Another Cicada Emerges

LD spotted another cicada just about to emerge
from its shell (this time in our backyard). I
didn't get the camera in time for the initial
emergence, but I promised LD to put pictures
up. To be honest, I find this as fascinating as
the kids!! How amazing nature is!!

Place Value (to the thousands) Math

LD really enjoys this activity. I've talked about it
before, but it's worth another mention. It's adapted
from Peggy Kaye's Games for Math.

On the back of a rug, I drew a target (it's hard to
see the target in the picture but the rug works well
because it has little rubber nubby things that help
stop the paper clip from sliding). The center circle
is worth 1000, the next ring is 100, the next is 10,
the out ring is worth 1.

Each person take a turn tossing 9 paper clips
onto the rug (another person returns the paper
clips that don't wind up on the rug for another go).
When finished and all 9 paper clips are on the target
they have to determine the number of points by
adding the number of paper clips in each section
(4 paper clips in the center circle=4000). I had
LD write down DD's score too since she doesn't write yet.

After two rounds, I had LD add the two digits
together to see how many total points each
person had.

Then I had him use the stacking numbers to
re-write one of the totals and had him use
stamp cards to show that number again (see
the last picture, it's hard to explain with words).

Princess Quest Board Game

Honey over at Sunflower Schoolhouse made a very cute princess-themed board game that you can download for free. It is a generic game and you can fill in the cards to suit whatever you are studying.  Here's the link to the Princess Quest Game.

Biomes Pin Map

Today we started our big unit on biomes (deserts, forests, tundra,
etc.) and animal habitats. I'm so excited about the pin map I made!

I bought the picture cards set of biomes from
http://teacherdesk.info/ (for $2.00 US). I printed them out
along with some of the smaller photos.  (See the photo below this
post.)

I printed out the world biome map and the key from
http://www.science-house.org/workshops/buncombe/Mazzei/index.html

Then I combined the key with photos from the picture
pack to make a pin map. I'll post another picture below
so you get a better idea of what I mean.

Biomes Picture Pack

The biomes picture pack came with 30 cards, flow charts and more. We covered deciduous and coniferous forests, the tropical rainforest and more.  We did lots of fun activities as we focused on each of the biomes.
(Update, the biomes cards pictured above are no longer available, see more about our biomes cards and worksheets at this post or below.).

In 2016, when we studied the biomes again in more depth. Since I no longer had the material above, I made our own new packet of materials. We covered these biomes:

• Arctic
• Alpine Tundra
• Boreal Forest or Taiga
• Deciduous Forests
• Deserts
• Grasslands
• Tropical Savannas
• Chaparral
• Tropical Rain Forest

Our cards can be printed on 8x11 paper (or you can make smaller cards by printing 4-per-page) (Click on the picture below to find out more):

 

And, we went over the major factors that make up each biome (abiotic factors such as soil, climate, weather) as well as some of the major plants and animals in each biome.

  

We also studied ecosystems, habitats, the food web, feeding relationships...

 and we spent quite a bit of time about biological interactions... organisms that work with one another (think bee and flower), organisms where one benefits and the other is harmed, organisms where one benefits and the other is not harmed or benefited... Learning terms such as mutualism, amensalism, commensalism, etc.)

You can find out more about our 70 page  Biology Packet here (at our new location homeschoolden.com):

We also have a related Animal Pack (where we covered animal classification, spiders vs. insects, domesticated vs. wild animals, animal tracks, nocturnal vs. diuranal animals and more!) You can check out the

Find out more at this post: Animal Unit Vertebrate and Invertebrate Worksheet Packet

 We also have a Rainforest Packet:

That's about it!

Remember that all of these packets are over at our new location: homeschoolden.com

Happy Homeschooling!
 ~Liesl

World Biomes -- Homemade Pin Map

I was pretty excited with how this turned out! I made
this over the Christmas holidays and have been itching
to show the kids. What do you think?!!  This is the
full version, but I'll be using it piece-meal as we
cover a new biome.

Forest Biome (Woodland Animal Habitat)

-------------- Here's what we did today with our forest
biome study:

1) We sang the continent song and the kids placed the
continents in the world map (the world pin map is at the
top right almost out of the picture).

2) We talked about the fact that different places in the
world have different temperatures and different climates
(ie. different biomes). We talked about our own climate
(a desert)

3) We looked at pictures of the deciduous and coniferous
forests. Then we looked at the world biome map and put
the deciduous and coniferous forest pins in the right
place on the map.

4) We did a deciduous leaf matching game from prekinders.com
(we looked at them first and then played "memory."

5) Then we took turns laying out the the 3-part woodland
animal cards (from the Montessori Print Shop)

6)Then we went on to some squirrel crafts.

Deciduous Forest -- Diaorama Project

This week we're going to make a diaorama on the
deciduous forest and its animal inhabitants. First we
made deciduous trees. The kids used cut up tissue paper
and placed the bits onto contact paper. Then we put
green paper onto the contact paper and cut out a tree
shape. We'll add a tree trunk later.

Our other project today was to make coffee ground
squirrels. The kids decided to use colored sand for the
smaller version and DD chose some pretty colors, don't
you think?!

Squirrel Math Grid Game

DD and I played a squirrel math grid game today. We
took turns rolling the dice and gathering acorns for our
squirrels.

She also quickly did the oak tree life cycle. Both
activities were from http://prekinders.com/forestunit.htm
(the acorns were from another game I printed out that
we'll play tomorrow, but if you have real acorns nearby
that'd certainly be a better option!)

Science Center Monday: Making a Periscope

My son really enjoys spy gear. Making a periscope (which
he immediately started calling a "spy scope") was right
up his alley!!

Today's science experiment was very simple and took less
than 15 minutes. We took a long tubular box, cut a flap on
opposite sides and opposite ends of the box, glued a small
mirror to the flap and taped it the flap on the inside of the
box at a 45 degree angle (make sure you can see the top
of the box before sticking the tape down).

You can see more clearly laid out directions at these two
websites:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/periscope.html
or
http://www.education.com/activity/article/corners/#

LD thought it was really cool that you could use it both
to peek over something (like the couch), but also to see
around the corner (as he is in the bottom picture above).