Rabbits

Josh is obsessed with Rabbits right now so I am taking advantage of it! Feel free to join us.
Rabbits vs Hares
Rabbit Tangram (scroll down)
Simple Animal Report Idea
Animal Report Graphic Organizers
Rabbit Parts and info
Finish the Sentence writing idea
Peter Rabbit etc activities (scroll down)
Assorted Crafts
Rabbit Lapbook!!!!
Rabbit cardboard tube craft
Geography video

Book Basket

I know that it is not always easy to get boys motivated to read. We have been lucky in that Joshua LOVES to read. But, I find it especially difficult to find books he wants to read that do not involve violence or potty humor. I can only take so many spiderman etc... books before I want to poke my eyes out!

Recently, we stumbled upon a nice compromise. They are called All Aboard Science Readers and there are several fun titles.
Gross Out! (All Aboard Science Reader)
Fake Out!: Animals That Play Tricks (All Aboard Science Reader)
Freak Out!: Animals Beyond Your Wildest Imagination (All Aboard Science Reader)
Far Out!: Animals That Do Amazing Things (All Aboard Science Reader)
Bug Out!: The World's Creepiest, Crawliest Critters (Penguin Young Readers, L3)
Maxed Out!: Gigantic Creatures from the Past (All Aboard Science Reader)
Giant Lizards: All Aboard Science Reader Station Stop 2
Black Out!: Animals That Live in the Dark (All Aboard Science Reader)
Planets (All Aboard Science Reader)
...among others!
Check them out and if you are a Costco member they currently have a set of these for $10. in the store.

Wednesday's Website

Teachers TV looks like a really cool resource. I am personally interested in the science videos.

ht - Wise Little Owls

Great deal!

Check out the science kits on the Kids Woot website http://kids.woot.com/ today! Remember this is only available today!

Wednesday's Website

I am just loving reading through all of The Science Mommy's cool ideas for experiments to do with Big and Little Kids. Check it out for ideas to do with you Children!

Space

Solar System project
Outer Space and Constellation Activities
Starry Night ideas
Solar System Activities including cool book
Montessori Astronomy Newsletter
Space Math Ideas
Fold and Snip Stars
Constellation Painting
Montessori Astronomy Lessons
Moon Phases Memory

Penguin Unit

Sheesh, I love Penguins! I had so much fun planning this unit. We are going to read Mr. Popper's Penguins and a few other gems. We will also study Antarctica. We live in MI so snow will be here soon. We will launch this unit after the Christmas crazy!

Other Books
The Life Cycle of an Emperor Penguin
Penguins (True Books)
Penguins: Level Four (Usborne First Reading)
Antarctica (True Books: Continents)
Penguins (Animal Information)
Counting Penguins!

Other Penguin Unit
Mr. Poppers Penguins Book study (Funny, I found this after I did the rest of this post...nothing like reinventing the wheel. Oh well!)
Mr Popper's Penguins Lapbook

Science
Penguin Lapbooks Lifecycle and many other amazing resources. (ht- My Montessori Journey)
Penguin Puzzle and cards/book
Antarctica Website
Ice Melt Fun Game

Language Arts
Many Simple Penguin Literacy Ideas Dot to dots, easy reader book, name recognition, abc activities.

Math
Printable Penguin Counting Activity (scroll down for penguin activity link)
Penguin math Ideas Varying levels!

Geography
Penguin cards (Beautiful Cards from A Bit of this and that)
Cool Antarctica Website

Art
How to draw a penguin
Penguin art

Crafts
Penguin puppets
Handprint penguins
Potato print Puppets
Felt Penguin w/ printable directions

Misc...
Penguin song etc... cute ideas!
Penguin Memory Game
Save the Egg game

Another Wednesday Website

Free lifecycle Pumpkin Sequencing Cards

HT: My Montessori Journey

Wednesday's Website

Check out these FREE Geology Rock cards! They are really nice with great pictures and information.

November = Simple Machines

Books
Simple Machines (Starting with Science)
Simple Machines (Rookie Read-About Science)
Machines We Use (It's Science)

Videos
Bill Nye Simple Machines Video Episode 1 of 3 (other 2 on right hand suggestion list!)
Sid the Science Kid Simple Machines Cycle 5

Teaching Ideas
Step by step about how to teach about Simple machines

Activities
Simple machines Activities
Simple Machines Webquest including videos. (A bit advanced but worth checking out for videos and pictures!)
Great Simple machines Website! (Some info is subscription only)
Simple Machines Learning Site

October Seasonal Activities

I was looking for some ideas to make this rainy miserable Fall a little more fun and thought I would share what I found with you! We will not get to even half of these!

