One of my favorite end of the school year unit studies is our annual day trip to a point of geographical and historical interest in our state. The whole point of the trip was to put the skills they learned all year to the test.

I had the kids take out a state map and as a family we chose our destination. Without using the internet or computer I had them map out our trip. They figured out how many miles per gallon our vehicle would travel then estimate out how much gas it was going to take to make the trip.

They figured out how long we would be gone, how many meals and snacks we would need. I had them use the grocery ads to figure out meals and snacks and estimate how much it was going to cost for food.

Our trip always included a ferry ride so they had to figure out how much it was going to cost for the ferry ride.

When we were on the trip they each had access to a camera and a journal to take notes in. We stopped at historical places here in Washington state so the kids learned about our state history along the way. During the week or so after our day trip we spent time scrapbooking and journaling about our day out as a family. It is an amazing learning experience.

I loved our end of the school year day trips! It makes for great family time and it is educational!

Labels: America, lesson-plans, unit-studies

This spring a robin chose our front porch for her nesting place. We didn't even really notice her nest until one day she was startled by movement on the front porch. She built a nest and hatched her eggs fairly quickly. She is very protective of her babies. She dive bombs us every time we step close to her end of the porch. Today I saw three little baby bird heads bobbing up and down with their beeks wide open waiting for mommy to come feed them. It is so cute! A little bit annoying with the dive bombing mommy protecting her nest, but very cute!

We live in the middle of a small forest so we have a lot of wildlife in our backyard including a wide variety of birds. I've been taking photos and journaling about the robin nesting on my porch. It would be a great project for a home school family.

It is fairly easy to attract birds to your backyard garden area. They need water, food, and shelter. Attracting birds to your own backyard is a good unit study for home school families. For example, building a bird house involves math skills, following instructions, and reading blueprints. How involved you get with the project is up to you. I have a friend with a back yard habitat recognized by the national wildlife federation. It is a beautiful garden area but it takes a lot more effort than my own backyard science project.

There are many books and websites about attracting birds to your backyard. Here are a couple of websites I found helpful: Backyard Nature, Backyard Birding - Baltimore Birding Club, Birds Forever

Labels: Science, unit-studies

Did you manage to work some sort of recognition of Earth Day into your lessons this year? I'm late with my post, but it is never too late to teach our little ones about living green.

Here are a few basic things we can do that will make a big difference:

• Turn off the lights when we leave a room.
• Take a walk in your neighborhood park with the intention of picking up trash. Plan ahead, take gloves and two trash bags. One bag is for trash and one bag is for recycle. Time yourself as to how long you will pick up trash or plan to pick up a certain number of items to throw away or recycle.
• Start a compost pile for your vegetable scraps. Here are directions for a worm bin. Its a fun project involving dirt and worms. What child wouldn't love that!
• Recycle. If your city doesn't have a recycling program at least recycle your aluminum cans and newspapers. For a larger scale project, plan on organizing a recycling program.
• Turn off the water as you are brushing your teeth.
• Teach respect of life. We can go out and shoot photos or draw pictures of butterflies and bugs. There is no need to catch them and put them into collections.

Teaching respect of our earth is an important lesson and so easy to work into everyday lessons and unit studies.

Labels: Science, unit-studies

I found a mini unit study I think looks fairly interesting. The unit study is based on the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The unit study is on the Easy Fun School website. The Secret Garden -- A Literature Mini Unit

Labels: Science, unit-studies

At least it's suppose to be springing forth tomorrow!

Here is a list of first day of spring lesson plans.

Here is a fun project, tye dye shirts from home grown plants.
It's a unit study lesson plan for grades K - 12.

Labels: Science, unit-studies