In the Kitchen With Matt

Matt hit the kitchen today and made brownies (and chili!).  Yum, yum.

Aldor Acres

This year my kids really wanted to go to the pumpkin patch and so we picked a sunny afternoon last week and went to Aldor Acres with some good friends.

There were piglets, rabbits, goats, a really big horse ...

and a delightful hayride.

The Apple Store

Yesterday we went to the Apple Store in Metrotown and we unanimously voted it as our very favourite field trip this year (maybe ever).

The Apple staff greeted us with free t-shirts and ear buds. 

They then guided us through the creation of our own movie trailers.

Working hard at directing, producing, writing and acting in our trailers. The kids were each given their own Ipad to use and were allowed to go all over the store during filming (running was even allowed!).

Thrilled with our accomplishments.

 

 Sarah's Trailer:

Matt's Trailer (made with Dane):

 Bekah's Trailer:

Coming soon to a theater near you!

Mindstorms Lego Robotics

Matt has decided he'd like to build a robot this year.  So, to help prepare him for this, we've signed him up for Mindstorms Robotics (level 3) where he will learn to design, program, and control fully-functional models. He will use software to plan, test, and modify sequences of instructions for a variety of life-like robotic behaviors and also learn to collect and analyze data from sensors, using data-logging functionality embedded in the software. He started last week on familiar territory building a remote control car.

Fall Art

During art co-op the past couple of weeks the kids worked on some leaf art.  Their first task was to draw a simple leaf shape and then trace it with glue tinted with black paint.  They then used watercolours to add colour to their designs. 

Bekah's Creation:

Matt's Creation:

Sarah's Creation:

Dane's Creation:

Levi's Creation:

Micah's Creation:

Big Bang!

Sometimes electrictiy is just plain fun!  During Science Co-op, Levi explains how electricity can be used to pop a balloon (the switch is turned on, the current starts flowing through the narrow wire taped to the balloon, the resistance building up in thin wire causes the wire to heat up and the balloon pops).

 

 

The whole gang writing up their findings.

 

 

Circuits

We've been working on an electricity unit this month and today the kids were putting together circuits in series and parallel using paper "puzzle" pieces before doing the real circuit.  Great teamwork!

After building their circuits the kids enjoyed building with "Roominate" - a fabulous building toy that allows the kids to wire in various electrical appliances (in this picture the kids created a working elevator).

I'm thankful for family!

First Day of School

We started our school year with some chalk art outside

(the animals wanted in on the action!).

We then skimmed some books by Roald Dahl to find (and define)

some interesting words.

Inspired by some new vocabulary the kids wrote some short stories.

We finished things off on a tasty note with homemade pretzels and

poetry teatime.