Earth Science: Astronomy, Unit 5

Planets

Did you think we got sucked into a black hole or something? Naw, it just took us a while to get through our study of the planets. Wowzers...did we ever learn some fascinating facts! A lot of new information since my stint in fourth grade. Tessa's all set to build a space rocket in the backyard so she can zoom off for a first-hand look.

Introduction

• Read Meet the Planets by John McGranaghan.
• Attempted a combination of Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Exploring Space, Grades 1-3 "How Far?" (page 36) and "Solar System Mobile" from Thames & Kosmos Space Exploration kit, but our Command strips didn't hold.
• Watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: The Planets DVD by Disney.

Mercury

• Read Mercury by Gregory L. Vogt.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Science: Solar System, Grades 1-3 "Pocket Planet Guides - Mercury" (page 9).

Venus

• Read Venus by Paul Fleisher. 
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Science: Solar System, Grades 1-3 "Pocket Planet Guides - Venus" (page 9).

Earth

• Read Earth by Jeffrey Zuehlke.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Science: Solar System, Grades 1-3 "Pocket Planet Guides - Earth" (page 9).

Mars

• Read Mars by Conrad J. Storad.
• Read Mission to Mars by Franklyn M. Branley.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Science: Solar System, Grades 1-3 "Pocket Planet Guides - Mars" (page 10).

Jupiter

• Read Jupiter by Rosanna Hansen.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Science: Solar System, Grades 1-3 "Pocket Planet Guides - Jupiter" (page 10).
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Science: Solar System, Grades 1-3 "What a Gas!" (page 6).

Saturn

• Read Saturn by Laura Hamilton Waxman.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Science: Solar System, Grades 1-3 "Pocket Planet Guides - Saturn" (page 10).

Uranus

• Read Uranus by Gregory L. Vogt.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Science: Solar System, Grades 1-3 "Pocket Planet Guides - Uranus" (page 11).

Neptune

• Read Neptune by Paul Fleisher.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Science: Solar System, Grades 1-3 "Pocket Planet Guides - Neptune" (page 11).

Pluto

• Read Pluto: A Dwarf Planet by Gregory L. Vogt.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Science: Solar System, Grades 1-3 "Pocket Planet Guides - Pluto" (page 11) and then assembled the rest of the book.

A page from Tessa's completed "My Pocket Planet Guide." Did you know Titan, one of Saturn's moons, has an atmosphere?

Earth Science: Astronomy, Unit 4

Constellations

As enthralled as Tessa is with Greek myths, I was pretty sure she would enjoy learning about constellations. And, how right I was! She has absorbed so much since we started our study of space that when we visited the Saint Louis Science Center's James S. McDonnell Planetarium last week, she knew nearly all of the answers to the questions the docent asked during the sky shows we viewed. Stellar!

Tuesday

• Read Constellations by F. S. Kim.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Exploring Space, Grades 1-3 "Groups of Stars Seen Together Are Called Constellations - Naming Star Pictures" (page 26).
• Assembled telescope from Thames & Kosmos Space Exploration kit.

Wednesday

• Read Once Upon a Starry Night: A Book of Constellations by Jacqueline Mitton.
• Assembled star map from Thames & Kosmos Space Exploration kit.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Exploring Space, Grades 1-3 "Groups of Stars Seen Together Are Called Constellations - The North Star and the Big Dipper" (page 27).
• Created constellations with glow-in-the-dark Wonder Stars Super Kit by University Games.

Following Monday

• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Science: Solar System, Grades 1-3 "Comets, Meteors, and Stars - A Celestial Constellation Viewer" (page 14).
• Read Little Bear, You're a Star!: A Greek Myth About the Constellations by Jean Marzollo.

Tessa and I created a constellation viewer with an empty Pringles can, card stock and star stickers.

Earth Science: Astronomy, Units 2 & 3

Stars & the Sun

A brief intro to the stars and sun.

Unit 2 - Stars

• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Exploring Space, Grades 1-3 "Stars Are Huge Balls of Hot, Glowing Gases - Wondering About Stars" (page 16).
• Read The Magic School Bus Sees Stars: A Book About Stars by Nancy White.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Exploring Space, Grades 1-3 "Stars Are Huge Balls of Hot, Glowing Gases - What Is a Star?" and "Stars Minibook" (page 17).
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Science: Solar System, Grades 1-3 "Comets, Meteors, and Stars - Where Do They Go?" (page 13) and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Litte Star" (page 14).

