Kickbutt's Crazy Lapbooks

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Dinosaurs Combo Book

For now through the first 1/2 of the summer we're learning all about the ocean (see earlier posts) but the second 1/2 of the summer is dedicated to Dinosaurs...so here's some of what we'll be usin (in another Combo book).

So, I'm thinking the chapters of our combo book will be as follows:

Dinosaurs - general info like definitions of a dinosaur, timeline, life in those time periods -how it differed, world geography of the time (placement of the continents) dino families (how they're catagorized) etc
Paleantology - a few notable scientists, what is paleantology, tools of the trade, most popular places, etc.
Earliest Animals - these would really be the precursurs to dino's in the Precambrian and Paleozoic periods.
Dino's of the Triassic*
Dino's of the Jurassic*
Dino's of the Crestaceous*
Evolution (descendants of the dinosaurs)
*The Dino's sections will be broken into Producers (plant life), Primary Consumers (eat consumers - aka herbivors), Secondary Consumers (eat primary consumers - aka omnivors) and Tertiary Consumers (eat secondary consumers - aka carnivors)

Printables:

kaboose printables
Dltk-Kids crafts & printables
Enchanted Learning Dio-Templates
Learning Page
AtoZ teacher Stuff
Sr. Richard Owens
Teacher Vision
We need to also study Roy Chapmen Andrews
Paleantologists
Further Enchanted Learning
Fossils
CurriClick
About Homeschooling
Print activities
ABC Teach
Kids Domain
Free Stuff 4 Kids
Crafts
Activities
Kid Sparkz
Kids Soup
clip art

Connecticut's New Science Center

Well, Connecticut's new Science Center opened yesturday and (for the first time) we paid the full amount for a year membership. It was the best $100 I've ever spent. This center has 6 stories, each story is broken into 2 with each 1/2 dedicated to a different form of science. One was for Sports and Human Movement science, another was for Sound and Light; yet another was dedicated to earth studies (geology, the Connecticut river, and energy conservation); one was on Forces (gravity and magnets), it was AWESOME!!! We watched a 3D movie on Dinosaurs and a 4D program on Energy conservation. The kids learned a lot and had fun since the entire place was made up of hands on projects and experiments.

The Space Room

The Human Body & Sports Mechanics room

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Out To-Go Bags

Jeez, I hate Grocery Shopping Day!Because my fam only has 1 car, on days that I need it, I have to drive my husband to work at 7am (I'm soooo NOT a morning person). Then I have to go to the bank. Then, generally, the kids beg for a doughnut. Only then can I meet my dad at the various stores. Do all the shopping. Go home to put away the groceries. Have lunch. Then wait an hour or so to go pick up my hubby from work. That's on Thursday. Then on Friday, I have to repeat the experience. See, I'm really, really cheap....so that means shopping at a minimum of 4 different stores to get the best prices...then there's also the coupon clipping and circular perusing....ugh...This also means that every 2 weeks Thursday and Friday are a little pressed for time & stress, making HS a bit more of a challenge.

So, I bring our to-go bags. These have lessons they are capable of completing while in the car...no it's probably not as good as having my full attention on the lesson, but it's the best way of not skipping days for our family.

Our To-Go bags include:
Writting Lessons (a writing notebook for each child with the page prepared for the words or letters we're working on)
Coloring pages: I'm slightly obsessive, I admit it, so I prepare a folder each week that contains coloring pages, connect-the-dots, etc that have to do with the lessons we've been covering.
Simple Worksheets: Lets face it in the car the handwritting suffers, so I add a few simple math, history, geography, etc worksheets to the folder.
Writing Utencils: Crayons, Markers, Colored Pencils a Pencil and an Eraser all erasable (no use destroying the interior of my new car).
Clip Board: Makes writing on laps easier
Small books (1 for each child)

more on the 50 States

For our state-by-state lapbooks, I went to homeschoolshare.com and printed some of their Choose-A-Country Lapbook From their list (which, granted, is for global geography, and we're working on state-to-state) I printed the following (which, believe it or not, was only about 1/2 of what they had offered for countries):
People: name, population, history
Geography Tab: highest & lowest point, area & bodies of water
Borders Matchbooks: water border and land border (for state border or ocean border)
Famous Person Accordian: which we printed 3 per state
Capital Matchbook
Major Industries Flip Book
Can You Believe It? : which we printed 2 for cool facts

