Show & Tell: Adventures Week 21

Today we finished up Week 21 of Adventures in My Father's World.

In history we learned about Robert Fulton and the invention of the steamboat.  I think Hannah's favorite part of this week's study was just learning about another inventor.  As we read about his paddle wheel boat, his diving boat (similar to a submarine, from what I can gather), and his steamboat, she was all ears.  Inspiration, I suppose!  ;) 

My favorite part, however, was seeing Robert Fulton's loyalty to the United States.  The English were so impressed with his diving boat that they gave him $75,000 just for showing it to them and offered to make him a very wealthy man if he wouldn't teach any other country how to make one.  But Fulton turned down the offer because his loyalty was to America, and if she should ever need to use such a boat, he wanted her to be able to do so.

Here is Hannah's notebook page for Robert Fulton and the steamboat.

We also learned that Indiana and Mississippi were the next two states to acquire their statehood.  Hannah enjoyed learning that the teddy bear got its name because President Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear cub while on a hunting trip in Mississippi.  :)  We also took a look at the Mississippi River on a map and traced its path from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.

Even though we're working our way into the southern states, we haven't really touched too much on slavery or anything related to the Civil War yet.  (We'll cover those topics beginning in Week 28.)  However, this week we read Freedom School, Yes!, which definitely left Hannah understanding that black people in our country haven't always been treated fairly.

In Bible, we continued to look at Jesus as the Vine.  We spent most of our time looking at the blessing that comes from obedience as we stay connected to our vine.  We read about Elijah and God's provision for him during a famine and about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and God's protection of them when they were put into the furnace.  We also read Galatians 5:22-23 and discussed the fruits of the Spirit.

Science was packed full of messy activities as we looked at water this week.  ;)

On Monday, we took a look at floating and sinking.  It amazes me how much science is in this one concept alone!  We talked about density and upthrust, then the girls made educated guesses as to whether or not various items would float and tested their hypotheses.

Here Hannah is testing the T-Rex.

 

And Millie is testing a foam bullet for their Nerf gun.



Here is the complete list of their hypotheses and results.  (An X means it won't float, and a check means it will.)  And now that I'm looking at it, maybe their guesses weren't so educated after all!  ;)

On Tuesday we looked at various kinds of fruits and determined that they all held water.

We looked closely at an orange segment and saw the individual cells that hold water.  Then the girls squeezed the segments into a cup and enjoyed some freshly squeezed orange juice.

Yesterday we had two activities that reminded me of a household chemistry class I took in college. First we used the juice from some cherries and blackberries to make a design on a handkerchief.


By the time she was done with this, the center of it was completely red and purple.

We ran it through the washer and dryer earlier today to show how easily some fruits can stain fabrics, but would you believe the stinkin' thing came out looking like this?!

You might not be able to tell since it's not ironed (I don't even iron our clothes, let alone our science experiments!), but every. single. stain. came out of this thing.  Yet I can't even begin to tell you how many countless clothes we've ruined around here with stains from fruit juice.  What is up with that?!

Our second experiment yesterday was to use the juice from a lemon to draw a picture on a sheet of paper.  After it dried, we were to iron it, and the heat from the iron was supposed to brown the lemon juice and make the picture suddenly appear.  Supposed to.







The heat from the iron did brown the lemon juice a little bit, not nearly as much as we were expecting.  You can barely make out Hannah's stick figure (right), but Millie's blob abstract art (left) is a little easier to see.

In math this week, Hannah was learning to add triple-digit numbers with regrouping, so we pulled out the base 10 blocks for some hands-on math.

The problem was 248 + 75.

She changed 10 of her 1's out for a 10, then changed 10 of her 10's out for a 100.

When all was said and done, she arrived at her answer of 323.

Math manipulative days are so much fun!

With the exception of science, I'd say this was a really good week.  (It's always a little of a let-down when an experiment doesn't go exactly like it's "supposed to.")  But on the bright side, since science this week was about fabric stains, I'm hoping that next week they learn how to sort, wash, dry, and fold 'cause I need all the laundry help I can get around this place!  ;)