Life Science, Week 19

What Vertebrates Eat

Tessa learned what vertebrates eat, specifically herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. I'm loving books by Steve Jenkins and Bobbie Kalman right now. It's almost like they wrote them just for us. They fit our current studies that well.

Monday

• Read Time To Eat by Steve Jenkins.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals with Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Vertebrates Have Developed Different Ways of Acquiring Food - Finding Food" activity and mini book (page 40) and "Extension Activity" (page 42) from TeacherFileBox.com.

We didn't do the first part of "Finding Food" since it wasn't practical for the homeschool environment. Instead, Tessa and I talked through the scenario and the ways animals might use their senses to find food.

Tuesday

• Read What is a Herbivore? by Bobbie Kalman.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals with Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Vertebrates Have Developed Different Ways of Acquiring Food - Plant Eaters" activity and mini book (page 41) from TeacherFileBox.com.

Wednesday

• Read What is a Carnivore? by Bobbie Kalman.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals with Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Vertebrates Have Developed Different Ways of Acquiring Food - Meat Eaters" activity, mini book and worksheets (page 42) from TeacherFileBox.com.

Thursday

• Read What is an Omnivore? by Bobbie Kalman.
• Completed "Telltale Teeth" (pages 6 and 11) from Investigating Mammals, Grades 1-3 by The Mailbox.

I thought "Telltale Teeth" would be a fun little exercise for Tessa, but it turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. The issue was writing on a curve. Even when I encouraged Tessa to simply write straight across, she couldn't get past the curved spaces and turned her paper all sorts of funky ways. Finally, a light bulb clicked on in my head and I lightly penciled in some baselines with a ruler. That made things go more smoothly, but frustration had already set in by that point and Tessa was in a poor mood. My recommendation, pencil in baselines beforehand.

Tessa drew pictures of a herbivore, carnivore, omnivore and insectivore, then wrote what they eat and the type of teeth they have. Red foxes aren't true omnivores, but Tessa was interested in how they have adapted to eating plants when meat isn't available, so I went ahead and let her choose it.