Food Groups Lapbook

We have slowed down a lot with the lapbooks! There seems to be much more to do this year and I find myself having less time to devise my own projects unfortunately. U is working on a lapbook but she makes the mini books occasionally, so I don't know when we'll complete that!
This is Ia's first lapbook of this year. A simple food groups project.


She made mini books for protein, carbohydrates and sweet and fatty foods.
I printed out a food pyramid fact sheet to stick in the middle.

To make the sections on fruit and vegetables and dairy I printed off coloring sheets, so the information is immediate and visual.

You can find colouring sheets on almost anything these days!

To consolidate this topic I hope to do a food group treasure hunt in the kitchen, inshAllah. (You know, hunt for as many protein foods as you can find and bring them to the table)!

Make or Bake II

This time it was J's turn to make or bake and he chose to make buns. When I make buns I do not follow the receipe exactly, so I needed to stay nearby to tell him what to do. He also needed help with the kneading. His kneading was a little slow, so the dough got cool and did not rise as well as it should. They tasted fine though, maashAllah. (We don't ice buns, the kids prefer them not to be sticky.)

Make or Bake

As the autumal days of rain, rain, rain are keeping us in I thought of giving the children a make and bake challenge. R went first. (I can't have everyone making or baking on the same day...we wouldn't be able to eat it all.)
The challenge is to choose a receipe from our cookery books, then make it with as little supervision from me as possible. (I did supervise the frying!)
R chose doughnuts. I've never tried to make these before so I couldn't advise much. They turned out very well, maashAllah, and tasted just right, depite their irregular shapes! You can see the texture inside was as it should be. There was jam, just not in this photo!
Actually J said he'd prefer them without jam and sugar. Maybe he'd prefer Chinese doughnuts.

These doughnuts are no more! As R commented, you do feel fat afterwards!!!!

Testing Gases

Yesterday we did the tests for three invisible gases, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and oxygen. Earlier in the week the boys had studied a chapter on this in their textbook. We also all viewed this demonstration on YouTube. (Video has background music)
Above we are testing for oxygen. We used a wooden skewer to show the oxygen relighting the flame.
Below is the test for carbon dioxide using limewater. Our chemistry set has limited equipment, so improvisation with a drinking staw was required!
I also demonstrated the presence of cabon dioxide in exhaled breath by blowing into some limewater through a straw.

I don't have a photo of the test for the test hydrogen, but we did the experiment quite a few times and got several "pop"s.We found that you need to be pretty quick getting the flame into the hydrogen to get a pop.
Below is another test for carbon dioxide we watched here.
The carbon dioxide is being made by a reaction between vinegar and baking powder. You pour the foam around, but NOT ON the lighted candle.


As more is poured in the candle dims,

then it goes out, because of the carbon dioxide now in the jar.

today, inshAllah they'll be writing up.

Food Groups

Ia is learning about food groups at the moment. The way I'm organising things this year means that she does a science topic session a couple of times a week. She is using a CGP topic workbook on Teeth and Eating. She actually really enjoys this workbook. The questions are kept pretty easy, there is not too much on any one page, yet the core facts for the topic are in place. The workbook functions as the base for the topic, but by itself it is too brief to allow for much retention or absorbtion of information.
I'm not too good at detailed planning ahead. I find that the pressure of "need it now" helps me come up with ideas. No pressure,and I could sit for ages unproductively mulling over possible activities to do. So, as we go along with this topic I think of what to add in.
Yesterday Ia used a couple of websites to help her learn about food groups:
BBC bitesize
and Crick Web's Healthy Eating activity.
Now she is old enough to read the text and any instructions herself it is a big help, maashAllah. I just have to find the pages, add them to the favourites links, then she can follow them up herself.
I think that food groups might make a good lapbook topic, nice andvisual.... maybe that will be our next diversion, inshAllah.

Clay art

Today I took the girls to an art workshop. The theme was clay sculptures. The artist leading the session had made a bird as an example, as well as a couple of pots. I explained that we Muslims do not make sculptures of birds and animals and so we had a go at other things instead.
We were using air drying clay and then natural things such as seeds, twigs, leaves and dried flower things. Easy to copy at home! Lovely and autumnal too.
In the photo above there is a tree stump, a nest a hazelnut and a cupcake!
Below are two pots, a tree stump and a nest. U enjoyed this session, maashAllah, this was the first art session she was enthusiastic about throughout!

On the table

Our table seems to be constantly loaded with stuff. As soon as I clear a space it fills up again. At the moment Hama beads are very popular with the girls. They like to take out all the designs they have made as well as the beads for working on. Then they work on their new design little by little through the day.

Other stuff on the tables would include piles of library books, sticker books, pencil crayons, various workbooks, not to mention H's work files which take their turn in the mix.

Somehow we squeeze the space to work and eat on there as well, alhamdulillah!