Birds

Some of our most favorite learning experiences are those that are spontaneous.  The turtle in our tub and raising tadpoles to frogs both bring back such great memories...and they happened without any planning on my part (in the beginning anyway).  Recently, we found a bird's nest in a potted plant on our front porch.  We loved looking at those tiny babies so we traded in our frog books for books about birds.  And "birds" became the theme around our home.

We filled our book basket with these titles:

Flap Your Wings by P.D. Eastman (reader)

A Nest Full of Eggs by Priscilla Jenkins (reader)

Feathers for Lunch by Lois Ehlert (reader)

Guess What's Growing Inside This Egg by Mia Posada (reader)

The Best Nest by P.D. Eastman (reader)

Birds by Kevin Henkes (reader)

About Birds by Cathryn Sill (reader)

An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Aston (reader/written in cursive)

Backyard Birds by Jonathan Latimer (resource book)

Eyewitness Explorers: Birds by Jill Bailey (resource book)

DK Eye Wonder: Birds by Samantha Gray (resource book)

Thunder Birds by Jim Arnosky (resource book/beautiful illustrations)

Birds, Nests, and Eggs by Mel Boring (resource book)

Draw 50 Birds by Lee Ames (art resource)

During "book basket" time, Old Crow would enjoy reading through these titles.  Crazy Horse and Memphis Belle also loved some of the fun readers.

Along with the book basket, here are some activities we did to enjoy our time learning about birds.

1.  Observe the bird's nest daily...but never touch.  The no touching part was also a daily lesson. ;)

From our window we could see the mama bird bring food to the nest.

We pulled out our Bird Handbook and learned that our birds were House Wrens. 

2.  Take a nature walk and look for other nests.  Before we left our yard, we had already found three.

3.  Read aloud Mr. Popper's Penguins.  Once we completed the book, we also enjoyed the movie.

4.  Once the baby birds left our nest, we removed the nest and investigated.

We carefully looked through the nest to see what materials the birds used.  

We found pinestraw, twigs, leaves, grass, and hair. 

5.  We gathered our own natural materials and created a nest craft.  Memphis Belle enjoyed being the Mama Bird.  During our readings, we learned that the male House Wren builds several nests and lets his mate choose the one to use.  So Old Crow didn't mind this project...he enjoyed being the Daddy Bird. :) 

6.  We created bird feeders using an empty toilet paper roll, peanut butter, and bird seed.

Super simple and lots of fun!

7.  Old Crow used the book Draw 50 Birds to learn how to draw a bird.  The book gives step-by-step instructions.  He chose a falcon.  

8.   To complete our study on birds, we plan to visit our local bird sanctuary.

I'll end with this wonderful email we received from a friend who knew we were studying birds.  

Only a creation by God could have the knowledge and wisdom to complete such a perfect home.

Jenny

"I know every bird in the mountains,

and the creatures of the field are mine."

Psalm 50:11

Tadpole to Frog

I just love when life presents those "teachable moments."  For us this happened a few weeks ago when the boys stumbled across some tadpoles.  

Days of nonstop rain brought large puddles and ponds to normally dry areas.  While at my parents house for Sunday lunch, all the boys went on a 4 wheeler ride and found a huge puddle filled with tadpoles.  They ran back inside, grabbed one of my mama's mixing bowls, and filled it up with tadpoles.  They were thrilled and wanted to bring them home.  I thought sure...why not?  It would be a wonderful learning experience for all of us.  And then I began researching how to take care of tadpoles...clean the water twice a week, use non-chlorinated water, boil lettuce to freeze for their food, find a large enough aquarium, etc.  My goodness!!!  They had been living in a mud puddle for crying out loud.  But for the sake of learning, I smiled and brought them home.  :)

And I'm so glad I did!!  We had such a special time watching this miracle take place...one that only God could have designed.  Watching this transformation reminded me of our time with the butterflies.  

Here is our journey with the tadpoles.

March 17--We brought home the tadpoles.  

We placed the aquarium in the kitchen so that we could always watch them.

Sidenote:  While I initially thought all of the guidelines for tadpole care seemed ridiculous, I'm so glad I researched and followed through.  All of our tadpoles developed correctly, and they are healthy little froglets.    

March 25--The tadpoles grew their back legs.  Their lungs were also beginning to form...we saw them come to the top to take a breath and go back down in the water.

April 1--They now have their front legs.  Soon after this, their tales began to shrink.  Their eyes are also bulging and their head is shaped like a frog.  Their lungs are fully formed and they float on the top of the water.  They are also no longer interested in eating the lettuce.  Their appetites are changing as well. ;)

April 3--The tadpoles have now completely changed into froglets.  They can now jump out of the water and onto the rock.  Their tales have completely disappeared.

April 6--We released the froglets back into their natural habitat.

A few of the tadpoles developed more quickly than the others.  We released them a few days earlier.  Now that the remaining ones were ready to find flies and crickets we found them the perfect spot.

And that's it...until the cycle begins again. :)

While we were watching the metamorphosis, we read books about tadpoles and frogs.  Here are the books we kept in our book basket.

