We have just started studying birds and the first bird in our science book, Science Essentials, Grades 3 - 4,
is the American Bald Eagle. I did not feel that just the one page in the book was enough information for the children so I put together some additional resources that we will use to give the children a good understanding of our national bird.
Free Bald Eagle Activity Book
Man, no one can put together a great educational book on nature like the U.S. government. I really mean that. I have a list of numerous free coloring and activity books in the tab at the top of the site and many of them were published by a .gov site. This book about bald eagle awareness week is extremely thorough in talking about eagles. As a matter of fact, it contains way more info than what I feel is needed in our studies. So, I just printed off pages 3-6 and that will be plenty for us.
Free Bald Eagle Coloring Pages
There is no shortage of these pages. No doubt you will one to your child's liking by just doing a quick search on Google. I am going to pull up images of bald eagle coloring pages and let each child pick the one he or she wants to color.
Free Bald Eagle Crafts
I am keeping this to a 3 day lesson so we will just be dong a little craft. I am going to let each of the children choose from one of the following.
We spent two weeks learning about manatees as part of our science studies of endangered species. They are quite intriguing and the children enjoyed learning about them.
Free Manatee Activity Book
I printed out a really great activity book called Manatees - Florida's Gentle Giants. In my opinion the book could serve as a complete curriculum. But I like to pull from numerous resources to get some different perspectives and to learn as much as possible.
Free Manatee Printables
So with the activity book as a guide, I supplemented the lesson with manatee printables from About.com. Included in the printables is a: word search, crossword puzzle, coloring page, and printable manatee craft (a door hanger). My children completed most of the pages and 2 of them chose to make the door hanger. I think these printables helped to keep the lesson fun.
Manatee Documentary
We have an Amazon Prime membership
which means we can watch their videos offered on Prime for free. I was so happy
to find that they currently have a manatee documentary which held the
children's interest for most of it's 47 minutes. None of the other material we
had covered the fact that sailors of old thought manatees were mermaids (or
maybe I missed that part). So the title Endangered Mermaids: The Manatees of Florida and the explanation of it in the beginning was helpful.
Manatee Games We didn't play any of these games at SaveTheManatee.org because I didn't find them until after our lessons were complete. But they look extremely educational.
A free site I had been using to print out grammar books has not been working for weeks now. I really should have downloaded the book onto my computer while I had the chance. Tsk. Tsk. But I did not and now I am finding myself having to put together a grammar curriculum to get us through the end of the year.
I have been rummaging around the internet finding this and that. I found a great grammar game called Grammar Ninja. My son was happily playing it and advanced from beginner ninja to skilled ninja and that is when we discovered that he does not have a strong grasp on adverbs yet.
So, I have compiled the resources that we are using this week to learn about adverbs.
Here is the the Adverb playlist that I put together on Youtube.
There was a time when I tried my hand at creating my own worksheets. But really, there are so many great, free worksheets out there that I don't feel this is the best use of my time anymore. So I did a quick Google image search for adverb worksheets and found a weeks worth plus one that can be used as a test as well.
Adverb Tests/Quizzes
And once the children have had their fill of adverbs they can take an online adverb quiz which can double as a test. The quiz is even scored for you at the end. And here is a shorter 6 question online adverb quiz.
There is no shortage of free printable worksheets to teach children about coins and money. But since doing school in more of a Charlotte Mason style, I have been trying to stay away from worksheets and busy work. CM believed that the best way to teach children money was to let them handle and count real coins and bills.
Printable Coins for Kids
As I thought about this approach I realized that I rarely have cash on hand. I have been using my check card for most purchases for over a decade now. But I did find this realistic printable sheet of coins. There are several pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and one half dollar on the page. (This is not a free site but you can print out the first 5 printables for no charge.)
I let the children color the coins themselves.
Then I cut them into strips like so.
And I folded the strips in half and pasted them, matching up the front and back of the coins as best I could.
I cut out the first penny and then realized that I was in for quite a task of cutting out all of those coins. Thankfully, my 6 year old daughter offered to help. I knew that the coins wouldn't be as neat as if I did them myself but I didn't want to turn down her help and hurt her feelings (and create extra cutting for myself.) So, I showed her and my 7 year old how to cut right outside of the black line and to take their time. And you know, they did great!
The coins aren't perfect but the children had a great time cutting them out (I would not have) and they got very excited when I told them that I was going to laminate them with my handy dandy laminator
so that we could have them for a long time.
