may not sprout a gala tree.  In order for farmers to make sure their orchard grows the tree they want they cut trees down to a root stock and graph branches of the type of tree they want.

 

We learned how to graft using toothpicks. tape and a TP roll made to look like a root stock.  Not an easy thing for little hands to do by them self, but great visual for kids.

 

Books we used:

Apples By: Jenne Simon (Science reader)

Apples By: Jacqueline Farmer <--great 1st-4th="" book="" for="" grader="" p="" the="">

Picking Apples and Pumpkins By: Amy and Rickard Hutchings

 

Nasa Education Night

School on a Saturday!!!! Yes, ma'am we did count this as a school day ;O)

 

We are blessed to have NASA in our backyard and get to enjoy launches a few times a year.  Its Amazing to watch rockets to shuttle(2 yrs ago it retired though) and yet NASA puts on programs such as Education Night.  Truly amazing!

 

We started the night with signing in and getting a treat bag of NASA goodies.

 

As we walked the path to all the fun things they had some great FUN FACTS.  Those where fun to read.

 

 

Here K is starting his Astronaut training.  Building some cardio w/ jump roping, crab walk, squats, bear crawl, push ups and running back.  He was having a great time!

 

Here K was making an airplane with a foam plate and a penny.  Once it was built he had to test it out.

 

Next stop was learning about how the inner ear works in space and how it affects how you work in space with the big gloves.  Tough if you ask K.   K lost his screw and nut in space before he had a chance to work with it.  "Those gloves are too big." said K.

Entering the Asteroid field.  K thought this was going to be so easy.  Yeah, this was more of a challenge then he thought.  He redirected 2 asteroids.

The 3D printer was fascinating to K and his dad.  They sat there watching one printer making a bracelet and the other printer making a rocket thing (Little Black rocket)

Learning about how they are testing in space to be able to grow fresh food in space at the ISS. After we learned about the plants we went to listen and talk with an Astronaut.  Wow, talking to the Astronaut was fun we all learned some neat things.  Once thing we learned about that we thought was neat was how the space shuttle has to speed past the ISS and once the shuttle is pass the ISS the shuttle has to use its boosters to go up an orbit and slow down so that the 2 can connect up.  At the end the kids all got to meet the astronaut if they wanted and get a signed photo of him.  K's favorite part from the talk was the Astronaut told all the kids to "FIND WHAT THEY LOVE to do; AND NEVER GIVE UP." (NO PHOTO was too dark)  

Now we headed in for a treat of make your own comet treat (Marshmallow dipped in chocolate and graham cracker)
Then we went to explore the freezing temperatures of space.  The Marshmallows frozen were really cool.  Isaac and I had the most fun with those.  Take a bite and blow out the vapor when we talked.  Was just fun to see and experience.  K wasn't all that found of the frozen marshmallows.

Building a rocket and Launching it.  This was K's favorite part of the night.

 

 


K's 2nd favorite station was building his own spacecraft from recycled parts.  K ended up making his own ISS.  Loved watching his creative self come alive with this.

Feild Trip: Mason Bees

Cocoa Green Market

Sept 27th 2013

 

We started off with a short educational video of different types of insects that help our gardens and wild plants.

The kids learned mainly about Bees and how they gather Pollen from plant to plant.  Kids also learned some main identifying traits of bees, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, stink bugs etc.

 

 

 

Next we went outside to explore the garden looking at all the different types of bugs in the garden.

 

While outside the kids and adults got to learn about native Florida plants and how to keep our Gardens full of life (Bug life).  As the kids found Insects our guide would come and collect it into a collector so the kids could see the insect up close but the insect was safe. Insect is only inspected for a minute or two and placed back where they were. 

 Found some caterpillars and a few cystitis, stink bugs, bees of different types, lady bugs to name a few.

After the garden we were shown a Mason Bee house and told how to build one.  Now we are in the search of a nice piece of wood to build a house with to put into our garden.

