Lewis and Clark...

I was given the opportunity to review a Download N’ Go unit by Amanda Bennett recently by The Old Schoolhouse. I have used these units before and have always been impressed with them and the contents and this one was much the same.

 “Lewis and Clark” is a fun fact filled unit that a home school family can complete in a week for K-4th grades, but I find that these can easily be modified to be used with kids even older.

 “Lewis and Clark” has a 5 day topic schedule:

 Day 1: What Brought About the Adventures of Lewis and Clark?

 Day 2: Who Were Lewis and Clark?

Day 3: Science Secrets of the Expedition

 Day 4: Lessons to Learn From Lewis and Clark

 Day 5: Remembering Lewis and Clark

And rounding out the week are “FUN FAMILY IDEAS” …

 In using these units in the past, I have found that the Download N’ Go units can easily be expanded to longer periods of time with all the great books, activities, and information opportunities included in each unit. Children are allowed to immerse themselves in the excitement and adventure of the west and the American Wilderness.

 Using literature available from the local library and lapbook/ notebook components, a child investigates the route and excitement that went with Lewis and Clark's famous journey. Using these units is a fun, inexpensive way to encourage learning and expand knowledge in your child.

Your child will learn about the food, weapons, people met on the trail, and character traits that made Lewis and Clark’s journey the stuff of legends in American history. A daily book list is included and most can be found at the local library, however, I have found that all the information needed is included in the unit in written and link form. The video links have been researched for you and the lapbook components can be easily printed off to go with each days assignment.

Math, science, geography, history and even vocabulary is included with each component being used to increase the knowledge base of the subject of Lewis and Clark.

 A wonderful, all-around, easy to use, education resource for the home school family.

Zoo class ~ Oceanography

This week we went to the depths of the ocean with a class on Oceanography~ The Ocean at Work...

To begin our class we learned some key vocabulary words and their meanings:

Ocean, Tides, Gravity, Currents, and Density....

71% of the Earth's surface is covered with water... it affects the climate of our planet... and the food we eat...

We watched a brief clip from the Blue Planet...(which we love)    you can watch an 8 minute clip from the IMAX version here ...

The kids learned about tides, tidal zones, and experimented with gravity using inflatables... ~ how tides work and the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon on the water in the ocean... (a great experiment using balloons and water can be found here)



Some cool pictures of high and low tides in Nova Scotia:

  high tide    low tide

Spring tides, Neap tides, low and high tides... the kids were able to recognize each after a brief explanation... Spring tides are when a full moon lines up in a straight path with the sun and the earth... (occurs 2x a month all year)... Neap tides occur when the sun, earth and moon are at right angles to each other (during the 1st and 3rd quarters)...Here's a chart that my kids looked at once we got home to review the different tides...



The another highlight for the kids~ a clip from "Finding Nemo" to bring in the East Australian Current... (see the clip here) and the importance of currents and the types: surface and undersea...and we did a cool experiment with water and food coloring...

   you can see some great wave pictures of the EAC here...

We then followed the class with some more experiments...  

Ice Cube Currents (you can find how to do this and more great experiments here)



and finished by learning how all undersea currents are created by differences in salt content and temperature... and how currents transport heat and cold over thousands of miles by carrying warm water toward the poles and and cold polar water toward the equator... 

Here's some more resources to go with an ocean unit :

Atlantic Ocean unit study and lapbook from HSS  (click here)

Oceans Book lists (click here)

Fun "Ocean in a Bottle" experiment (click here)

Some great ocean crafts... (click here)

Have a wonderful ocean experience and HAPPY LEARNING!!!

Viewing Jupiter...

   Tonight we have been outside viewing Jupiter...this apparently happens every 13 months with tonight being the closest it has come to the Earth since 1963 and is closer than it will be until 2022...



Astronomers call this "opposition of Jupiter" where our (being the Earth's) faster orbit places Jupiter opposite of the Sun in our sky...