Unit 3 - The Sun

• Read The Sun: Our Nearest Star by Franklyn M. Branley.
• Read The Sun: The Star of Our Solar System by Ellen Lawrence.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: Exploring Space, Grades 1-3 "Our Sun Is a Star - Is Our Sun a Star," "Why Do We Need the Sun," (page 21) and "Our Sun Minibook" (page 22).
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Science: Solar System, Grades 1-3 "The Sun - Sun Collage" (page 19).
• Watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: The Sun DVD by Disney.

Tessa cut out pictures from magazines to make a collage of things that depend on the sun to survive.

• Read pages 5-9 from Eclipses by Jessica Morrison.
• Explored Thames & Kosmos Space Exploration kit (solar eclipse, sundial, solar collector and finger parabola experiments).

Medieval Times, Lesson 27

Africa

One week a month, I switch up our schedule to work in some extra fun electives that we don't have time to study on a weekly basis. This month, I got lucky and was able to work it where history, literature and art aligned. All three subjects focused on Africa.

Monday

• Read The Usborne Medieval World by Jane Bingham (page 62).
• Completed HO map work for Lesson 27, Main Lesson Part 1: North Africa.
• Read Africa Is Not A Country by Margy Burns Knight.
• Listened to Magic Tree House #26: Good Morning, Gorillas audiobook by Mary Pope Osborne.

Tuesday

• Read The Usborne Medieval World by Jane Bingham (page 63).
• Completed HO map work for Lesson 27, Main Lesson Part 2: East Africa.
• Read Gugu's House by Catherine Stock.
• Read Jambo Means Hello: Swahili Alphabet Book by Muriel Feelings.
• Read The Lion and the Hare: An East African Folktale by Stephen Krensky.
• Watched East Africa for Kids DVD by Worlds Together.

Thursday

• Read The Usborne Medieval World by Jane Bingham (pages 64-65).
• Completed HO map work for Lesson 27, Main Lesson Part 3: West Africa.
• Completed HO Q&A for Lesson 27, Main Lesson Part 3: West Africa.
• Read Pretty Salma: A Little Red Riding Hood Story from Africa by Niki Daly.
• Read The Magic Gourd by Baba Wague Diakite.

Thursday - Literature

• Studied Zomo the Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from West Africa by Gerald McDermott with Reading & Writing with Picture Books, Grade 1 by The Mailbox (pages 53-58).

Friday - Art

• Completed "Masks: Cultural Appreciation" lesson from Atelier: The DVD-Based Art Program, Level 1.

Tessa used a heavy duty oval paper plate, wrapping and tissue paper, yarn, feathers and a variety of other craft supplies to create an "African" mask during Atelier art time.

* HO = History Odyssey

Earth Science: Weather, Unit 7

Weather Forecasting

This was our last week studying weather. I don't know about you, but I am overjoyed to be moving on! Weather is not my favorite thing. Tessa, on the other hand, is sad to see it go. Of course she is, right? Next up...space.

(Somehow, I managed not to take any pics this week.)

Monday

• Read Weather Forecasting by Gail Gibbons via OpenLibrary.org.
• Read Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons via OpenLibrary.org.

Tuesday

• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Weather Forecasting: Under Pressure" (page 43), "Hair-Raising Hygrometer" (page 44) and "Windy Way" (page 45).
• Started The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Weather Forecasting: Meteorologist Mixer" data recording worksheet (page 42).

If I would have known how much Tessa was going to like tracking and recording the weather, I would have invested in some real weather instruments. I wish I would have anyway because I'm not sure any of our homemade gadgets really worked all that great. The anemometer was a complete flop. Seriously, don't make these...find something better.

Wednesday

• Read Freddy the Frogcaster by Janice Dean.

I was going to have Tessa complete "Winter Skit: Weather News for the U. S." that I found at TeacherFileBox.com, but our day ran really long. I ended up skipping it.

Following Tuesday

• Finished The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Weather Forecasting: Meteorologist Mixer" data recording worksheet (page 42).
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Weather Forecasting: Mapping It" worksheet (page 45).

I just never know what Tessa is going to enjoy. The things I think might bore her to tears turn out to be her favorite things. She was all about looking up weather data in the newspaper and then mapping it and the weather data we collected on national and local maps. Who knew?

Earth Science: Weather, Unit 6

The Seasons

I wasn't thrilled with my book options for this unit, so I was a little worried the concept of the changing seasons in relation to the Earth's tilt and its orbit around the sun might come across as a wee bit abstract. Luckily, Bill Nye was able to pick up the slack. Tessa seemed to get it just fine.

