Worm Charming 101

So, with our animal classification system in place, it was now time to get to the real, hands-on science classes. While there were several things I had in mind to study in this class, after much begging and pleading, I agreed to let the kids pick our first course of study. They picked.....drumroll please......Earthworms. Yep, Earthworms. We found a million of them while planting our garden, and the kids wanted to catch them and study them. So, that's exactly what we did. But not without a good trip to the library first though. For our first class period we sorted through almost a hundred earthworm books at the library and ended up bringing around twenty home with us. After the kids went to bed that night, I looked through all the books and divided them into categories: fictional stories about worms, worm information books (body parts, predators, etc.), and worm experiment books. Then I made a schedule for the week. The first order of business on our schedule: well catching some worms of course. But we couldn't simply go out and dig them up again as we had when we planted our garden. Oh, no. That would be too simple (and sane). Instead we decided to try out some good old worm folklore. In one of the earthworm books, it talked about how to charm worms. Apparently you're supposed to be able to go outside, under just the right circumstances, (moist soil, not too much light, etc.) and using a pitch fork and a wooden stake, simply charm the worms right out of the ground. The idea is to plant the pitch fork points deep in the soil, and then stroke it with a ridged wooden stake. This is supposed to send vibrations into the ground and simulate the feeling of a mole tunneling near the earthworm. Since moles and earthworms are arch enemies, supposedly this causes the worms to scurry to the surface. Over in Scotland and Wales, they actually have worm charming competitions were the individuals charm hundreds of worms out of the ground in only minutes. Unfortunately for us; however, the worms in our area seem to be friendly with the moles. Either that, or too clever for our stunt. We did give it a valiant effort though. And we did even better than a ridged wooden stake. After several trial runs, we felt like the best combination for our worm charming expedition was a rake stroked with an old snow mobile belt.



The vibrations were fabulous, but only fabulous enough to charm out the neighbors on either side of us. Then we just had to explain what we were up too--and you can guess how well that went over. Oh well. Back to the shoveling!

Intro to Science: Animal Classification

On our first day of school, we didn't have any science, geography, or special unit classes. Instead, we established school rules and decorated the kids' writing journals. On the second day of school; however, we dove right into our Science Class. Since I have no intention of buying a set curriculum for science, (or anything else for that matter--at least not for kindergarten) and since the stated curriculum goals for kindergarten are so basic (see Science Core Knowledge Post), we are essentially learning science however I want to. As a result, our approach to science might be, well, quite unscientific. I have developed a general organization for our class though. We will be studying both Plants and Animals in our Science class. (Then topics such as the human body, weather, etc. will be separate special units classes.) This study will extend throughout the entire year, and will coordinate and overlap with our geography and special unit classes. As our point of reference, we created a plant and animal classification notebook. Under plants, we have a section for trees, flowers, and other plants. Under animals, we have divided all of the animal kingdom into five categories: Mammal, Bird, Fish, Reptile/ Amphibian, and Invertebrates. For our introduction into Science, we decided to start with covering the basics of our animal classification system. (We'll discuss tree, flower and other plant characteristics in a few weeks.) In order to do this we covered the basic characteristics of each group as follows:

MAMMAL

warm-blooded

vertebrate

hair on the skin

bear live young

in the female, milk-producing mammary glands for nourishing the young

BIRD

warm-blooded

vertebrates

feathered

forelimbs modified to form wings

egg-laying

REPTILE

cold-blooded

vertebrates

having an external covering of scales or horny plates

breathing by means of lungs

usually egg-laying

AMPHIBIAN

cold-blooded vertebrate

smooth-skinned

hatches as an aquatic larva with gills, then larva transforms into an adult having air-breathing lungs

capable of living both on land and in water

FISH

cold-blooded

vertebrates

characteristically having fins, gills, and a streamlined body

INVERTEBRATES

Lacking a backbone or spinal column; not vertebrate

While this seems fairly complicated for kindergarten, you'd be surprised how quickly and easily the kids picked this stuff up, especially with the right presentation and repetition. For instance, after verbally teaching the characteristics with the help of numerous visual aids, (fur samples, feathers, thermometers to take our temperature, etc.) we then proceeded to collect all of the "animals" in our house including stuffed animals, puzzle pieces, play animals, and so much more. We created a massive pile of all of these animals, and then one by one sorted them into bins labeled with these categories.

