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Taxonomy-Scientific Classification-Activities 0

Science Club Week 8: Taxonomy and Scientific Classification (Fish), Earth Science Wrap Up

I realized that I never wrote up a summary of what we did at our last Science Club meeting!  We had such an amazing experience doing this club… the kids all became good friends and if you are contemplating putting a science club together, I *highly* recommend it!  My kids really looked forward to our Friday afternoons and I think everyone learned a lot along the way. If you’re just...

Volcano Worksheets and Notebook Pages 0

Volcanoes – Earth Science Unit

After our Science Club ended a couple of weeks ago, the kids continued studying volcanoes. I wanted to share some of our activities with you today. We went over the basic parts of a volcano – magma chamber, conduit or main vent, ash cloud, branch pipe, sill, crater, and so forth. Then we went on to spend quite a bit of time talking about the different types of volcanic explosions...

Mid Year Homeschool Assessment Packet - Reflect Evaluate Assess 0

Mid-Year Homeschool Assessment – Evaluate, Reflect on How Things Are Going

I have a new (free!) Mid-Year Homeschool Assessment Packet to share with you today! You might be doing this kind of evaluation and planning over the winter break, but I wanted to share this packet with you sooner than later. This Thanksgiving break, I took the opportunity to really reflect on our homeschool year so far and assess how things are going.  This was a natural time for me to...

Elementary Spanish Class - Homeschool Spanish 0

Homeschool Spanish Online Class (Elementary, Spanish 1 and 2)

Hi Everyone, Today I want to share the floor with Sra. Morato. Her online classes include elementary Spanish (for Kindergarten through Grade 6), Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 (36-week classes). This past year I have gotten to know her well and she is actually now teaching my girls Spanish (via video lessons and face-to-face meetings)! Let me share the story of how that happened!! It’s a funny story, one day while...

L-Sound Words - le el al il ol ile - Worksheets Activities and Games 0

Spelling Word Endings -le -el -al -il -ol -ile Word Sort, Games, and Activities

ED has been working on the /ul/ sound; word patterns and rules for words that end with le, el, al, il, ol, and ile. le words: people, struggle, little, table, available, article, terrible, etc. el words: level, model, hotel, travel, channel, fuel, novel, etc. al words: local, sandal, general, material, hospital, animal, etc. il words: until, pupil, civil, pencil, fossil, basil, etc. ol words: control, alcohol, symbol, petrol, cholesterol, etc....

Free Native American Notebook Pages 0

Free Native American Resources and Printables

This time of year, many people study Native Americans and/or the history of the colonies.  We have a lot of  free resources on the blog that I thought I would highlight again. I also thought I would include some of the books and resources we used along the way.  We’ve covered the history and culture of different Native American tribes in different years, so you’ll find that the first resources...

Science Club Week 7 0

Science Club Week 7 – Tectonic Plate Boundaries; Observation of Oysters, Clams & Crabs

This week when the kids arrived, they jumped in with our taxonomy unit. First, I challenged the kids to see if they could remember the 10 animal phyla we’ve been talking about this fall.  Most of them got at least 8 or 9 (of the 10 groups we’ve been talking about). As we waited for everyone to arrive, they took turns observing the “sea monkeys” that we had hatched a...

Science Club Week 6 0

Science Club Week 6 Earthquake Waves – Body Waves, Surface Waves + Annelids/Platyhelminthes

In Week 6 of our Science Club, we reviewed what we had learned about vibrations. Then we went on to talk about the different types of Body Waves (those waves within the Earth) and Surface Waves (those that move along the surface of the earth). We went over what they were and how they move.  Then did some hands-on activities to help explain why some waves move faster than others....

samurai worksheets 0

Samurai Packet (Free Notebook Pages)

Today I have a set of samurai worksheets to share with you.  They are currently FREE to download! For the past several weeks, we have really gone into a lot of depth about the age of Japanese feudalism and touched on topics including the samurai weapons, their code of conduct called bushido, and some of the most famous samurai and shoguns of this period. We started off by talking about...

Free Homeschool Planner 0

Free Homeschool Planning Pages (Holiday)

Back in the summer, I shared a large 100-page homeschool planner & discovery journal which is free to download. My daughter really likes having a checklist to work from and this weekend I added a holiday background to those pages.  She’s excited about them.  Just thought I would share them here for you as well.  I also added in the calendar pages for the next 4 months (because I print...

Simple Machines Unit - Worksheets Lapbook Activities 0

Simple Machines Packet Update (New Pages Added)

This week, I spent some time updating our Simple Machines Packet. I wanted to let you know that I added several new pages. I created a couple of new pages with simple machines you might find at a construction site.  There is a blank page for the kids to label and of course there are answer pages to accompany these. 🙂 Simple Machines Interactive Notebook Activity This Simple Machines Interactive...

Do I have what it takes to homeschool? 0

Do You Have What it Takes to Homeschool?

Do you have what it takes to homeschool? Of course you do, but let me tell you a little story! There is a shadowy figure that lurks outside of our homeschools. At the beginning of the year, this figure is so distant, we don’t realize it’s there. But just about this time of year, it starts to make an appearance. Sometimes it just pokes its head around the corner. Sometimes...

Earthquake Vibrations activities 0

Science Club Week 5 – Earthquake Vibrations, Taxonomy (cont.)

This week, we talked about how tensions build deep beneath the Earth and then suddenly release creating earthquake vibrations that move out away from the focus.  Below I’ll share several of the hands-on activities we did as we talked about this build-up of tension (and release of energy).  In the second part of our science club meeting we continued talking about taxonomy and focused on the digestive systems of flatworms...

Reformation Martin Luther Lapbook Notebook Pages 0

500th Anniversary of the Reformation (Notebook Pages/Lapbook)

Many people around the world are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. If you plan to talk about Martin Luther and the Reformation this week, you might want to download our Reformation notebook pages and lapbook. It was October 1517 that Martin Luther wrote his 95 Theses (or complaints) to his bishop. According to one account, Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church...