Wednesday

• Read Sunshine Makes the Seasons by Franklyn M. Branley.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "The Seasons: Shining Seasons" (page 34). (I only had one inflatable globe, so I just moved it from one season to the next. I made sure the North Pole always pointed in the correct direction.)
• Watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Earth's Seasons DVD by Disney.

Thursday

• Read Changing Seasons by Bobbie Kalman.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "The Seasons: Global Opposites" (page 35).
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "The Seasons: Get Clear on the Hemispheres" worksheet (page 39).

Friday

• Read Four Seasons Make a Year by Anne Rockwell.
• Read Skip Through the Seasons by Stella Blackstone.
• Tessa sorted the months by season with free printables from Teachers Pay Teachers. We used "Vocabulary Sort - Seasons!" by Marjorie Sheridan for the season titles and "Months of the Year Title Cards" by Dawn Melvin for the month titles.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "The Seasons: Creative Calendars" (page 35). (I changed my printer settings to print "2014 Black and White Chevron Monthly Calendars" by Tiffany Ford two to a page so the calendars would be smaller and easier for Tessa to work with.)
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "The Seasons: The Fun Four" worksheet (page 38). (We were running short on time, so we completed this orally.)
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "The Seasons: Seasonal Squares" game (pages 40-41).

Tessa sorted the months by season. This proved a little changing until I encouraged her to think about the month each season starts. From there, we deduced that each season is made up of three months.

Tessa's completed "Creative Calendars." She grouped the months by season, labeled and illustrated the cover of each booklet and then drew icons for various holidays.

Tessa always enjoys playing the mini games that are sprinkled into our curriculum. I try to squeeze them in where I can.

Other Books of Interest

• The Reasons for Seasons - Gail Gibbons (Would have liked to have read this one, but couldn't locate it at a library or find it free to read online.)

Earth Science: Weather, Unit 5

Storms

Tessa is terrified of the possibility of being in a tornado. Living in Missouri, there's usually at least one that touches down in the vicinity each season. After this unit on storms, I think she's a little more confident now that she understands them better...and, what to do if there is one. She doesn't seem quite so scared now. We'll see. Storm season is just around the corner!

Monday

• Read Flash, Crash, Rumble, and Roll by Franklyn M. Branley.
• Read The Storm Book by Charlotte Zolotow.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Storms: Lightning Safety" (page 28). (We completed this orally instead of using it as a writing assignment.)
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Storms: A Thunderstorm Is Building" (page 27).
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Storms: A Few Words About Weather" (page 27).
• Watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Storms DVD by Disney.

Our completed "A Thunderstorm Is Building" paper craft, which explains what causes the crashing and flashing that happens during a thunderstorm. We altered it a wee bit. Instead of printing three of the clouds on gray paper, I had Tessa color them. We also didn't sandwich the yarn between double copies of the clouds.

Tuesday

• Read Tornadoes! by Gail Gibbons.
• Looked at pictures and read excerpts from Tornado!: The Story Behind These Twisting, Turning, Spinning, and Spiraling Storms by Judy Fradin.
• Read Otis and the Tornado by Loren Long.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Storms: A Twister in a Jar" (page 29). (This experiment didn't really work for us. I did use a larger bottle and doubled the "recipe," so perhaps that's why. We also completed the tornado-in-a-bottle demonstration featured on the Bill Nye DVD mentioned above. That one was really cool and worked like a charm.)

Wednesday

• Read Hurricanes! by Gail Gibbons.
• Read Hurricane by David Wiesner.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Storms: In the Eye of the Storm" (page 28). (We had a hard time with this demonstration too. I couldn't get it to work at all when the string was attached to the ruler. I couldn't move the paperclip into the eye fast enough without it spinning around and around. After holding the string with the paperclip just so with one hand and briskly stirring the water with the other, I was able to get it to work. It took me many tries to get it just right, though.)

Gerri the Geranium (Magenta), Respect Authority Petal

Once a month, Tessa and I complete a picture book literature study for school. I had a different book planned for this month until I realized that the study for Officer Buckle and Gloria would be a perfect fit for earning her Gerri the Geranium (Magenta), Respect Authority petal. So, I switched the book a couple of days before and we killed two birds with one stone.

