All about sharks....

We just loved our coral reef unit!  Goober was interested in all the sharks we came across during our study so it was only natural to delve deeper.....

 Here is how we do it:

 1. Read a book or three

2. Complete one or two lapbook elements per day

3.  Watch some great videos and documentaries

4. Assemble the lapbook

5. Finish off with a great 'fun' movie night!

My favourite free lapbook website (Homeschool share) set us up with a perfect lapbook!

Shark-Lapbook

 

Here are the books we used:

 Magic School Bus Chapter book- Shark Escape.

 

 DK Eyewitness Books: Sharks

Usborne- Sharks

And this gem that I have been recently introduced to... 

make sure you check out all the science comics!!

Science Comics: Sharks: Nature's Perfect Hunter

And other great books you can find at your local library!!

We found some great videos....

The Shark Academy playlist on YouTube is fantastic!  

Why don't sharks have bones? - Scishow

Super Sharks- Scishow Kids

It's not a science unit without a Sir David Attenborough documentary.....

The Blue Planet: Seas of Life

 Here is a sample of the finished lapbook....  

and yes Goober wrote hangry on the diet minibook :)

We didn't actually watch a 'fun' movie for this unit... we were so enthralled with Blue Planet we ended up watching Blue Planet II for fun...:)

 Sharks are really cool!

All about coral reefs.....

Goober announced the other day that he would like to go to the Great Barrier Reef!  

As much as I would love to fulfill this request... 

for my benefit as much as his.... it isn't happening anytime soon.

How about learning all about coral reefs?  

Would that satisfy your curiosity in the meantime?  

The answer was a disappointed yes... so I jumped all over that!

Luckily it doesn't hurt my feelings to put together another science unit... 

 Here is how we do it:

 1. Read a chapter or two of a related book

2. Complete one or two lapbook elements per day

3.  Watch some great videos and documentaries

4. Assemble the lapbook

5. Finish off with a great 'fun' movie night!

My favourite free lapbook website (Homeschool share) set us up with a perfect lapbook!

Coral Reef Animal Lapbook

Here are the books we used:

Magic School Bus Chapter Book- The Fishy Field Trip

 

Coral Reef: Around the Clock with the Animals of the Ocean

DK Eyewitness Books: Fish 

Usborne- First encyclopedia of seas and oceans

And any other great books you can find at your local library!

Here are some of the great videos we watched: 

Crash Course Kids- The Life Hydrologic

Scishow- White sand beaches

It's not a science unit without a Sir David Attenborough documentary.....

Great Barrier Reef

Here is a sample of the finished lapbook!

Movie night- Finding Nemo of course!

Enjoy discovering coral reefs!

Charlotte's Web

I wrote this post the summer of 2014... the kidlets, Goober and Sweet Pea, were 4 and 7 years old.

We had a busy summer and did a book unit on Charlotte's Web... it was so much fun.
Mostly because Charlotte'sWeb by E.B. White ranks among my favourite books!!

I read the book aloud, partially for Goober's benefit but also because I love that we can share the book together.  The kidlets usually colour, work on a craft or build Lego while I'm reading... most often outside in the grass!

So what kind of activities do I pair with Charlotte's Web?  Farms of course, lots of other books about farms including Goober's favourite Click, Clack, Moo, Cows that type.  Then we moved on to pigs and finally spiders!  We watched a great BBC documentary, Life in the Undergrowth, which has a fantastic episode about spiders.

And since it is summer I reluctantly agreed to Sweet Pea's request to do some paper mache, everybody needs a Wilbur piggy bank.  It did however take a lot longer and was more work than I anticipated, Goober lost interest after day 2 :o)  Although they were super cute.....

Some pig slop for a snack with consisted of chocolate pudding, cereal, raisins and M&Ms!  Finally after the book was done... the kidlets loved it by the way... we cuddled up on the couch with some popcorn and watched the movie. (Charlotte's Web 2006)

All about owls.....

After the success of our hedgehog unit it was Sweet Pea's chance to choose a topic.. and her latest obsession?
Owls.. anything owly will count.... and luckily there is no shortage of that!!

It started innocently enough with a request from Sweet Pea asking if we could see owlets.. which led us to this fantastic live feed of a Great Horned Owl nest....  we were able to watch a pair of owls, lay eggs and incubate them.  We watched two owlets hatch, get fed, grow and fly away... it was just fantastic!  Even now that they are gone, we have found a Barred Owl to watch... the three eggs are being incubated..right now!

