Make an origami Halloween pumpkin

http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-halloween-pumpkin.html

It looks so cute and you fold it and then blow it up to the right shape

How to carve a Neep Lantern

Today there is a competition for Neep Lanterns - so we rushed out to buy 2 x huge Neeps (Turnips) and now we are busy planning how we are going to carve them.

Riddle: What am I

If I appear  once in every minute,
twice in every moment
but not even once in a hundred thousand years,
what am I?

Post your answers in the comment box.

Halloween Pumpkins

This guy is an e- art teacher and his designs are really awesome.  Check them out!   http://www.coolpicturegallery.us/2010/10/amazing-artist-who-carves-pumpkin.html

Heres easy instructions on how to carve pumkins

We were looking for unusual pumpkins ideas for our halloween pumpkin and there are some really unusual ones on Youtube.

History: The Middle Ages

Here is a presentation I did on the Middle Ages. 

The Middle Ages

Halloween Games

Try out this game - Halloween Tripeaks - its nice and eerie and there more halloween games on the same site...

Criteria for life....

Is a rock made of cells?

You might think that this is a dum question, because my mom thought so.

Firstly she said, does it conform to the criteria for life (Which I did a while back....)

Still I think its a worthy question.

Here is a good link I found of someone else who also found the need to look into this and some other people also asked this on the internet so there!

Well of course the answer is NO.

Did you know?

Facts about the UK

The total land area is 244820km squared.

The UK has over 12000 miles of coastline.

There are 5000 rivers.

The highest point is Ben Nevis @ 1344m.

The lowest point = Fens @ -4m.

There are 874 miles between John o'Groats to Land's End.

and

Did you know that your body is made up of between 50 trillion and 100 trillion cells?


Ref:
The world of Geography (Revision) - Letts
The world of Science (Revision) - Letts

Music - Instruments

This has a great interactive page where you can click on each instument and hear it.

http://www.musictechteacher.com/quiz_help_instrument.htm

Music: Keyboard - Ode to Joy

This is a really excellent website. I am busy learning this tune on my keyboard and it helped me a lot. It shows the sheet music, the section of keyboard with option of showing the note names. You can play the tune and watch the sheet music. The individual notes flash as they play. Its brilliant¬

http://www.musictechteacher.com/flash_piano_lesson_ode_to_joy.htm

An interesting thing is that my keyboard has a facility that 'teaches' one how to play a few tunes but the keyboard was showing the tune in E and the link shows the tune in B.

It sounds better in B, really but wonder if the keyboard is showing the tune wrong or what?

So, here is me playing 'Ode to Joy' on my keyboard for a handful of tries. Don't expect much because I just started and I have not practiced it - just, just learnt to play it about 5 minutes ago. I'll do a better version later and some of the others I have been learning.

How many words can you find?

Post your words in the comments section.

Rules:

1. No 1 or 2 letter words
2. No plurals
3. Use each letter only once
4. No repeats
5. Post your words as a comment so we can post the combined solution tomorrow.

Phew, this folded rose is difficult

LOL

Well we have been making these things all day! We made boats with 2 sails, turtles, swans, rabbits and miniatures of each. (For miniatures, make squares out of the strip left over from the photocopy paper).

The miniatures were a big hit and we have had a lot of visitors all day coming and going and wanting to see what we are doing.

OK, so who can get this rose right. We got a lot of the way and then it was too much adn getting dark so we gave up, at least for now.

I thought this was very funny...

It does look pretty but its hysterical to fold toilet paper.

Its more well known as paper serviette folding, and that seems more hygienic but here it is anyway:

Paper folding is good for you and teaches you lots of things

I was quite amazed to read that Paper folding - Origami is very educational i.e. develops lots of skills.

Even though you don't realise it, you are learning as you are doing a fun thing. Things that one develops, when you are doing Origami:

• Eye hand co-ordination
• Creativity
• Following directions i.e. Read vs. understand skills
• Attention
• Manual dexterity
• Patience
• Temporal spatial skills
• Reasoning
• Visual motor skills
• Processing Skills
• Maths concepts (Geometry, proportion, measurement, symmetry, fractions)
• Cultural studies (Oriental)

Paper folding is also good for adults as its relaxing. It also helps people recovering from hand injuries regain their control over their hand movements and helps build muscles.

Rainy weather during the holidays

We had loads of fun today making these:

Paper Chain Dolls

http://www.origami-resource-center.com/circular-paper-dolls.html

http://www.origami-resource-center.com/paper-dolls2.html

This is a cute idea that someone has done with the circular paper dolls:

http://www.teaching.com.au/IBSStaticResources/Bo_Resources/MTA/IMAGE/DM9956.JPG

Here's another blog with paper chain dolls on it:

http://mumsgather.blogspot.com/2007/08/how-to-make-chain-paper-dolls.html

Paper Planes

Beginner planes are:

• Arrow
• Delta
• Dart
• Condor
• Dragonfly

Then you can move onto these:

• Bullet
• Raptor
• Spade
• Canard

This site has the best diagram for a simple dart plane http://www.amazingpaperairplanes.com/Basic_Dart.html

Look at the space shuttle paper plane: http://www.amazingpaperairplanes.com/Folding_STS.html

Look at this site to print, fold and fly paper planes - http://www.funpaperairplanes.com/

and here are the templates - http://www.funpaperairplanes.com/Plane%20Downloads.html

Science and fun with paper planes: http://www.funpaperairplanes.com/Learn%20About%20Flight.html

Learn all about

• Lift
• Gravity
• Thrust
• Drag

More science and paper planes - http://fatlion.com/science/paperairplanes.html

There is a simple dart plane near the bottom of this page (see link) that is easy to make and flies really well (Nose not folded in) - it also has a lot of science info if you want to look at that too. http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Aero_p013.shtml

Paper boats

We had a quick look at paper boats and made a couple of these

http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/paper_ship.htm

http://www.origami-kids.com/paperairplanes-1-paperboat.php

Holiday Beachcombing

We have had excellent weather for our October break - 'school holidays'. With the blue sunny skies, no clouds and no wind - its be awesome. We have spend hours on the beaches each day with family and friends.