The activities we completed over a two-day period came from Reading & Writing with Picture Books, Grade 1 by The Mailbox. I think either activity could be done without the directions, though. Reading the book and then completing just one activity would fulfill the requirements for Gerri's petal. The first activity does take some preparation. You would need to give yourself plenty of time to collect safety tips from newspapers, magazines and such. They aren't quite as easy to come by as you might think, especially child-oriented ones.

To compliment earning Gerri's petal, Tessa finished up the requirements for the Daisy Safety Award the next day.

What We Did

• Discussed the Gerri the Geranium (Magenta), Respect Authority petal.
• Read "Gerri's Story: Playing by the Rules" from The Daisy Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting.
• Talked about "Gerri's Story" per patch requirements.
• Listened to Officer Buckle & Gloria by Peggy Rathmann via Scholastic Storybook Treasures: Treasury of 100 Storybook Classics (or Scholastic Storybook Treasures: Treasury of 50 Storybook Classics - Animal Antics and More!) DVD.
• Created a collage of safety tips cut from magazines, newsletters, brochures and various other media. Embellished with dog cutouts and gold foil star stickers.
• Tessa pretended to be a safety office and wrote her own safety tip. Afterward, she illustrated it with a drawing of her fictitious canine sidekick (who also happens to be our real dog).
• Completed the "Congratulations!" portion of the Gerri the Geranium (Magenta), Respect Authority petal.

Tessa created a collage of safety tips cut from magazines, newsletters, brochures and a variety of other media. Afterward, she embellished them to cutouts of dogs and gold foil star stickers.

Tessa pretended to be a safety officer and came up with her very own safety tip. She illustrated her tip with a drawing of her fictitious canine sidekick (who also happens to be our real dog).

Looking for more Gerri the Geranium activities?

Check out my Playing It Safe - Girl Scout Daisies - "Gerri - Magenta Petal" Pack (Step 3) printable scouting helper.

Earth Science: Weather, Unit 4

Wind

Tessa enjoyed many hands-on activities while studying wind this week. She also made the pinwheel featured on Bill Nye the Science Guy on her own.

Monday

• Read What Is Wind? by Robin Johnson.
• Read The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Wind: Creating Artificial Wind" (page 20). 
• Watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Wind DVD by Disney.

Tuesday

• Read The Magic School Bus Rides the Wind by Anne Capeci.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Wind: Windy Matchup" (page 22).
• Completed "Wind Vane for Kids" from education.com. (There is a weather vane activity in The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3, but I liked this one better.)

We quickly ran outside to test our weather vane. Luckily, the day was breezy and it worked!

Wednesday

• Read Feel the Wind by Arthur Dorros.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Wind: Wonderful Windsocks" (page 23).

We have a ton of washable markers, but none besides black that are permanent. So, instead of drawing designs onto a plastic bag as directed in "Wonderful Windsocks," we used a really cute bag with lime green polka dots that I had stashed away. Tessa cut the fringe and helped me assemble the windsock.

The day was mild and there was a nice breeze, so Tessa had a wonderful time flying her windsock like a kite. It work well when we hung it on a post to tell wind direction too!

Friday

• Tessa read Wind by Marion Dane Bauer during reading.

Earth Science: Weather, Unit 3

Precipitation

Snow, rain, sleet and hail...Tessa learned about various forms of precipitation.

Monday

• Read What Is Precipitation? by Robin Johnson.
• Read How Are Rain, Snow, and Hail Alike? by Ellen Lawrence.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Precipitation: Weather Word Wheel" (page 17). 

Tuesday

• Read Down Comes the Rain by Franklyn M. Branley.
• Read Listen to the Rain by Bill Martin.
• Read Come On, Rain by Karen Hesse.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Precipitation: Looks Like Rain" (page 15) and "Going Down!" (page 16).

Tessa conducted a demonstration to see which one falls faster...a raindrop or a snowflake. We used a wadded up piece of blue paper to represent a raindrop and a sheet of white paper of equal size for a snowflake. 

Wednesday

• Read Snow Is Falling by Franklyn M. Branley.
• Read The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter's Wonder by Mark Cassino.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Precipitation: Frosty Figures" (page 16).

After creating a quick accordion-fold construction paper booklet of various types of snowflakes for "Frosty Figures," Tessa decorated the front cover with snowflakes drawn with glitter glue.

Friday

• Tessa read Snow by Marion Dane Bauer during reading.

