Molluscs: The Study of Snails (Part One)

We've been seeing a lot of snails in our place and I just couldn't let this pass :)  So I paid a visit to the library and borrowed a few books about it so we could do a little study on them.  We've never done this before as I am really scared of anything that crawls, but my son was into it and excited so I just have to give in.

Materials:

Books about Snails.  Here I used Slugs and Snails (Minibeast Pets) and Snail (Bug Books). (Affiliates)

Snail Nomenclature Cards and Definition Booklet by The Pinay Homeschooler.  Click the image below for the link as well.

A snail.  We got this tiny fellow in one of our nature walks.

Activity 1:   In search of a snail

Prior to our lesson, we've been reading books and learned about where the snails live and when do they usually come out from their hiding.  So one day, after the rain, we set out to look for a snail that we can bring home.  We followed what the book said: look for snails in dark places, under the rocks, the bushes or if in a surface that is wet or damp.  It was fun looking for them and educational as well.  My son knows exactly where to look for them!

              

 Activity 2: Observing the Snail

Once we have our snail, we put it in a tube (Safari Toob tube LOL) and brought it home for an observation.  My son named the little fellow Sally.  Seen on pictures below, we watched as Sally fed on the leaves, see how she moves and produces a slime to slide.

               

Below we read about the lifecycle of a snail.

 

Activity 3:  Parts of the Snail (Introductory)

At this point in time, we looked at the different parts of the snail.  Mavi was more keen on the body parts as he kept on asking about the eyes of the snail.  We used our snail 3-part cards in identifying the different parts of its body and read our booklet on how each of the parts function.  I like how our nomenclature cards turned out.  Before, I used to draw images but I love that we're using pictures for a more realistic approach.  And at first I kept on questioning the size of our cards but I'm happy that I made it  3.5x4 inches, just enough for everything to be seen.

 

We stopped here.  There were a few more activities left for us to do but I can see that he was already tired.  We will continue this next week as we also study the world of insects.

The study of snail, as I mentioned earlier was something new and the fact that we've been seeing them everywhere helped in building up that eagerness to learn.  He was really curious with this slimy creature and was very attentive in our discussions.  It also helped that we read books about snails beforehand for a head start.

Our snail study did not end here, you can check the second part of our activity here (Molluscs: The Study of Snails Part Two).

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Natural Resources and their Products

Another extension to our continent unity study is learning about the natural resources that are mined or abundant in certain parts of the world.  This is a new topic that I introduced to Mavi and he definitely loved it.  He was very interested in learning about the products of each continent, what they look like as raw materials and how these materials are processed so the people can use them.

Fun Under the Sun

If you are wondering what we're doing when the sun is up, here's a glimpse.

First I would take the boys in our backyard and do some little picnic.  The little one stays on his Mamas & Papas Baby Snug (Green) and plays with me.

Now for the big brother it's a little bit different.  Here you see him playing with his "fossil collections".   These are actually rocks in the yard that he gathered.  The Dinosaur Train inspired him to collect "fossils".  So these rocks are now piled in the yard.

 

After he checks his collection, I made him do some splatter painting.  A few days ago, I was telling him the story of Pollack, of how he paints using splatters.  After that we watched this video of a little girl who's famous of her painting.

 

Now that he is inspired, it's time to put his artistic side to action :)

             

Oh boy, how he love it!!  We just have to move to the grass though because it's getting messier.

Go out and enjoy nature!

The weather was really really good this holiday weekend so we spent most of our time in the park.  We're so thankful that we have this wonderful park just 10 minutes away from our place.  The park is HUGE and lots of areas to explore. 

If you skim through my blog... this is where we usually go when the weather is good.  I am an outdoor person and was an adventurous kid growing up. I grow up in a tropical country and our house is near the beach so imagine all the adventures I have there. And my boys experience this as well.  But living in a cold country has a lot of limitations especially here that we seldom have Mr Sun.

So in a time like this we just have to go out...

... and play with the trees!

.... and check the pond for tadpoles and other insects breeding!

.... and see how the clear water flows in the creek.

 

PH Math for May

I've been assessing my Mavi's progress in mathematics for the past days.  Math is the least of his interest as of the moment.  So during our Math hiatus, I was checking my list and so far he knows and understands everything on it.  In fact he is way beyond his years according to his teacher.

Now as summer vacation is approaching I'm thinking that we should be a little bit more serious with Math this time by being religious to our schedule :)

So for May here's what we're going to have for Math:

Skip counting.  We started with 2's and next will be of 5's and 10's.

Here we are using the beads in our Decanomial Bead Bars with Box and the number tiles from our Hundred Boards for the label.  He pointed out "Mom, it's just a pattern!".  Of course, he's referring to the 0,2,4,6,8 :) And that's what I wanted to instill in him... that in Math some concepts is all about patterns!

   

After the beads and label activity, I made him skip count all the way through 100 and counting it backwards as well.

