Wednesday, July 22, 2009 - Free Units, and Lapbooks, and Printables, OH MY!
Over 50 new things are posted as part of Homeschool Share's Back-to-School BLAST!! You can see them all here: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/what'snew.php
Thanks to all the ladies with giving hearts, willing to share their creations with the rest of the homeschool community! It is much appreciated!
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Saturday, April 4, 2009 - Goats Lapbook
Well our goats still aren't here. They are taking their good old time getting weaned, I guess that's a good thing, I'm just getting anxious. 
In the meantime, dd9 added goats to her farm notebook. She read:
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And she completed a Free Goat Lapbook from Homeschool Share:
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Friday, March 20, 2009 - Farmer Girl
My 9yo dd has decided she wants a farm. I told her that she needs to learn more about farm animals and what care they need before she makes any decisions. 
She opted to do a lap-n-note.
First, we printed out a unit from School Express. She worked on that throughout the week. She is also reading a couple of basic books, to cover all animals, and then going in depth with animals she fancies.
First animal, since we already own them and she is familiar with them, was the chicken. She completed pages from Evan Moor Giant Science Resource book about life cycle, parts of the egg, kinds of feathers, etc. and read these books:
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Here are free unit studies from Homeschool Share:
Daisy Comes Home and Just Plain Fancy
Then she moved on to ducks. She really wants some pet ducks. We have been enjoying some duck eggs from a neighbor, and that has sold us all on the idea, if we can find some ducklings local. She read these books:
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And she completed a FREE Lapbook from Homeschool Share:
Next, she is movingon to goats, which is perfect, because if everything goes as planned our kids should be arriving next week!
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Friday, May 23, 2008 - Detective Sunshine
For the past few weeks DD10 has taken an interest in detective stories. I suppose it started with her reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. She found it at the library sale, and was bound and determined to read this unabridged classic. She claims that it is a challenge, but she likes it because she can "hear" the people speaking with their English accents.
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She has also been listening to the free audio of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that I downloaded from here
She has been preparing a Detective Lapbook (look for it FREE at Homeschool Share after the BLAST!) and learning all about searching for clues like fingerprints, footprints, hair analysis, handwriting analysis, etc. She examined hair under the microscope to solve the case of "Who took my hairbrush?" and searched for and measured footprints to solve the case of "Who Stomped Through the Garden?"
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DD took a break from her Sherlock Holmes book for a day, and read Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus. This is a story of the mouse that lived with Sherlock Holmes in Merry Old England in 1885. The mouse, Basil, was the greatest detective of the mouse world, learning from the best. Very cute story!
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We also happened to have a movie based on Titus' book, The Great Mouse Detective, so we watched that together, as well as a Sherlock Holmes dvd we picked up on the dollar shelf of the grocery store.
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I'll post pictures of the tri-folder lapbook she made after the Blast. :-)
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Tuesday, February 19, 2008 - The Valentine Cat
Last week we shared The Valentine Cat by Clyde Robert Bulla, using a unit from Homeschool Share. Here are pics of the lapbook my girls (8 and 10) worked on together.
We attached two file folders together, and then had to add a flap. This is inside of first folder.
First folder with flap closed.
Inside second Folder. After side flaps are closed, folder is folded in half like a book.
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Sunday, January 20, 2008 - Our Week Studying Storks
This week we did a unit and lapbook about storks from Homeschool Share. It wasn’t in my “Plan” (you know, the one that gets thrown to the wayside after just one week…) It started when we began reading a FANTASTIC book about children trying to entice storks into nesting in their little Holland town, The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong. My girls wanted MORE!
My girls (8 and 10 years old) learned all about stork classification, migration, diets, nesting habits, myths, etc. They read various books to research and complete the lapbook components.
8 yo read an early reader, Animal Groups by Burton, French, and Jones, about how the various animals are classified. Both girls read a chapter about wading birds in The Kingfisher First Animal Encyclopedia. They compared herons, bitterns, and storks.
Both girls read the chapter about storks in Birds Do The Strangest Things, and discussed how storks communicate with each other. They both acted out the bill-clattering, feather ruffling, tail shaking stork speak. 
I read to them The Question and Answer Book All About Animal Migration by John Sanders.
They both also read some fictional stories about storks. Both girls read three Aesop stories, The Farmer and the Stork, The Fox and the Stork, and The Frogs Asking for a King. 10yo also read The Storks by Hans Christian Anderson.
We traced the routes of White Storks on a world map, and also located the states in which Wood Storks live in. 8 yo made up a game with her Melissa and Doug United States magnet puzzle, putting all the states with storks in a pile and moving the storks from state to state. She also listened to her Twin Sisters cd about States and Capitals as she cleaned her room.
I think the highlight of the unit was the….Stork Stand!! The girls took turns trying to do the stork stand…after spinning in circles…with their eyes closed…
Because there was so much info to get into a lapbook, we decided that the girls would work on one together. We started out with just a file folder, but had to keep adding flaps to get everything in. Here are some pictures:
This is the cover.
When you open up the two cover flaps, this is what is underneath.