Through binoculars, you can see one, two or more of the planet’s four largest moons, known as the "Galilean Satellites". They will appear as tiny ’stars’ strung out in a line bisecting the planet. We brought out our Galileoscope and our binoculars and was able to see well... as the planet was just to the left of our moon...



The view from my front porch...

Reminder: tomorrow night Uranus will also be visible and you can find a chart here to help you locate it...

Autumn Treasures... a DNG review

Because we have been having beautiful sunny days and temperatures in the 90's, it was hard to decide about doing this unit.. I still felt summertime... and was wondering if it wasn't a lil' too early to start thinking about fall and the changing of the seasons... cooler evenings, roasting marshmallows, and sitting by the fire...

Well, it only took my kids a second to decide that thay wanted to do it, since they had so much fun with the ones before ~ so the decision was made... and off we went on our journey into fall...



The 5 day plan for Autumn Treasures includes:

Day 1: What is Autumn?
Day 2: Science Secrets of Autumn
Day 3: People and Places of Autumn
Day 4: Time for Tips and Treasures of Autumn
Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Autumn

Autumn Treasures is a wonderful way to ease into the changing of the seasons. At $7.95 it is also affordable...

Since we had some other activities going on, we decided to omit the lapbooking part of this unit and just concentrate on the information, videos, and books... It worked great for us... So the DNG units are truly flexible and can be used in whatever way suits your families' individual needs... But here is a look at some of the wonderful notebooking and lapbooking worksheets included with the unit:

We talked about the changing of the seasons and how where you live on the earth determines what season it is (hemispheres)... I included discussion on longitude and latitude for DS (10yo) and DD (7yo) even picked it up... We read some of our favorite books and some new ones...

The Leaf Man is one of our favorites...

we read the Pumpkin book by Gail Gibbons (another of our favorites)

and we also brought out our Crinkleroot guide

The kids love leaves and we looked at our leaf collection that we had started last year, looked at seeds and leaves under the microscope, and talked about photosynthesis and used some info from this site for our discussion and experiments using solar paper...

 you can buy the paper here...

We learned about Johnny Appleseed, watched a video from Netflix (I love Netflix) and made homemade applesauce in the crockpot... made apple prints and discussed symmetry (you can find out how here)...and drank wonderful apple cider...

Roasting corn on the cob over the fire gave us the opportunity to branch into seeds and even a rabbit trail on how Squanto taught the Pilgrims to use fish to fertilize their corn when planting... not too mention it was delicious!!

More science with migration and the various geese and ducks that have been flying over our house and fields and just getting to go out and enjoy God's beautiful creation and appreciate all the wonder he has created for us and learn about in the process...

And with the Autumn Equinox beginning, it's the perfect time to give this unit a try at 20% off until Sept. 24th through THE OLD SCHOOLHOUSE... Just click on the TOS link and it will take you right to where you can purchase this great unit!!

As a reviewer for DNG, I get the use of this unit free for my honest opinons and review...

Happy Fall!!

Palentology ~ Terrible Lizards

The last 2 weeks, in our zoo class, we have been learning about "Palentology"... one of DS's favorite topics...We have a great teacher who covered the high points of the subject without touching on the subject of evolution which is very difficult to do. I was pleased with this since we believe in the creation theory of the Earth... 

The first day we learned that the word "DINOSAUR" was actually coined by an Englishman named Sir Richard Owen in 1842 meaning "terrible lizard"... This group is a large and very diverse group of reptiles and were once the dominant animal species on the planet...

So many people are fascinated with these creatures, and tons of research has been done on them, though no one has ever seen one, which brought us to the topic of "how do scientists know what they are like?"

A brief segment from Jurassic Park was shown and of course the kids were thrilled.  I found the same clip on Youtube with the verses from the bible that discuss the "BEHEMOTH"... you can look at it here... The bible verses can be found in JOB 40: 15-24....

