Project 143: Basketball

This week's project was mainly picked because the basketball game NBA 2K20 was free this month on the PS4, and we haven't looked closely at a sport since Project 82: Football.

We started the week by watching videos on the rules of basketball, the last match by the local team, and some of the best recent plays. We also got a good book on basketball, which emphasised the role of numbers in the game and included some suggested activities; this is the second National Geographic Kids book we've bought (see Project 139: A History of Music) and we'll make use of them again.

A good Basketball book

Much of the project work this week (when the weather allowed) was throwing the basketball around, including a trip to the local hoops, and seeing how far the children could through the ball.

NBA and WNBA stars of the future

The children both enjoyed basketball, both in real life and on the computer, although as is typical, Solomon enjoyed the computer game more than Monica. After watching Space Jam early in the week, Solomon insisted on playing with the Chicago Bulls.

Next project: Pushing on with Programming

Project 142: Arthur Ransome and 'The Big Six'

At Solomon's suggestion we had Arthur Ransome's The Big Six as this week's project as they had enjoyed watching Swallows and Amazons and Coot Club the previous week.

The book itself was a hefty 500 pages, so Monica and Solomon were tasked with reading that on their own rather than trying to read it all as a family.

The Big Six

There were a number of quizzes in the back of the book, which they both did very well on (so we can be assured that they read it properly!) and we also got them to write book reviews using a template from Twinkl. One word of warning, however, while the quizzes in the Vintage Classics version were good, the book itself did have some language that would be considered unacceptable today.

As well as reading the book we also introduced some Ransome-esque activities from the Arthur Ransome Society website.

They made some semaphore flags, and practised sending messages to each other.

Semaphore activity

We bought a book on knots, and got them to learn a few of the basics, starting with the reef knot.

The reef knot

The children were also tasked with creating 'Hollywoods', which is what Ransome called the pictures he drew based on posed photographs he took.

Solomon and Monica's 'Hollywoods'

We finished the week by watching The Big Six on Amazon Prime, which we were surprised to see actually had the children's great-grandfather in as an extra!

Next week: Basketball.

Project 141: Nature in Summertime

As it felt as though we had spent far too much time stuck in the house, and Britain was due a mini-heatwave, we decided to have a nature based project this week to get us out and about a bit more.

We pressed some flowers - and then laminated the results:

Monica (left) and Solomon's (right) pressed flowers

We created stick fairies, using materials found during a picnic by the lake:

And we did some wildlife spotting and learned about bees using some online resources. .


We also watched a couple of films set in the English countryside: Swallows and Amazons (1974), and Coot Club.

The children enjoyed both the films, and it even prompted Solomon to suggest the Coot Club sequel as the next project.

Next week's project: Arthur Ransome and the The Big Six

Project 140: Presentations

After sitting through a number of presentations in recent weeks, the children decided they would like to do their own presentation this week.

We watched a large number of videos on 'How to give a presentation' and the children took copious notes. They then had to decide what subject to give a ten minute presentation on, and then spend the rest of the week putting together their presentation, and practicing the talk.

Solomon picked Fortnite:
 


Monica picked Pets:
 
Both the children really enjoyed putting the presentations together, and gave great presentations! We look forward to getting them to put together more presentations in the future.

Next project: Nature in Summertime

Project 139: A History of Music

As it's been a year since we last did a music project, and the ukulele classes have been on hold due to the coronavirus, we decided it was time to do another music focused project.

Obviously the history of music is a rather big subject, so we started by revisiting the previous classical music project (Project 90: Classical Music), and then went through the development of twentieth century popular music with the help of Turn It Up! A pitch-perfect history of music that rocked the world. 

This week's reading

Unsurprisingly, most of the week was spent listening to a wide variety of music, although we did have time for some other activities as well.

We explored Stravinsky's Firebird using CBBC resources, and the children created their own Firebird inspired pictures.

Firebirds

Of course you can't have a music project without playing some music, so after introducing them to the blues we got them to write their own 12 bar blues songs. We created a template based on an online example (unfortunately we've lost the link!) and combined it with three ukulele chords they know.

Solomon's Vegetable Blues:

"I've got the Blues,The I have to eat my vegetables BluesEating courgette makes me sickSo a Domino's pizza would do the trick I've got the Blues, The I have to eat my vegetables Blues."

Monica's Going to Bed Blues

"I've got the Blues, The going to bed BluesI would rather stay up lateand go out for a skateI've got the BluesThe going to bed Blues"

Singing the Blues

They both really enjoyed singing their own blues songs, and insisted on singing them to their various grandparents over the phone/Skype.

Finally they explored some of the different elements that go into making up a song with another BBC resource.

Next Project: Presentations

Project 138: Ponies and Unicorns

This week's project was Monica's pick as it was her birthday, and she picked 'ponies and unicorns' in typical young girl fashion!

They created their own stories about a unicorn and designed their own unicorn and gave it some superpowers using some Twinkl worksheets. 

We also read a book about horses and ponies together, and the children had to read War Horse and write their own book review (using a template from Twinkl). 

This week's reading

They all enjoyed making some unicorn models using Fimo oven bake clay (despite having to do it twice after the oven was put on too high a temperature the first time round!).

Fimo Unicorns

The also made their own unicorn horns to wear for the birthday tea. 

Unicorn horns

Finally we finished the week by watching Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.

 

Next project: History of Music

Project 137: Lewis Carroll's Alice Books

The Alice books have been on our list of potential projects for a while as there are so many different avenues for exploration. 

To get an overview of the two stories we read the Usborne versions as a family, before Solomon and Monica did a Poetry Society worksheet on imaginary words and an Alice differentiated reading worksheet from Twinkl.

This week's Alice books

The children were expected to read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass themselves, before being subjected to two presentations we put together after reading The Annotated Alice. One on text and context, and one on the maths of the Alice books. 

The children have played chess (the backdrop to Through the Looking Glass) before, but have little experience of cards (which appear in ...Wonderland), so we introduced them to a couple of simple card games: Old Maid, and Beggar-my-neighbour. We also got them to make their own card characters:

Monica (left) and Sol's card characters

One of the most memorable scenes from the Alice books is the Hatter's Tea Party, so the children helped make our own afternoon tea:

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Finally we watched the old Disney animated version of the story. 

Next week's project: Ponies and Unicorns