Printable Play Money
I also laminated the full size play money that I printed out. I was going to print out the different denominations on different colored sheets of paper, like Donna Young suggested. But instead, I decided to make the play money look as realistic as possible. I opted to use white construction paper (which is really off white) for all of the bills.
Money Board Games for Kids
What I was really hoping to find was a free printable board game about money, something similar to this one:
This game isn't that much at Amazon but I try to use as many free resources as possible. If I spent just a few bucks on every new unit or lesson, that would still add up to quite a bit over the course of the school year.
So I kept searching. I have yet to find a printable money game but I did find instructions on how to make a game myself. I plan on making and laminating one "board" for each child. And we'll use the paper coins for the game. It looks like it will only take a few minutes to put together.
These printable money flashcards and money dominoes looked like they will be very useful as well. Instead of laminating them I just printed them out on white card stock. They aren't as sturdy as the play money. But, I figure they'll last long enough for the children to master money.
Poems About Money for Children
Here is a poem about coins to help children remember them easier.
Penny, penny, Easily spent Copper brown and worth one cent.
Nickel, nickel, Thick and fat, You're worth five cents. I know that.
Dime, dime, Little and thin, I remember, You're worth ten.
Quarter, quarter Big and bold, You're worth twenty-five I am told!
Half dollar, Half dollar,
giant size,
Worth 50 cents
to buy some fries.
Dollar, Dollar,
Green and long,
Worth 100 cents,
You can't go wrong!!!
And my children always find educational rap songs fun to learn.
The Money Rap
Well, I know a song
It's really kind of funny
It's all about coins
And learning to count money.
Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters
Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters
Now a penny means one (hold out 1 finger)
And a nickel means five (hold out 5 fingers)
Dimes are worth ten (hold out 10 fingers)
And quarters twenty five (flash... 10 twice & then 5)
Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters
Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters
Five pennies in a nickel
(hold out 1 hand- fingers stretched)
Two nickels in a dime
(hold out 2 fingers)
Five nickels in a quarter
(hold out 1 hand - fingers stretched)
You'll know it every time!
(using both hands do a downward motion)
Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters
Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters
Yeah!!!
Playing Store
We will definitely be using Donna Young's suggestions for playing store. I printed out a sheet of price tags. The children cut them out and put string through the holes that I punched out for them. They already own 2 cash registers; so, we are all set.
Fun, Fun, Fun The play money turned out better than I expected. The children are having a blast learning about money.
Questions about water have come up more than once by 2 of my children. So, I am putting together some links so that we can study that some time in the near future.
For starters, here is a great resource for learning about the water cycle for kindergarten through the 9th grade. The Bundaberg Regional Council Water Council, in Australia, has put together an activity book, coloring book, and water cycle chart for each of those grades.
On Tuesdays we study Science or Social Studies. Right now we are focusing on Science and I plan on introducing animal habitats to the children next week. To know what I will be doing on Tuesday a few days in advance is a first for this school year. Since school started it has been a bit "hit or miss" because I was winging it quite a bit on this day.
When we had cable, I used to let the children watch Sid the Science Kid as the science portion of the day. That was also when I was trying to cover every subject, every day. Thank God for some insight on that, courtesy of the Holy Spirit. We know focus on one subject a day and just make sure to incorporate writing and reading into that day's plans, along with daily math drills.
But today I thought about Sid the Science Kid again and remembered that some of the shows are on Netflix. Today we watched the first episode in the backyard science cycle(I know it's not Tuesday) since the children finished up all of their work very early; and, I was out of ideas of what to do for the day. But watching that gave me the idea to show one episode each Wednesday and then plan the rest of the day around the topic that's covered.
The next episode we will watch is titled Home Tweet Home and is all about animals and their habitats. The description on Netflix says:
Sid wonders why there aren't any birds living in the birdhouse he made
with his father. Sid and his friends later discover that many animals
build and live in their own homes, including beehives, anthills and
birds' nests.
The Super Fab Lab
The Super Fab Lab Investigation that goes along with this episode is The Big Bird Nest. And below are several resources that will, hopefully, help the children learn about animal homes in a fun way.
Lots of Great Info
The first site that I came across looks like a great starting point. The Utah Education Network has a page dedicated to animal habitats. The page looks very basic. But it links to almost 60 sites that go into detail about how various animals live. Some of the sites linked to are zoos, aquariums and National Geographic.
