Category: Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats

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Plants of the Rain Forest Activity: with Free Rain Forest Plant Cards

Today I wanted to share a fun activity we did about rain forest plants. As many of you know, we are doing a large biology unit on biomes, ecosystems, biological interactions, animal relationships, and so forth.  At the end of last semester we went over basic animal characteristics — the 5 vertebrate groups, the main invertebrate groups, and some fun activities for my youngest daughter — spiders vs. insects, domesticated...

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Biology Unit: Animal Tracks and Animal Anatomy

As you know, we’re working on a biology unit.  I thought I would share a little bit about the animal activities ED (Grade 2) is working on before talking about our biome activities (in the next post). In the animal packet that I shared at the end of December, there is a whole section on animal tracks.  ED pulled those back out again and was working on those the past...

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Biology Unit — Free CDC Unit on Rabies

We are studying biology right now. Last week, the kids had to choose one of the biomes, do research about it, and prepare a 3 to 5 minute speech.  They did a great job!  This week, they are going to do another short research project.  This time, I thought I would have the kids do another of the CDC units.  Previously (a couple of years ago) they did projects on...

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Homeschool Science: Year in Review and What’s Coming Up

When I think about all we’ve done this past year in 2015 in science, I’m really pretty amazed! It’s been a fun, full year!  This post has links to dozens of our science experiments, printables and hands-on activities. You’ll find direct links to the posts in the table below. We managed to squeeze in various engineering (STEM) type activities here and there. In January of 2015 we were in the...

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Animal Unit: Vertebrate-Invertebrate Animals Worksheet Packet (100+ Pages)

Animal Unit We have a 100+ page packet all about animals! The Animal Unit covers various topics such as body coverings (feathers, fur, scales, skin),  the different types of animals (vertebrates, invertebrates), animal characteristics, insects vs. spiders, domesticated vs. wild animals, animal tracks, animal homes and shelters, herbivores, carnivores & omnivores, and much more! In our animal unit, we spent quite a bit of time on animal classification. First, we...

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Earth’s 4 Major Systems (Free): Atmosphere, Geosphere, Hydrosphere, Biosphere

As we start off our new science units, I wanted to be sure the kids remembered Earth’s 4 major systems (or ecospheres): atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere.  We spent several days just reviewing these four Earth Systems in a general way.  You know me, I also made the kids some notebook pages and review cards to go along with our discussion!  I thought it might be helpful for some of you...

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Free Montessori 3-Part Cards: Amphibians, Frog Life Cycle Notebook (and lapbook) Page

This is definitely the perfect time of year to study frogs, toads, and salamanders!  I made some Montessori 3-Part Cards with some of the common amphibians of the northeast.  This would be a perfect addition to the free Frog Lapbook over at Homeschool Share! You can download these Montessori 3-part cards by clicking on the link below. These are currently free to download! I would love it if you could help...

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Animal Portfolio Project

The kids are starting on another independent research project.  Last semester the kids did a biography research project, but this semester they are doing a portfolio project. That’s just a fancy way of saying… a bit of this and a bit of that.  They’ll do both non-fiction and fiction writing selections, art projects, geography and habitat projects. And they’ll also watch a number of videos and/or movies.  You’ll get a...

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Preschool Science: Above-Below Ground

In ED’s preschool science we are still talking about plants and animals. On this day we talked about animals and plant parts that live above or below the ground. We talked about how some animals like the grub or the cicada live part of their life under the ground, then live another stage above the ground. Some animals shelter under the ground when it is cold (like frogs and turtles)....

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Rain Forest Plants (Free Montessori 3-Part Cards)

On Tuesday I shared the biomes pin map that the kids and I used. We looked not only at where the desert, tundra and grassland regions were, but took note of the rain forest regions of the world.  Next I brought out the rain forest plant cards I had made several years ago.  Although our main goal was to look at a history of chocolate to go along with our...

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World Biomes Pin Map

Are you asking yourself, “What in the world is a biomes pin map?”  It’s a map that shows where the rain forests, deserts, grasslands, forest and tundra regions are located. A pin map is when you stick straight pins into the labels so kids can pinpoint where things are located. There you go, sounds fancy, but really it’s not! 🙂   Before we really delved into our study of rain...

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Vertebrates-Invertebrates — and Frogs!

Last week we spent quite a bit of time outside enjoying the wildlife in our yard.  We are really lucky in that we see a wide variety of critters every day.  We spotted a little Northern Brown Snake, a small mouse that was in the strawberry garden (corralled briefly in an empty pot and then released) and a toad.   We also came across a large millipede (probably four inches or...

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Whale Unit (and the Arctic) — Icebergs, Blubber experiment, Buoyancy and more

Whales are able to survive in the frigid waters of the Arctic. In this series of activities the kids and I explored how that is possible. First, not directly related to the whales themselves, we talked about icebergs. We took giant cottage cheese cartons and froze big blocks of ice.  One of those blocks had our wooly mammoth plastic creature. I had the kids guess how much of the ice...

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Whale Unit (and the Arctic) – Migration, Echolocation, Baleen vs. Toothed Whales

One of the days we read books, I stopped frequently to explain things and do activities with the kids. Whale Migration: For example, we talked in quite some depth about whale migration from the Arctic down the west coast of North America and back again.  I pulled out an Arctic Pin map I made and the kids placed the various countries that make up the Arctic region. You can download...