Week Five: Brought To You By Mexico and the Letter 'L'

Hola Amigos! Guess where we traveled to this week? That's right...Mexico!! The girls received their passports Monday morning and headed off on their very first visit to Mexico. One of the first things they learned upon their arrival was a bit of the native language, Spanish. Of course, they didn't learn the entire language (that would just be ridiculously impossible in one day), but they did learn how to say a few colors and how to count to ten. They each made their very own Spanish book so they could practice. Here is Annabelle working on hers.

 

They also learned about some of Mexico's art culture. Their first project was to make a 'paper cut.' No, they did not practice slicing their fingers with paper! The Otomi Indians of San Pablito Mexico make paper cuts from the bark of the amate tree. The cuts are symmetrical designs of people, animals, birds, or other cultures they encounter on their daily lives. Now, we didn't use actual tree bark, we just used a brown paper bag and wax paper. It was a fun and simple project and I thought they did a great job. Sammy and I did one together too. Here are our final products...can you guess what they are?

We also made some tin plate art which was developed in Mexico around 1650 when Spain restricted the availability of silver. They each had a 5x7 piece of tin which they drew a simple design on. Then they used a hammer an end of a screw driver and a nail to poke holes in the tin following the outline of their design. It resulted in some very pretty pieces of art work. Alivia made a pumpkin since it's almost Halloween.

Annabelle made a cross (she was not happy with hers, a bit of a perfectionist like her mama) and Sammy and I made a leaf. I loved  how it turned out so I framed it and added it to my shelf. 

 See...cute huh?

Of course, it was not all fun and games...okay, well maybe one game...but an educational one for sure! The girls got to play their Geography game for the first time this week. There is a game board for each continent and games pieces for each country. Since we are still in North America that is where they played. The object of the game is to see who can name the most countries. They did a great job and had fun as well. They were even asking to play it during non-school hours! YAY! Here they are playing it the first time.

This week Sammy worked on the letter 'L' and the /l/ sound. He learned a lot about leaves and did a lot of leaf projects which couldn't have been in more perfect timing! We went outside and collected 5 or 6 different leaves. Then I traced them each onto a piece of paper and stapled them to make a book. He had to color each picture to look like the real leaf. He did a great job even getting the little brown spots! We were supposed to name each leaf but I didn't know the names of the tree which the leaves came from so we had to have daddy help us with that. We then took those leaves and pressed them so we could use them later in the week to make a stained glass leaf picture.

See how pretty?

He also learned that much like a leaf can't survive on it's own if it's not connected to the plant, we can not survive if we are not connected to God. God gives us what we need to live just like the plant gives the little leaf what he needs to live. I am loving how each weeks lesson ties in simple bible truths!!

Well, that's about it in a nut shell...which by the way we have a yard full of! We did take Friday off and headed back out to Dow Gardens. It was an absolutely perfect day for it! Of course, I took my camera along too and got some beautiful pictures. You can see a few of my favorites on my left side bar. Here is one of the whole gang...my kids plus the two I babysit for. Such a cute looking group!