Da Vinci and Italy Week 1

This week we started our Leonardo da Vinci study. This of course incorporates many of the basic core academics. Along with our study of Da Vinci we have been learning about Italy as well, since that was Da Vinci's place of birth and where he created his great works.  Subjects that were not part of our Da Vinci study included lessons on money, study of the basic foods groups, typing skills, and Spanish lessons.

The books we used for our lessons this week are (On the left) "Leonardo and the Flying Boy" by Laurence Anholt,  "Da Vinci (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)" by Mike Venezia, and (Below) "World of Inventors: Leonardo da Vinci" by Lorraine Jean Hopping. 

Most of our studies this week were based on learning about Da Vinci's life, his inventions, most famous works, and how his study of nature and science affected how he created his machines and paintings.  

This was our first project. Here put together one of his flying machines, an Ornithopter. The supplies and instructions for our Ornithopter came from the "World of Inventors" book. 

We did some artwork of course, because you just can't study Da Vinci without creating art. Below you can see that we studied how Da Vinci used what he learned about nature and science to make his paintings look realistic. More specifically, we learned that he used what he studied about birds to make the wings of his angels look as impressive as they did. So, in this project Gavin and I looked up his favorite bird, and he used it's wings to make his very own angel. We also did a little side study on birds to gain a better understanding. His wings of choice choice came from a cardinal.

Continuing work on Da Vinci's inventions, we used the "World of Inventors" book again to get the recipe to make a parachute just like Da Vinci.

As with the Ornithopter, Gavin and I worked together to build the parachute. Gavin was very helpful in cutting and measuring.

And it worked out beautifully!

Through this lesson I made some reading comprehension worksheets to go along with our readings. I would have Gavin read a passage or a couple of pages and he would answer questions about it on the worksheet. This not only helped him work on his understanding of what he was reading, but also gave him a chance to practice good handwriting skills when give a certain amount of space to write on.

Another fun activity was the Mona Lisa in a color by numbers worksheet I discovered online. I love color by number activities, because they are good for teaching children how to follow instruction properly to get their desired result. 

On a short day, which was part of a weekend for Gavin, I told him we were having a class activity in the living room. I made a Venice, Italy scavenger hunt using the "Travel with Kids" show that we love to watch on Hulu. 

Doing a scavenger hunt is a great way to get kids to pay attention to the details they should be learning about in a program. Just making a list of historical landmarks, and fun and silly things to look for makes it a great game!

First day of school!

Today was the very first day of Homeschool!

It was a great learning experience for the both of us!

The very first thing Gavin saw when he went up to his classroom door was his little check-in and check-out of school pockets. He loved this!

First day of 1st grade picture.

Here is the right side of our little classroom that you see upon entering. The right includes our supply shelves, and on the wall is our bug craft web, and the Periodic Table.

Art Center and Health Center (We have a different center every day, but this was just some of the the ones up today).

 Here are all our books, and our display board. Our closet is filled with games, science projects, my planning shelves, workbooks, stickers, flashcards, puzzles, construction paper, etc.

Here we have Gavin's desk next to the Workbox System. This system is a great, fun, and organized way to homeschool, it was created by Sue Patrick. I heard it about from many other parents and I am so glad I tried it. Gavin loves it! Next to it is a Monster Math poster, and above we have a few posters on grammar and the Scientific Method. 

               

                       

 Our Classroom has a My Neighbor Totoro nature Theme. It's a film by Hayao Miyazaki. All his films are magical, and full of possibilities. They teach you to see beyond the obvious. I want the experience in our class to be much of the same. Gavin is a big fan of his films, especially this one. 

      

Thanks for visiting our classroom on our first day! We look forward to adding more to it as we continue on our adventures!