Life Science, Week 33

Plants That Never Bloom

We finished up our first-round study of the life sciences with plants that never bloom, focusing on mushrooms and ferns that reproduce by spores as apposed to seeds. We also touched upon plants that have cones.

Join us at the end of next month when we embark on our mission to study the earth and space. We will once again use Evan-Moor ScienceWorks to do so.

Monday

• Read Plants That Never Ever Bloom by Ruth Heller.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "Not All Plants Reproduce from Seeds Made by Flowers - Plants That Never Bloom" and "Categorizing Plants" (page 74).

Tuesday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "Not All Plants Reproduce from Seeds Made by Flowers - Mushroom Prints" (page 75).

The mushroom prints were so easy that they really could have been combined with Monday's lesson.

Life Science, Week 32

What Plants Need & Why People Need Plants

Tessa reviewed that plants need food, water and light to grow. She also learned that people need plants for food and oxygen.

Monday

• Read through experiments from Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "Plants Need Food, Water and Light to Grow" and completed mini book (pages 57-59).
• Read Dirt: The Scoop on Soil by Natalie M. Rosinsky.

We're to the point in our school term that we're quickly wrapping things up. We already have several ongoing plant experiments in the works, so I opted not to start any new ones. Tessa generally understands the needs of plants, so we talked through the experiments and she made appropriate guesses to what would happen to the plants in each one.

Wednesday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "People Need Plants for Food and Oxygen - What Comes from Plants" (page 68).
• Read The Reason for a Flower by Ruth Heller again, focusing on the final pages.

When I don't want to go through the process of creating a bulletin board, I fold a sheet of paper into the appropriate number of parts and have Tessa draw the activity in a similar fashion.

Instead of creating a bulletin board, I had Tessa complete the activity by drawing it out on paper.

Thursday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "People Need Plants for Food and Oxygen - Summary Activities" (page 69).

I really wanted to perform the "Plants Make Oxygen" experiment, but I couldn't easily come by a water plant in our area and we aren't visiting a larger city until the end of next week.

Other Books of Interest

• How We Use Plants for Food - Sally Morgan
• How We Use Plants For Making Everyday Things - Sally Morgan
• How We Use Plants for Medicine and Health - Sally Morgan
• How We Use Plants for Shelter - Sally Morgan

Cool Critters

Tessa came across a couple of cool critters while playing outside these past few days, which lead to some impromptu nature study. She also saw an ornate box turtle in our front flowerbed, but it crawled out of sight before I was able to grab my camera.

This picturesque little guy posed for several minutes before hopping off. I tried looking up "red toads, Missouri" with Google, but came up short in identifying him. 

Since luna moths fly at night, Tessa had the entire day to enjoy this incredible creature.

OpenLibrary.org

I recently stumbled across OpenLibrary.org, an awesome resource for free eBooks. I find it especially helpful when searching for out-of-print books, which are often recommended within our history and science curriculum. Or, for when I discover at the last minute that I've forgotten to order something from our local library.

Check it out! You can borrow up to five titles at a time for two weeks.

Life Science, Week 31

Traveling Seeds & Changing Plants

Tessa learned the various ways seeds travel. Now, she thinks it's a hoot every time our dog carries in a seed on her fur. She also learned the ways a plant changes as it grows.

Monday

• Read From Bird Poop to Wind: How Seeds Get Around by Ellen Lawrence.
• Read What Kinds of Seeds Are These? by Heidi Roemer.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "Seeds Travel in Many Ways - Seeds Travel" and "Collect Samples" (page 44).

Tuesday

• Read The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "Seeds Travel in Many Ways - Ways Seeds Travel" (page 45).

Thursday

• Read The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons.
• Read From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "Plants Change As They Grow - The Plant Growth Cycle" and "Seed-Growing Bags" (page 50).

Tessa prepared a seed-growing bag that she will monitor for 21 days. She will mark significant stages of growth on a chart to see exactly how long each stage takes.