We discussed what a dinosaur was... we looked at fossils and what it takes to make a fossil...

      we made our own fossils....

 We got the opportunity to look and touch ~ a dionychus skull and claw, a T-Rex tooth... and the kids learned that fossils are only the remnants of the dinosaurs and the only proof that they ever roamed the earth... 

   a dionychus claw        T-rex tooth

Some facts about dinosaurs: 

1. bones were used by early Chinese in traditional medicines, thinking they were dragon bones...

2. descriptions first began in the 1600's when in 1676 a bone (now known to be a Megalosaurus femur) was found in a limestone quarry... It was thought at that time to have been the part of a "large human" giant...

3. the Iguanadon was discovered by Mary Ann Mitchell, and named such because the bones were similiar to those of an iguana...

4. the first American dinosaur was discovered in 1858...

 5. the bone wars ~ a fierce rivalry between 2 dinosaur hunters that lasted for 30 yrs. leading to the discovery of 142 new species of dinosaur...

Following all this great information was a tour where we went out to look at the elephants and talked about the conclusions that scientists have made regarding how the large 4 legs of creatures like the "brachiosaurus" worked based on the movement and work of an elephant's legs... and how they have special adaptations to deal with their large weight and how the brachiasaur would likely have needed to do the same thing... 

Finally we learned how dinosaurs are simliar to today's birds... and by looking at the skeletal hip movements of modern birds, scientists can use computer simulations to attempt to figure out how dinosaurs moved...  

Some great resources to use are:

A dinosaur lapbook / unit from HSS  (click here)

a pdf file from "Answers in Gensis" on what happened to the Dinosaurs...  (click here)

free online books (can be ordered also) on explaining evolution for kids and dinosaurs... (click here) 

a great dinosaur book list (click here)

another great source for lesson plans and ideas on dinosaurs (click here)

a DINO kit...  

and a fun Excavation Kit  

  and a great unit that you buy too...   from Teacher Created Materials 

Have fun with Dinosaurs and Happy Learning!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

Right now, TOS is offering a great deal on subscriptions to "The Old Schoolhouse" agazine...It's ust $7.95 a year and you will be entered to win a free laptop... A great deal for the magazine alone plus the bonus of the laptop entry... You can check out the details here... Offer expires at midnight September 15th, 2010... Get it while it lasts!!

Auntie Anne's Pretzels...

Thanks to my friend Becky for this recipe!! 



1 1/2 C. warm water
1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast (1 1/2 pkg.)
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 1/8 tsp salt
1 C. bread flour
3 C. regular flour
2 C. warm water
2 Tbsp baking soda
To taste, coarse salt
2 – 4 Tbsp butter (melted)

Sprinkle yeast on lukewarm water in mixing bowl; stir to dissolve. Add sugar, salt and stir to dissolve; add flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Let rise at least 1/2 hour.

While dough is rising, prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 tbsp baking soda. Be certain to stir often.

After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough and roll into a long rope (about 1/2 inch or less thick) and shape. Dip pretzel in soda solution and place on greased baking sheet. Allow pretzels to rise again. Bake in oven at 450 for about 10 minutes or until golden. Brush with melted butter and enjoy!

Toppings:
After you brush with butter try sprinkling with coarse salt.

Or for Auntie Anne’s famous Cinnamon Sugar, try melting a stick of butter in a shallow bowl (big enough to fit the entire pretzel) and in another shallow bowl make a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. Dip the pretzel into the butter, coating both sides generously. Then dip again into the cinnamon mixture. Enjoy!!!

Bizarre goodies... Eeewwwww!!!

Here's some of the bizarre goodies we saw this weekend while we were on our trip...

    A "SCORPION" sucker for those that like a little sting.....

 

  some SALT N' VINEGAR crickets anyone?????

 

  a lil' CHEDDAR CHEESE protein????   

Labor Day Camping in the Smokies...

