Animal Habitats for Kids Study

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.

Bird Unit Study: Free and Fun Ways to Learn About Birds

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.

Back to the Free Readers on Google Books

I have managed to rack up my highest library fines to date, a whopping $67.00. We check out 50 books (the limit) at a time and I am very careful about due dates because of that. But recently we had family visit from out of town and I was having so much fun with them that I didn't think about the books until they were a week overdue. And it didn't help that I didn't receive the reminder notices that I usually get by email from the library. I was missing a lot of my mail on Yahoo until I switched over to their new format from the classic one.

Anyway, so the  next time that I go to the library I am going to ask for mercy regarding my fines based on past good behavior. But in the meantime, the kids still need some good books to read. The little ones have been enjoying the level 1 and 2 beginner reader books. And I want to keep the love of reading alive. So I went through the links on my post about free primers, readers, and spellers.

Last school year Smiley was going through the McGuffey Primer. I thought about continuing on to the first reader. But  I think that he will find the first Kendall Reader much more interesting. So, I printed the book out yesterday and bound it using my handy dandy heavy duty stapler. And I then covered the spine with duct tape to keep little fingers from getting hurt on the staples.

The first Aldine Reader seems very girly. So GG will enjoy reading that one. I did not print out the stories that had fairies and witches in them. But there is still over 100 pages of reading material. So the book should keep her busy for a bit.

And I printed out Poor Richard's Almanac by Benjamin Franklin for my 12 year old. I discovered that book on the school library shelf when I was that age and I really enjoyed it. Hopefully he will too.

I also found an alphabet picture book, but; I'm debating whether or not to print that out for Jr. I don't think that the black and white pictures will hold his interest. So we'll keep using Starfall to learn letters and phonics  and I'll probably try to find some ABC books that we can read online from Netlibary.