Friday

• Read Jack's Garden by Henry Cole.

Since we have a vegetable garden, and various plants growing outside around the house that Tessa helped plant, we opted not to complete any additional activities from Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "Plants Change As They Grow."

Life Science, Week 30

Fruit Contains Seeds & Seeds Contain New Plants

Tessa studied fruits and seeds to see how new plants are formed.

Monday

• Read A Seed Is Sleepy by Dianna Hutts Aston.
• Read A Fruit Is a Suitcase for Seeds by Jean Richards.

Tuesday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "The Fruit of a Flowering Plant Contains Seeds - What's Inside a Fruit?", "How Many Seeds?" (page 30, minus "Graph the Results" on page 31), "Is It a Fruit?" and "Seed Search" (page 31).

Tessa examined and counted seeds from various fruits. She learned that a fruit is a "suitcase" for seeds.

Wednesday

• Read From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons.
• Read Seeds Sprout! by Mary Dodson Wade.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "Seeds Contain New Plants - What's in a Seed?", "Examine Seeds" and "Are Seeds the Same Inside?" (pages 37-38).

Tessa examined the inside of a lima bean seed (soaked overnight to soften it) up close. Noting its seed coat and then the small shoot and food inside, she sketched what she observed. Afterward, she compared the seed to others of various types to see whether all seeds contain the same parts.  

Friday

• Read How a Seed Grows by Helene J. Jordan.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "Seeds Contain New Plants - Plant a Seed" (page 38).

Life Science, Week 29

Plant Parts

A fun thing about studying plants is that there are so many simple, cheap little experiments that Tessa can do with them. This week, she studied the various parts of plants with most days ending with a hands-on activity.

Monday

• Read Plant Plumbing: A Book About Roots and Stems by Susan Blackaby.
• Read What Do Roots Do? by Kathleen V. Kudlinski.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "Each Part of a Plant Has a Special Function - What Do Roots Do?" (pages 16-17).

After removing the roots from Plant #2 outside, we brought both plants in for Tessa to observe and draw. In ten days or so, she'll observe and draw them again while taking note of what changes may have occurred.

Tuesday

• Read What Are Stems? by Molly Aloian.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "Each Part of a Plant Has a Special Function - What Do Stems Do?" (page 18).

In this classic experiment, Tessa and I placed white carnations and celery in colored water. After forty-eight hours, Tessa observed the subtle changes that proved that water and nutrients do indeed move through tiny tubes in stems to leaves and flowers of plants. Afterward, I sliced through the stems so Tessa could get a closer look.

Wednesday

• Read Cooking with Sunshine: How Plants Make Food by Ellen Lawrence.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "Each Part of a Plant Has a Special Function - How Do Plants Get Food?" (page 19).
• Watched The Magic School Bus: Gets Planted by Scholastic via YouTube.

Thursday

• Read The Reason for a Flower by Ruth Heller.
• Read "Flowers" from The Usborne Complete First Book of Nature by R. Kidman-Cox.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "Each Part of a Plant Has a Special Function - What Do Flowers Do?" (page 20).
• Watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Flowers DVD by Disney.
• Examined real flowers up close and identified their parts.
• Examined bees pollinating flowers. Identified pollen stuck to the bees hind legs.

Friday

• Read The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "Each Part of a Plant Has a Special Function - Summary Activities" (page 21).

For the sorting activity, we used toy food that we had around the house. Instead of the bulletin board activity, I folded a piece of white paper into sixths and then had Tessa title, draw and label the foods as instructed.

Life Science - Week 28

Plants

Woohoo! We have finally made it to plants. This will be our final unit of study for life science. I'm excited, not because I think the grass will be greener on the other side, but because I'm longing for that sweet sense of completion.

We began our study of plants by taking a look at their basic parts. We will follow up in more detail in subsequent weeks.

