Friday, December 25, 2009

Zoology Notebook

It is Christmas day and I am just finishing up creating a Zoology Notebook for my kids to work on next semester. I enjoy reading the Apologia Science books and think that the note booking aspect of the books is very kid-friendly. My kids love animals and I honestly cannot wait to get started on Zoology because I know they will just love it!

We are planning a trip in January to our local Aquarium and one in May to our local Zoo. I am hoping that the trip to the Zoo will be especially meaningful after our Zoology study.


I have uploaded my Zoology Notebook to HSLaunch for anyone that could use it. Here are other good resources that could be useful:

http://www.learningtreasures.com/animal_classification.htm http://www.learningtreasures.com/make_an_animal_notebook.htm
http://www.gamequarium.org/dir/SqoolTube_Videos/Science/Animals/
http://www.jeanniefulbright.com/notebookpages.html
http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/club/
http://www.learningtreasures.com/classification_class.htm
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6759218/African-Animal-Note-Booking
http://www.mbgnet.net/ http://www.homeschoolshare.com/animal_classification_lapbook.php
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/animal_classification_system.php
http://www.animalcorral.com/
http://www.thetoymaker.com/Toypages/49Animals/49Animals.html
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/gamesforkids.htm
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Animals/
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/kids/animals-pets-kids/amphibians-kids/
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/hangman.html
http://learningtreasures.com/wordpress/homeschool-helps-animal-notebooks-what-to-do-next
http://education.sdsc.edu/download/enrich/make_a_frog_book_pg_1.gif
http://www.jdp.co.uk/
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/kidscorner3.htm
http://www.albright-news.com/Lion-Lapbook.htm
http://www.zooatlanta.org/home/kids_corner
http://tagfoot.com/jimmie/bookmarks/habitats
http://www.zoobooks.com/virtualzoo.aspx?n=546584


I hope that you will enjoy these sites!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Jesse Tree

I first heard about the concept of a Jesse Tree last year before Christmas and thought that it sounded fun. I am always looking for ways to help my kids understand the meaning behind Christmas and this seemed like a good way to do that. As I understand it, the Jesse tree is a daily devotional that takes the reader through the lineage of Jesus culminating in his birth. Each devotional day has an ornament to correlate with it that the kids can color or create and hang on a Christmas tree.

Here are some devotional sites that are helpful:
http://www.eriercd.org/pdf/reflections.pdf
http://www.jesse-tree.com/jesse_tree.html
http://www.rca.org/Page.aspx?pid=1628
http://www.jesse-trees.com/parent/parent-devotions.html - parent devotions


I purchased my twleve day devotional set from Illuminated Ink. The ornaments that we used were ones that my kids took turns coloring and cutting out. They ended up being three dimensional and the kids loved them. They were so excited when I pulled them out again this year.

Here are a few sites about making the Jesse Tree:
http://www.shalfleet.net/advent/makeajessetree.htm
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=545
http://www.kingofpeace.org/resources/ - Scroll down for ornament templates
http://www.rca.org/Page.aspx?pid=1625

Free Printables:
http://www.osv.com/Portals/0/images/pdf/JesseTree.pdf
https://www.pcusa.org/advent/pdf/advent-eng1.pdf - printable ornaments with instructions
http://www.kingofpeace.org/advent/advent.htm
http://www.jesustreedecorations.com/html/descriptions.html


I hope your kids have as much fun as mine are having!