Planning for Next Year

I am starting to plan for next year based on some choices A17 has made for science topics. Some of these topics include volcanos, polar bears, pumpkins, and birds.

We will start off the school year with a unit on the human body. I am gathering resources from several places including Little Otter's Science Curriculum. This is a wonderful human body study geared toward preschool--first grade and would work well for some special needs students. Our library has many of the books on the suggested reading list.

I will also be taking pieces from several HOAC lapbooks including Human Body and Germs.

We will doing some projects from this book.

In addition to science units, we will be continuing with Touchmath. I am considering supplmenting Touchmath with some living math books from the Mathstart series. I have read a lot about a Living Math approach on Kendra's and Heather's blogs.

Since A17 has been very interested in arts and crafts, I have been putting together a unit for him on art which I hope will have us exploring some different types of projects. We will be using this book :

plus some stories about artists and their work. One of these is the Katie series by James Mayhew.

We will also be checking out the Smart About Art series and Touch the Art which is a board book series with textures.



I like to have a general plan down on paper and then tweak things as we go along. If A17 is really into something I want to be able to spend more time with it or if interest is flagging I can switch gears.



If you are homeschooling or creating a meaningful day, have you made any plans? Comments and links are welcome!

Penguins Lapbook

This lapbook was completed in January. We focused on penguins and antarctica. Along with reading several non-fiction books about penguins ( including books by Gail Gibbons and Bobbie Kalman) we read the story of Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester. It's the first in a series of books that A17 enjoys. He really enjoyed making the two wheels. We used a brass fastener to hold the layers together.

This is the front of the first lapbook. The file folder is layed open flat and each side is folder in to the center. I found the minit books as well as other lapbook items on Homeschoolshare.

The Seaworld teacher page also has some nice stuff for kids about penguins including the food chain, maps, and crafts.

Other printables were taken from Mailbox magazine and Evan Moor's Theme Pockets January.

Snow lapbook

Even though spring is around the corner I wanted to post A17's snow lapbook that he completed in January. We were able to do several experiments with snow such as measuring how fast it takes to melt in different containers and measuring snow depth and temperature. We also talked about what to wear in winter.

This is graphic organizer for other words associated with snow. He really liked doing this and I want to find more ways to add in graphic organizers.

Our words that start with S mini book.

Snow crafts: A cotton ball snowman whose eyes fell off! A foam door hanger. A snowflake made from pipecleaners . We wrapped them around a pencil to curl then tied a bunch together with string.

The Mitten lapbook and animals that hibernate

In December we did a lapbook on the book The Mitten by Jan Brett. As a go along to this, we studied about what animals do in winter such as hibernate. Some of the lapbook components came from Homeschool Share. I found some extra information on the animals in the story at Enchanted Learning ( see link in sidebar). I used a type it in template from Hands of a Child to make my own minit book on what animals do in winter. As a go along to The Mitten, we read Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson. We rounded out our study with nonfiction books on hibernation and animals in winter. For the front cover of the lapbook I cut a mitten that A17 colored in half. Individual pieces were put in small baggies so they wouldn't fall out of the pockets but could still be used again. The green minit book of the left side of the lapbook contains four flaps--animals that hibernate, animals that fly to warmer places, animals that gather and store food, animals that must find food all winter.

Starfish art project

As part of our big unit on oceans, A17 read about starfish or sea stars today. We found a neat craft project to go along with our study. We traced starfish shapes onto sandpaper, cut them out and painted them. We painted them the same colors as the ones we read about in Rookie Read-About Science : Stars of the Sea by Alan Fowler. The pictures don't do them justice since you can't see the great texture! I think this would work great for sand dollars or coral too. I found this project idea in the back of Let's Read and Find Out Science 1: Starfish.

Frog Lapbooks

A17 ( recent birthday!) finished two frog lapbooks. The frog's tongue on the front cover moves in and out.

The lilypad flapbooks each contain a fact about frogs such as What does a frog eat? The answers are Boardmaker pictures. We used resources from several places including Homeschool Share. We read books from the library prior to completing the lapbook pieces.

Several of our favorite books were A Tadpole Grows Up by Pam Zollman and Frogs and Other Amphibians by Bobbie Kalman.

A cool frog experiment is cooking tapioca beads to simulate frog's eggs! You can find this experiment in back of the book titled Why Frogs Are Wet ( Let's Read and Find Out Science) by Judy Hawes.

Space Lapbook

A16 was really proud about the tabbed book on planets that we made. We also made a smaller book for other vocabulary. I found instructions here on how to make one.

A16 chose space and planets for a unit study this past fall. We took about 6 weeks to cover the unit and read many non-fiction books from the library. We used most of the components from Evan Moor's Science Works for Kids: Exploring Space. It has mini books, experiments, and projects.

Other components were taken from Home School Share. Squidoo also has a lense with lots of space and planet resources. This blog has pictures and links for a space lapbook. Enchanted Learning also has space and planet resources. Click on the link in my sidebar.

We read lots of great non-fiction books for this unit. One that A16 especially liked was DK Eye Know Space. Other good selections include: My Book of Planets ( Scholastic board book), Exploring the Planets in Our Solar System and Dr. Seuss There's No Place Like Space. Magic Tree House Research Guide : Space is also a fabulous book. A16 seems to like the research guides more than the fiction books in the MTH series.

Although this was a long unit, A16 really enjoyed it and wanted to read space books everyday!

Who is Flat Stanley?

For those of you who have never heard of Flat Stanley, he is a character in a series of books by Jeff Brown. In the first book he is flattened by a bulletin board and as a result is able to have all sorts of different adventures--including being mailed to visit relatives! Several years ago a teacher had the idea to use Flat Stanley ( FS) to promote reading and writing with students. The teacher had each student create a paper doll FS which was then mailed to another class of students. The host students journaled about their Flat Stanley's adventures and when the visit was over, mailed them back to their original owners. Since then many teachers and parents have come up with their own version of the Flat Stanley Project. In addition to language arts activities, FS can be used in a variety of ways for math ( how many miles did FS travel?), social studies ( what is the capital of California/reading maps), science, art, etc.

If you are interested in creating a lapbook about Flat Stanley you might be interested in the unit on Homeschool Share which includes minit books and a chapter by chapter guide of ideas. Live and Learn Press also has a Flat Stanley Learn 'N folder.

A16 is doing an ongoing FS project. A friend made a FS out of cloth for A16 ( thanks C! ) and FS has been making visits to friends and family. We are collecting a written journal and photos of all of FS's adventures. In addition we are making minit books and activities to go along with the book series as we read them. For example, in the first book FS acts like a kite so we read a book on kites and made a mini version. This project is easily adaptable for different ages and abilities.

Who know where FS will visit next?

First Lapbook

A16 loves science. When he made his first lapbook back in September, he chose the topic of weather. We read books from the library and completed the weather words lapbook from Homeschool Share. With his special needs, A16 is unable to write. In order to write answers he chooses pictures from Mayer Johnson's Boardmaker software. Before starting a unit or lapbook I will print out a variety of picture words so he has lots to choose from. We then use a glue stick to paste his answers in the correct spot. He was so proud of himself when we finished this!