Monday

• Read Plants Are Alive! by Molly Aloian.
• Completed "Plant Parts" (pages 4 and 9) from Investigating Plants, Grades 1-3 by The Mailbox.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "Plants Have Many Parts - Looking at Flowering Plants" (page 12).

First, Tessa put together a paper puzzle and labeled the parts and functions of the pictured plant.

Then, she looked at parts of a real plant up close. She pointed out the various parts and explained their functions.

Finally, she drew the plant, labeled its parts and wrote about what she learned.

Tuesday

• Watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Plants DVD by Disney.

Wednesday

• Read A Tree Is a Plant by Clyde Robert Bulla.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Plants, Grades 1-3 "Plants Have Many Parts - Looking at Trees" (page 13).

Other Books of Interest

• Plants in Spring - Martha E. H. Rustad

Life Science, Week 27

Invertebrates - Everything Else

We breezed through the last four units of ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals without Backbones, Grades 1-3 this week since they are very similar to those from Animals with Backbones. Picture books on the subjects covered below often include both vertebrates and invertebrates, so there wasn't much left that we hadn't already read during our study of vertebrates.

Monday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals without Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Invertebrates Have Developed Different Ways of Acquiring Food - How Do They Eat" (page 48), "How Do Wild Animals Find Food" and "'Finding Food' Minibook" (page 49).
• Read Spinning Spiders by Melvin Berger.

Tuesday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals without Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Invertebrates' Movements Are Adapted to the Animals' Needs - How Do I Move" (page 58), "Gather More Information" and "Comparing Vertebrate and Invertebrate Movements" (page 59).

Wednesday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals without Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Invertebrates Have Developed Many Forms of Self-Defense - Animal Defenses" (page 65), mini book and "Summary Activities" (page 67).

We skipped "Camouflage, Protective Coloration, Mimicry" (page 66) only because we did nearly the exact same thing during our study of vertebrates. Tessa remembered how much she enjoyed the activity last time, so she went ahead and colored and decorated three beetles on her own time.

Thursday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals without Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Some Invertebrates Build Homes - What Is a Home?" (page 74) and "'Invertebrate Homes' Minibook" (page 75).
• Read Ant Cities by Arthur Dorros.
• Watched The Magic School Bus: Bugs, Bugs, Bugs! DVD ("In a Beehive" episode) by Scholastic from Netflix.

Life Science, Week 26

Invertebrate Life Cycles

Although this week was supposed to detail life cycles of various types of invertebrates, it ended up primarily focusing on a couple of popular insectival life cycles. I figured this was okay since we had already covered other invertebrate life cycles during our studies earlier this month and last.

Monday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals without Backbones, Grades 1-3 "There Are Several Types of Invertebrate Life Cycles - Mini Book" (page 40).
• Read From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman.
• Read A Butterfly's Life by Ellen Lawrence.
• Read Can You Tell a Butterfly from a Moth? by Buffy Silverman.
• Watched The Magic School Bus: Bugs, Bugs, Bugs! DVD ("Butterfly and the Bog Beast" episode) by Scholastic from Netflix.

Wednesday

• Read Starting Life: Ladybug by Claire Llewellyn.
• Read A Ladybug Larva Grows Up by Katie Marsico.
• Read Ladybugs by Sian Smith.
• Completed "A Ladybug's Life Cycle" (pages 21 and 25) from Investigating Insects, Grades 1-3 by The Mailbox. (Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals without Backbones, Grades 1-3 "There Are Several Types of Invertebrate Life Cycles - Ladybug Life Cycle" worksheet and writing exercise (pages 40 and 46) can be used in place of the aforementioned activity.)

Tessa's completed "A Ladybug's Life Cycle" booklet shows the various stages of a ladybug's life cycle...from adult to egg to larva to pupa to ladybug. Later that day, she successfully identified both a ladybug larva and a pupa while playing outside. 