Lift up the center flaps, and this is what is underneath:
Well, there is always next week to get back to the “Plan”. Hmmm…now where did I put it…
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Sunday, January 13, 2008 - Our Week With Shake Rag
This week, in honor of Elvis Presley’s birthday, we did a literature-based unit from Homeschool Share on Shake Rag by Amy Littlesugar. This is a story about Elvis Presley’s childhood. We read the story and discussed the setting, Mississippi in the 40’s. We discussed segregation in the south, and read bits and pieces of If You Lived at the Time of Martin Luther King by Ellen Levine.
Using Melissa and Doug magnetic map, 8yo located Mississippi and all its bordering states. 10yo looked Mississippi up in US Atlas and located bordering states and bodies of water. 
For dictation, both girls wrote in cursive the lyrics to “Love Me Tender”, as I read a book to them based on Elvis’ song. We listened to dh’s cd of Freddy King, so the girls could get more familiar with the sound of blues while we cleaned a bit. We also watched a couple of DVD’s about Elvis (with some censorship). They were Elvis, King of Entertainment, and Elvis, Rare Moments With the King.
The girls thought these were really neat, because there was actual footage from Tupelo, Mississippi, where the story takes place.
8yo decided she wanted to make her own mini lapbook folder out of cardstock, 10yo used a standard file folder. Both girls completed Mississippi State Symbols and Map lapbook components. Also in the lapbooks they included a flap book of musical instruments mentioned throughout the story, a tri-fold book about segregation, a bi-fold mini book explaining the difference between biographies and autobiographies, and a time line of Elvis Presley’s life, with key dates such as birth, when he got his first guitar, when he cut his first record, etc. 10yo also added a pocket to hold her “Love Me Tender” dictation, and a mini-book with the lyrics to “The Green Grass Grows All Around”, which Elvis sang to his classmates as a boy.
This is the cover of 8yo’s mini lapbook, it is approx. 4”x8”
This is the inside, approx. 8”x8” opened up.
For PE this week, the girls jumped around on the trampoline doing their best finger snappin’, toe tappin’, hips swingin’ imitations of Elvis.
And no birthday celebration would be complete without a cake, with some southern pecan frosting! The girls made crowns honoring the “King of Rock n Roll” for everyone, although 8yo gave him a new title, the “King of Bling”.
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Tuesday, September 11, 2007 - Beethoven Lives Upstairs and a new season....
We have moved into a new season in our homeschool. A season in which my ten year old daughter wants to have more control over her education.
I recently received Beethoven Lives Upstairs from 
http://www.paperbackswap.com , and it was here sitting on my scanner. Well, at least I thought it was. Went looking for it a few days ago, and it was gone. Here dd had taken it and has been reading it in her bedroom. My first reaction is to think “No! No! We were going to share that next month!” but I kept my mouth shut. J Well she came to me and asked if I have “that stuff you always write for books, you know, with the vocabulary words and stuff”, and asked me if she could “do” this book on her own! I told her I didn’t write a unit, but another lady did, and printed a unit from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/beethoven_lives_upstairs.htm out for her, with the printables. Well, she decorated a folder for the printouts, looked up Austria in her Big Big World atlas, and filled out the worksheet. She said she is going to write a letter like Christoph, but she wants to write it to NASA to tell them it was mean to demote Pluto (long story – we are studying the solar system lol ). Yesterday, she made a timeline image and placed it in our family Book of History, and also filled out a notebook page about Beethoven. I noticed a stack of books on her bed, Stories of Great Composers, and a biography of Beethoven, as well as some others. She watched the movie Beethoven (about the dog) and has Heidi (she remembered the Alps) scheduled in for later. J This is really a big, big deal. She did ask me to read a Value Tales story about Beethoven to her, and help her find some music links on the net. Here are some other links we came across:
Coloring page of Beethoven:
http://www.freekidscoloring.com/images/famous-people-beethoven.pdf
Download free midi files of Beethoven's works:
http://www.keyboard-creations.co.uk/beethoven.htm
Today we listened to Beethoven's Pastoral symphony, and the girls both imagined what he must have been thinking as he wrote the music - a walk through the woods, babbling brooks, a storm. You know, I was never one that got all that excited about classical music. But then again, I couldn't grab my mom's copy of Beethoven Lives Upstairs, run off to my room, and read an exciting living book about him. :-)
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Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - P...bbb...bbbb
Well, if you know that sound, you've probably read The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary.
My husband bought the girls an old Honda mini bike to restore together, some daddy-daughter bonding time. They decided they wanted to learn all about motorcycles, the part names, how they work, etc., so I put together a mini unit on motorcycles.
So as the girls cleaned, painted, and learned to ride their mini bike, we read:
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary, using a guide for Vocabulary and Comprehension Questions printed out from: HERE
We learned all about the invention of the motorcycle, as well as the progression through the years, in these two books:
Motorcycle Chronicle by Doug Mitchel
and The Picture History of Great Inventors by Gillian Clements
Using Great Discoveries and Inventions That Improved Transportation by Garth Stevens, the girls learned all the names of the motorcycle parts and their functions.
And do you ever experience a "God Thang", that little serendipidity that just makes you smile? When we went to the library sale the other day, as we are walking out, DD9 spots a Runaway Ralph (the sequel to Mouse and the Motorcycle) vhs for 50 cents! They were absolutely thrilled! 
I will be submitting the complete unit to Homeschool Share for the Back to School Blast, so be sure to check out their site for loads of great unit studies.