Crafts (mostly Halloween)
Paper Strip Pumpkins We did this! It turned out great and was fun and easy!
Tissue ghosts We made these and strung them on a plastic glow lace!
Color, cut & glue Jack O'lantern or Cut & glue Jack O'lantern or Jack O'lantern person (not scary!)
Lantern Orange or Black would look cool!
Bat Mobile
Cute paper Bats I would like to use these bats to make the above mobile!
Adorable Craft stick Mummy
2 liter bottle ghost
Fall Ideas
Felt Board Pumpkin Faces Thanks Melissa!
Fall Silly Putty
Easy yarn Apples and Pumpkins!
Spider Web Spin Painting
Fall Window Hangings We did this last year with wax paper, leaves, crayon and an iron!

Misc. Activities
Printable Halloween Games
Halloween Color Pages

Art
Line Art Leaves

Online Activity
Build your own Jack O'lantern

Recipes
Pumpkin Shakes
Ghost Sandwiches
Spider Pizzas
Ritz Spider
Witches Hat

Language Arts
Pumpkin Book
Several Links to Fall Poetry

Science
Fall Window
Skeleton from bottles Plan ahead for next year?

Math
Fall Tree Dice game

Pumpkin Ideas
Star Wars Pumpkin Stencils Links to other themes too!

Afterschooling

...or in our case beforeschooling, since Josh attends PM young 5's. School is going great for him. He is enjoying it, LOVES his teacher and is actually learning quite a bit! He knows more about frogs then anyone would ever want to know! However, we still feel the need to enrich his learning with more. He is way ahead of his class in both math and reading. They are currently learning to count to 20. He could do that at 3 years old. So here is what we are doing...

Science- (as previously posted!) We have chosen several areas to study and are doing one a month! (September Biology plans, October Physical Science plans)

Geography- Landforms and the Continents using Continent Boxes, Continent books, and any other resources I dig up!

History- Story of the World We are enjoying this but I am having a hard time preparing ahead. I just need to sit down and get things ready for the month in a basket or something so I can just grab!

Music- To our dismay, due to scheduling, Josh does not attend Music at school this year! Therefore, I ordered Story of the Orchestra : Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music and the Composers Who Wrote the Music! and am really excited to get started. We plan to begin tomorrow. (Just got it Friday!)

Practical Life- Remember these? I plan to start back up working on Josh's cookbook. Today was my b-day so I am thinking of having him help make a cake tomorrow (good excuse, right?). We also want to continue working on skills such as...

• tying
• cutting with scissors
• cutting with knife
• pouring

Math- Our main focus right now is on addition and heading toward subtraction. On our shelf you would find...

• Addition Strip Board (info)
• Addition Snake game (info)
• Hundreds board (video)
• Other manipulatives such as counters, dice, etc...

Language- This is the easiest and most natural! We have a reading night planned for Tuesday where we all pile into my bed and read to each other until bedtime. However, he reads to us or we read to him every night before bed normally. So I am not really planning anything extra...yet!

Art- Want to work on a few drawing skills and of course we will do seasonal crafts. We are happy with his school's art program so just having fun here for now!

Really though, this seems like a lot. But we have the entire school year and all summer to accomplish these things. Some weeks we do a ton and some weeks (like last week!) we get NOTHING done. Either way, we are not stressing. Our intention is to have school for an hour 4 days a week before lunch. ...but sometimes...the Lego's just need more attention than the dining room table...ya know?

October = Physical Science

Physical Science - gas liquid solid, magnets, buoyancy, surface tension, evaporation, volume, weight, measurement

• Matter- gas/liquid/solid and Evaporation Water
  Reversible Changes
  Material properties
  Melting points
  Gases
  Ice Cream Science FUN Celebration!
• Magnets Curious George Magnet Video
  Magnets and Springs
  Experiments
  Magnet Painting
• Buoyancy
  Pumpkin Float and Sink!
  Easy Buoyancy round vs flat sinking
  Float vs sink
  sinkorfloat ideas
• Surface Tension
  Penny Experiment
  Floating Paper Clips
• Volume - Weight - Measurement
  Pumpkin Measurement worksheet
  Many measurement ideas Sid the Science Kid Exploring measurement And of course cooking!

We never get to all the activities I list and I often take longer than indicated to do a "theme". It is just my intention to do these activities in October. Hope you find something here you can use with your family!

Free Resources

Animal Classification cards! For FREE! at Currclick from Teacher Bookbag.
Musical Instrument cards! For Free! at Currclick from Teacher Bookbag.

Yipppeee!

Wednesday's Websites

• Continent Map Demo
• Addition Snake game Directions! ~ I need to read through this everyday until I can actually remember it. Me and math are not friends!
• Fine motor tree craft ~ Josh would have LOVED this a year or so ago... may still!
• Recipe for Homemade NUTTERBUTTERS!!!! ~ ooooooh!
• Solar System book
• Paper plate stegosaurus
• Bacon Bowls ~ hmmm, sounds fun!