Growth and Life Cycles: Tadpole to Frog by Jim Pipe

Tadpoles by Theresa Greenaway

From Tadpole to Frog by Shannon Zemlicka

From Tadpole to Frog: Following the Life Cycle by Suzanne Slade

From Tadpole to Frog by Wendy Pfeffer (A Let's Read and Find Out Science book)

The Mystery of Nature:  Tadpole to Frog by Oliver Owen

If you happen to run across some tadpoles, don't hesitate to bring them home.  You'll love watching this miracle unfold.

Jenny

Penguins!

We have been a penguin-crazy family for a while now.

Back in 2010:  Old Crow dressed as a penguin for Halloween and Crazy Horse was an eagle.

That same year we visited the penguin exhibit at the zoo and they HAD to have a penguin "pet."  They still sleep with these penguins.

In 2011, we visited the GA Aquarium and viewed the penguins from an underwater tunnel.  We were all fascinated.

So I wasn't surprised when we recently began to talk about penguins a lot.

After watching the movie, Happy Feet, the kids became fascinated by penguins all over again. 

It is amazing how much factual information they can learn from a fictional cartoon.  They began talking about where penguins live, how they "sing," how the daddy takes care of the egg, and lots more.  It's all they could talk about.  So I began to gather books and activities to help them learn even more.

These are the books (both fiction and non-fiction) that I checked out from the library and added to our book basket:

The Emperor's Egg by Martin Jenkins

The Little Penguin  by A.J. Wood

Penguins by Penelope Arlon

Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester

Tacky and the Emperor by Helen Lester

National Geographic Kids: Penguins! by Anne Schreiber

Little Penguin: The Emperor of the Antarctica by Jonathan London 

I found these great Montessori style penguin cards and printed out the 17 different species of penguins.  We could match the picture with the information about each type of penguin.      

Old Crow picked 4 penguins from the list.   He measured their height and marked them on the wall.  Then they each took turns to see which penguin was their same size.  They thought this was too funny!

Old Crow also did a mapping activity.  He colored the places on the map where penguins can be found.  He learned from our books (and it was reinforced with this activity) that penguins only live south of the Equator. Penguins do not live in the Arctic.

We also pulled out a past issue of Big Backyard and read about the Little Blue Penguin.  He's the smallest of all penguins.  I can't say enough good things about this magazine.  Sidenote:  Big Backyard has now been renamed Ranger Rick Jr.

Old Crow also practiced carrying the egg around on his feet.  He realized this was hard work!  He had to be extra careful not to let it touch the "ice."  :)

For an extra activity, we put together this globe puzzle.  Old Crow loved that penguins were pictured on Antarctica.

There are so many other fun activities.  Check out my Polar Animals Pinterest Board.  

That's all the time we had for penguins.  The boys now want a penguin as a pet.  I keep trying to tell them that it isn't such a good idea. ;)

We did, however, get a new pet.  Tadpoles!  Stay tuned to read about our journey with tadpoles.  They have now sprouted their back and front legs.  Amazing!  

Jenny

Education is a Life

It is amazing how much children will learn just by giving them a few materials and the freedom to explore.  One day last week we had a day full of learning that wasn't even planned by me...it was completely child-led.  It all started with a Melissa & Doug latches puzzle.  While playing with the puzzle and also a Thomas the Train magnet (from Cranky the Crane...that Crazy Horse cut off years ago), the boys quickly realized that the puzzle was magnetic.  They had such fun moving the latches using the magnet.  

So I ran upstairs to our school closet and brought back a magnet kit.   I didn't direct...I just handed it over to see what they discovered.  They played and played!  In the midst of all this playing, they discovered that the magnets would only work certain ways.  At this point they began asking questions, so we pulled out the ipad and researched magnets.  We found Magnet Facts for Kids.  

They learned about the magnetic north pole and south pole.  Opposites attract!

They began using words like "magnetic field."

They practiced on glass, windows, plastic and found that those do not have a magnetic field.  

They walked around the house looking for metals that were magnetic...not all metals are magnetic.

They learned that the magnetic field is strong enough to work through plastic and paper.

And their favorite part!!  Watching two magnets repel each other!  We knew the red end of the magnet was the north pole and by watching what it did to the Thomas the Train magnet...literally pushing it away...they guessed that the north pole must be hitting another north pole.  

Smart boys!  All from just playing.

Moving on...

Next came the play dough.  They created their own animal and then took it a step further to create a "habitat" for their animal.  Old Crow created a lizard.

And then the tree service shows up to cut down a large, dead pine tree.  They were fascinated by the heavy machinery and the process of cutting down a tree. 

We got a close up view through the window! :)

This led to a discussion about why the tree was dead.  They learned that beetles had eaten through the tree and destroyed the system by which the tree takes water from the roots, to the top, and to the branches.  

A day full of play, learning, excitement, growth, exploration, and creativity.

"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life."

--Charlotte Mason

From For the Children's Sake

Jenny