 

Number Symbol and Quantity (Tens)

Here we're using the same materials.  My objective here is for Mavi to master the identification of number symbols and its equivalence in quantity. 

Activity 1:  Place the correct number of beads, given the number symbols.

Activity 2:  Identify the number symbols,  given the quantity.

 

Activity 3.  Writing the number symbols.  Mavi has no problem writing the numbers from 1 to 100.  But it's a different story when it comes to hundreds and thousands :)

Number Symbol and Quantity (Hundreds)

The same activities with the tens but here we are using our Bead Material and Wooden Small Place Value Cards 1-9999 .

Activity 1:

Activity 2:

Activity 3.  Mavi is still confused writing the hundreds and thousands.  When he wants to write 321, he writes it like 300 21, similar with 1100... he writes it 1000 100.  Now this is pretty normal but I just think that we needed to practice more on this during our spare time.

Hundred Board with Control Chart. I am still on the process of exploring hundred board games.  I have collected a few ideas from fellow homeschool Moms and I can't wait to try it with Mavi.

PS. This post includes affiliated links

Animal Life Cycles (FREE Learning Material)

We are still continuing our vertebrate study and at this point we are exploring the life cycle of each group.  The aim of this study is to compare the life cycle of each group, to differentiate their development and identify their similarities as well.

Prior to this, I introduced the Animal Kingdom and the Vertebrate group.

To start off, we have The Life Cycle of a Frog for amphibians. Printable materials used here are my Animal Kingdom file, Vertebrate Sorting Cards and the Animal Life Cycles FREE printable.  The link to the file is at the end of this post.

Introducing Vertebrate Animals to Kids

Mavi was very excited when I told him that we'll be sorting out animals according to their classification.  This was his long awaited activity and he was so happy that we get to finally do it (my cards were completed).

So after our talk about the Animal Kingdom and how the classification of the Vertebrate animals differ, I gave him our Vertebrate Sorting Cards to classify each of the animals in the cards based on their group.  First, we read each definition card of each group to know more about the features of their members. Then he sorted his Safari TOOB Animals and Schleich Animals according to their groups.

The Animal Kingdom and Vertebrate Sorting Cards

A few weeks ago, I created these learning materials to explore the Animal Kingdom with Mavi. He has been obsessed with animals again and dinosaurs as well! So I was thinking that its probably the best time to get him into this study.

Here are the materials that we have used in the following activities, "Exploring the Animal Kingdom for Kids" and "Introducing Vertebrate Animals to Kids".

Montessori Vertebrate Sorting Activity Cards

• 6 pictures of amphibians
• 6 pictures of reptiles
• 6 pictures of fish
• 6 pictures of birds
• 6 pictures of mammals
• master control chart
• definition for each animal classification

The Animal Kingdom Learning Pack

• The Animal Kingdom MASTER Chart in A4 SIZE
• Chart with pictures only (no labels) in A4 SIZE
• Chart with labels only in A4 SIZE
• Chart with no pictures and labels in A4 SIZE
• 15 cards with pictures and labels  to form the chart
• 15 cards with pictures and  no labels (for 3 part card use)
• 15 label cards (for 3 part card use)
• Matching definition cards

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FREE Bird Unit Pack for Preschoolers (Part Two)

As promised, here's the second part of my Bird Unit Pack for your little ones!  Enjoy!

 

 

Oh and don't forget to download the first part as well :)

 

Thank you once again!

Springtime is Flower-time! (part deux)

To continue my previous post on flowers... here are the other activities we tried:

Flower Addition and Equation Matching.  In this activity, I printed out addition cards using flower heads.  The purpose of this activity is to match the addition cards with the proper equation in addition. 

 

Flower Pattern Matching.  I made some tricky patterns and printed it twice for Mavi to match.  This can be also be played as a memory game.

   

Math Addition.  Using the flowers we created in my previous post, we played a game of guess the total number of flowers using the flower equation cards that I made.  I showed him an equation and he had to "stick" the correct number of flowers in the playdough for the answer.

 

Parts of a Plant. We made a model of a plant using the flowers and popsicle sticks. I made him identify the parts. I took out our Parts of a Plant Nomenclature and Booklet material for him to read and check his work.  The plant version you see below is my work.

   

            

You can the Plant Nomenclature and Booklet by clicking the image below.

And here is Mavi's version.  He wrote the labels on his own.

 

Free Bird Unit Pack for Preschoolers (First Part)

Because my Facebook page has reached a thousand likers.... I am giving this super cute Bird Unit Pack for all my readers! But wait! There's more!  This is only the first part... the second part of the file will be published and again will be given away for free in the next few days so keep coming back for updates.

So to all my readers thank you!  Your comments and personal messages meant so much to me.  It inspires me as much as my blog inspires you!  Cheers to everyone!

If you are ready to receive the pack... just click on the image below. Enjoy and I hope you'll like it!