September = Biology

Here is what I am thinking for Biology!

BookList

The Skeleton Inside You (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)
Germs Make Me Sick! (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2) (Reading Rainbow book)
The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body
Me and My Amazing Body
The Way We Work
What Happens to a Hamburger? (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)
Why Do We Laugh? (Why Books)
Our Body (Child's First Library of Learning)
I Know Why I Brush My Teeth (Sam's Science)
Your Skin and Mine: Revised Edition (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)
My Five Senses (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1)

Other resources

Human Body Funstation
Beleduc Your Body - Boy 5-Layer Puzzle (Josh LOVES this...SOOOO worth the $$$)
Skeleton Floor Puzzle (much nicer than ours but that price is amazing!)
Talicor Somebody Board Game (LOVING this right now!)

Human Anatomy


Human organs coloring page

Human skeleton coloring page

Dr Pbody

Human Body - Power point of the body

3 Part cards

• simple but beautiful
• more body parts

Self Care

Dental Care ideas


The 5 Senses

neat intro for readers!

5 senses body cube game!

http://www.littlegiraffes.com/fivesenses.html

• Touch -mystery bag
• Hearing - Sound cylinders
• Smell - Spice jars matching
• Taste - compare sweet/sour/bitter/salty
• Sight - Magnifying glass activity

Simple reader!

Trace and color- fine motor practice.

Lapbook ideas

Science journal ideas

• Popcorn Experiment
• Play-doh experiment

Science

Well, as A Thousand Joys pointed out, this Science Curriculum looks really good! But for some reason (control freak)...I am just not feeling it. So here is what I am thinking...

There are about 9 months of school not including summertime. We will still do schoolish activities in the summer but a lot less planned.

Anyway....9 months = 9 general themes.

1. Weather/Seasons March
2. Biology - human body, 5 senses, nutrition, hygiene September
3. Earth Science - Space, landforms, volcanoes January
4. Zoology - living v. nonliving, vertebrate v. invertebrate, kingdoms February
5. Physical Science - gas liquid solid, magnets, buoyancy, surface tension, evaporation, volume, weight, measurement October
6. Biomes December
7. Simple machines November
8. Botany - Nature Study, plant parts, insects April
9. Dinosaurs - (Because I can!) May

I plan to share my resources as I get them ready.

***This order makes sense to me for several reasons. March in MI can produce all types of weather so is a really great time to study here. January tends to be very cold and clear so good for star gazing. December is busy and biomes can happen with zoology as well so... Bugs are back in April. Dino's are a fun way to wrap up the year! Just a little insight into my madness!

Yep...More Books!

So, after reading this review on the goddess Pioneer Woman's blog, I have been shamelessly coveting the Explore and Learn Science books she mentions toward the bottom. (These!!!) I am seriously OBSESSED with all thing science and geography right now. I may need to soon be medicated...anyway...I was over at my neighbor's when she runs in the house to grab something to show me. Out she comes with that exact stack of books...still shrink wrapped and everything. She says she does not want them and are they anything I would be intersted in?????

What???????? To her defense we are not too close... I still hide most of my crazy from her family.

So, I snatched them up, tossed a ten dollar bill at her and ran across the street to my house before she could come to her senses. Have I mentioned all 6 still wrapped...as in UNOPENED?

Anyway...I love them....they are amazing and all MINE! Yippeee.

My favorite one is the Explore and Learn Volume 4 People in Place and Time. It is all about ancient people and will be perfect to use with The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor, Revised Edition that I bought a few months ago on CD. The other Volumes are...

1. Earth and Space
2. Science and Technology
3. The Natural World
4. People in Place and Time
5. Me and My Body
6. Atlas of the World

What I really like about the books is they have super child friendly pictures and info, activities to do about the info and all kinds of extras.

I cannot wait to get started! I sure hope we can find time to do all that I have planned!

Book Basket

Thinking of adding the set God's Design for Sex by Stan and Brenna Jones to our book basket, it was recommended by Se7en! We are definitely upfront, to the point parents and this seems "our style"! Hmmm, wonder if our library has it for me to preview?

Anyone else read it or know of any good..."the talk" books?

Arctic Tale

If you are considering a unit on the Arctic or Environmental concerns check out the documentary Arctic Tale. It is rated G and is completely appropriate for small children (there is death and reproduction but it is really handled VERY well!). The story follows a polar bear family and a walrus family through a big chunk of their life cycle...until the cubs reproduce. It is amazingly beautiful. You also get a chance to see and learn about other types of animals found in the Arctic, including the mysterious Narwhal!