Water Bombing Math, One sentance writing, and Body art.

We had a very busy morning around here and tried to focus on fun.  I always try to make our learning as fun as possible and today we had so much fun!

Alec had a book he got from the library called Alex the Parrot that everyone wanted to listen to so I agreed to read that as well as Yes Day! and How Do Hot Air Balloons Work?

We read all three books and since Alex the Parrot was a true story we looked for videos about him on-line.  We watched a few YouTube videos about him.  It was really quite amazing! You can follow the link to see our favorite. 
      
Once we were done reading I told the boys I had a quick writing activity planned.  They were to write one sentence but it had to start with a subordinate conjunction (After, Although, Unless, Since, Because, etc.).

I found this idea on Incite to Write's page on Facebook.  Subordinate conjunctions help kids make a more complex sentence and I figured they would never argue and gripe about one sentence.  Funny enough, they all picked "after" as the start of their sentence.  I was impressed the most by Evan today.  He quickly came up with his whole sentence and even managed to spell most of the words pretty phonetically!

  
It was hot and sunny today and I wanted to head outside.  We had tons of fun activities planned that I found on Pinterest last night and I couldn't wait to try them.

I found a cute car/ squirt bottle race that I thought the boys might like.  They each got a matchbox car and a spray bottle, but the only one who could even get it to work a little was Alec.  I don't know why it didn't work; but I'm guessing it was because the driveway isn't all that smooth.   While they were troubleshooting their car race I was trying to fill up water balloons.

 
I explained to the boys that the balloons were not for a toss or a fight but for a lesson.

I first attempted to write math equations and sight words on the balloons but the permanent marker would not work on the balloons since water was condensing on the outside of them.  I ended up using chalk and designated an area of the driveway for each boy with either sight words or equations.

They had to read the word, or answer the problem, and then "bomb" it with a water balloon.

They loved this activity!  They loved it so much they begged for more balloons!!

It was hot and the water was fun.  The water made the words and numbers disappear as they hit.  I think even just the word "bombs away!" made it much more fun than any worksheet reviewing these topics could have been.

Alec had simple division equations (10 or 8 divided by 2), simple multiplication problems (4x2, 3x4, etc.) and a few harder addition problems (9+9, 8+7, etc.).  Ian had hard multiplication and division problems (21 divided by 3, 18 divided by 3, 9x9, 6x8, etc.) and Evan had a few sight words repeated over and over again (red, dad, mom, the, at bat, toy). 

They drew their own tattoos using watercolor crayons and a bucket of water.  They drew all over their bodies.  They were pretty creative with what they drew too.

 After having done writing, math, reading, science and art today we declared school finished and headed outside to play in the lake.  Even with the water and our beach mostly being in the shade it was HOT!