Unit Studies



5 Mar 10

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We finally finished the Matroyshka dolls

It  took way longer than I anticipated, but the dolls are done (except for the coat of sealer that I want to put on them, but the kids part is finished).

Aren't they cute?

 

 I gave each of them their doll(s) and told them to make it something about themselves–something that when I look at it, I’d know exactly who painted that doll.

My kids are so predictable. :P  Dinoboy painted a T-Rex, Gamerboy painted Mario, and Annie painted Annie and Sandy.  They asked me to paint the tiniest, and they all wanted it to be a ladybug–for good luck.

I wrote the month and year on the bottom of the T-Rex, and I plan to display our dolls (nested of course) in my living room.  I’m really glad we did this project–these dolls will be a neat keepsake, and the kids had a blast painting them.

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20 Feb 10

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Almost done with our Russia unit

And I think we’ll miss it when we’re done.   This past week we learned about the different ecosystems in Russia and each of the kids made a diorama of their chosen ecosystem.

From left to right: Tundra, Taiga and Steppe

 

Gamerboy said to me today, “Can we make a diorama for everything in school?”  I guess this project was a pretty big hit with my artsy kids.  

We also have almost finished up reading Sovietrek: A Journey by Bicycle Across Russia
and The Night Journey.They have all decided that a trip to Russia is out of the question, based upon the foods mentioned in SovieTrek.   They do eat some fairly unappetizing things–fizzy warm horse milk, raw eggs that you eat by poking a hole in the egg and sucking it out, cold chunks of pig fat…Steve and Dan Beuttner are pretty brave guys. 

The Night Journey though, what a beautiful book.  I can’t believe that I never read this when I was a kid.  it’s the story of a Jewish family’s escape from Russia during the early 20th century.  It’s told by Nana Sashie, who is telling her story to her great granddaughter.  Rache isn’t supposed to talk to her Nana about the past, because it might make her upset, but Nana Sashie seems to have this need to tell her story to someone, so Rache begins these secret conversations with her about the past.  It’s based upon a true story, and it’s just such a fantastic book.  There are so many things to discuss and the story has so many layers.  I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone.  

Next week we’ll wrap up our trip to Russia.  We’ll finish up our books, read The Magic Nesting Dolland paint our own Matroyshka dolls, watch Anastasia and Fiddler on the Roof, and possibly make a Russian meal (if we can find something that the kids will agree to eat, lol).

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30 Jan 10

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And that’s a wrap!

Yesterday we finished up our unit on the human body.   I think we all learned a lot and everyone enjoyed the study.  Gamerboy says his favorite was learning about the heart, and Dinoboy says he liked learning about bones (why does it not surprise me that the future paleontologist was most interested in bones?).  Annie’s favorite was watching The Miracle Worker.  

Here are a few pictures from this past week when we focused on the 5 senses, as well as the completed lapbook.

The mystery box and tasting game

 

Annie trying to guess what's in the box.

 

Gamerboy playing the tasting game.

 

The cover of Dinoboy's lapbook

 

The first section of Dinoboy's lapbook.

 

The middle section

 

The last section--I stapled all the worksheets to the back of the lapbook.

 

I am loving the unit study approach to school.   Just before we all start to get bored with the human body, we move on to the next unit.   We’re all looking forward to studying Russia for the next month.

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25 Jan 10

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Russia Unit Study

We’re just about finished with the human body, so I’ve been working out what we’ll be doing for February’s study of Russia.  

Our main project will be making a giant map of Russia, with the help of MegaMaps.  We’ll use that to track the journey in SovietTrek (our spine book), as well as to mark interesting places we read about, books we read, habitats, native animals, etc.  

We’ll be reading lots of great books.  Check them out:

In addition to that, we'll make lapbooks, cook a Russian meal, make our own Matroyska dolls (Annie is most excited about this), and watch Fiddler on the Roof and Anastasia (the cartoon version). I'm really looking forward to our "trip" to Russia!

Filed under: Books, Homeschool Planning, Unit Studies
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8 Jan 10

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Name that Bone game!

I try to keep Friday’s fun–usually we get all our major work done Mon-Thurs, and then on Friday we play math games, and do any games/crafts/etc. to go with the rest of our studies.

Today we played a fun and really easy game to go along with our human body unit.  We spent the last 3 days learning about the skeleton, and learning the names of some of the bones.  So this morning I made up a little game to see how much they remembered.

I just wrote down the names of the bones on post-it notes, then the kids too turns putting the post-its on the correct part of their body.  It’s simple, cheap, and makes for really cute photos!

Use your cranium!

 

Annie went first–she got 6 right out of a possible 13.  

Then it was Gamerboy’s turn.  He got 6 right as well.

Oh no! My femur fell off!

 

Finally,  it was Dinoboy’s turn.  Rob gave him a quick study session before his turn, and he was the winner with 10 correct.

The winner!

 

Note: Please ignore the giant snow boot mess in the background.  What can I say, it’s winter and we have a lot of shoes!

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4 Jan 10

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First day back–Success!

Phew!  Today went really well.  We got through the whole day without too many mishaps.  Aside from Annie whining about having to write in cursive and the hissy fit she threw when her brothers dared to touch her color pencils, it was a great day!   I even managed to take all 4 kids out in the snow–not something that happens often, because I detest the snow. 

