Konos Notebooks

     The kids spent yesterday assembling their Konos notebooks from the Patience unit we finished at the end of April.  This was the first Konos unit we've done, and we all loved it.  The notebooks were started as an after thought, as in, "Since we're doing all this neat stuff, we really need something to remember it all. "  While the kids were putting together their notebooks, I was gratified to see how looking at the pictures and worksheets brought back memories of what they had learned.  Definitely not a wasted effort, and they are so proud of them.

     I have them in three prong folders rather than in three ring binders because I wanted to be more of a book, that they could carry around and show people.  I'll have a notebook folder for each unit we do.

     The pages are a combination of scrap booking style pages with pictures of the activities we did, and worksheets that were completed as part of our studies.  Abriel's notebook is showing some of the naked egg experiments we did.  We removed the shells of several eggs with vinegar, then saw how far they could be dropped before they broke, dehydrated one in corn syrup, and rehydrated some in dyed water, so that they turned into brightly colored egg balloons.
     Anna's notebook is showing off the chart they made showing the gestation periods of different animals.  Samuel's is showing him winding silk thread off of silk worm cocoons. Now that is a lesson in patience!  There are also pictures of our chickens when they were babies.  We helped incubate and hatch them as part of our Konos studies. 

     More pages, showing a recipe for bread rolls that the kids made, egg relay races and other egg related fun, and pictures of our tadpoles turning into froglets.
     Getting the notebooks assembled made me realize how much we did, and how many great memories the the kids have of hands on learning experiences and being with friends.  Among the things shown here we also, dissected a frog, made a co-operative garden, (that we are still working on) learned about the first passover, and then celebrated a Seder meal. So many good memories.