Animal Secret Adventures!

   One of the Children’s Museums near our home is currently having a temporary animal secrets exhibit. They also offer special classes for homeschoolers. Chickadee and I decided to try our first class with them learning about Animal Secrets! Chickadee is an animal lover through and through. (If she could move to a farm tomorrow she would do it in heartbeat! And we can’t seem to take enough trips to the zoo in her mind!) Anyways, we headed into the museum a bit early as I wanted to give Chickadee time to explore the new exhibit before the class actually began. It is definitely an exhibit worth seeing! 

Here she is measuring a bear cub and she could tell me that it was shorter than her, but longer than she was!

 This area was a waterfall/creek play area with lots of animals that live near a river or creek. She had fun playing with the eagles and putting their nests in the trees!

This was a cave you could look inside! You could also go in an find different things that live/hide  in caves!

This was one of chickadees favorite parts- a tree! She got to dress-up like a chipmunk and collect acorns to store in her tree! She had a lot of fun exploring the exhibit and we have been back to visit again before they take this excellent exhibit away!

After awhile it was time for the class to begin! We met with all the other participants and headed to where we would hold class. Chickadee was given a "top secret" envelope and told she was not an Animal Detective! Included inside was a passport of sorts that had 7 different stations she had to complete and get stamped. They included: "Math the feces to the Species," "Find Your Furry Friends," "Make a Geode," "Eat Like an Insect," Making Tracks to a New Species," "Owl Pellet Dissection," and "Animal Interaction."  Some of her favorite activities were the Geode making (an art project), stamping animal tracks, matching animal skulls and pelts, and seeing the real owls they brought in! 

   We saw two different owls- a screech owl (the tiny one in the above picture- it was FULL grown!) and a barred owl (in the picture below). Both of the owls had been rescued from injuries and now live at a State Park animal center. It was very informational and neat to see the owls up close! 

Overall, we had a wonderful day and learned a lot! We will definitely be participating in more homeschool programs through our local museums! 

Until life's next adventure,

~B

Storybook Adventures!

Storybook Adventures!

  Our local homeschool group had a “Storybook Character Party” for Preschool ages to 5^th grade. We all got together for a time of fun and fellowship and the kids had a blast dressing up as their favorite storybook character. Chickadee went as “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and thanks to some great PJ’s we found at the store (AND on the clearance rack!!) we put together a really cute costume for her! She even won a prize for “most creative!” Here is a picture of my very hungry caterpillar:

We used craft foam for the legs and face mask and I had the laminated food pieces from my public school teaching days. I strung them on a piece of yarn so she could wear them as a necklace and retell the story! She had a blast and making her costume was a lot of fun and we did it together!  Some of the other kids dressed up as Franklin (the turtle), King Arthur, Jonathan Parks, Sofia the First, Harry Potter, and a Bride.  The party itself was also a lot of fun. The kids got to make their own story books, create some bookmarks to take home,  we played a Dr. Seuss themed relay game, and of course we had snacks!

   For the relay game, the kids each picked a book paper out of the bag with a Dr. Seuss book written on it and instructions, then they had to run down to the other end, find the “prop” (if needed) and complete the activity. Some examples were “Get the apple and walk back balancing it on your head” (from 10 Apples Up On Top). Another was “find the socks and crawl back like a fox” (from Fox in Socks). Another card said hop down and back (from Hop on Pop), etc. They had a lot of fun acting out different Dr. Seuss titles!

Overall it was a fun day and we look forward to more fun times with our Co-Op friends!

Until life’s next adventure,

~B

Adventures Away!

 Hello and Happy Spring! We are back online and I apologize for the absence. We have been traveling, preparing for my sisters upcoming wedding, attending our local Co-Op classes and staying very busy! Then, my computer crashed so we had to do our research before buying another one and then we had internet problem! However, all those things seem to be fixed! Watch for many upcoming posts about what we have been up do during our absence including our new geography study, our fairy tales unit study, and many topics! I hope you are all enjoying this nice weather that has finally come to us in the Midwest after many, MANY weeks of uncomfortably cold winter air!

Until life’s next adventure,

~B

100's day Adventure!

How we celebrated our first 100 days of Homeschooling Kindergarten!

 I wanted to give Chickadee a fun day for making it through her first 100 days of Kindergarten!! She knew when our 100th day would be as we have been keeping track of the number of days during our morning calendar time, however, she had NO idea what I had planned for her! The night before our 100th day (after she was well asleep!) I made the 100 poster (with 3 sets of 100 "things"-hearts, swirls, and stars- one hundred around each number) and hung it up in our living room entrance! (I had decided we would be doing school in the living room on this day since A-it was more of a fun day and we could be more relaxed in there and B-the temperature outside was near the single digits (before wind chill) which meant our school room would be REALLY REALLY cold!) I also piled up all the books we would be reading (see list at end of post) and put in the different activities between the books.  When she came out of her room that morning, she was SO excited! 

  The first thing we did was head out to our cold school room to do our calendar time- I wanted her to SEE how to move our place value straws to make 100 and fill in her "100 days of school chart. Once we were sure it was our 100th day, we headed back to the living room. We read a few poems from the book "Counting our way to the 100th Day!" Then she opened her special letter from her Grandma! (My mom is a principal at a Christian School in Michigan and wanted to send along something fun since she understands how fun the 100th day is for Kindergartners!)

Inside she found some pretty neat glasses (see picture above), a certificate, a pencil that said "Kindergartners are #1, a bookmark and a fun 100 day coloring activity! She LOVED it (but what kid doesn't thoroughly enjoy getting mail!!??!) 