Friday

• Read Mealworms by Martha E. H. Rustad.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals without Backbones, Grades 1-3 "There Are Several Types of Invertebrate Life Cycles - Egg to Beetle" (page 38) and "Mealworm to Beetle" observation sheet (page 41).

Supplies for our mealworm house...oats, apple chunks, damp sponges, recycled plastic bucket and mealworms. The instructions called for damp paper towels, but I thought sponges might work better.

Tessa began creating our mealworm house by pouring oats into the recycled plastic bucket.

After adding the apple chunks and damp sponges, Tessa helped transfer the mealworms (darkling beetle larvae) to their new home.  We transferred sixty-four mealworms in all. We first thought some of our mealworms were dead. Turns out that what we were looking at were molted skins. Mealworms molt several times as they bridge from larva to pupa stage.

Our completed mealworm house. Now, we watch and wait. It can takes several months for a mealworm to complete its life cycle.

Tessa also observed a mealworm with a hand leans, drew a picture of it and then wrote a sentence about what it does in its new home. 

Other Books of Interest

• Butterfly House - Eve Bunting
• The Grouchy Ladybug - Eric Carle
• Waiting for Wings - Lois Ehlert
• Ladybugs - Gail Gibbons
• Monarch Butterfly - Gail Gibbons
• Butterfly Birthday - Harriet Ziefert

Life Science, Week 25

Ocean Invertebrates

There are more types of invertebrates that live in the ocean than on land. Tessa learned about some of the most common ones this week.

Tuesday

• Watched Oceans DVD by DisneyNature from Netflix.

This DVD isn't specifically about invertebrates. I had Tessa point out the invertebrates as we watched.

Wednesday

• Read Looking Closely Along the Shore by Frank Serafini.
• Read Jellyfish by Ann Herriges.
• Read Prickly Sea Stars by Natalie Lunis.
• Read Nature's Monsters: Crab & Mollusks by Brenda Ralph Lewis.

I had a hard time churning up good books about ocean invertebrates at our local library. I really like the No Backbone! series by Bearport Publishing. Our library had several from the series for land invertebrates but just one for ocean invertebrates. I've listed the others under "Other Books of Interest" below.

Friday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals without Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Most Kinds of Invertebrates Live in the Ocean - Ocean Invertebrates" (page 28), mini book (page 30) and "Ocean Invertebrates Bulletin Board" (page 31) from TeacherFileBox.com.

I would have loved to have had Tessa examine various ocean invertebrate specimens as suggested in "Take a Closer Look" (page 29), but I couldn't come up with any in our neck of the woods. Anything besides shrimp that is.

Our completed ocean invertebrates bulletin board (plus, a little something extra Tessa created on her own). I cut the background from construction paper and stapled it onto the bulletin board. Tessa was in charge of drawing the invertebrates. She drew a crab, jellyfish, sand dollar, sea anemone, and some mussels, sea stars and mollusks.  

Other Books of Interest

• Crawling Crabs - Natalie Lunis
• Gooey Jellyfish - Natalie Lunis
• Slimy Sea Slugs - Natalie Lunis
• Squirting Squids - Natalie Lunis
• Squishing Sponges - Natalie Lunis

Life Science, Week 24

Invertebrates - Body Characteristics

I set out to create the live observation jars suggested in Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids. After a day's attempt, I had only successfully caught worms, so I abandoned that idea. (To be fair, I did find random spiders, but I wanted orb spiders and I couldn't seem to turn up any of those.) Therefore, we used close-up pictures from books for some of our observations instead.

Quick note...the rhyme along books listed last on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday were just for fun. Don't knock yourself out trying to track down those.

Monday

• Read Wiggly Earthworms by Natalie Lunis.
• Read Wiggling Worms at Work by Wendy Pfeffer.
• Read Worms by Sian Smith.
• Observed live worms.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals without Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Invertebrates are Classified by Their Body Characteristics - Earthworm Record Sheet" (page 22) from TeacherFileBox.com.