Animal Habitats Worksheets
Kids Zone has a match the animal to its habitat worksheet that I know my youngest will enjoy doing. Also, I plan on using the "Where Do Animals Live?" page from Boggles World as a handwriting worksheet. I might also use the Biome word search that is found there as well.
Animal Habitat Lesson Plans
Homes and Habitats is intended for children in grades 3 - 5 to use in conjunction with their trip to the Cosley Zoo in Illinois. But I think it will work just fine without the zoo trip.
PPPST is one of my favorite sites! I have used their resources a lot over the past few years. They have already done a great job of compiling lesson plans about ecosystems. So, I don't have to. :) National Geographic also has a plethora (I like using that word) of lesson plans as well.
Animal Habitat Games
Despite the grade range, I know that my children will enjoy playing the Bingo game found in the zoo handout. Or, the kids can play the Great Habitat Match-Up online. In Animal Homes, your little one has to help several animals reach their correct home. The kids can also play Animal Inn to learn about forest animals. And in Design a Habitat, you make a home for the black footed ferret.
Animal Habitat Projects for Kids
I'm sure that there are many crafts relating to animals and their homes. But I plan on helping the children make a habitat diorama. I will let each child pick out which animal they want to focus on. Since this will be time consuming with 3 children, my plan is to do the projects on Thursday. Since, that is our arts and crafts day.
There are probably enough resources here to study habitats on more than one Tuesday. But, more than likely we will just pick a few activities that seem interesting and keep the lesson to one day. That way we can move on to the next video the following week.
I figured that now was a good time to start finding materials for a free bird unit study since my 4 year old asks about a nest in a tree that we pass each day on the way to the park.
This study could possibly last for a long time. There are so many different types of birds; and, there is much to learn about birds in general. But as usual, I will let the bird unit lesson ideas that I find online dictate how much we learn. Also, if the children start to lose interest then that's a clear sign that it's time to move on to the next topic.
Swans on a Lake
All About Birds
AllAboutBirds.org is a site run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Ornithology is the study of birds. (I had to look that up.) On this site you can identify over 600 North American species using the Cornell bird guide.
You can also listen to bird songs. And there are numerous bird videos you can watch on the site via their You Tube channel. I am barely skimming the surface of what all is available on All About Birds. Check it out for yourself to see how much potential there is to use this site to form bird unit lesson ideas.
Here is an example of one, of the many, videos on AAB. This one is about the Acorn Woodpecker.
Bird Coloring and Activity Book
Feeder Birds will keep any bird enthusiast very busy during Science time. The book can be used in conjunction with the All About Birds site to maximize learning.
Bird Crafts
Hands down DLTK Teach has the best bird crafts for preschoolers. Little hands can do a lot of coloring, cutting, and gluing; and, you can talk to them about birds while helping them construct their crafts.
I am down to only 1 preschooler so I need some bird activities that will keep slightly older children interested. Family Fun has quite a few crafts that seem to be for varying ages. I will probably let the children browse the bird craft section and choose what looks good to them. Or maybe by seeing what others have come up with they will come up with their own bird craft ideas.
Birds of Prey
Wedge Tailed Eagle
Over the years we have checked out a few books from the library on the more "aggressive" birds. I wonder if the fact that I have 3 boys contributes the extreme interest in birds of prey in our house. That, and the fact that we see turkey vultures perched on a tower for the power lines almost daily on our walk to the park. It is a bit off putting. But our walks there are never dull.
Anyway, here is an activity book on Oregon Zoo Birds of Prey. Most of the pages are applicable to these birds in general, not just the ones in Oregon. This book doesn't have any coloring and it appears to be geared for children who are able to read the book and do some of the activities themselves. However, I do not see why it could not be used, as a guide, as a lesson plan for birds of prey.
Birds of Texas
We live in the great Lone Star State. And a few years ago when we moved into our house, our oldest became interested in the birds that perch in the tree in our backyard. So, I printed out Learn About Texas Birds. I cannot tell you what a great resource this book is.
My son and I compared it to the unit about birds in his 8th grade science book. And almost all of the same information was contained in both. But we got the added benefit of learning about Texas birds in our area as well. The book has activities in, like: how to make a bird feeder out of a milk jug, crossword puzzles, and how to make a paper birdhouse.
Birds on Netflix
I used to spend a lot of time finding free videos in the public domain. I still agree that there is a lot of great material out there. But since we joined Netflix, it has been a huge time saver to check there first. I have the streaming service (no DVDs) and I still manage to find quite a bit of educational material. For this lesson we have already viewed the first episode of The Life of Birds with David Attenborough.