The kids loved it, and it really helped them to grasp the similarities and differences between the groups. It also helped them to look for the most visual characteristics as a fast means of grouping the animals, like fur on mammals, or feathers on birds. (Sometimes this can trick you up though, like with armadillos!) Later we also went through tons of magazines and cut out all of the pictures of living things we could find. Then the kids sorted them into groups and we created collages on the cover sheet of each section in their binder.

This took ages, but again, the kids loved it and it has helped them be independent about putting their own work away in the right section. With this introductory class (actually it took several classes) in place, we are now free to go about studying any animal we want, and the kids can use this classification system to organize the animals we study and come to realize that there is truly order and meaning to all plant and animal life. To try and keep the classification characteristics in their minds throughout the year, we also subscribed to a program called Wildlife Explorer. With this program, every three weeks we receive a shipment of 12 animal cards, all of which are organized in this same manner. Each time a delivery arrives, we review the above characteristics list, and then go through the animal cards putting each one of them in their proper category. This helps the kids remember what we've learned, and the cards are a great reference and resource.

Core Knowledge Science

While I am not interested, as of yet, in purchasing a set curriculum for my home school, I have done quite a bit of research into what it is Maddi should be learning in her kindergarten year. As part of this research process, I have tried to coordinate with the curriculum used in my area schools in the event that we should ever need to place our kids back in public school while we are here. In the Rochester area, there are lots of elementary schools, as well as five Choice Schools. These Choice Schools use an advanced curriculum known as Core Knowledge Curriculum. After talking with a friend of mine who serves on the Rochester School Board and worked with the Core Knowledge Foundation on the development of this curriculum, I feel pretty confident that by using their curriculum sequence as a general guide I will stay up on all the things Maddi needs to learn during this school year.

Just for my own records, I want to include a copy of the Core Knowledge outline of the kindergarten Science Curriculum on this blog.

I. Plants and Plant Growth

Teachers: Through reading aloud, observation, and activities such as growing plants from seeds in

varying conditions, explore the following with children:

• What plants need to grow: sufficient warmth, light, and water

• Basic parts of plants: seed, root, stem, branch, leaf

• Plants make their own food.

• Flowers and seeds: seeds as food for plants and animals (for example, rice, nuts,

wheat, corn)

• Two kinds of plants: deciduous and evergreen

• Farming

How some food comes from farms as crops

How farmers must take special care to protect their crops from weeds and pests

How crops are harvested, kept fresh, packaged, and transported for people to buy

and consume

II. Animals and Their Needs

Teachers: Through reading aloud, observation, and activities, explore with children the common

characteristics and needs of animals, including:

• Animals, like plants, need food, water, and space to live and grow.

• Plants make their own food, but animals get food from eating plants or other living things.

• Offspring are very much (but not exactly) like their parents.

• Most animal babies need to be fed and cared for by their parents; human babies are

especially in need of care when young.

• Pets have special needs and must be cared for by their owners.

IV. Introduction to Magnetism

Teachers: Through reading aloud, observation, and experiments with magnets, introduce children

to the idea that there are forces we cannot see that act upon objects. Children should:

• Identify familiar everyday uses of magnets (for example, in toys, in cabinet locks,

in “refrigerator magnets,” etc.).

• Classify materials according to whether they are or are not attracted by a magnet.

V. Seasons and Weather

Teachers: The emphasis in kindergarten should be on observation and description; technical

explanations of meteorological phenomena should be taken up in later grades.

• The four seasons

• Characteristic local weather patterns during the different seasons

• The sun: source of light and warmth

• Daily weather changes

Temperature: thermometers are used to measure temperature

Clouds

Rainfall: how the condition of the ground varies with rainfall; rainbows

Thunderstorms: lightning and thunder, hail, safety during thunderstorms

Snow and snowflakes, blizzard

VI. Taking Care of the Earth

• Conservation: Some natural resources are limited, so people must be careful not to use

too much of them (example: logging and reforestation).

• Practical measures for conserving energy and resources (for example, turning off

unnecessary lights, tightly turning off faucets, etc.)

