L for Light

See what we did for other letters in the Alphabet in Simple Science.

L for Light

Science Notebook Page (Click the picture to print).

    Background

I defined light as the type of energy that lets us see things.  We read some books and watched The Magic School Bus Gets a Bright Idea, then we did a lot of playing!  We used a prism to separate the beam of a couple different flashlights into rainbows (taking a picture of that did NOT work, sorry).  We got out his light box and some flash lights and he had a ball!

   

Color Mixing with Light Paddles

Materials:

Light Paddles (or colored binder dividers)
Light Source

Procedure:

I definitely scaffolded this activity.  With an older child you could just give them all the colors and let them go!  I set him up on the light table and put the green, purple, and orange paddles on one side.  I gave him the red, blue, and yellow and told him to see if he could find a way to make the other colors.  After he would combine each color set I asked him what it looked like.  It took a little while, but he did make them all.  Then he tried combining all the colors together.

He thought it was neat to change the color of everything by putting the paddles to his eyes!  I thought it was a great little experiment and had him tell me what he observed.

As an extension, I thought it would be fun for him to blend paint colors as well.  I asked him to predict what he thought might happen.  I gave him red, blue, and yellow.  Then I also gave him red and blue, red and yellow, and blue and yellow.  He had a great time mixing them and finding the colors.

Exploring Shadows

Materials:

Flashlight
Small Toy or paper cutout

Procedure:

We turned off the lights and got out a flashlight.  For a while I just held it up for him and let him explore.  Then I asked him to make and test some predictions.  "What do you think will happen if you hold your hand really close to the flashlight?  What if you hold your hand really close to the wall?  What do you think would happen if we move the flashlight instead?"  He had a great time changing the size of his shadow this way.  Then we got out some small toy dinosaurs.  We basically repeated the activity using that instead of his hand.  He really liked seeing a giant dinosaur on the cabinet doors!  (Note: a paper cutout would be more distinct than a three dimensional toy).

Reflecting Light

We talked about how light reflects off of things.  I had him stand in the hallway next to the door with his back to the wall and tell me what he could see in the bathroom (obviously nothing).  Then I had him use a mirror to look around the corner.  We talked about how light from the bathroom was reflecting off the mirror and letting him see inside.

Playing Color Code on the Light Box

Check out my Alphabet in Simple Science Pinterest Board for more ideas!

 

Valentine's Printable Pack

Can you believe Valentine's Day is only about a week away!?  I swear this year has been flying by!  We are taking a break from our regular school activities to do some Valentine's themed ones.  To go along with them, I created some Valentine's materials and decided to share early, just in case someone else would like to use them too!  I also included a few of the trays we'll be doing.  I'll make the full post in a couple weeks when we're done!

Print the Valentine's Pack Here

Included:

Valentine's Word Family Mailboxes

Valentine Symbols Measuring Worksheet

Short Sentence Ordering Cards

Number Cards 0-10 and Counting by 10s

Spelling Cards

Valentine's Word Family Mailboxes

These include a bunch of Valentines with -ail, -all, and -ell words, as well as the corresponding mailboxes

Sentence Ordering Cards

I got this idea from Every Star is Different.  I have three sets of cards with pictures and words.  There is a set with a 3 word sentence, one with a 4 word sentence, and one with a 5 word sentence.  

Spelling Cards

I included three Valentine's themed words for him to try to spell.

Counting By Tens

I made cards 0-100 and made little strings of 10 beads each with pipe cleaners and pony beads.  I'll have him draw a card at random and set out the corresponding number of beads or put the cards in order 0-100.

 Numbers 0-10

I also included numbers 0-10 and made pipe cleaners that are only twisted on one end.  I'll have him draw a card and string the corresponding number of beads.  He can also put them in order when he is done.

Science Review

 Wal-Mart had some dry erase stickers on clearance recently.  I decided a vocabulary game would be a good use for them.  I put them on our cabinet and wrote a bunch of the words we have done this year in our Alphabet in Simple Science on them.  Then I printed out some definitions.  I'll either read him a definition, or have him pick out out of the bin, then once he knows the word he can run to the cabinet and hit the correct heart.  If you'd like the list we used and definition cards you can print it here. 

 The dollar store had these cute little heart skewers, so I picked up a bucket and some floral foam.  I'll have him put all of the hearts in the foam.

 Oriental Trading Company recently had free shipping, so I ordered some of these linking hearts.  I'll have him practice making patterns with them.

 I found some cute little floral hearts and the dollar store, so will have him transfer them with his jumbo tweezers.

Letter L Weeks

Letter Formation/Pre-Writing

Tracing the letters with his write and wipe cards and Letter Tracing Pages from 1+1+1=1

Practicing writing in his sand box.

Trying on his own.

Making L's out of foam crafting blocks.  You can download the templates here.

Q-Tip Painting (from 1+1+1=1)

Using letter L See and Stamps on the Dot Letters from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I asked him to stamp one letter in each dot.

 Using his Build a Letter Templates and HWWT pieces. First he built the letters on the templates, then he built them by themselves.

Letter Maze

(Printable here)

Play Dough Letters

Using the letter L alphabet stamping play dough mat.

Literacy

Beginner Spelling Cards

We did the next four Beginner Spelling Cards.  These were all -or words.  When he finished I asked him to spell "work."  He chose all the correct letters with no problem, and after a little bit of effort, was able to get them in the correct order!

Alphabetizing

I set out 6 magnetic letters and explained that I wanted him to put them in the order of the alphabet.  He is getting pretty good at understanding what letter comes after, but what letter comes before is still really hard for him.

Cut and Paste Phonics Hunt

(Print it here)

Rhyming Word Puzzles

Phonics Fun Page and Worksheets from Raising Rockstars Kindergarten

Reading his current favorite book, Exclamation Mark.  He thinks the little question mark in the book is hilarious!

 

Thinking Skills

Color Code Game on the light box

Math

Watching Little Math and doing our calendar work.

We have slowly been making our way through the first level of Right Start Math.  We're currently working on understanding the numbers 6-10 as "5 and something."  For example, six is five and one.  We've been watching this YouTube video, using tally sticks, and working on his abacus.

To continue with the theme, I set up a tray with our pop beads.  I included number tiles of 6-10, tally sticks, 5 strings of 5 pop beads, and a container of loose pop beads.  I had him draw a tile and figure out how many more than five it would take to make that number.  Then he picked out the beads and we added them to the string of five.  Then he used the tally sticks to show that number.  When we were all done I had him put them in order so we could talk about how each one was one more than the previous one.  He's still a little sketchy on the concepts, but he's starting to get it!

Art
As part of our science lessons we looked at blending light.  I thought it would be fun for him to blend colors as well.  I asked him to predict what he thought might happen.  I gave him red, blue, and yellow.  Then I also gave him red and blue, red and yellow, and blue and yellow.  He had a great time mixing them and finding the colors.

Science

We're still doing our Alphabet in Simple Science, and this week was L for Light.  He has so much fun that we ended up doing it for two weeks (the reason for no post last week).  I'll post all of the science activities on Friday.

Spanish

Reviewing the Spanish Animal Vocabulary cards in the pocket chart.

Life Skills

Cutting some paper with the paper cutter.

Just For Fun

Playing with Wedgits.  He really wanted me to take a picture of his tower.

This Week's Work