I spent a good bit of the video discussing with the children what evolutions say versus what the Word of God says about the creation of birds. It made for an interesting discussion and the children left the video understanding that we hold everything that we hear up to the Word of God. Used that way, I think that the video series will work just fine for our needs.
Bird Curriculum/Bird Unit Lesson Plans
I was going to link to some specific bird lesson plans. But I think that there is sufficient information in the resources already listed so that you can come up with your own lesson plan. That's pretty much how we do things around here. Even when I have tried planning out our learning in the past; we have always wound up having to be flexible and willing to explore other topics, depending on the children's interests.
I have wanted to try my hand at gardening for a couple of years now. But the poor soil in my yard has been a deterrent. However, I recently started doing a lot of research on container gardening. It doesn't seem as difficult as trying to grow food in the ground. So I am going to give it a try.
I want to involve the children as much as possible. So, it just seems right to incorporate gardening into our homeschool. Currently we are still going through our agriculture study. So, gardening will fit right in.
Below are the free educational resources that I was able to find online. There is actually a lot of good material available on gardening. Praise God! I told the children that we will be purchasing our soil and necessary materials this weekend. And then we will begin our unit on gardening using the resources listed. I hope you find them useful as well.
A Complete Unit Study
While searching for coloring books on gardening I came across a great unit study called Seeds, by Gwendolyn Nicodemus. I think my children are too young to benefit from it this year. But it will definitely come in handy if we repeat the study in a few years.
The Plan
This is the part where I map out how I plan on using the above free resources. In an ideal life, I would just refer back to this once I start the lesson and follow the plan and have a smooth homeschooling experience. But over the years I have learned that all plans are just that - plans. I have found out (the hard way) to be flexible and to be willing to shorten, lengthen, or skip material - depending on what's working at the time. But I still like to map things out anyway so that I don't go into a new study unprepared.
I am going to print out pages 3,5, and 7 from the 5 a Day book on card stock and put them on the wall as posters. I'll do that before we begin our garden unit study. Then I'll introduce the lesson with Gardening is Great and use this copywork* with it.Organic Farming is an excellent reading book; so, we'll do that next. Here are parts 1, 2, and 3 of the copywork for that - in case it takes a few days to get through the reading. Then we'll move on to Meet the Bean. This activity book does a good job of explaining how seeds grow and there are several hands on activities that look like they will be fun to try. Here is the Bean copywork - 1 and 2.
Once our container garden actually starts to grow we will do as many activities as possible from Pondering Plants. And I'll finish up with Growing Gardeners to help review some of what we have learned.
*The copywork needs to printed out on the landscape setting of your printer.
At the beginning of this year I decided to utilize as many of the free coloring and activity books as possible. So, I started with the first activity book on the list which is The ABCs of Oklahoma Agriculture. As I started to look through the book I got so happy. The book is a great guide to put together an extensive study on agriculture using various coloring and activity books that I've collected links to over the past few years. I even threw in some recipes that the children and I can make together, to keep school interesting.
Now I can finally put my handy dandy heavy duty stapler to use. Yippee! So below, I have linked to the mini unit study, book(s) , or recipe that I plan to use for each subject.
I'm sure that there are numerous resources on the net pertaining to dogs. So, I may revisit this dog mini unit study in the future and add some additional free resources.
Cotton, "the fabric of our lives®." Sorry, I couldn't resist. Anyway, there are probably several different directions that you could go in with a unit study on cotton (i.e. the cotton gin, clothing, cotton during slavery). I guess I'll just let the free materials dictate which direction we take. We usually wind up learning a lot when I do it that way.
Cotton Coloring Book The Wonderful World of Cotton is a coloring book that looks like it will hold the childrens' interest. The words in the book are fairly simple. So, I plan on having the children and myself take turns reading.
Cotton Lesson Plan
This cotton lesson plan is for upper grades.It's a very short lesson but it contains a lot of information. This might be one of those cases where less is more. I'm going to print this out for my 9th grader. Even though he has his own curriculum, he still likes to study the same topic that his siblings are learning.
Cotton Website
I don't think I'm even going to look for another website besides cottoncampus.org. This site has cotton related educational materials for lower and upper grades. There is also a games section. You could probably spend a few days to a week going through all of the material that is on the site. I'm definitely going to use the "World of Cotton" slide show.