This holiday weekend we loaded up and went camping in the Smokies... we stayed at the Smokey Bear Campground not far from Gatlinburg... It was lots of fun.. .we found some areas that we had never explored before... which is always fun for us...

We went to one of the National Park campgrounds looking at sites for future camping trips.. this one is located in Cosby, Tn next to the NC border.. It was very rustic, no showers, or electricity for those of you who like modern conveniences... But the beauty was breathtaking... We managed to get in a little school over the weekend also with some nature study... While we were out, DS noticed several groups of butterflies (25 or more in a group) sitting on some rocks in the area... we're not sure why they were doing this, but it was sure unusual for us to be able to see such large groups of butterflies in the wild.. It was certainly beautiful...

On day #2 the boys decided to go and play a round of golf at a beautiful course in the mountains... DD and I decided to get in some shopping and went and had a pedicure..a treat for both of us, since I rarely ever have one and she had never had one and then we topped off our day with some ice cream from the Marble Slab... YUMMY!!

 almost too small for the massage chair..   YUMMY ice cream!!!

On our last day of camping, we went down into Gatlinburg and played tourist.. There's something about the smell and the sights, it's almost like being at the fair and of course, you are tempted by all the wonderful goodies for sale... we managed a stop at Ben& Jerrys for ice cream and then sampled our way up and down the streets at the fudge vendors and eventually had some popcorn and sodas at the KarmelKorn Factory... Then we stopped at a place called the "Pepper Palace" where DH decided to be ina "horseradish" tasting contest... It wasn't the "prepared" kind you buy at the stores, but the real just below the FDA limit for heat kind of stuff... It was very amusing to see his eyes when he put that bite into his mouth... and even more amusing to watch the beads of sweat pop out... but the sample of  apple jelly BBQ that I had was mighty fine and I only wanted to cry for more... *LOL*

      eating it ~      "WHY DID I DO THAT?"

 His badge of honor after eating it!! I love the slogan "NASAL NAPALM"....

DD and DS competed in a "YeeHaw" contest at a candy store against some other kids and DS took home the prize (which happened to be a 2ft. gummy snake)... He was thrilled and I was slightly grossed out with it... *LOL*

 the group of competitors        DS with his prize...

On our way home, we managed to stop in for breakfast at Carver's Apple Orchard and had an impromptu field trip at the orchard...

       

        We even saw an "apple gourd" which we never knew existed... How cool!!! 

"Pizza Party" review and giveaway!!!

Being a part of the Download N' Go review team has been a blessing for our family since we love unit studies and we were given this unit to use in exchange for our honest opinions in a review. So the chance to review this unit called "Pizza Party"   ~  it sounded like to much fun to pass on...

I have done three Download N Go unit studies now, each geared toward kindergarten through fourth graders and I am still as impressed and happy with "Pizza Party" as I was with the very first one we did...

Pizza Party is a 112 page unit study designed for K-4th graders as a 1 week study. It's the ease of having everything at my fingertips (literally with the laptop), and the lapbook minibooks (which I printed before we start) make it an easy and wonderful experience for both me and the kidlets...

Once again, with Pizza Party, I am amazed at all the information included...Which even though these are created to be 1 week studies, they could easily be turned into more with all the info and activities included...Notebook sheets, lapbook pieces, worksheets, it's all here.



Just enough info there without having information OVERLOAD on each page. I have done units in the past where when I opened the document to use it, I would literally "freak-out" over the googolet of information with all the choices or I would be so disappointed when there was barely enough to get started with... With units like those, I immediately become discouraged and end up not using them...But that's certainly not been the case with Download N' Go units...The way the information is put together is streamlined and very effective.

Our five days of cheesy fun began with:

Day 1: Pizza—What Is It?
Day 2: The Story of Pizza
Day 3: Types of Pizza
Day 4: The Science of Pizza
Day 5: Let’s Have a Pizza Party

We kicked off our week with dinner at our local Pizza Hut... My kids ordering their favorite "Pepperoni with thin crust"...