• Some materials can be recycled (for example, aluminum, glass, paper).

• Pollution (for example, littering, smog, water pollution) can be harmful, but if people are

careful they can help reduce pollution.

A Day in Our Home School

For my own documentation purposes, I want to include a brief look into a day in our home school. I originally debated whether to be very stringent on our starting time, or whether to be open to beginning whenever we are ready in the morning. While I shoot for a start time of as close to 10:00 a.m. as I can get, I have decided that it is not worth the struggle to start at 10:00 on the dot. (Plus that makes our time portion of school a little more interesting too.) I also initially wondered if I should be laid back about letting the kids "get ready" for school, and about where our classroom was, but decided this was an area where I wanted more structure than not. As a result, the kids and I made a set of five before school rules:

1. Eat Breakfast
2. Get dressed
3. Brush your teeth
4. Comb your hair
5. Make your bed

These may seem like pretty common sense rules to most people, but in our world, if we don't have some place we have to go on a given day, some of these things may never happen. These rules have actually been very good for us, and I think it's ironic that after having kids in pre-school co-ops and other activities for years, homeschooling is the thing that has lead to the most structure and routine that our life has ever had. Crazy.

Anyway, once we have gotten ready for school, it's time for class to start. In our home school, the day always begins with Circle Time Activities. Circle Time Activities are as follows:

*Ring the Bell

*Time-The kids use a digital clock to set the time on our toy clock and I record the date and time in our home school log. During this time we review numbers 1-12, count by fives, learn to understand the nature of time--hours and minutes, discuss how many seconds in a minute, minutes in an hour, etc.

*Song--We use "Here We Are Together on our Home School Day"

*Prayer

*Pledge of Allegiance

*Calender Time--This includes reviewing the Months, Days of Week, the Year, Numbers 1-31, counting forwards and backwards, counting by twos, learning general calender knowledge like yesterday, tomorrow, etc, and actually going over what we have on our family calender for the week. I found songs for learning most of this stuff.

*Weather--during weather we go over the seasons, change our weather chart, and record the actual temperature each day. This allows Maddi to work on solidifying and comparing higher numbers. For instance we might discuss: yesterday it was eighty degrees, today it is sixty-seven degrees. Is today hotter or colder than yesterday?

*Shape of the week

*Color of the week

*Number of the week

*Letter of the week

After Circle Time is over, we then move to Table Time. If we are focusing on Numbers that day, we get out our number tiles, our noodles, our calculator, or other math tools and manipulate numbers. The kids do tracing sheets to practice writing numbers, they do math worksheets and activity sheets, dot-to-dots, etc. They also do math problems with magnetic numbers and number tiles using both greater than, less than, and equals to signs, as well as basic addition and subtraction. If we are focusing on letters, they do a tracing sheet, a coloring sheet, and all sorts of activities with letter sounds. As Madison is already a reader, most of this is review for her; however, since all the kids are home schooling, it is really great for them. (Maddi does additional reading time later when the kids are napping too.) It also allows me to work individually with them on penmanship and proper letter formation so that they can learn to make letters and numbers with a single pencil motion rather than picking up their pencil to add humps or tails, etc. My goal is to be through this basic review of all of the letters and number 0-25 before Christmas Break and then move on to diagraphs, etc. for the second half of the year. This will also all be review for Maddi, but I don't want to get her too ahead of where the kindergartens in our area are. While some parents might home school to breed geniuses, that is not my reasoning or my goal.

Once Table Time is over, it's usually almost lunch time and so we break from school for a while. Then at some other point in the day we resume for an hour (or so--we can't seem to keep class to an hour) of either Science, Geography, or a Special Unit class. For these classes, we're a lot more unstructured doing projects, reading books, taking field trips, etc. This is by far the kids favorite part of home school. After all of this, we try to conclude our home school day with a ten minute journal time where the kids can journal (write or draw) about anything they want from that home school day, or even just anything that's on their mind that day.

Well, sorry to bore you all, but that's a typical day in our home school life. Right now we are planning on year round school with an average of three class days a week and random vacations whenever we might choose. This is by far my favorite part of home school. Heaven help us when we decide to send these kids back to public school and have to schedule our lives on someone else's terms!