Animals

We did a short, simple unit on animals recently.  We just spent one day on each of the different types of animals.  We read a book, talked about the characteristics of that group and made a craft. 

Mammals--Faythe made a bear and the others made bat hats.

Amphibians--They all made frogs of different sorts.

 Birds--Braedi and Corbin made origami birds while Dyllan and Faythe made robins. 

Fish--We all worked together to make a fish mobile.

Reptiles--Dyllan and Faythe made alligators, Ephram made a snake, Braedi drew a chameleon and Corbin made his own version of a frilled lizard.

Insects--Corbin colored in his insect coloring book, I made a beetle, Dyllan, Ephram and Faythe made butterflies and Braedi made dragonflies.

 

Then each of the kids picked an animal that they wanted to learn more about.  We got some books at the library and did some research on-line.  The four older kids picked out 3-5 interesting facts then wrote a simple report.  I read Faythe a book about her chosen animal and she told me her facts and helped write her report.  Then they all presented.  Actually all of them except Corbin.  At the last minute he couldn't find his report.  Hopefully he'll find it in the next day or two and I'll add him.  I hope you can hear them--I don't have a video camera, just the video function on my digital. 


"Alligators are Dangerous.  The older they get the longer they are.  The biggest found was 19 feet long.  They usually get to be 10 fee long.  They live in swamps and lakes near the Gulf of Mexico.  Alligators have webbed feet like a duck.  They have a strong tail to help them swim.  Alligators are cool."

"King Cobras are my favorite animal.  They are the longest venomous sane growing to 18 feet.  They lay 20 to 50 eggs.  King Cobras attack when they are surprised.  They eat other snakes, eggs, small mammals and lizards.  I like King Cobras." 

Parrots are fun birds.  They sleep with their wing over their head.  They have 4 toes, 2 in the back and 2 in the front.  Their toes made them good climbers.  parrots like to eat carrots and broccoli and seeds.  They use their sharp beak to eat.  I  like parrots. 

Chameleons are interesting looking animals.  Their feet look very cool--V-shaped so they can grab onto the tree branches and they have 3 toes on one side of their food and 2 toes on the other side.  A Chameleon's tongue is 2 times the length of their body.  Without their tongue they would die of starvation because they are really slow.  Chameleons need warmth to move.  The side of them that is facing the sun is black, but the other side is it's normal color.  Chameleons have rally bad smelling and almost no hearing, but their eyesight makes up for that.  Their eyes can look in 2 separate directions at 1 time.  Because of their bad hearing chameleons us their colors to speak.  I think chameleons are really cool looking reptiles.  (I can't get Braedi's video to upload.)

 



Science Fair

The kids participated in our homeschool group's annual science fair.  I wasn't too excited about participating this year, but the kids were super excited and I enjoyed their enthusiasm.  They each picked their own projects.  They each came  up with a question, performed the experiment, documented the process and presented it at the science fair.  I took pictures of the process, but forgot to take pictures of their displays.  And the pictures I took of them presenting are too dark. 

Braedi did an experiment to determine if a substance was an acid or a base using red cabbage juice as an indicator.

 Corbin wanted to do something with tadpoles, but no one around here sells them and all the online companies had bad reviews.  So he settled doing an experiment with pill-bugs.  He put them in a maze and tested them to see if their antennae were sensitive enough to find the pile of dried leaves. 

Dyllan decided she wanted to do an experiment with magnets.  We had been studying magnets in science then and luckily had some pretty strong magnets for her to experiment with.  She made a list of objects that she wanted to see if the magnetic force would go through.  Her favorite was her nose. 

Ephram has been fascinated with plants and picked a project that dealt with what a plant needs to grow.  We bought three plants and gave one water and sun, another just water (no sun) and another sun but no water.  He did a fantastic job of remembering when and what to water. 

What's the Weather?

Lately, the kids have been asking a lot of questions about the weather (the biggest being: How does the weatherman know what the weather is going to be?), so I decided to do a unit on weather.  I pulled out all my science experiment books and my folder of weather of activities and checked-out a few books from the library and started learning with the kids. 

We started by making a graph of the daily temperature.  Unfortunately the weather didn't change much and our graph stayed right around the 75 degree mark.  We also made our own thermometer.  The idea behind it is that as the water in the bowl and the bottle get hotter it expands and goes up the straw.  The card taped to the straw has a "ruler" to measure how high the water gets. 

We also made a barometer.  I'm not sure how accurate it was, though, but it was fun to watch it go from high pressure to low pressure and back.

We also made some tools to test the direction of the wind and the strength of the wind.  Too bad that I didn't get a picture of the other one--it was pretty neat looking.  It would spin around and you were supposed to count how many times it went around in a certain amount of time.  We were lucky to have one windy day and got to see it work. 

Then we talked about clouds and made little cloud cards to try and learn the different types and what type of weather they will bring.  There are a lot of different types and we didn't do too well at remembering them, but at least we can refer to the cards if needed. 

We also learned how rain is made and tried to make it rain inside.  We got a few drops.

And we talked about how a meteorologist "guesses" what the weather will be and how important it is for him to know what the weather is all over the country.  He uses his knowledge about cold fronts and warm fronts and high pressure and low pressure systems to predict the weather.

We enjoyed doing the experiments and learned a little more about weather, but I don't think any of the kids wants to be a meteorologist when they grow up.