Tessa's not fond of soft, squishy invertebrate types. She was content in letting our subject get away this day. 

Tuesday

• Read I Can Read About Spiders by Deborah Merrians.
• Read Spooky Wolf Spiders by Meish Goldish.
• Read Spiders by Sian Smith.
• Observed live spider.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals without Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Invertebrates are Classified by Their Body Characteristics - Spider Record Sheet" (page 19) from TeacherFileBox.com.
• Watched The Magic School Bus: Creepy, Crawly Fun DVD ("Spins a Web" episode) by Scholastic from Netflix.

While I would have preferred an orb or wolf spider for Tessa to observe, I couldn't find either of those on short notice, so I ran down into our basement right before science and snatched up the first spider I came across. Guess where that spider is now? Back in our basement...Tessa insisted on it. After all, she argued, the basement is its home. Ugh.

Wednesday

• Read Ants by Melissa Stewart.
• Read Ants by Rebecca Rissman.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals without Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Invertebrates are Classified by Their Body Characteristics - Ant Record Sheet" (page 20) from TeacherFileBox.com.
• Watched The Magic School Bus: Bugs, Bugs, Bugs! DVD ("Gets Ants in Its Pants" episode) by Scholastic from Netflix.

All of the ant books we ordered from the library didn't arrive in time. Ants by Melissa Stewart wasn't very informative. I suggest finding something better.

Thursday

• Read Creeping Land Snails by Nancy White.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals without Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Invertebrates are Classified by Their Body Characteristics - Snail Record Sheet" (page 21) from TeacherFileBox.com.

Friday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals without Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Invertebrates are Classified by Their Body Characteristics - Is It True?" worksheet (page 24), "Compare and Contrast" Venn diagram and mini book (page 17) from TeacherFileBox.com.

Other Resources of Interest

• Bill Nye the Science Guy: Spiders DVD - Disney

Life Science, Week 23

Invertebrates - Animals without Backbones

With clothes to wash, suitcases to pack and maps to print for our Arizona vacation, it was a one-day week for science. Luckily, the unit was super short and it worked out even though I was hoping to use the extra time to get a jump start on the next unit. Ah, well...could only do what I could do.

Tuesday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals without Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Animals without Backbones are Called Invertebrates - Backbone-No Backbone" activities (page 6) and "Backbone or No Backbone" worksheet (page 11) from TeacherFileBox.com.
• Watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Invertebrates DVD by Disney.

Other Books of Interest

• Animals without Backbones - Bobbie Kalman

It's Owl Week!

Before we started our study of the animal kingdom, I asked Tessa for a list of specific animals that she wanted to learn more about. One was owls. I was super excited to hear this because I have long wanted to dissect owl pellets. Owl pellets are essentially dried owl vomit. Owls often swallow their prey whole. Since they don't have teeth to grind up bones, fur, etc. and their digestive systems can't safely pass these parts, they must "gag" them up. Dissecting owl pellets is a fun, inexpensive and accessible way to study what owls eat. Doing so also reiterates the importance of predator-prey relationships and food webs.

I had the idea of tracking down appropriately leveled nonfiction readers for several of the animals on Tessa's previously mentioned list and designing lapbooks around them. I wanted Tessa to have the experience of completing research and the lapbooks themselves with minimal parental guidance. Unfortunately, I grossly misjudged the amount of time and effort it would take me to design said lapbooks. The owl lapbook shown below is the only one I was able to complete in time. I hope to get a couple more done in time for her to complete this summer.

Monday

• Tessa read Owls by Emily Rose Townsend.
• Completed Blue House School Owls: A Little Learners Lapbook "Body Parts" component.

Tuesday

• Read Owls: Hunters of the Night by Elaine Landau.
• Completed Blue House School Owls: A Little Learners Lapbook "Where Owls Live" component.

