Irish Potato Pancakes

While studying the Irish Potato Plague of 1845-1850, we learned just how important potatoes were to the Irish people. Over a million Irish died of starvation caused by the potato blight in just 5 years. Our project was to try out some Irish food that used potatoes. We decided to make Irish Potato Bread, which ended up looking more like potato pancakes. Here are some photos of our project:

First we had to peel and boil the potatoes

 Then it was time to mash them

Add the rest of the ingredients to make a dough

Make the dough portions into patties

Fry and Eat! They were quite good! 

Some of us had them with sour cream and some preferred butter

Missionsfest

At the end of January we were able to head down to Canada Place and take part in the Missionsfest School Program. While the three older kids participated in the program for the morning, I took Caleb along with my friend Suzanne and her son Tanner for a little excursion/adventure to Gastown and then on the Seabus to Lonsdale Quay. When we got back and had lunch, we joined the others for the afternoon portion of the program. We listened to a talk and to the Watoto Children's Choir. What a treat! Once the program was over we roamed the exhibition hall and stopped at several booths to chat with the people there and learn about different missionary organizations.
This was a first for our kids to be at a big event and be 'dropped off ' with a group in the midst of several hundred other kids, but they all said they had a good time. Christine and Rebecca took great notes which really helped those of us who weren't at the morning portion to understand what they learned about. On the way home Joshua's comment was "I am so tired..but I'm sure glad I came"

On the Seabus

In the Missionsfest School Program

Meanwhile in another Science class

While the other kids were doing the Materials and Structures unit, Christine was doing some cool science learning of her own. She made her own crystals and was able to compare the surface of the crystals to some rocks.

She also studied chemical weathering by putting limestone and another stone in vinegar to watch the chemical reaction of the limestone to the vinegar. She also put a ball of steel wool in the vinegar and a few days later the steel wool was completely disintegrated!

(this picture is after 1 day, we forgot to get a picture of the totally disintegrated stage)

Bridge Building # 3

Our final bridge was a Girder Bridge. This one was a bit quicker because the girders snapped together and this bridge shared the landscape with the arch bridge. It was so much quicker that we didn't get any photos of it 'in process', but here are some of the finishing touches.

Joshua is testing to see if it fits

 Caleb is threading the road bed through the girders

 Yay! It works!



Bridge Building # 2

Our second bridge project was an Arch Bridge. This was really fun because we got to cast our own bridge pieces from plaster!

First we needed to prepare the landscape by painting it

Then we used a mold to create our plaster bricks

We used sandpaper to smooth the edges

Finally we put the pieces together to form the bridge



Bridge Building # 1

This term Joshua, Rebecca, and Caleb have been learning about materials and structures. Our main focus in this unit has been on bridges, so it only made sense that we create some of the bridges we have learned about. The first bridge we made was the Cable Stayed Bridge. Here are photos of the different steps we did to complete our bridge.

Rebecca put together the pieces of the road bed

 We painted the landscape

 Christine pitched in too

The boys studied the instructions so that we could get it just right.

 Rebecca got the 'cables' ready

 Caleb anchored the ends of the bridge on shore

Then it was time to attach the string cables

Yay, we did it!



History

As we continue to work our way through The Story of the World, January brought us to two fun projects. The first one was creating a 'replica' of a traditional Japanese Noh theater mask when we studied Japan's Meiji Restoration. Instead of making the mask out of wood, we decided to use plaster fabric. There were only a few brave souls willing to have the plaster on their faces, but it was sure a lot of fun.

 Here's one of the finished masks

 When we studied the war between Chile and the Bolivia-Peru Alliance, we learned that kids in Peru and Bolivia make slings out of the hair of alpacas. They then practice throwing stones with their slings to see who can get closest to a target. We decided to make our own slings. Instead of braiding alpaca hair, we used wool and the toes from old socks. It was fun to twirl them around and fling the wadded up foil balls we made.

 Caleb learned to braid for the first time. He did a great job!

Rebecca's completed sling

 Christine's sling is ready to whirl!

Joshua's 12th Birthday Party

Joshua wanted a Star Wars theme for his birthday party this year, so we decorated with lots of Star Wars clip art and played Star Wars themed games and, of course, played Lego Star Wars Wii. It was lots of fun!

 Pin the Light Saber on Yoda Game

Explode the Death Star Game - kind of like Hot Potato, but the last person in gets to pop the balloon/death star and there's confetti and prizes inside that go flying everywhere!

 Hoth Planet birthday cake complete with Taun-Tauns and Wampa

Snow Day - January 16, 2012

We had such fun playing in the snow! Auntie Karen and Uncle Macky were visiting, so they came out to play with us. Over 300 photos later, it's a bit hard to narrow down to just a few highlights of our snow play but  here they are: