My First Report

Holly had a small lesson on writing a report. She learned what a report was, what they look like and how you would create one. Then she had to choose an animal to write on, go to the library and find at least two books, she had to include five facts in her report and her thoughts on the animal. Here is her final product!

Owl Study

With part of our winter bird observation we also included a small study on owls. We have spent a few days this week reading on various owls, enjoying some owl books from our own collection and the library. I also gave Holly the challenge to go through her Ranger Rick and National Geographic Kids issues to find any articles she could on owls... she found a couple of items. We also enjoyed this little clip from National Geographic Kids

Through our small study Holly learned about various owls who live in our region, the Pacific Northwest, such as the Northern Pygmy Owl, the Great Horned Owl, the Short Eared Owl, the Western Screech Owl and the Barred Owl. We read on their habitats, physical descriptions, listened to some sound footage of their calls, learned of their breeding habits, the young and their diets. With this we compared photos of the owls and discussed their body types and used a tape measure to see the size differences in some of then.

After reading several books and using the internet as a good tool Holly then created a little owl book using some of the knowledge she gathered. The book was a perfect project to bring it all together for her. We chose some topics of interest and a couple of items I wanted to bring in. The final product is adorable!!!

Tomorrow... we get to dissect an owl pellet - should be fun!

Apple Lapbook & Lesson

After out visit to Lattin's Cider Mill yesterday we had to have a good school day of apples. Holly enjoyed it so much and has asked to do the same with pumpkins in a few weeks... I'll be organizing that very soon. In the mean time today was filled a lot of apple fun - inspecting an apple, revisiting the parts of an apple, seed estimation, tasting various kinds and comparing, watching a video on the apple industry and orchards, discussing the health benefits of apples, reading a few books, apple stamping, sentence organizing and writing, an experiment and more!

With all of these projects on tap I had Holly work on a lapbook - a great way to keep all of her work. A lapbook seems to break up the daily grind of reading, writing & recording. She loves them and so do I. This is a pretty basic lapbook but one that Holly could do all by herself with little help from me... meaning she feels very proud when she is finished!

Venn Diagram: Butterflies & Moths

We have moved onto butterflies in our insect studies, which is a lot of fun for Holly! We have studied butterflies numerous times so coming up with some new books and projects is proving to be a bit more challenging. One project I chose was to create a Venn diagram comparing butterflies and moths - she loved this!!!

I actually found the perfect book to complete this project with. It is called What's the Difference Between a Butterfly and a Moth? by Robin Koontz. This book has beautiful illustrations and is written on a nice, basic level. It offered Holly the perfect opportunity to read it, think on it and then pull out the similarities and differences between the two winged beauties.

Colorful Adjectives

I found a really cute lesson online a week or so ago and planned it into our week - it was a great way to tie in our rainbow/color theme we've been working on as well as a fun game we love called Silly Sentences. I did it a bit different or simpler because Holly is only in kindergarten. Here is a link: http://theinspiredapple.blogspot.com/2011/03/color-word-adjective-activity-first.html

The idea is to work on adjectives describing colors, brain storm adjectives, write a sentence with your brainstormed ideas and then draw a picture that coordinates. This was a perfect way to enjoy the best of both worlds for her (writing/drawing) and best of all she really enjoyed it!

"I am walking through bright red flowers."

"This is a warm orange sunset.""I like happy yellow sunflowers.""I am playing on the fresh green grass.""The sky blue butterfly landed on a leaf.""I ate sweet purple berries."