Then I searched on Ask.com for pictures of the state bird, state tree, state bug, and history of the state flag. I also got most of the state information from www.netstate.com/

Using the blank templates from www.homeschoolhelperonline.com I used the following:
Flag Shapes - to color in the state flag
Native Info - this is a little flip book on who the native inhabitants of the state were and what happened to them after European colonization.
I'll uplead the pic as soon as I find the cord to my digital camera (grr...lol)

Teaching Pre- & Preschool Kids

I was asked today about curriculum standards for those teaching the very young....those 2, 3, and 4 y/o's. There's not much out there on where exactly your child should be developmentally...oh there's much in the way of recognizing if there is a problem, but not much in the way of planning educational play and what your child would be learning if in an institution like a preschool. See, the one who had asked had found a website that was unbelievable in what they asked these youngsters to know (at http://www.geocities.com/heartland/forest/2468/skillslistage3.html#1). This list is not only unatainable for 99% of children, but I think it's irresponsible to give 2 y/o's such manipulatives as buttons and noodles and not expect them to put them in their mouths, making them choking hazards!! See the Core Knowledge Curriculums are like that - one or two grades above most accapted levels..
So I put together what I believe is appropriate for these age groups. Keeping in mind that all children are different...some may advance faster in one area but lag a little behind in another. There's no reason to stress if your child doesn't fit into a mold, as long as they are trying and progressing at a steady pace.

Age 2

Language Development:

can use 2-3 word sentences
recognizes the people in their life and can say their names (mom, dad, bro/sister, grandma/pa, etc) anyone they see weekly or more often.
attempts to sing along for the alphabet song, but will probably stumble over the l,m,n,o,p, portion (blending it together)
may be able to recognize some of the upper case letters.

Writing Development (fine motor skills):

Can hold a fat pencil or crayon in a fist like hand position
scribbles in unrecognizable pics but it's fun (and builds up to better motor skills)

Math/Number Sense:

can begin to count to 5, using finger or other manipulatives
can begin correlating (putting similar objects together...like all the red cars).
Might be able to recognize a circle, square and triangle.

Science:

can recognize several animal pics (I'd say about 10)
Can associate some animal sounds with pictures of the recognized animal (cow sayes moo, etc) - about 1/2 (so if they recognize 10 animals they can also remember the sounds of 5-6)
Learning about personal hygiene (but still needs supervision) for potty training then washing their hands, even brushing their teeth. They can remember the steps and attemt to teach a stuffed animal those remembered steps.
Can identify 1 or 2 articles of clothing (socks, shoes, shirt, etc) and begin to attempt to dress themselves.

Social Studies:

Begins to recognize characteristics of the sexes (generally associating all women with mom and men with dad so if dad has a gotee then all men will have facial hair, if mom has long hair then all people with long hair are girls, etc)
When asked their age they can hold up the appropriate number of fingers.
Begins to follow directions (put the toys in the toy box, those instructions with only 1 step)
When asked they can say their first name (although at this age they will probably be shy of saying it to strangers).

Social Development:

Begin to be able to play independently or with other children without having to have mom or dad (or other caregivers) within eye sight, for about 15 minutes.
Understands the concept of sharing (even if they don't do it..LOL)
Begins to understand some safety rules (don't cross the street without an adult, don't touch the hot stove, etc).
Can focus on a task for about 10 minutes before changing topics.

Age 3
Language Development:

can use 4-5 word sentences
recognizes the people in their life and can say their names (mom, dad, bro/sister, grandma/pa, etc) anyone they see weekly or more often.
can sing common songs independently and get them about 90% correct (like the itsy-bitsy spider, ABC's etc)
can recognize most upper case letters (may confuse W/V, E/F, O,Q)
Can look at a picture book and tell you a story to go with the pictures.
Can guess what comes next in a story.
Can retell they favorite stories with some success
Begins to be able to express themselves verbally - if their upset or hurt they can tell you what happened and why they are upset.
Repeats simple instructions, scentences or stories with some accuracy
Can identify the letters of their first name, and attempt to trace or write them.