Project 197: The Bible

As this week coincided with the Virtual Sunday School Holiday Club, and a camping trip to Worcester for the live event, there wasn't much opportunity to incorporate a totally unrelated project, so we decided to have the bible as the project. 

We started the week by giving the children a presentation on the bible, what it tells us, and how it was put together. This incorporated a number of videos from The Bible Project.

We also bought Portals and Prophets (which we had to get imported from America) which helps players place the biblical events geographically and historically. We're big fans of board games in our family, and this one turned out to be a very enjoyable board game, with good game play 

The Virtual Holiday Club was (loosely) based on Paul being shipwrecked on Malta, and there were lots of crafts to do throughout the week, from making musical instruments to creating a desert island. For the children, however, the highlight was seeing the filming of the show live, and watching the presenters get gunged. 

Most fortuitously from the perspective of the project, Monica even won a new bible from one of the Virtual Holiday Club competitions, and has already rattled her way through Genesis! 

As The Bible was this week's project, it seems appropriate to include our Sunday School craft for once (which we think is a good one), a Lego diorama of Jesus and the paralytic man.

Next project: Magic!

Project 196: The Moon

This project was inspired by a moon installation and current activities at Peterborough Cathedral: One Small Step. 

We started the week by reading about the moon, and the solar system more broadly, and learning about the phases of the moon with a Twinkl worksheet. 

There were a number of activities at the cathedral to coincide with a large art installation of the moon that people could walk on. At the One Giant Leap event the children were told about the moon landing and had to design a mission badge. There were activities on communication, and how difficult it is to do things in space, and it finished with a teddy bear parachute jump back to earth.  There was also a Safe in Space show run by the Cambridge Science Centre that explored how rockets get off the ground and into space and what materials space suits and rockets are made of to keep people safe.

Next project: The Bible

Project 195: Butterflies

Although three nature projects in a row was a bit over-the-top, the idea for a butterfly project coincided with the Big Butterfly Count and it was the right time of the year for releasing our own butterflies. 

The kids learned about the life-cycle of a butterfly with a Twinkl worksheet and a BBC video, before going on their own butterfly hunt. They spotted four different butterflies altogether: small whites, ringlets, gatekeepers, and red admirals.

The highlight of the week (and the following couple of weeks) was rearing our own Painted Lady butterflies from some caterpillars bought from Insect Lore. They send a cup with tiny caterpillars and their food in, and within a week they had grown significantly before turning into chrysalides. It then took another week for them to hatch before being released. 

Our craft activity for the week was some butterfly prints:

Next project: The Moon

Project 194: Owls

Sam has been wanting to do a project on owls since he first started home education, and with the ease in Covid restrictions, and the nice weather, it seemed a good opportunity to visit Baytree Owl & Wildlife Centre.

The only downside to the day was that it was a bit too hot and it was mainly all outside. Nonetheless the children all had a great time and learned lots about different owls and their habits. There were lots of other birds of prey there too, and they saw a falconry display, which was very engaging and informative.

We also bought an owl pellet for dissection, as owls regurgitate parts of their dinner that they cannot digest such as bones and fur. We extracted the rodent bones (which the children enjoyed trying to identify) so that we could rearrange them into a skeleton.

We watched the film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, which the children all enjoyed, and Solomon is particularly keen on reading the series of books.

As always, we like to finish the week with a craft: 

Next project: Butterflies

Project 193: Reptiles

As we had a home education trip to Johnson's of Old Hurst organized, as well as a family trip to see Dippy at Norwich Cathedral, 'Reptiles' seemed to be an appropriate project to bring the two trips together.

Viewing Dippy itself didn't take that long, but there were a few other activities to do around the cathedral, and the children enjoyed it. There was also a dinosaur trail around Norwich:

Johnson's of Old Hurst is a bit of a local curiosity, combining a butchers and crocodile farm, alongside a shop, restaurant, woodland walk, play area and a selection of other animals. The children all enjoyed the opportunity to hold a tortoise and touch a snake, along with hearing a talk on meerkats and feeding the donkeys:

We finished the week with some reptile crafts:

Next project: Owls