Today we wanted to remind you of National Geographic’s great website for young readers and explorers. Right now they have a special emphasis on winter, with videos of Polar Bear habitat and some amazing snow sculptures. There are loads of interesting videos, articles, games and puzzles for kids of all ages in this great site!
Click here to visit the site!
Innovative Classroom.com has three very interesting and well done thematic unit studies for you:
PEANUTS
You and your students will be surprised to find that peanuts aren’t really nuts at all! This unit on this remarkable legume will teach your students all about the peanuts, starting from the cultivation practices and going to practical uses of the plant. They will learn how to make their own peanut butter and uses for all parts of the peanut plant. Major subject areas are covered, including art, math, history, and language arts. Lots of great material in this 36 page study.
FLIGHT
This unit will take you and your students on a tour through the history of Flight. It starts with the dreams of flight and early ideas proposed and finishes with modern jet aircraft travel. Use this unit to get your kids excited about the science of flight and the mathematics involved in the design of flying machines. 40 pp PDF.
BORNEO
Borneo is the third largest island in the world. Located in the South Pacific, it is made up of lush rainforest and unique habitat areas. This unit covers topics ranging from geography and population to wildlife and climate aspects. There is an emphasis in science and math in this thematic unit, but language arts, art, and other areas are covered as well. 18 pp. PDF.
Click here to go to the download page for all three!
This is a wonderful storybook from 1897 that tells the story of different types of birds in the United States, and how each species’ habits, character and behavior are unique. Their story is told in the setting of a farmhouse owned by an ornithologist (bird scientist) whose young niece and nephew come to visit him throughout the year. Their adventures and observations of the birds around them make this a fascinating and fun course in ornithology for old and young alike.
This ebook is heavily illustrated with 111 wonderful drawings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes (who did many of the illustrations for the Common Birds Coloring Book which we featured yesterday), detailing many species of birds, and illustrating the differences between them. Highly recommended for anyone who want to know more about our feathered friends. PDF ebook, 312 pages, illustrated
To download this PDF ebook, RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save link” to your computer. Mac users, press the “control” key, then click the link and save to your mac.
The Common Birds Coloring Book from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology contains terrific line drawings of over 50 common feeder birds. You can download the coloring book and print out pages as you need them, and let your students color the images using a field guide. There are also identification questions on each page to help your students learn to spot these birds in the field.
Most of the pictures in this coloring book were drawn by the noted bird artist and ornithologist, Louis Agassiz Fuertes (1872-1927). Fuertes, a native of Ithaca, New York and a Cornell University graduate, is known for his realistic bird art. Look for his signature initials: L. A. F. The other drawings are by William Montagna, signature initials: W. M. All are gorgeous!
To download the PDF coloring book, CLICK HERE
This is a massive 600+ page PDF collection of wonderful nature study lessons developed by Cornell University in the early 1900s for use in rural schools in the US. The first section of studies is for teachers, the second section is studies for children. It is amazing.
This was the primary source from which Anna Botsford Comstock derived her famous “Big Book of Nature Study”.
There’s a ton of great material in here, be sure to check out the children’s studies in particular.
To download this ebook, RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save” to your computer.
Mac users: Press the “control” key, then click the above link and “save” to your mac.
The creator of Eclectic Homeschooling has a great page filled with geography, history, Bible, fine arts and English unit studies she has put together over the years while homeschooling her kids. These have lots of book suggestions and tons of hands-on activities that are kid-friendly ways to learn about each subject in-depth.
Here’s what she has to say about these studies:
We love unit studies around here and over the years I have put together lots of different studies for my kids. I’ve compiled them all into one big list. Some of them have taken us an entire school year to finish and some have taken 3-4 weeks. We usually have several going at once.
These studies aren’t intended to incorporate lots of different subjects, but are designed to cover one topic in depth without the limitations that come with needing to cover all of the subjects in one topic. So if we study a country we explore it in a way that help my kids connect with the subject. I don’t concern myself with my child needing to show understanding through writing about the topic. We learn and discover together and discuss as we go.
Lots of great ideas and interesting study topics here!
CLICK HERE to go to the website!
OLogy! is a science website for kids from the American Museum of Natural History. “OLogy” means “the study of”, and the site has a several extensive collections of resources, games, hands-on activites and videos covering Anthropology, Archaeology, Astronomy, Biodiversity, the Brain, Genetics, Marine Biology, Microbiology, Physics, Zoology and more.
The “OLogy! For Educators” section also provides teacher resources to help you build lesson plans and unit studies around various topics of interest.
CLICK HERE to go to the website!
The First Book of Water by Jo & Ernest Norling (PDF ebook) – Today’s resource is a volume in the “Giant Nature Library” series, this GREAT science picture book for young readers all about water – what it is, what it does, why it is so important for all life, and much more. There’s biology, meteorology geology, physics and a whole lot more bundled up in this very informative and wonderfully illustrated text. Again, highly recommended for your homeschooling library!
This is a scanned copy of the original book, and is best viewed on a computer.
To download this PDF ebook, RIGHT CLICK HERE then “save link” to your computer. Mac users, press the “control” key then click the link and save to your mac.
Today we feature a wonderful treasure chest of books, audios, videos and lessons about the stories of Beatrix Potter. Her classic artwork and stories are utterly delightful and should be known by every child. What better stories than these to share with your littles?
CLICK HERE to read almost all Beatrix Potter’s original picture books online or download them in kindle and mobi format at Project Gutenberg.
CLICK HERE to listen to almost all Beatrix Potter’s books online or to download them in mp3 format or to iTunes. There are three massive collections on this Librivox page, and you’ll just have to pick and choose which narrators you enjoy best. You can follow along the readings using the picture books from the Project Gutenberg link above.
CLICK HERE to go to a youtube page which offers up a couple dozen Beatrix Potter stories and related videos, including all the episodes of “The World of Peter Rabbit and His Friends”. (As always with youtube, parental oversight is recommended.)
Resources from PeterRabbit.com: CLICK HERE to go to the download page — and don’t miss the 39 page PDF of Beatrix Potter Teaching Resources!
TheHappyHousewife.com has a great collection of almost 100 hands-on projects, crafts and experiments especially for homeschoolers, on all sorts of interesting topics, including:
Turkey Feather Science
Testing for Starch
Milk Fireworks
The Physics of the Trapeze
Fun Ways to Improve Writing Skills
Buoyancy Experiments
…and dozens more.
CLICK HERE Take a look and browse through the collection yourself!
