10.10.2011

All in a Week's Work



Finally found a working "sound scope" with the help of some dry rice, plastic wrap and a rubberband.  :) 


The girs loved seeing what happens to the sound vibrations with high/low pitches and loud/soft noises.  Of course this rice was no competition for the noise these girls can make, so some of it ended up on the floor.  :) 



It happened that the community orchestra meets each Fall for 6 weeks, and it coincided beautifully with our music portion of the unit.  I play in the orchestra, so the girls tagged along and got to explore the conductor's role, the "anatomy" of an orchestra, the acoustic panels on the walls, as well as get an up close listen to all the different sounds working in unison.   



Bren was photographer and made sure to capture all the details. 








This week we're wrapping up the sound/music portion of the unit with the group and will be giving oral reports on a designated historical musician (Brenin has Bach and Luca has Vivaldi, so we've been having fun exploring their stories), a "tour" of the inside of a piano, and homemade instruments.  (phew!)  :-) 

Next week we're moving on to tracking and trapping, and guess who we happened to find at a local Rendezvous.....a trapper!!  The guy was incredible.  He spent a good hour with the kids, demonstrating all his trapping tools and sharing some of the history, future and philosophy of trapping!  It was so fun to see the kids get such a live view....their interests were most definitely piqued! 



My Ethiopian beauty! 



Love this one.  A lot. 



Bren's first "treasure" of the day....a feather!  :) 



Trapper Tour. 















I LOVE the looks on their faces.  Completely engrossed. 
Music to a teachers's heart.  :) 






The kids playing with a trap.  Bad idea?  Yeah, I thought so too. 



The trapper's "neighbor" was just pulling in to set up camp and allowed the kids to assist in his camp set up.  Third grade engineering?  Yes, please!  :) 



Surely the most beautiful form of lodging....the tipi. 



Tipi Tour












From the Rendezvous, the girls and I headed up north for our final camp of the season.  Always sad to pack the camper up the one last time, but I suppose camping in 40 below just lacks some of the luster that a summer camp offers.  :)  Snow will soon be flying up there, but we had a surprise stint in the 70s this weekend, so PERFECT camping weather! 


After a full day, the girls snuggled in for a movie and a snuggle....really roughing it!  :) 


Harvest Fest with Grandma and Grandpa
























This picture pretty much sums up the Up North experience.  Pigtails flying in the wind, breathing deep and living free. 



We feasted on apple cider, caramel apples, walking tacos and all those goodies that taste best when camping....one last time *sniff*sniff*. 



Ooh, and giant pumpkin-shaped marshmallows!!! 



On the road again...dreaming of next year already! 



2 comments:

Debbie said...

Great post Cari. Really sad about the last camp. You really capture the magic of it all though. Loved the home school stuff too. Brings back memories of you at that age. It is a wonderful thing to see a mind get hungry for knowledge and be excited to learn.

Anonymous said...

Love all of the things that you do with your girls. Makes a classroom seem really dull. I'd love to jump through the pictures and join you on your adventures!