Walking by the Way

Super Simple Nature Journal

We’re going to go E-A-S-Y this year with the nature journal.   With young children, it’s more about getting outside and exploring than it is recording.   It will be an educational experience; you don’t have to try to create one.  (I’m talking to myself in case you are wondering!)   The journal is not necessary.   BUT  I think this is so very simple that I want to share.

Take pictures.   Have your student pick one picture each week and print it.
Give your student letter stickers and a date stamp.
Slip it in to a page protector and smile because you-are-done. 

No more lugging the backpack (with pens, colored pencils, and the kitchen sink) outside.
No more meltdowns because…"Mom!  I can’t draw a squirrel like that!  But I want to!" 

Welcome to super simple nature journaling.   Yay!

Space Lapbook (from July)

And, our little astronaut

has been writing stories about Zerg, Spike, and Ziggit…and what life is like for these guys (two heroes and one villian) in space…

Websites and Lapbook Finds
Homeschool Share’s Space Lapbook
Jimmie’s Space Lapbook Squidoo Lens
Evan Moor’s Giant Science Resource Book

Books by Gail Gibbons
~Galaxies, Galaxies
~The Planets
~The Moon Book
~Planet Earth Inside Out
~Sun Up, Sun Down

Let’s Read and Find Our Science Books
~The Moon Seems to Change
~What the Moon is Like
~The Planets in Our Solar System
~The Sky is Full of Stars
~What Makes Day and Night
~The Sun, Our Nearest Star
~The Big Dipper
~Floating in Space
and others!

Other Books
There’s No Place Like Space (Dr. Seuss-ish – Elijah actually rattled off a lot that he learned from this one!)
(Usborne) Living in Space
(Usborne) Sun, Moon, and Stars
Space Boy
Hedgie Blasts Off! (cheesy, but loved by Elijah)

Happy Blasting-Off!

Stellaluna Lapbook

What do I know?   Our camera was only mostly dead.  So, we took it to Miracle Max, gave it a chocolate coated pill, and poof- it’s back among the land of the living (mostly living that is).   It isn’t doing great, but it’s better than no camera at all.   The poor mostly alive camera was dropped on a nature walk this week (the offender is not the same person, but will still remain unnamed). 

So, I took about 50 pictures today of lapbooks that you haven’t seen.  No, I don’t plan on posting them all, but here is what we finished up this week.    Elijah knows so much about bats.  I’m not sure why he requested to learn about bats.  Maybe he meant he wanted to take a week to teach ME about bats (because that is, indeed, what happened). 

We just loved the little bat with moveable wings!   It was from an Evan Moor Theme Pockets (October). 

This was a fun little accordion flip-flap.  I have to post it so my lapbook making friend, Wende, can see it.  We should make templates for this one, Wende! 

Here it is opened:

Since this was a complete literature based unit on Stellaluna (and not just bats), we also learned bits about birds and did some bird math.

Open the side and this is what you get.  I don’t like putting extentions at the tops and bottoms of lapbooks.  Putting them so they open to the side makes them easier for little hands to manipulate. 

Here is the same shot zoomed in a little better (without the side stuff).

Bat Anatomy!

Lift the flaps to reveal the body part names and descriptions.

Predator and Prey books opened.

Various minit books opened.

I can’t believe I took over 50 pictures today and didn’t take a picture of Elijah’s bat drawing and copywork.  Well, I will have to do that and get it uploaded….before the camera is really dead.