School Update

We are finishing our unit on Explorers. We have probably a week left and then we will be done. Morgan has enjoyed this unit and learned so much. It has been pretty intense and fast paced so we are looking forward to our next unit on weather which should be a little more low key. Our focus last week was on the Spanish Conquistadors. We spent most of the week learning about the Aztec Indians and Hernando Cortez. It was so interesting! I really had to weed out some of the "gory" details about how they sacrificed their own people (who thought it was an honor) as well as their prisoners, but I also wanted her to have a picture of this culture. I think we found a good balance where she is aware of what an advanced culture the Aztecs were as well as being very pagan and having no respect for human life. I know if she would have wanted/needed to know more she would have asked questions and then I would have answered them appropriately.

Morgan making her Aztec eagle hat and then modeling her finished project!

Morgan's Aztec Codex - a book where they wrote down things about their culture. There was one more picture but it somehow got deleted.

This is the beginning of Morgan's Lapbook on Explorers. This is our first attempt at doing a lap book but I wanted something that would be a good review of what we learned. I have heard quite a bit about lapbooks and thought we would try it. So far it is going pretty well and Morgan enjoys the project. I did talk to a mom who does notebooking. It is the same concept but she puts the projects on 8 1/2 x 11 paper and then puts them in the page protectors and keeps everything in a three ring binder. With an intense unit like Explorers and with so much information I think that would have been a better option. Since we started the lapbook we will finish it. I will post more photos when it is done. I love the concept of having some type of end of the unit book to show what we have learned. I want something easy to store and kid friendly assembly and use.