Moving Beyond the Page Level 5-7: Unit 1-Week 3

This week we finished up our Animal Habitats unit. Lily has had so much fun with this unit. She loves  all things animals. :)

We began this week talking about measuring and tools. Lily was to go on a scavenger hunt for tools around the house-anything that we use to make our life easier.

After sorting the tools, we discussed what each tool is used for, and how it makes life easier for us, Lily picked a few to measure.

We talked about caring for our pets. Lily took a couple of stuffed animals and demonstrated how we can care for our pets. She actually is in charge of feeding our animals every night, so we talked about that, too.

 After we discussed pet care, we read The Salamander Room, by  Anne Mazer. We discussed what kind of environment the salamander would need, and whether or not the boy in the story could give the salamander the kind of habitat it had when it lived in the forest. Then we went outside and collected some materials to make a home for a salamander. A clay salamander. :)

We continued with RightStart math. Lily is really enjoying this so far. She likes the fact there are not a lot of worksheets in this math curriculum.

We played lots of educational games this week. Games that taught early physics, sentence structure and vocabulary words. Lily loves games, and we incorporate them into our schooling whenever possible.

We talked about how different animals have body parts that help them move. Lily acted out different animals and showed how their body  parts helped them move in different ways.

Our next activity was to make the different animal habitats. I put circles of yarn on the floor, and labeled them with a card. Lily sorted her little toy animals into different groups. Then, we blindfolded her, and I moved some of them around. She found them immediately, and put them back where they belonged.

Lily was supposed to pick an animal to learn more about. She chose the starfish, or sea star. We went to the library and got lots of books about them. Lily decided she wanted to paint a sea star. Or four.

For her final project, Lily chose an animal to learn more about. She was to do a research paper about it. She chose the shark. We got lots of books on sharks and Lily and I read some. She got Daddy in on the reading, too! Then she got to work on her paper.

That wraps up our animal habitats and environment unit. Next week, we start learning about weather!