I have been interested in notebooking with the children for a few years now. I even did a bit of it with my oldest for his science class when he was in the 6th grade. But he had just come out of public school and it didn't provide the structure that he was used to (and liked to some degree).
But now that I am homeschooling 3 little ones close in age the notebooking concept has become appealing again. So I figured, why not start with a subject that should be easy enough to find materials for? And sure enough, there is a plethora of printable Thanksgiving sheets available online.
Super Teacher Worksheets has several Thanksgiving themed math sheets. I printed out the basic addition mystery picture for the children to complete and add to their books.
We Shall Remain is an award winning PBS series that tells the Native Americans side of the first Thanksgiving and beyond. I will probably let my children view this when they are older. My 13 year old already knows about how terribly Native Americans were treated. But, everyone else would be very saddened by it. I'll save these truths for a few Thanksgivings down the road.
I am really looking forward to going through the Voyage of the Mayflower with the children. This definitely looks like a resource to take your time with.
Thanksgiving Projects I Plan on Doing with the Children
Educational games keeps homeschool fun. It doesn't really matter to me how the children learn, as long as they are learning. So, if a game, a video, or a comic will deliver the information in a way that will help the children remember - then I'm all for it. So, below, I have listed a few sites.
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 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.
I found PianoLessonsForKids on YouTube and can't wait for Smiley (my 6 year old) to give the free lessons a try. I can't even begin to tell you how much he enjoys having a keyboard. He has been calling himself a "music artist" since his dad gave him a tiny, old school Casio that used to be his when he was a teenager. Smiley has since moved on to a bigger keyboard (rest in peace old Casio) and he really wants to learn how to play it.
The instructor for the lessons is an actual piano teacher who wants to reach and teach as many people as possible how to play the piano. You can find all of the free piano lessons for kids videos on You Tube or you can also access them through the Free Online Piano Lessons for Kids website.