Now,  when we begin any unit study,  I always skim through everything on my own before beginning it with the kidlets, and make a list of pages to print. This is more for my sanity than anything else ... Then we start, with the kidlets beside me at the laptop, watching all the fun videos that are linked with just a click...and one of the good things about the videos is that there is no distraction from other things on the pages like with YouTube because the videos are embedded at the Download N' Go site...This is a plus for those parents who like me have children that sometimes have a hard time concentrating on one topic...

Another thing included that I really like is vocabulary~ not only are you given  daily vocabulary words, but there is also more advanced words included so that this is truly a unit study that can be done with several grades... and the online dictionary and additional reading info make it easy for kids (especially 3rd-4th graders) to find the answers and definitions and be able to help their younger siblings in the search...  In fact, everything you need is right there...the book lists are great, but you don't need anything else but the download of this study to complete it and learn... But I have to say that my 7yo DD absolutely loved the story of "Pizza Pat" and begged for her own copy... So, if you need one after doing this study, this is where I bought ours... (who was I to deny a lil' girl a book she read absolutely everyday of the study)...

I like the way science and social studies are combined and interwoven... after spending a week with "Pizza Party" ,  my kids can not only locate Italy and it's major cities, but can tell you what the weather is like in the north or southern-most parts... The included outline maps made finding Italy and other countries around the world, where pizza is a favorite, easy and fun... Whether they were on an adventure with Marco Polo on the Silk Route or just finding the birth place of pizza, I know my kids remember things so much better when they have to find and locate places for themselves... And one thing I will never forget is all the crazy toppings found around the world... I can honestly say that I have never craved mayo & potato pizza... "THANKFULLY"... but it is quite the rage in Japan...

We even touched a lil' on some easy Italian with some worksheets I added and got from here  ...For math, we worked on fractions, using a "Tuzzles" Pizza Fraction Puzzle that I had bought last year, but never got around to using til' now...       Playing with the "Tuzzle"

and a game from Learning Resources called "Fun with Pizza Fractions"... (it's 7 games in 1 box)

           DS playing a game of fractions...

I really liked how art was brought into this unit with a study of Leonardo Davinci and Michangelo... we visited Galileo and even had the opportunity to bring out our Galileoscope to use one night... The kids discovered the music of Vivaldi and took turns creating their own musical masterpieces at the keyboard one afternoon... which the kidlets loved even though it didn't do much for my headache...

DD made a pizza craft using some styrofoam peanuts, felt, and construction paper...She loves making up her own thing!! *LOL*

                                                                            

Our family took a visual trip to Italy by watching a Rick Steve's travel video that we got from our local library that toured the cities of Italy.  I must say though that I loved it much more than the kids did...Their favorite episodes were Naples and Pompeii. You can check out the video here . Then we capped  our evening off by making homemade pizza. The kids loved playing with the dough and dinner is always better when you make it yourself. This is the recipe for an easy, quick dough that we used.
                            

and finally ~ YUMMY!!!                         

So, are you wanting to let your kids travel to Italy and never leave the comforts of your own home? Are you wanting to let your children's minds wander as they bite into every cheesy morsel of information? Well, don't hesitate to ask me more about this unit... Now you ask, where can "I" get more information on Download N' Go and  where can "I" order this yummy study?  I am so  glad that you asked that! Download N'Go is having a special this weekend on Saturday and Sunday with Pizza Party being on sale for $5...Yes, I said it...Only $5 for a week of learning and fun... You can also purchase other Download N' Go units here for only $7.95 each.

I also have been allowed  to offer the chance to win a giveaway copy of the "Pizza Party" unit study~ you have 3 different opportunities to enter:

1. Leaving me a comment on this review


2. Become a follower of my blog


3. Go to Download N' Go and let me know which unit you like best in the comment section of this review

Good Luck and don't forget to celebrate National Cheese Pizza Day this Sunday, September 5th.