Bridges, Roads and House....

Well today was the start of another week for us.

We started off with a story for Mr R aged 2 in the hopes that he would then play quietly while the older kids listedn to me read to them. 

We followed this with our daily devotions and Bible study and then our prayers for the day.

Next we started on the reading material for todays unit study lesson. We are still working on our unit study about the Maya, Inca and Aztecs of Central and South Aerica. There is so much information that I would love to cover more deeply but we just haven't the time to do this so we end up just skimming over things at times and delving more deeply on the things that most interest us. I read to the kids for about half an hour but this was interspearced with chatter and discussion and picture studies etc...

Todays unit study lesson covered ancient Mayan, Aztec and Inca architecture and engineering practices. We looked at some examples of housing, buildings, roads, cities and bridges and discussed how they were built and what the key characteristics were in regards to each tribes designs and structures. We read about how things have changed since then and how some things still remain the same in Central and South American architecture. We looked at many photos of ruins of Aztec architecture including a road which is very impressivly called the Alley of the Dead.

After this we did an English lesson about paragraph format and structure. We worked through some examples together on a large sheet of paper that I tacked up on the wall and we talked about ways in which we could make our sentences flow better and sound more interesting etc. Then the kids each had to write their own paragraph relating to one aspect discussed in our unit study today.

Dd8 wrote the following....

MAYAN HOUSES

The Mayan houses of ancient times are like some of the cottages still found in small modern day villiages in central America. Mayans made theire houses out of sticks that had been woven and covered in dirt and water and roots. They used palm leaves for the roof . They didn't have any windows. They were very different than our houses here today.

She drew a picture below this.

Ds 13 wrote....

INCA ROADS

The Inca roads were mainly used for messengers ad soldiers to get them to places faster. The roads were paved with flat stonesin certain places. The roads were only used by the messengers and soldiers as civilians were not allowed to use the roads. The Inca's had many small roads which would lead up to two main roads. The Inca roads are still around today and people still use them, except now everybody is allowed to use them.

And ds11 wrote....

INCA ROADS

The Inca built many roads. These roads were not allowed to be used by ordinary people as they were only for messengers and soldiers. Large rest houses were built beside the roads so that messengers could rest. One road went through Cusco and up into the Andes mountains and another went along the coastline. Many Inca roads still exist today.

After we had finished this the children completed their spelling workbook lessons while I was making lunch.We haven't been bothering with spelling lately but I felt that we needed to include spelling as it is a week area for the kids and the more practice they get the better and the easier it will be for them to write confidently.

The kids had their lunch break and I put my 2 year old down for his nap and started making some modelling dought in preparation for our art activity. 

After their break the older 3 kids came to the kitchen table where I had a sketching activity set up for them. They had to use a series of specific strokes to recreate a picture of an Inca rope bridge. When they had finished they had to go over it with chalk pastels to creat and more colourful image.

Here is what they managed to produce....

Dd8's picture of an Inca bridge:

Dd 8

DS 13

Ds11

After this the modelling dough I had made earlier had cooled down enough and the children used this and some tootpicks to make a model of a Mayan house. Once their models were completed I put them in the oven to harden. 

Here is what they created...

Mr Mischeif had of course woken up ready to join in the fun by now of course so he too created a dough and toothpick model.  Then I got out some paints for him to keep him busy while I did the lunch dishes and the older kids di their math.

2:30 rolled around and at last they were all finished and ready to head outside. The boys met a friend up at the skatepark and dd8 played PS3 for a bit.

In about 20 minutes they will all be heading off to athletics and I will be having some nice peaceful time out.