What we did in LIFT

This week we got to listen to "the blue danube waltz" by Johann Strauss.
After talking about the composer, we learned how to find germany on the globe (where Strauss is from and where the Danube river is" .
Everyone got to use foam stamps to create imaginative paintings to the music.

We played lots of creative games. You can see there minds expanding and growing as they use their hands, senses and brains to play these games.

What we did in LIFT

NOTE: Tuition is due next week for April!

I am staffing a teen leadership program at the capitol during the week of the 23rd so we will meet only the other 4 weeks in April.

The dates we will meet in April are the 2nd, 9th, 16th and the 30th .

This week we had a great class! We played some amazing developmentary, reasoning and logic game that all the kids really enjoyed.

This week in science we learned Volcanoes! We talked about it, read books and even watched some videos of erupting volcanoes!

We made home made clay so that next week we can make a model volcano with it, and watch it erupt too!!!

Each week the kids get more enthusiastic and involved at LIFT. It is amazing to see how quickly these kids are improving!

What we did in class!

I am looking forward to another LIFT class this week after our little break.

Last class, we studied the artist Marc Chagall (and compared his work to Monet’s impressionism!) and since Chicago has some very large mosaics of his work, we also made our own mosaics.

But before making them we played different games and sorting activities and enjoyed playing with and discussing the various mosaic pieces.

We also read together and did other creative activities.

It is amazing to see how much all your children are increasing in their attention span, ability to focus, creativity and just involvement in discussions and activities. They are great kids.

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to work with your child. I enjoy our time together so much.

What we did in LIFT

I am sorry that I have gotten this out late, I have been out of town.

We got some new foam geometrical shapes, and played a ton of learning games with those.
The Kids had to use fast thinking skills, recognize objects, memorize patterns and use there brains!

Our unit study for this week was one of the human bodies Senses: Taste!

First we acted as scientists and discovered eveything that we could just by looking, feeling and observing.

After discussing how the tongue works and reading about it, we made tongue charts and did a taste test to see which spots of the taste buds taste which flavors.

The kids also used there creativity to make and decorate little Taste books- while I read our class chapter book "A Lion to Gaurd us"

I am seeing major improvment in the kids that have been coming to LIFT for even just a couple weeks.

It really is amazing how much better they can articulate, remember and create than when they they first started.

LIVING EDUCATION REALLY DOES WORK!

What to do at home:
- Have your kids give you a taste test!

What we did in LIFT

My camera is still broken =( and we haven't gotten the new one yet- so no pictures today=(

This week we studied the famous impressionist artist 'Monet'

After learning about his life, we all looked at some of his famous art pieces and discussed them.

Also everyone learned how to find Monet's birthplace- France on the globe

The kids were even able to point out which paintings were by Monet and which weren't.
I was really impressed when they would say 'thats not impressionism' or 'that's not a Monet painting'
wow. I wonder how many adults can do that!

Then we all became impressionist and created our own works of art a la Monet!!!

Things to do:
Take your kids to the Oklahoma Art Museum!
Take the time to look at art work (even just out of a book) and let them discuss it!


We are trying to nurture love and appreciation for art!

What we did in LIFT

My camera broke this week, so unfortunately there are not any pictures to show you all we did and the fun we had.
Hopefully, by next week our new camera will be here =)

This week we started out with a fun science experiment and made "gluep".

We learned about how our lungs work and played some fun games to learn the different parts of the incredible "breathing machine" we have in our bodies.





Using some different props, we did a little skit/drama performing what actually happens in your body when you breathe - the diaphragm muscle pulls the oxygen through our trachea and into the lungs, and then pushes the bad air- CO2 (Carbon dioxide) out.

We made our own model of lungs- with a balloon and a pop bottle to show how it looks.

We also played some fun games to learn lung anatomy vocabulary and made some paper cut out pictures of the lungs.

We even watched a video of an actual cow lung breathing! Yes, gross is fun and can be educational too!


With each of these areas, we are learning specific information but it is the process - the thinking, the evaluating, and the making conclusions - that is the most important part of what we are doing.

Tackling the subjects this way does so much more than simply feeding them information and giving them the answer to questions. They have to use all different parts of their minds. Not just the memory section :-)

Things to do:
have them show you wheare the trachea, lungs, and diaphragm are and what they do. (you probably need to give them some hints, since we just learned this)

What we did in LIFT

February 5th

This Week we did a UNIT STUDY on Potatoes!

Everyone had a lot of fun this week in the variety of activities we did- from digging potatoes out of a 'garden' to using potato stamps and talking about geometric shapes to learning about the growth cycle of potatoes.

But I think the favorite of this week was after tested raw and cooked potatoes- the kids got to experiment with and make their own potato recipes and eat them !

This week I was even more impressed by how the kids are growing, learning to work together, gaining longer attention spans and getting more interested.
They are also learning to articulate and narrate to me.
It is neat to see how they are getting better at formulating thoughts into words!

It is really going well and I can tell a BIG improvement in all of them just in one month.

What you can do at home this week:

1. Ask your kiddos to tell you several things they can remember about potatoes
   
2. For Lunch some day this week just for fun, let your kids make a potato dish!
   
3. Here is a website (about potatoes!!) to check out - it has more info on potatoes and some fun online games, quizzes etc.

HERE ARE SOME MORE PICS THAT PROVE LEARNING IS FUN TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!