Homeschooling on a Shoestring Blog » unit study

Preschool Winter Transportation Unit

Jodi — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:43:05 +0000

I received an email from two educators in Illinois who have launched a new preschool curriculum website. They are offering their Winter/Transportation Units for Free to all who download. Visit their website at http://www.thepreschooltoolbox.com

Frogs

Jodi — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 03:28:56 +0000

Accordian Frog Lifecycle Booklet
http://www.everythingesl.net/downloads/tadpole_frog.pdf

Frog Dissection
http://frog.edschool.virginia.edu/Frog2/

Frog Crafts
http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Themes/frogs/frcraft.html

Frog Downloads
http://www.kinderprintables.com/frogs1.htm

Frog Life Cycle Wheel
http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/lifecyclefrogactiv.htm

Frogs Thematic Unit
http://www.everythingesl.net/lessons/Christine_Gorman.php

NAD Pathfinder by the Seventh-Day Adventists. The program is similar to scouts except they also offer Bible and marching. Info is on amphibians.
http://www.pathfindersonline.org/pdf/ayhonors/amphibians-a.pdf
http://www.pathfindersonline.org/html/honors/honors_ay_manual.htm#D

Frog Pictures & Facts
Wonderful pictures and facts for notebookers and lapbookers
http://www.pca.state.mn.us/index.php/living-green/living-green-citizen/for-kids/frogs-for-kids.html
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/food/food_menu.html
http://www.hear.org/AlienSpeciesInHawaii/species/frogs/index.html
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/topics/frogCalls.html
http://www.zo.utexas.edu/research/txherps/frogs/calls.html
http://www.frogsonice.com/froggy/
http://www.naturesound.com/frogs/frogs.html

Build a Virtual Pond
http://webspace.webring.com/people/gu/um_8517/createapond.htm

Animal Sciences Unit

Jodi — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:25:22 +0000

Animal Database
Animal Diversity Web (ADW) is an online database of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology at the University of Michigan. http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/index.html

Animal Sounds
In different languages what do we say to mimic animal sounds? Visit the world’s biggest multilingual list. A guiding principle behind this list is to visualise a comic book, in your language, and imagine what would be written in the text balloon coming from the mouth of an animal. For languages that use a different alphabet, they have tried to transliterate the word into the English alphabet for ease of comparison. http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/Personal/dabbott/animal.html

Farm
Animal Names – Fill in the correct name for the gender http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Farm/farmclips/animalgender.gif
Find more links to Farm activities at: http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Farm/

Jane Goodall
Animals and us: Close encounters – Read an interview with Jane Goodall. She started working with chimpanzees in 1960. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18625025.900

Pets
Petpourri is a collection of puzzles, games, and playsheets that will provide hours of entertainment while teaching children about responsible pet ownership. http://www.avma.org/careforanimals/kidscorner/default.asp

Plants toxic to animals
ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center’s list of toxic and non-toxic plants to dogs, cats, and horses. http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/plants/
This database brings together information available in library books, plants grown in the Poisonous Plant Garden, mounted specimens of plants, and the reference notes for a toxicology course (VB320) which is taught during the fall semester each year. http://www.library.illinois.edu/vex/toxic/toxicintro.htm

Animal Sciences
Waterfowl Web of Life presents a journey into the world of sea ducks with a hands-on Activity Guide for 4-6th graders
Sea Ducks of Alaska Activity Guide. http://www.akcoastalstudies.org/SeaDucks.htm
The Food Chain Instruction Plan – this pdf unit contains, rubrics, worksheets, goals & objectives & more. http://ischool.umd.edu/research/students/FoodChain.pdf
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – Wetland Pictionary, Animal Game & more. Click on the activity below to learn more about the activity or in some cases, the entire resource booklet. http://www.cpaws-southernalberta.org/education/edu_resources.php#4
Information units on North American animals and plants with illustrations, text, activities, and access to a naturalist. http://www.enaturalist.org./
http://www.zoo.org.au/Learning/Animal_Profiles Many animals covered here!
http://www.waterfordpress.com/index.php/Educator-Resources/Waterford-Activity-Zone.html Many work/activity sheets
Live cameras where you can watch for different animals. It has several different camera sites set up-polar bears, fish, africa, etc. You have to check it early mornings or late evenings due to time zones http://www.africam.com/wildlife/index.php

Do you twitter

Jodi — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:23:38 +0000

Do you twitter? Follow me and join the groups homeschool and lapbook and unitstudy

P.S. This is my new twitter account.