Next step was to find a great read aloud book about owls... Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat was a perfect fit.  The kidlets both enjoyed the laugh out loud funny adventures of a couple of pet owls and thought it was great that it is based in Canada.

I had a harder time finding a good lapbook to go with this unit but was able to put one together from multiple sources and use what we wanted from each...  There were a couple that we wanted to add, so we made our own from the homeschoolshare website templates.

 Owl Babies Lapbook

Nocturnal Animals Lapbook

 

Owl Lapbook - with owl pellet dissection booklet

We watched a PBS documentary Owl Power and
some related Wild Kratts episodes (Desert Elves and Snowy Owl Invasion).

A friend of mine showed us some great owl rocks we could make!  So we made a trip down to the river where we searched for the perfect sized and shaped rocks, washed them off and got out our sharpies....

Sweet Pea drew some great owls...

Goober, on the other hand, made some hedgehog rocks!  

I took out a variety of non fiction books about owls to help us complete our lapbooks...
and left them around the house to look at!

Owl: A year in the life of North American Owls 

Owls

We have had a great owl pellet dissection app for awhile now.. the kidlets love it... they have to find an owl, gather the pellets, take them apart and identify the prey and how it fits into a food chain.  It is well worth the cost of the app..

 But of course I need the real thing sometimes!
I found a place in Calgary that sells owl pellets..........  and made an order.....

They were fantastic.... the kidlets used their booklet from the lapbook to record their observations through the dissection and the bone identification chart that came with the kit was awesome!

They both found multiple skulls in their pellets and were able to identify them on their own!

Here are the finished lapbooks...  Sweet Pea opted for an owl drawing on the front of hers...

Goober found a picture in an old magazine to cut out...

And finally to finish up our Owl unit we did some yoga to an owlet story... I just recently discovered Cosmic Kids Yoga and we are loving it!! 

This was a fantastic unit... so much fun and I'm sure we could have spent a lot more time on owls!! 

Which happened when Sweet Pea decided on an owl theme for her birthday.. check out these great snacks, cupcakes and craft!

All about hedgehogs!

As I continue to allow the kidlets to have more input into our projects..... I find we are studying things I never expected!  Goober was invited by a friend of Sweet Pea's to her classroom to see the class pet.... he came back with a huge grin and a new found obsession with hedgehogs.. yep.. hedgehogs!!  I thought maybe it would wear off within the week, it did not and all week I was pestered for more information... So off I went to make a whole unit... it's what I do!!

 First I hit my favourite lapbook site and found this gem.

It was wonderfully laid out with a book list and everything....  

Next I hit my local library and found all the books related to hedgehogs... non-fiction, picture books, you name it!  Goobers favourite was this one by Jan Brett... Hedgie's Surprise.

But any by Jan Brett will do.. not only does she love to draw hedgehogs, she also has a pet hedgehog and you will find one in almost all her books... so cool!  

We also found a great Youtube video of Jan Brett teaching how to draw a hedgehog...

I helped Goober a bit with his drawing... 

he got tired of putting all the v's on and wanted to colour it :)

On Christmas morning, Goober discovered a plush hedgehog sitting in his stocking! 

He loves his Hedgie... "Mom, hedgehogs are insectivores so I need some food for him!"

 What better than a little rainbow loom?!?!  

I was able to track down another Youtube video to help us make a caterpillar...

 Goober then made several more of different sizes and a couple pink worms for good measure.....

I'm pretty sure Hedgie loves them.....  

What kind of animal study would be complete without a little Sir David Attenborough?  We were unable to find anything specific about hedgehogs, so we decided to watch a BBC Life of Mammals episodes about Insect Hunters.  Goober was over the moon watching Sir David hang with the hedgehog in his garden.... it was perfect!!

I also managed to find some great mazes and word finds by doing a quick google search for hedgehog printables.... and of course no shortage of colouring pages to keep him busy while I read our latest novel aloud or when I was helping Sweet Pea with her work.

Here are a few photos of Goober's completed lapbook.. it was great practice for his printing skills and he was so very proud with the result!

 As an added bonus, I now have a resident hedgehog expert should the need ever arise!!

 Side note: we did this unit when Goober was about 6 years old...

 I think this would be a great unit for ages 5-10 :)