Trying 2 Walk Wisely: September 2009

This semester at our co-op we are doing dissecting and art with our elementary age kids. It is an awesome opportunity for our kids to get inside a few animals and learn about art masters while painting a few masterpieces of their own! Well, to be honest, the dissecting idea received an all around "yuck" in my house- even from the boys, which surprised me. What boy doesn't want to touch something slimy and gross? Mine, obviously!

After searching the Internet for hours and coming up empty, I put together a few things to use for our curriculum and I thought it would be nice to share in case anyone else out there could benefit. For the younger elementary kids I thought that a lapbook would be more fun than traditional "worksheets". I found a treasure trove of mini books that I could incorporate at Homeschoolshare.com. (http://www.homeschoolshare.com/) Since the specimens that we are doing are an earthworm, frog, perch, and sheep's brain, I used related mini books for each of the animals for the lapbook. For example:

Earthworm: Tunnel Travels @ http://www.homeschoolshare.com/worms.php

Frog: Frog Life cycle @ http://www.homeschoolshare.com/Frog_Lapbook.php

Perch: Fish Life Cycle @ http://www.homeschoolshare.com/fish_and_fishing_lapbook.php

Sheep: Sheep Classification @ http://www.homeschoolshare.com/resources_pumpkin_runner.php

You get the idea! I just searched for mini books that would go along with the animal we were studying and/or classification. Our co-op moms wanted to include a comparison of human body systems to those of the specified animals, so I included mini books and the body systems and brain.

For the older kids, I created "worksheets" to go along with the curriculum. For each specimen we begin by discussing classification, then the specific ecosystem of the specimen, and finally the body system that we will focus on for the specimen. The worksheets reflect those aspects. I also included a KWL sheet for each specimen and a T-chart that focuses on the similarities and differences between the animal body system and the human body system. I would like to post these in a file somewhere in Internet land so that others can use them but I haven't quite figured out how to do that yet!:)

While gathering all of my information, I found these web sites that could be used as supplemental material for a dissection curriculum. I hope they are helpful for you.

http://www.learningtreasures.com/animal_classification.htm - classification notebooking pages
http://www.learningtreasures.com/classification_class.htm - classification class (ongoing- join anytime)
http://www.learningtreasures.com/make_an_animal_notebook.htm - animal notebook
http://www.gamequarium.org/dir/SqoolTube_Videos/Science/Animals/ - animal videos
http://www.superkidz.com/humanbody.html - human body systems
http://www.instructorweb.com/lesson/humanbody.asp- human body lesson plans
http://tnmomwith3kids.wordpress.com/2006/10/17/human-body-lapbook/- blog with free human body lapbook
http://www.squidoo.com/humanbodylapbook - squidoo lens on human body
http://www.mbgnet.net/- biomes and ecosystems
http://www.lapbooklessons.com/EarthwormLapbook.html - we used some of this book in ours
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/animal_classification_lapbook.php- classification lapbook
http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/virtual.php - virtual dissections, labs, and field trips
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/animal_classification_system.php- Literature based unit studies provide a memorable reference point from which to teach your students the basics of the Animal Kingdom's Classification System.
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/gamesforkids.htm- animal games
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/kids/animals-pets-kids/amphibians-kids/ - animal videos
http://www.edupics.com/en-coloring-pictures-pages-photo-frog-life-cycle-i9449.html- frog life cycle
http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/UnitStudies/desert-rainforest.htm- Ecosystem compatision- Desert and Rainforest
http://www.ebioinfogen.com/virtual.htm- every kids of virtual dissection
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/desert_animals.php- desert animals lapbook
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/hangman.html- animal classification hangman game
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/kidscorner3.htm- classification games
http://www.exploratorium.edu/memory/braindissection/index.html - sheep brain virtual dissection
http://academic.scranton.edu/department/psych/sheep/ieframerow.html- sheep brain virtual dissection
http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/online_field_journal/dr/dr_menu.html- ecosystem diorama plans
http://www.saczoo.com/Page.aspx?pid=442- frog life cylce
http://www.zoobooks.com/virtualzoo.aspx?n=546584 - virtual zoo
http://biog-101-104.bio.cornell.edu/BIOG101_104/tutorials/animals/earthworm.html - This is a virtual earthworm dissection.

www.wonderhowto.com - The website below has over 80 videos on dissection. Be aware that most of the videos are on dissecting a human body. However, they do have dissection videos on the eye of a cow, frogs, a sheep brain, chicken wing, the heart and lungs of a lamb, a cat, a shark, and a salamander.

http://www.eclectichomeschool.org/articles/article.asp?articleid=130 -Gross things unit study including dissections

http://www.eclectichomeschool.org/articles/article.asp?articleid=589 -Amphibian Unit study with dissection ideas
http://staff.tuhsd.k12.az.us/gfoster/standard/perchdissection.htm -Dissection lab for a perch

http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/cow_eye/index.html -Cow's Eye Dissection

http://kids.yahoo.com/animals/amphibians

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/amphibians.html

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/kids/animals-pets-kids/amphibians-kids/-videos

http://www.blogger.com/- crafts

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/ReptilesAmphibians/ForKids/default.cfm-printable games

http://www.blogger.com/http://www.blogger.com/- songs, poems

http://www.nbii.gov/portal/community/Communities/Plants,_Animals_&_Other_Organisms/Amphibians/Teacher_Resources/-lessonplans http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/WAKI-ViewArticle.aspx?pin=x-am091200a&article_id=1&chapter_id=1&chapter_title=Animals&article_title=Amphibian

http://cybersleuth-kids.com/sleuth/Science/Animals/Amphibians/index.htm