A Short Study
This looks like it will be a short study. I don't want to go into slavery and cotton picking with a 3, 4, and 5 year old. So, I'll save the Eli Whitney study for a later date. My plan is to read the coloring book, watch the slide show, and then let the children color the pages in the book. That's probably about 1 day's worth of school, two at the most.
I did a search on Google to find some resources to do a mini unit study on beef. Wow! The National Beef Council is serious about getting the word out about beef to young people. I would be listing resources all day if I tried to link to everything I found today. Let me just say that it seems that almost every state has free educational resources online pertaining to the beef industry.So, I just listed a few items below that I plan on using with my children this school year.
More Educational Material about Beef
There are a lot of great resources Iowa Beef Industry Council. I plan on using the power point slide shows there titled "Wow that Cow" and "My Cheeseburger Came from a Farm."
Cattle Videos
How We Used These Resources in Our Homeschool
I hope this will give you a good idea of how we utilize free educational material from the web for unit studies.
Day 1 We used the letter B is for beef page from the ABC's of Oklahoma Agriculture. We discussed the page and then the children colored it. Then we watched the "Wow that Cow" video from the Iowa Beef Industry website. Some of the sentences in the slide are pretty easy so I let the children read some, if they wanted to. Also, I printed out Cattle in Colorado for my 12 year old to read and go through the exercises in his free time.
Day 2 We started on the Learn More About Veal student activity book. I read the first page and showed the children a picture of a Holstein cow, pictured above. My 4 year old colored the coloring page of the book and completed the giant maze, her way. I skipped the decoding page with her. Instead, she created multiple drawings of farmers with their cows. Sometimes the farmers were sad, sometimes the cows were sad. But we all agreed that being happy is the best.
I worked with my 5 year old on the "Break the Code" page of the book. He did a little over half of it before lunch and then finished the rest after. It is very challenging to get him to practice writing his letters. But he didn't mind one bit when writing was part of decoding secret messages. So, praise God for that. Also, he completed the maze.
Day 3 Smiles (my 5 year old) did the crossword puzzle in More About Veal. It was his first time doing one but he did OK. He read the clues and wrote the answers without complaining. So, I'm pretty much ready to throw out the traditional letter copy sheets at this point and find "nontraditional" ways to get Smiles to write. Gigi (my 4 year old) drew some cows on the back of her activity book. And, all three children did a cow craft. Junior asked to turn his cow into a puppet. So, I helped him glue a popsicle stick onto it. And he had an instant puppet.
Day 4 I read an ebook about life on a cattle farm that I found on Netlibrary. That's one of a few online libraries that I have access to as a patron of the San Antonio public library. Longhorn cattle are mentioned at the end of the book. So after I finished reading we watched the video above about that particular breed.
Day 5 Today I read some and paraphrased most of Vermont Beef Cattle Come in All Colors. In hindsight, the reading in this book was a bit advanced for my group. But I did my best to make it work. I also read and we discussed the "My Cheeseburger Came from a Farm" slide show. I skipped some of it, like the parts about ethanol and some of the information about selling the cattle.
I can definitely say that we have learned quite a bit about beef cattle and cattle in general. Most of what we read and discussed today was review. So much so, that the children kept pointing out that we'd already learned this or that. So, tomorrow my oldest will turn in his activity book; and, I will let the other children do the coloring in the Vermont Beef book and that will be the end of that.
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States and lived from February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865. The following links will help your children learn about him.
Encyclopedia Entries about Abraham Lincoln
These are online encyclopedias that anyone can edit. So you may not want to rely on the information in them too heavily.
I am very excited about the resources listed below to put together a Texas unit study. Here's why. I took Texas History in the 12th grade. I moved from Virginia to Texas my senior year and it was a requirement to graduate from high school. I wish I could say I learned a lot in that class. But I didn't. I remembered facts about the Lone Star State long enough to pass tests and quizzes. And then I promptly forgot.
Why am I sharing all this? I guess because what I just described about my experience in school is what drives me to find interesting learning materials for my children.
Here is another study that you can make long or short. All of the coloring and activity books contain different information. So you could pick just one or a few for a short study of nutrition. Or you could take a few weeks and go through all of the books with your children.
Our family will take a trip to the zoo soon. So we're going to spend a few days doing an animal unit study. All of the coloring books look great; but, we'll probably only get to a few.
is the American Bald Eagle. I did not feel that just the one page in the book was enough information for the children so I put together some additional resources that we will use to give the children a good understanding of our national bird.
so that we could have them for a long time. 