Creating a woodland habitat for an owl was one of Tessa's favorite components. She opted to color it after assembly.

Wednesday

• Completed Blue House School Owls: A Little Learners Lapbook "Owls are...," "Feather Colors" and "What Owls Eat" components.

Thursday

• Read Owls by Gail Gibbons.
• Completed Blue House School Owls: A Little Learners Lapbook "What Owls Do," "Owl Facts," "Draw an Owl" and "Cover Art" components.

We ran short on time earlier in the week, so we decided to wait until all components were completed before gluing everything down.

Tessa's nearly completed Blue House School Owls: A Little Learners Lapbook. (She wanted to color the cover art after lunch, so we waited until then to glue it on.) This was her first lapbook. It's not perfect, but I think she did a pretty nice job. She's very proud of it. I especially love her drawing of a common screech owl.

Friday

• Tessa read Good-Night, Owl! by Pat Hutchins during reading.
• Dissected Northwest Medium barn owl pellet from Owl Brand Discovery Kits.

Our Northwest Medium barn owl pellet right out of its foil packet.

Tessa used wooden probes and tweezers (and her fingers!) to dissect her owl pellet. It was like unwrapping a little furry present with lots of teeny treasures inside. I think she had more fun with this lab than any other this year.

A sampling of the bones we found. We ended up with three complete skulls, numerous bones of all sorts and a few pieces of what we think are insect exoskeletons. After comparing the bones to bone charts provided on Owl Brand Discovery Kit's Web site, we concluded that they are either mouse or rat bones...I'm guessing mouse.

Other Resources of Interest

• Blue House School Owls: A Little Learners Lapbook clickable links supplement

Life Science, Week 22

Vertebrates - Home Builders

We finished up Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals with Backbones, Grades 1-3 this week. Now, I have to make a decision...move onto Animals without Backbones, Grades 1-3 or stop for a month or so and study specific vertebrates more in depth. I really want to do the latter, but I'm worried about time. Having said that, we are taking next week to study owls, complete an owl lapbook I designed and dissect owl pellets.

Monday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals with Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Some Vertebrates Build Homes - What Is a Home?" and "Wild Animals' Homes" activities and worksheet (page 70), plus "Animals' Homes Minibook" and worksheet (page 71) from TeacherFileBox.com.

Wednesday

• Read Even an Octopus Needs a Home by Irene Kelly.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals with Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Some Vertebrates Build Homes - Make a Report" (page 72) from TeacherFileBox.com. (We skipped "Animal Builders" (page 71) since it is a lot like this activity.) 

Friday

• Tessa read Castles, Caves and Honeycombs by Linda Ashman during reading.
• Read Whose Nest Is This? by Heidi Roemer.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals with Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Some Vertebrates Build Homes - Check for Understanding" (page 72) from TeacherFileBox.com.

I totally flaked on "Check for Understanding." I knew I was supposed to be collecting recyclables for some reason, but I couldn't remember what. By the time I remembered, it was too late. We didn't have enough around the house for Tessa to construct a home for her imaginary animal, so I just had her draw a home. It was way easier and took less time anyway.

Tessa's completed "Make a Report" and "Check for Understanding" drawings. Most of the time, I go in another room while Tessa independently works on her drawings. It's always a big surprise to see what she comes up with. I thought she did a pretty good job on these two.

Other Books of Interest

• Home for a Bunny - Margaret Wise Brown
• A Home for Bird - Philip C. Stead

Life Science, Week 21

Vertebrates - Forms of Self-Defense

Tessa learned many weird and interesting ways that animals defend themselves. I think her favorite was that opossums and hognosed snakes play dead.