Check out my beachcombing blog:
http://strandlooper.blogspot.com/

Official School Holidays.

My little sister is on school holidays so I am on homeschool holidays ;)

Something for little primaries to do if the weather is bad during school holidays is this site.

Painted pebbles:

UpToTen - Boowa and Kwala : Painting pebbles

On screen mosiac

UpToTen - Boowa and Kwala : Pebble mosaic

There is quite a few other things to do on this site for little primaries, if you click on the right icons ;)

Maths: Find the treasure using co-ordinates

http://www.mathsisfun.com/definitions/abscissa.html

Follow the pirates instructions by entering co-ordinates for the map and you will help find the treasure. If your right, you might even get some of the treasure.

Argh,.....

X marks the spot.

Maths: Geometry - Rotation

This is really helpful. You can use this interactive tool to rotate 3 different shapes by various degrees. You can even change the point of rotation - and then it shows you step-by-step how the shape rotates (Each point moving in a circle/arc around the centre).

http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/rotation.html

Symmetry Artist - Mathematics and Art together!

Check this out - it cool....

Symmetry Artist

http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/symmetry-artist.html

Maths: Transformations

Here is a Powerpoint presentation explaining transformations:

Maths: Geometry - Transformations

Arbitrary quadrilaterals: experiment with the applet below

EXTRACT

There is quadrilateral present at the outset. Its shape can be modified by dragging its vertices. The buttons "Copy" and "Copy and rotate" help create copies if that basic shape. All so created polygons are draggable.

http://www.cut-the-knot.org/Curriculum/Geometry/QuadTessellation.shtml

Quadrilaterals

There are 6 kinds of quadrilaterals. I have made six different quadrilateral tessellation images.

1. Kite
2. Parallelogram
3. Rectangle
4. Rhombus
5. Square
6. Trapezoid

Quadrilaterals

Maths Question: What commonly used item is actually a square tessellation?

Write your answers in the comments area ;)

Maths: Do all quadrilaterals tessellate?

Maths: Do all quadrilaterals tessellate?

Here are some related links:

http://library.thinkquest.org/16661/simple.of.non-regular.polygons/quadrilaterals.html

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_all_quadrilaterals_tessellate

http://www.edu.dudley.gov.uk/numeracy/

http://www.knowswhy.com/why-do-quadrilaterals-tessellate/

http://www.educationalbackup.co.uk/?gclid=CLiCg4mzu6QCFSr-2Aod9TfKyA (If you need it)

http://www.tutorvista.com/math/all-quadrilaterals-tessellate-help

http://homepage.mac.com/efithian/Geometry/Activity-10.html

http://www.mrbutler.org.uk/world/demo/tessellate-quads.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessellation

Here is the link page for Maths (Age 12 and under)

http://www.thinkquest.org/pls/html/f?p=52300:30:2114362751540408::::P30_CATEGORY_ID:CPJ_MATH

Here is another one I did that's a rhombus.

Extract

In geometry, a rhombus or rhomb is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. The rhombus is often called a diamond, after the diamonds suit in playing cards, or a lozenge, though the latter sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 45° angle.

Every rhombus is a parallelogram, and a rhombus with right angles is a square.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhombus

Jane Solo

Here is a little book that I am busy illustrating. Its about 2 cute little girls.


Adventure of Jane Solo and Julie Lilah

HALLOWEEN /All Hallows' Eve/All Saints' Eve/Samhain

Here are some links for info on an ancient celtic festival Samhain and how it turned into Halloween...

http://goireland.about.com/od/samhainandhalloween/October_31st_Samhain_All_Hallows_Eve_and_Halloween.htm

Here is a fun site with lots of scary things for little brothers and sisters to do:

http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/category/topics/halloween

Make a skeleton, Enter a haunted house, Magic Spells, Trick or Treat, Story Maker, Halloween Quizz

My Homeschool Blog as a word cloud

This is so cool. Such a fantasic website: http://www.tagxedo.com/.

Have some fun and see what you come up with ;)

Maths: Cubed numbers

CUBED NUMBERS are when a whole number is x by itself and then x by itself again.

1x1x1=1
2x2x2=8
3x3x3=27
4x4x4=64
5x5x5=125
6x6x6=216
7x7x7=343
8x8x8=512
9x9x9x=729
10x10x10=1000
11x11x11=1331
12x12x12=1728


What is the smallest squared number that is also a cubed number?
Answers in the comments area ;)

Maths Revision: Square Roots

Yay, calculator work :)

The SQUARE ROOT of a number is usually found using a calculator. Type 144 and then the square root sign = 12.

Its so easy. Any number multiplied by itself is the same as saying that number squared.

To get the sqare root of a number you need to find out which number is multiplied by itself.

1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100, 121, 144

1x1=1

2x2=4

3x3=9

4x4=16

5x5=25

6x6=36

7x7=49

8x8=64

9x9=81

10x10=100

11x11=121

12x12=144