Zoology Projects

For the culmination of our Zoology study (Land Animals), we decided to produce a few wildlife videos. The basics of what we did were this: each child picked an animal that we studied this year and wrote out interesting facts about the animal and their feeding and habitat. Then, we paid a visit to our local zoo and videoed each animal that they had chosen.

After we got back home and examined our footage, we realized that we need to add more information to make the video more interesting. The kids did a little more research on their animals and then we went to the park to film a bit more.

Creating the final product was a learning experience in itself! I used Microsoft Movie Maker and of course my oldest figured it out quickly. I then uploaded our finished projects on to TeacherTube.

Please check them out under the key words "Meerkat", "Giant Panda", or "Komodo Dragon". The account is under "Mrsbwrite".

http://www.teachertube.com/members/viewVideo.php?video_id=186412&title=Meerkat

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!

Botany Notebook

We decided to do Apologia Botany this year for our science class. I really love Apologia mainly because I can use it with all three of my children at one time. I decided to create my own Botany Notebook to go along with the note booking activities that Mrs. Fulbright details in her chapters. We have been working through the notebook so far this year and it is working beautifully.

To supplement, I added a lap book of Carnivorous Pants from Dynamic2Moms. It was really well made and interesting for the kids. I even bought a Venus flytrap from our local nursery so the kids could watch science in action!:) I actually caught a fly in my house and fed the plant so the kids could see how it traps the insect. It was really fun.

I also thought that it would be a great idea to go to our city's botanical gardens. I set up a field trip to go and it ended up being a gorgeous day. I made the kids find four of their favorite plants/flowers and I took a picture of the child with each plant/flower. I plan for them to include these pictures in their botany notebook. My favorite part of the botanical gardens was the orchid exhibit. It is amazing the diversity of these flowers! My children's favorite part of the gardens was the Venus flytraps and pitcher plants.

Here are a few of the great web sites that I found when compiling my materials for this study:

http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/

http://www.abc.net.au/science/surfingscientist/magic.flower.htm

http://www.enature.com/home/

http://homemade.truepath.com/nature2.htm

http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/#life

http://www.jeanniefulbright.com/notebookpages.html

http://www.gamequarium.org/dir/SqoolTube_Videos/Science/Plants/

http://sciencespot.net/Pages/nclessons.html

http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/uma/urban/ -wildflower coloring book

http://3kiwihomeschoolers.blogspot.com/2008/11/botany-lapbook.html

http://www.exploringnature.org/

http://www.lapbooklessons.com/GardenLapbook.html

http://www.greatsunflower.org/

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=howTo&p=Down_to_Earth/garden_journal_download

http://tagfoot.com/jimmie/bookmarks/nature

http://www.geocities.com/tennis110/flowerdissection.htm

http://www.nps.gov/webrangers/

Apologia Botany and Astronomy Noetbooking Journals

Apologia is now producing notebooking journals that accompany each of the elementary science books. Both Botany and Astronomy are now available.

These journals are beautiful spiral bound notebooks that will save you time and money. You won't have to print and keep up with your child's notebook pages, buy and maintain page protectors, or purchase and compile binders...everything that makes notebooking time-consuming and labor intensive for mom. Also, your child will adore having their own notebooking journal.

Each of the notebooking journals include:
A daily schedule for those who like to have a plan or would like their children to complete the book on their own
Templates for written narrations, the notebooking activities and experiments
Review Questions
Scripture Copywork, with both print and cursive practice
Reading lists and additional activities, projects, experiments for each lesson
An appendix with beautiful, full-color, lapbook-style Miniature Books
Field Trip Sheets to keep a record field trips
A Final Review with fifty questions the students can answer either orally or in writing to show off all they remember and know at the end of the course.

See the sample pages here:
Botany: https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=128

and
Astronomy: https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=127

Jeannie is giving away four Astronomy Notebooking Journals and four Botany Notebooking Journals to bloggers who post about this on their site. Visit her blog to learn more about this contest: www.jeanniesjournal.com