Nature Journals Week 8

We have been super busy lately and not able to do too much nature journaling. These were our last few pages.

Jadyn drew a before picture of her pumpkin and and after picture. She carved a bunny in her pumpkin for her pet bunny. She did a really good job doing it too!

Kaleb drew an alligator catching a fish, another fish, and his pumpkin. I love his alligator!

Tot Tuesday

 Recently, my tot watched as I had my first grader counting to 100 with a 100's chart. I do this for practice and number recognition. We count by 1'2, 2's, 5's, and 10's to keep it fresh. My tot wanted to work along us so he promptly found a second 100's chart that we had and counted along.

I love it! He was counting....8, 9, 10, 25, 22...

I also love that his chart is upside down (if you look closely) but that didn't stop him from counting along with us. Have an awesome day.

Owl Pellet Experience

A year of adventures for this year of schooling. We are excited as this week's adventure/experience was dissecting an owl pellet. We have been studying animals in our Science curriculum and we just finished learning about owls. It was a perfect opportunity to dissect an owl pellet.

We read about owls in our Encyclopedia of Animals book.

Then the fun began - first I had them draw what it looked like before we began. Yeah, I know what it resembles but an owl pellet is not from THAT end of an owl. An owl actually yarps (regurgitates) the bones and fur of animals that it eats. The pellet is then sanitized for your protection.

Kaleb is working on separating the pellet. I was truly amazed at how many bones were actually in the pellet.

J is working on hers. She couldn't believe it either! It took some time but they finally separated the bones and fur from the pellet.

This is what we came away with - a ton of bones. I think each pellet had at least four skull pieces and lots of vertebrae. We soaked the bones in bleach to make them whiter and easier to see. This was an experience that J said she would do again. She loved finding all of the bones, like a mini treasure hunt!

Tot Tuesday

For the last month, my kids have been dinosaur crazy. I found some dinosaurs at the Dollar Store which were just the right size for some great dino play. And we were able to go to Dinosaur World and see life-sized versions of the dinosaurs. My tot - Riley keeps asking me are the dinosaurs ....tinct?  Yes, Riley they are extinct. He also asks whether they are meat eaters or plant eaters. It is so cute! I keep thinking I should create a mini dino unit just for my tot - we will see:) I caught him playing at the school table while I was working with Kaleb.

My dino crazy tot hard at play. Love it:)

Pumpkin Patch Experience

A new school year...a year of adventures - that is what this school year brings. Why? Well, our lives have been on hold for that last few years. We thought we were going back to Turkey and we were working for that. It made life somewhat difficult and we put many things on hold. I wanted to give my kids a different kind of school year - a year of adventures and experiences that were new to us. No more putting things on hold - we are where we are going to be for awhile. It is time to stop being in the holding pattern and start living and learning:) I can do anything for a year, right?

This week's adventure is going to the pumpkin patch. I know that might not sound like an adventure to you but it was to us. Living overseas, we didn't have pumpkin patches. We didn't even have orange pumpkins! There wasn't Halloween or Thanksgiving...at least not like here in America. So, yes, going to a pumpkin patch is an adventure:) (at least to us).

We were enjoying the cooler weather here. I love these pics.

I asked Riley to look up. I meant look up to the camera but he literally looked up. Haha!

The great pumpkin. Loved it. Hope you get to have an adventure today:)

Riley's Rhymes - Hey Diddle Diddle with free printable

If you have been following the blog, you may have noticed that I have a new section called Riley's Rhymes. What is Riley's Rhymes? It is a gentle form of tot school that focuses on nursery rhymes and songs while learning about shapes and colors. While I do not believe in formal education for my tot. I created this for my tot since he was always asking to do "school." Our new Riley's Rhymes mini unit is the rhyme - Hey Diddle Diddle. The shape we will be learning about is the crescent (moon) and the color white.

I included a visual schedule. I am a visual learner and it just helps to have pictures of what I want to accomplish.

I added clothespin cards - match the shape on the plate with the correct shape in the box. Have your child clip a clothespin on the answer.

 I included a two part puzzle that I will make magnetic and a sewing card. Riley likes the sewing cards.

There are spoon number cards. Have your child add glass beads or pom poms to the handle of the spoon while counting.

Sort the moons - large and small moon sort. You could even practice patterning if your child is ready. Enjoy the new mini unit.

Download Hey Diddle Diddle Mini Unit HERE.

Gratitude Journals

This Thanksgiving, I wanted to be more conscious of being thankful. I wanted my kids to be aware and be thankful as well. So, I thought we would work on a gratitude journal for the month of November. I wanted it to be a simple activity to make us think of ways we are thankful. I found a free printable from____ . It was a thankful calendar for the month of November but I took it further. I printed the cards on paper, cut them out, and added them to our Thankful Jar. Each day, one child will choose a card, read it, and then write/draw their answers in a mini gratitude journal. We will complete this activity as part of our Bible each morning.

I found some mini notebooks that I had been keeping. They had 16 blank pages in them and if we used just half a page for each day, there would be enough pages for the month. They made their covers for their journals - Kaleb on left and J on right.

I had the children draw their responses to each of the daily questions. I journaled for Kaleb so we could remember what he was thinking.

Another set of entries - thankful for what color? Thankful for family and friends.

My journal cover ....

And one of my journal entries. May you take some time to be thankful this holiday season. Have an awesome day.

Links

Proverbial Homemaker - has the Thanksgiving Calendar set that I used for our journal jar. I printed each day, folded them, and added to a mason jar. Each day, someone picked one and we journaled the answer to the question.
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