Here’s a few pictures of our cell cookie craft.  I wasn’t planning on making these, cause I didn’t want to make any more cookies.  But my mother-in-law gave us some of her cookies yesterday, so I figured, why not?  Basically all we did was use candies and frosting to make the cookies look like cells.

Look at that concentration.

 

typical goofy boys :P

Gamerboy's finished cookie

I took pictures of each of them and we’ll add them to their lapbooks.  It was a fun project and of course, everyone was happy to eat their cells when they were done.  I mean really, how can you go wrong with cookies, frosting and chocolate?

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1 Jan 10

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Human Body Unit

Here are the plans for our Human Body unit study.   I’ve mostly corralled things we have around the house, but I’ve also used the plans at GuestHollow for inspiration and internet resources, and Journey Through Learnings Human Body lapbook.


Week 1

Monday – Cells

Tuesday – Skeletal System

  • Read – The Bones Book pg. 5-14
  • Activities- lapbook-Skeletal System
  • Watch Me Grow pg. 56-59
  • Start building the skeleton from the Eyewitness Human Body Kit

Wednesday – Skeletal System

  • Read – Usborne Science Encyclopedia pg. 346-347
  • The Bones Book pg. 30-35
  • Activities – check out Internet Links from the Science Encyclopedia
  • lapbook – Inside a Bone, vocabulary
  • Continue working on model skeleton

Thursday – Skeletal System

  • Read – The Bones Book pg. 44-47
  • Activities – Watch Eyewitness Skeleton dvd
  • Bones coloring/labeling page
  • Continue building model skeleton

Friday – Skeletal System

  • Activities- Finish Skeleton model
  • Lapbook – Classification of Bones, vocabulary
  • Watch Me Grow pg. 70-71 “Where’s That Bone?” game 

Week 2

Monday – Muscles and Joints

  • Read – Science Encyclopedia pg. 348-349
  • The Bones Book pg. 16-19
  • Activities – check out Internet Links
  • Lapbook – How Muscles Work, vocabulary

Tuesday – Muscles and Joints

  • Read – The Bones Book -pg. 48-50
  • Activities – dissect a chicken leg 
  • My Muscles mini book (from Evan Moor: How Your Body Works )
  • Lapbook – Muscles and How Joints Work

Wednesday – Brain and Nervous System

  • Read – The Brain: Our Nervous System by Seymour Simon
  • Phineas Gage: A Gruesome But True Story About Brain Science
  • Activities - “Ectomy” Game
  • Watch Brain and Nervous System (free online movie)
  • lapbook – The Brain – Fun Brain Facts

Thursday – Brain and Nervous System/Skull

  • Read – The Brain: Our Nervous System
  • Phineas Gage
  • Activities – make a Brain Hemisphere Hat
  • Lapbook – Skull

Friday –  Brain and Nervous System

 

Week 3

Monday – Digestive System/Excretory System

  • Read – Science Encyclopedia pg. 354-355
  • Activities – Internet Links
  • Lapbook – Let’s Follow Our Food, vocabulary
  • Watch movie: The Digestive System (free online)

Tuesday – Nutrition

Wednesday – Heart

  • Read – Kids Discover: Heart
  • The Magic School Bus Has a Heart
  • Activities – watch Newtons Apple Heart Attack (free online movie)
  • Lapbook – The heart, Label the heart

Thursday – Lungs and the Respiratory System

  • Read – The Lungs and Respiratory System – Steve Parker
  • Science Encyclopedia pg 358-359
  • Activities – Internet links
  • Lapbook – Respiratory System flip book, vocabulary

Friday – Skin

  • Read – Touch by Sue Horwitz
  • Science Encyclopedia pg 368-369
  • Activities – Lapbook – Skin matchbook, vocabulary
  • Internet links
  • Watch Newton’s Apple: Skin Wrinkling (free online movie)

 

Week 4

Monday – Eyes

Tuesday – Ears

  • Read – Science Encyclopedia pg. 372-373
  • Activities – Internet Links
  • Make a model ear drum.
  • Label the ear diagram
  • Watch The Miracle Worker on dvd

Wednesday – The Five Senses

  • Read – Magic School Bus Explores the Senses
  • Activities – Evan Moor: How Your body Works – 5 Senses mini book
  • Mystery box game and Name That Taste game

Thursday – Review The Human Body

  • Read – Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body
  • Activities – Make covers for the lapbooks and complete any other mini books
  • Play Body Bingo

Friday – Review

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31 Dec 09

Written by emily, Comments (2)

Curriculum Plans for the New Year

I’ve long been a fan of unit studies.  I like delving into a topic and taking time to explore.  Over the years, we’ve tried to have multiple studies going at once–usually a history study and a science study.  What I’ve often found, however, is that often we get overwhelmed and I drop the science, or we constantly adjust the curriculum.  I’ve been toying with the Waldorf idea of main lessons for a long time, and I think we’re finally going to just give it a try.  I plan to have daily math, language arts and reading.  I’m also going to add Latin in to our daily routine.  And then we’ll have one main focus for each month.  Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

January –  Science focus - Human Body

February - Geography focus – Russia

March - History focus – Middle Ages

April – Science focus – Oceans/Tide Pools

May – Geography focus – China 

June – History focus – Renaissance/ Reformation 

These will of course be literature based, but since we’re only working on one main study, we’ll have time to add in projects, experiments, art, music,  recipes, etc.   I’ve just finished up the Human Body lesson plans, and I’ll be posting them soon.

Filed under: Homeschool Planning, Unit Studies
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