The neat thing is each hole can can fit at least 5 baby bees.  As the babies are ready they come out 1 at a time with the front being the first out (last one in) male bee.  The first egg laid will be the last bee out and the bee will the a SHE.

Did you know that 55% of all insects are female??  So next time your calling a bug a gender say SHE, your more likely to be right.

 

We ended our trip with exploring the farm and looking at the cows, goats, European Honey Bee hive, lots of Chickens  and some fresh Pumpkin Ice cream.

If your in the area this is a great farm to visit and try some yummy treats in the store

Back to School Bash -Coco Key

Back to School Bash

August 30th 2013

 

Last Day to be eight!

 

K had a blast at Coco Key!  Proud moment - K who is scared of most things until he rides something a few times marched up the stairs and rode lots of tube rides by himself and with friends.  He's matured so much in the last year.  So proud of his growth this last year and cant wait to see what the 3rd grade brings.

                                  Hope everyone is off to a great start of the year

Field Trip: Chocolate Kingdom 8/22/2013

Chocolate Kingdom

Orlando, Florida

 

How the Cacao bean turns into the chocolate that we have grown to LOVE

 

Join us with our photos

 

Here we are learning about the cacao bean and how it grows near the equator.  The Pod takes years to be ripe and its heavy when its ready to be picked off the tree.  

 

We got to sample the Cacao bean at its dry stage with a sugar coating.  Didn't get K's face when trying it out but he ended up liking it more than I did.  I have to admit I did spit mine out!  Bitter!

Here we are talking about the process of drying the beans and how they use to make the cacao powder.

Here we are learning about the history behind the Cacao. Cacao used to be used as money.  Umm, that was some yummy money.

Sampling an ancient recipe of hot Chocolate and learning how they use to make the Hot Chocolate to make it all frothy.  Glad we have gadgets that make the job so much easier today!

Chocolate river and a Marshmallow game.  K Love this!

This was my favorite area.  We got to see how the Cacao bean went through a machine to get the Nibs which is what you make the Chocolate with.

Here we are given samples of each type of Chocolate where we get to savor all the different flavors.

K ordered a Milk Chocolate bar with Marshmallows and M&M's, I got Milk Chocolate with Marshmallows and Carmel.  YUM!  Their Chocolate was GOOD!  I am a Chocolate snob liking European Chocolate so much that I am known to Order a good batch once a year for Christmas.  Just saying it's pretty darn good

The Cacao trees growing at Chocolate Kingdom

 

Great Info on Cacao

Chocolate Kingdom <--- check="" fl="" fun="" if="" in="" its="" out="" p="" place="" the="" this="" your="">

Field Trip: Gatorland 8/20/13

Gatorland

8/20/2013

 

Started the day off with a drive to Orlando to enjoy Alligators in a safe place.  A great place to learn about the creatures that live in our back yard (in lakes/canals)

 

Welcome to GATORLAND!

 

When you first walk in you get to enjoy all the young in's sun bathing.  This was by far my favorite pond to watch.  Just watching the cute little guys

                                                                  Gator wrestling!
Not as fun as I thought this was going to be.  However, we learned about how they protect their eye's in the wild from being injured.  Learned that an Gator can stay under water for 2 hours before coming up for air.  Gators top jaw is where they have strength where crocodiles its the bottom jaw.  Glad we started the day with this while the kids were excited to learn about gators.

                                                              An albino Gator!

Albino gators don't live long in the wild because they don't blend in with their surroundings and tend to fall pray to other gators.  When an Albino gator is found places like gatorland take them in so that we can protect them and learn more about them.

The feeding station.  Turkey dogs were on the menu for today! 
Looking at this Picture I have no idea why I wasn't thinking that these guys can propel themselves out of the water.  Guess they had enough hot dogs that they didn't feel like a hand and a camera ;o).  As you can see in the first picture there is a net

These two are the sweetest friends ever.  Just love their friendship! 

A hot day of 97 degrees but a great time with friends made the temperatures bearable.  Already, looking forward to another trip to ride the zipline.