  Then, we read "Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten" by Joseph Slate. She LOVED this book and even chose to write about for her first "assignment" of the day- "My favorite thing about the first 100 days of school...." Chickadee's answer was "Reading Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th day of Kindergarten with mommy." (I tried to explain that it meant she could pick something from ALL our days of school this year, life field trips, unit studies, art, etc. but she insisted that it be this! After that we played a 100 tallies dice game and read another book. Our day continued in this fashion for the most part, read a book, do a few activities, read another book, etc. (Listed below are all my resources for the activities we used as well as the books we read!) 

Dad even got in and read one of our books on his lunch break!

  One of my favorite activities was the "What can I do in 100 seconds" game. Chickadee had to estimate how many times she thought she could do a certain activity and then actually do it for 100 seconds to see what it acutally was. She had a lot of fun completing the activities which included: clap your hands, blink your eyes, sing the  alphabet, write your name, etc. 

  Another one of my favorite things she did during our celebration day was the "What I think I will look like when I am 100 years old..." Her picture cracked me up so I wanted to share it with you... 

Apparently, she is not going to have much hair on the TOP of her head, but it's going to grow all over her face. That is what she told me all the lines on her face were... :)

One of our final activities (and I think Chickadee's favorite) was making a fruit loop necklace. She had to count out all the fruit loops then string them on and then she could eat them as we did the rest of our work. Here are a few pictures of that process: 

Overall, we had a wonderfully fun day!! I wanted to leave you with just a few more "fun pictures" from our 100th day celebration!! 

Happy 100th day!

Books we read for our 100th day celebration:

• Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th day of Kindergarten by: Joseph Slate**
• Kindergarten Count to 100 by: Jacqueline Rogers
• Fluffy's 100th Day at School by: Kate McMullan
• Jake's 100th Day at School by: Lester Laminack**
• Emily's First 100 Days of School by: Rosemary Wells
• Henry's 100 Days of Kindergarten by: Nancy Carlson
• Counting Our Way To The 100th Day! 100 poems by: Betsy Franco**

**These were our favorite books to read!**

List of resources where we found our activities and printables (all free at time of printing): 

• 100's day mini unit  includes: booklet, "If I had $100.00..., My favorite thing...., What I will look like when I am 100...., trail mix recipe, Tallies dice game, Estimation page and directions.
• 100's day activity bookmarks Includes 2 different 100 day bookmarks to make and 1 premade
• What I can do in 100 seconds worksheet (Scroll down about 3/4 way, also has a lot of other fun ideas on this page!)
• flip a coin 100 times (also includes a color by code- even/odd #'s and 100th day news)

These are most of the resources we used. You can find so many more ideas and free printables on pintrest or through a google search! I hope I have inspired you to have a 100's day adventure of your own! 

As always, comments, questions, or just random thoughts are always welcome!

~B

Adventures in teaching Science!

How we teach Science in Pre-K and Kindergarten

 Pre-K:
   We had no set science curriculum for our PreK year. During this time we taught science in different hands-on experiences and everyday situations. One big aspect was talking about the weather and the different seasons each morning during our calendar time. We checked the weather each day and then found a matching picture card to hang. By doing this, we used a lot of science vocabulary words that Chickadee was hearing and learning. There were basic words like sunny, cloudy, rainy, hot, cold, but she was also introduced to other words not common of a 4 year old like foggy, cool, warm, partly cloudy, humid, sleet, hail, etc. We also discussed the differences between the four seasons and different weather we may find in each season. 
   We also did many hands-on activities like cooking, making homemade play-dough, making homemade moon sand, experiments, and observations. We took nature walks and discussed different things we saw or observed outside. One of my favorite things we did last year were observation sheets like this one from 2 teaching mommies' Ice Cream pack. Several of their printable packs have observation sheets in them which walks the young student through using each of their five senses to observe something. Chickadee enjoyed doing these as much as I enjoyed their educational content! We also did a variety of science activities included in printable packs found on the internet to go along with our weekly theme. 

Kindergarten:
  Again, we discuss the same science concepts during morning calendar time and I am hoping to get a large thermometer to place outside so we can start charting the daily temperatures. We also added Elemental Science's "Exploring Science" preschool series. I opted for the printed combo as I wanted to have it all bound and not worry about printing off weekly plans and student pages. It was worked out wonderfully! This program comes with a 2 or 5 day lesson plan which we have morphed into a 3 day/week plan. Chickadee's favorite thing about this science curriculum is that her Dad usually does it with her! The program is simple enough that most daily activities only take 20 minutes or so which allows us to wait to do this until my husband comes home in the afternoons to complete. I love the time they get to spend together learning and watching them interact together during the experiments. I usually pick up a few extra books from the library that pertain to the particular subject being taught each week and we read these throughout the week. Using this curriculum, we have also made a nature journal that we record in from our nature walks. 

Water Wonder Necklace from "Exploring Science"

   We also incorporate different science activities through our unit studies that we do. For example, this week we have begun our Fairy Tale unit. One of our activities will be to find 3 materials to build houses with (3 little pigs activity) and see which material will hold up best to "wind." Another way we learn science is through fun kits. For instance, this year, Chickadee received a "Bubble Experiment Kit" for Christmas from a family member. We can't wait until it warms up enough to get outside and try it out!

   We also use field trips to learn about science! Places we have gone where we are able to learn about science include: Local Science Museums (Children oriented), the Zoo, Nature Parks, State Parks, Camping Trips, 

Feeding the Birds

Petting Zoo

Pumpkin Patch... she discovered a caterpillar

Carefully Choosing a pumpkin

Something caught their eye in the tree...

Nature Walk

Nature Walk

Science is best learned through hands-on, fun activities and we make sure we do a lot of these! Thanks for reading! As always, questions/comments are welcome!

Until our next adventure,

~B