Monday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals with Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Vertebrates Have Developed Many Forms of Self-Defense - Animal Defenses" (page 59) from TeacherFileBox.com.
• Read What Do You Do When Something Wants To Eat You? by Steve Jenkins.
• Read "Suits of Armor" (page 16), "Safety in Numbers" (page 32), "Hiding in Sight" (page 40), "Clever Copycats" (page 42), "Faking It" (page 44), "Poisonous Defense" (page 58) and "Spitters and Squirters" (page 60) from Weird and Wonderful: Attack and Defense: Astonishing Animals, Bizarre Behavior by Phil Whitfield.

Tuesday

• Read Smelly Skunks by Catherine Nichols.
• Read Tricky Opossums by Catherine Nichols.

Wednesday

• Read Prickly Porcupines by Catherine Nichols.
• Read Deadly Poison Dart Frogs by Jennifer Dussling.

Thursday

• Read Camouflage: Changing To Hide by Bobbie Kalman.
• Read Where in the Wild?: Camouflaged Creatures Concealed...and Revealed by David M. Schwartz.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals with Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Vertebrates Have Developed Many Forms of Self-Defense - Protective Coloration" (page 60) from TeacherFileBox.com.
• Completed "Camouflage Capers" (pages 14 and 17) from Investigating Mammals, Grades 1-3 by The Mailbox.

After finding plastic sea creatures that I hid around our school room (some camouflaged, some not), Tessa placed the non-camouflaged sea creatures onto more appropriate backgrounds and then explained how camouflage works.  

Tessa colored a paper rabbit for "Camouflage Capers" to blend in with the background of her choice.  

Friday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals with Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Vertebrates Have Developed Many Forms of Self-Defense - Summary Activities" riddle book and worksheet (page 60) from TeacherFileBox.com.

Other Books of Interest

• How Do You Hug a Porcupine? - Laurie Isop
• A Color of His Own - Leo Lionni
• Clever Chameleon - Alison Lodge
• Skunk's Spring Surprise - Leslea Newman
• Epossumondas - Coleen Salley
• Hugs from Pearl - Paul Schmid
• A Balloon for Isabel - Deborah Underwood
• One Smart Skunk - Harriet Ziefert

Life Science, Week 20

How Vertebrates Move & Footprints Too

Swing, slither and swim...Tessa learned vertebrates move in various ways. She also learned ways to identify animal tracks and made castings of those found around our house.

Monday

• Read Move! by Steve Jenkins.
• Read Swing, Slither or Swim: A Book About Animal Movements by Patricia M. Stockland.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals with Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Vertebrate Movements Are Adapted to the Animal's Needs - How Animals Move" (minus "Animal Charades"...we didn't have enough time), "Gather More Information," mini book and "How Do I Move" worksheet (pages 52-53 and 55) from TeacherFileBox.com.
• Watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Animal Locomotion DVD by Disney.

Tuesday

• Read Fast, Faster, Fastest: Animals That Move at Great Speeds by Michael Dahl.
• Completed "The Race Is On!" (pages 5 and 10) from Investigating Mammals, Grades 1-3 by The Mailbox.

Tessa and I designed a bulletin board for "The Race Is On!" After I set up the race track, Tessa arranged the animals from slowest to fastest around the track.

Our completed bulletin board. The cheetah won, having sprinted to the finish line at 70 mph. The poor sloth never stood a chance. He crawled along at just 1.3 mph.

Wednesday

• Read Big Tracks, Little Tracks: Following Animal Prints by Millicent Ellis Selsam.
• Completed "Keeping Track" (pages 15 and 17-19) from Investigating Mammals, Grades 1-3 by The Mailbox.

Friday

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Animals with Backbones, Grades 1-3 "Vertebrate Movements Are Adapted to the Animal's Needs - Extension Activity" (page 54) from TeacherFileBox.com.

We found deer tracks in our backyard.

And, a couple of dog prints along a nearby pond.

Tessa carefully mixed and then poured plaster of Paris onto a deer print to make a casting. 

Note: After the castings fully dry and we knock the mud and dirt off of them, I will update with a picture of our final products.