Unit-Safari

Jodi — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:58:17 +0000

Unit studies are an integrated thematic approach to learning several subjects/concepts through a main topic. Topics or themes can be chosen by the child’s interests, experiences in family life, books, events in the news, etc. This method can be used with different grades at one time to incorporate all the children of a family.
Have you wanted to put together a unit study but not sure where to start? Join Unit-Safari and you won’t have to do it alone.
Unit-Safari is an online co-op where we put together unit studies as a group. It isn’t a site for lurkers, but for active participants. A topic is done every two weeks and our members send information to the list on that particular topic. At the end of that unit collection, the information is organized into a printable unit for members’ use by volunteers. These unit studies include Bible References, Learning Objectives, Vocabulary, Reference Books, Living Books, Movies, Websites, Activities, Worksheets, Games, Writing Assignments, and Evaluation Ideas.
We are voting on units to do this year so now would be a great time to join!

EcoBrain Freebie John James Audubon Nature Unit Study

Jodi — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 01:25:23 +0000

EcoBrain Freebie

John James Audubon: A Great Appreciation of Nature Unit Study.

John James Audubon is considered one of the first naturalists in America. This unit explores his life and interests in nature, and takes you on a journey of lessons related to nature and environmentalism. Each unit contains explanatory content, online resource links, book suggestions, 6-8 lesson plans and 2-10 worksheets.

Lesson Plans Included:

Bird Watching Album (Grades K-12)
Ecology in your Backyard (Grades 3-12)
Endangered! (Grades 3-12)
How Ecologically Savvy Are You? (Grades 6-12)
The Animal Gallery (Grades K-12)
If You Build It They Will Flock! (Grades K-12)

Olympics 2008 Unit Study Ideas

Jodi — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:11:57 +0000

Aldi’s special purchases from August 10 include many Asian dishes.
http://www.aldi.us/us/html/offers/offers_08_10_2008_ENU_HTML.htm?WT.z_src=main

Daily updates of Kodak Olympic Picture of the Day, blog posts and other Olympic action direct from Beijing.
http://www.kodak.com/go/olympics

Competition Schedules
http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/Schedule/index.shtml
How many different sports are in the Summer Olympics? How long has each sport been in the Olympics? Research sports that are no longer part of the Olympics. What are demonstration sports? How many different sports have you tried that are in the Olympics?

Note: This is a sister post to Olympics 2008 where I will add new things to.

Sinbad the Sailor Literature Unit

Jodi — Sun, 18 May 2008 23:58:01 +0000

Scheherazade: A Musical Story of Arabia – This three lesson unit introduces students to the world of Scheherazade, the Sultan and Sinbad the Sailor. It highlights the relationship between the tales of the Arabian Nights and the great musical work, Scheherazade, by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Increase listening, music reading and dancing skills.

The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, by the Brothers Grimm is an online Sinbad the Sailor story.

The Arabian Nights Entertainments, by Andrew Lang scroll down to read The Seven Voyages of Sindbad the Sailor

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves mini literature unit.

Saudi Arabia Virtual Tour

Sinbad – Legend Of The Seven Seas Animated Movie

A study guide for the stage, has line drawings.

Amazon.com Widgets

Butterfly Unit Ideas

Jodi — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:16:17 +0000

Food Idea: An easy item for lunch (or even breakfast sandwiches) is after the sandwich is made, cut it diagonally. Separate the two pieces (the butterfly’s wings) and put in the middle a baby carrot or gherkin.
Bugs for Your Belly kind of looks like a butterfly.
A butterfly unit by Barbara Pratt.
Symmetry – Find patterns in nature.
Print off some butterfly writing paper. You could do your spelling lists or notes on this.
Look at the life cycle of a butterfly online.
Make chenille stem butterflies with this easy project.
Make a butterfly salad for lunch.
Butterflies and Moths pictures and information from Smithsonian Institute.
Coloring pages, worksheets and other printables from abcteach.
Butterfly fingerprint craft.
Learn the art of Butterfly Gardening.
Make a Butterfly Mask from PBS NATURE: Alien Empire.
Club Caterpillar for Kids has a butterfly activity kit to download in pdf and games & puzzles.

Outline Flags

Jodi — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:06:46 +0000

Colouring Book of Flags has flags that have been drawn in outline form, suitable for printing to be colored in by hand. You can choose from all the states, a few historial flags, Canadian provinces, and most other regions. These would be excellent to add to any unit study, lapbook, notebook, and even timeline notebook.

For more information on lapbooks, visit the website at Lapbooking on a Shoestring. Email me through the page if you have lapbook pictures or info to share.