Other Books of Interest

• It's Snowing! - Gail Gibbons
• Snowflake Bentley - Jacqueline Briggs Martin

Earth Science: Weather, Unit 2

Clouds

Tessa learned how clouds are formed and the different classifications of clouds through a variety of picture books and learning activities. Many of the activities were a bit of a letdown. Tessa thought we were going to "cook up" a big puffy white cloud, not create a teeny puff of condensation in a jar. Hah!

Tuesday

• Read What Are Clouds? by Ellen Lawrence.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Clouds: Sing a Song of Cloud Types" and "Cooking Up a Cloud" (page 9). 

Wednesday

• Read The Cloud Book by Tomie dePaola.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Clouds: Clouds of Foam" (page 8). (This activity didn't work as well as I thought it would. Perhaps we used too much shaving cream?)

Thursday

• Read Clouds by Anne Rockwell.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Clouds: Cloudy Weather Windows" (page 11).

Tessa's completed "Cloudy Weather Windows." She created various types of clouds with cotton balls, labeled them and then illustrated the resultant weather underneath them.

Following Monday

• Tessa read Clouds by Marion Dane Bauer during reading.
• Read Cloud Dance by Thomas Locker.
• Read Little Cloud by Eric Carle.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Clouds: Clouds Up Close" (page 10).

All Week Long

• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Clouds: Cloud Journal" (page 12).

Earth Science: Weather, Unit 1

The Water Cycle

Evan-Moor doesn't offer an age-appropriate ScienceWorks book for weather, so I am drafting my own lessons for this segment of Earth Science with the help of The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3. It provides a great selection of experiments, demonstrations, paper activities, etc., but no actual lessons or schedules. So far, it's working out well and Tessa is enjoying it...just takes a little more planning time on my part.

First up was the water cycle. Having studied this before, Tessa already had a pretty good handle on the basics and components of the water cycle, so we focused on expanding her science vocabulary and zeroing in on details.

Tuesday

• Read What Is Weather? by Ellen Lawrence.

Wednesday

• Read What Is the Water Cycle? by Ellen Lawrence.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "The Water Cycle: An Itsy-Bitsy Water Cycle" (page 6). 
• Watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Water Cycle DVD by Disney.

Following Monday

• Read A Drop Around the World by Barbara McKinney.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "The Water Cycle: Watching the Water Cycle" (page 4). 

Following Tuesday

• Read Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean by Arthur Dorros.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "The Water Cycle: Wonderful Puddle Project" (page 5).

October Fun Week

I'm trying something new this year. There are so many "fun" electives that I want to study with Tessa, but we don't have time to cover them on a daily or even weekly basis. After scrutinizing our schedule, I found that if we drop science and Spanish and cut back a little on history one week a month, we will have time to study some of these electives. I have dubbed this week "fun" week.

We studied the following during October Fun Week.


Literature

• Studied Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins with Reading & Writing with Picture Books, Grade 1 by The Mailbox (pages 5-10).

"Rosie's Walk" is chocked full of cause and effect. After matching cause and effect cards, Tessa chose her favorite to illustrate.

Tessa demonstrated her ability to recall the route Rosie took during her walk by matching hen-shaped cards. I was not surprised to find that her memory was much better than mine.

Hands-On Language Arts

• Completed "Chips and Dip" (Punctuation, page 29), "Nifty Notebooks" (Nouns, page 50), "Caterpillar Parts" (Writing Sentences, page 28), "Spin a Vowel" (Short-Vowel Sounds, page 23) and "Flipping Flapjacks" (Rhyming, page 20) with Super Simple Independent Practice: Language Arts, Grade 1 by The Mailbox.

Tessa pulled paper potato chips from the "Chips" can, read the sentences and then placed them into the proper punctuation dip bowls.

Tessa sorted word cards into two piles...one for nouns and one for not nouns. Then, she wrote sentences, which she also illustrated, for the nouns in a notebook.

Tessa loved flipping paper flapjacks. The flapjacks had pictures and words on them that she "flipped" over to draw and write complementing rhyming words on their backs.

Logic

• Studied logic with Analogies for Beginners, Grades 1-3 and Logic Safari, Book 1 by Prufrock Press.

Tessa completed Lollipop Logic two summers ago, which she absolutely adored. I promised we would study logic again one day. After a very long wait, one day is finally here.

Atelier Art

• Completed "The Four Seasons" from Atelier Art, Level 1 - Module B, Lesson 3.

Fire Prevention Week

Fire Prevention Week happened to fall during our "fun" week, so we took a couple of days for Tessa to learn about fire safety. Visit our Fire Prevention Week - Oct. 6-12, 2013 post for details.

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 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