Sunday, June 15, 2014

Wrapping up Decades Week

Today was all about tying up loose ends for decades week. Today was scheduled to be hobbit day, but with Asa picking up a work shift, we're postponing that until later this week. We had a mini- Asa day celebration, and since we missed out half a day yesterday by going to Venice, it was perfect to finish up all our projects. 

This morning when we checked on the garden, we discovered we have lots of caterpillar and snail friends. They were everywhere! Peyton and Hayden really wanted to catch some, but they said they knew they'd be happier outside, being free. 


We usually can't take advantage of any father's day freebies since we're doing hobbit day, but before Asa started work today, he wanted to collect his PDQ free lunch. 


And while we usually don't get each other presents for fathers day or mothers day, I got a great deal, and the boys and I picked up this t-shirt for Asa. 


We had lots left to do with 80's day, so when we got home we attempted to make some pudding pops. We haven't eaten them yet today (we've had lots of little treats lately it seems!), but I'm hoping they turn out just like I remember. 


Then we talked about Mount Saint Helen's erupting. Calib and Peyton had some worksheets, and Hayden had a coloring page. 


We also talked about the Exxon-Valdez oil spill of 1989. We simulated an oil spill to show how damaging it can be to the environment. First, Hayden dumped a 'barrel' or oil into our ocean. 


After we made waves, the boys tried their best to clean it up. 


They tried all different kinds of materials and strategies, but they noticed very quickly how difficult it was to clean it up, even  in our little bowl. 


They even attempted to clean the wildlife (Hayden's plastic whales and seals), that had been in the ocean at the time of the spill. 


Eventually the animals got clean, but there really was no saving the water in our bowl. 


We took a break for a snack- dirt! I had leftover pudding from the pudding pops, and leftover oreos I put in the food processor from our moon and pac man activities earlier this week. 


We also shot off our rockets from 1950's day (when NASA was founded). I needed the pvc pipe from Lowes before we could rocket them off, and we had to settle for inside, since again we had a rainy, stormy afternoon. 


Basically, I just took a pvc pipe, cut it in half or so, and used an elbow to attach the two pipes. Then, I duct taped a bottle onto the end. When you stepped on the bottle, the rockets took off! All you had to do to re-inflate the bottle was blow back into the tube. 


The boys loved this, but they were getting pretty loud, so we had to move into our room, as to not disturb Asa. 



A couple of times we got our rockets to hit the ceiling! 


Oh, and we did watch Micheal Jackson videos today, too to round out the 1980's. Maybe we'll get to 'Big' tonight. 


Then it was time for our 'Decade's Recap' Activity. I took all the highlights of each decade off the board, and had the boys try to put them back up. 


To help curb the age gap, I had Calib go first, Peyton go second, and Hayden go third. 




Nobody got them all right. Calib had 6 wrong, Peyton had 4, and Hayden only got 3 wrong.


Since we had our pizza party in the car yesterday, we missed out on 1980's dinner. Peyton helped me make it tonight. We had sloppy joes (we made it ourselves, without using Manwich) 


They were awesome too! 


Asa took his break to have dinner with us, and he even shared his cookie the boys made for him for dessert. 


It was a nice wrap up day, and I managed to get a lot of work done around the house, and lots of laundry folded and put away. We've got less theme week activities going on next week, but lots of other things scheduled. 

Up Next: Sports Week! 

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