Lions, Tigers, and Bears...Oh MY!

I wonder how many blog posts with the same title are going up today around our part of Texas...Yesterday was Homeschool Day at the Ft Worth Zoo. I took J and T, and while the live animal show, animal exhibits, and various lessons around the zoo were wonderful, I think the best part about the trip (learning-wise) was the map-reading practice.

This guy LOVES reading maps...and J even got in on the fun. They were constantly both wanting to see where we were on the map, where we had just been, and where we were going next. They got pretty good at telling me which way we should head for the next animal exhibit. It was a really fun part of our zoo visit (both for them, and for their mom ;) to watch them grow, learn, and develop these skills.)

We had a few things planned for the day, in order to declare it part of our homeschool week :)

I made each of the boys folders with pages for Day 5 (fish and birds) and Day 6 (land animals and man) of creation, as well as sections for each letter of the alphabet...to categorize the animals according to the starting sound of each. We didn't actually do it AT the zoo, because I wanted them to just run around and enjoy the day (plus, that would have made our 4 hour trip twice as long!) Today, we printed out the photographs I took of the animals and glued them to the correct pages accordingly. J also has a number journal* in the works, where he draws things he sees on the correct number page, so he worked on that for a post-zoo activity as well. (a group of 4 elephants drawn on "Page 4," etc.)
*This idea was taken from the book, Emily's First 100 Days of School

Flamingos for the F page
(Please excuse the really weird neon coloring?!)

Penguins for P

Kangaroos, K :)

Macaw, M

Birds, B and Day 5
This is my favorite part of the Ft Worth Zoo. There are more birds than one could even begin to count, and you can buy popsicle sticks covered in birdseed. J was SO excited that he even got to carry one on his stick. He was so careful...I think he was afraid he was going to drop the bird :)

T apparently had a very yummy stick. These 3 birds couldn't get enough seed from his stick, and they even started pecking at each other....T thought it was hilarious.

Turtle for the T page

Lazy bears, B

Another turtle. This one cracks me up.

The mighty eagle, E

I can't remember what kind of bird this is, so we put him on the B page for bird.
*Please note the turkey in the window, though :)

Gorilla, G

Elephants, E

White Bengal Tiger, one of my favorite animals

Duck for our D page

The tiger, one of T's favorite animals (helps that it starts with T :) )

The lazy lion, I think it moved once. T declared him dead on arrival.

the cute Meerkat, M

and one more for our M page, Monkeys!

This week's painting project

I am usually a paint/draw-whatever-you-want-to-without-a-certain-end-in-mind kind of teacher to my children. I saw these really cute bobble heads at Target a couple weeks ago, and I was saving them for a rainy day. Well, today wasn't rainy in the weather-y sense but rather in terms of everyone's moods...so we pulled this activity out. The boys love painting, and I love to see their different personalities in a different light.

Exhibit A: Justus - J is our "I don't want to get my hands/shirt/shorts dirty, and I will do whatever I need to in order to avoid a mess" boy. You can imagine how this would play out when we are painting.




Exhibit B: Titus - I would say Titus' attitude towards paint varies. He either paints his picture/project and then wants to run off and play, or he paints his entire body and practically ignores his paper.




And then there's Exhibit C: Eli - Talk about opposite personalities in one family. Eli couldn't be more different than Justus. If you give Eli a paintbrush and paint, he WILL make a mess, guaranteed. He will completely coat his hands, and if you're lucky (or not, depending on how you look at it) his arms and belly.



(oh and FYI, Eli's hands are completely stained...I couldn't get that paint off no matter how hard I tried.)

I thought after giving the boys these bobble heads and showing them the pictures of the painted animals on the box, they might want to paint them the intended colors. I was wrong :)

Lately...

Art on the driveway

Science in the backyard




This past week, we observed, touched, and tried to catch a grasshopper, a toad, colorful birds, and many butterflies. You know what they say...It's true...The world IS our classroom!!

P is for Popcorn and Penguins

Tonight, we've decided to pop some popcorn and watch "Happy Feet." I think the big boys watched this once when it first came out, but of course they did won't mind watching it again!

Don't worry, we read about real penguins this morning and talked about the fact that they don't really sing and dance in real life!! :)

...and just in case you're starting to think there is no real learning going on around here...

We discussed these questions from this website:

• What kind of animals are penguins? birds
• Do penguins fly? no, they can "hop," slide, swim, and waddle
  
• Are penguins found south or north of the equator? (or more simply for the boys, where do they live?) There are cold-weather penguins and warm-weather penguins, but they always live near a lot of water.
• How long can a penguin hold its breath under water? about 3 minutes (Justus loved this fact, because he always likes to time himself holding his breath under water at swim lessons and in the bath tub.)
  
• What do penguins eat? fish
  

We did a very simple science experiment also from the same site
(freeze flat sheet of ice...Bring in various objects from around the house. Will it slide? Use cotton ball, beans, etc.)

We also made rubber eggs (directions here)
(J made a chart for us so we would know when the eggs were "done.")

I didn't feel like taking pics of everything today, since I took so many of the pizza-making yesterday. Hopefully, we can take pictures of our rubber egg experiment when it is complete!

Finally, we watched some YouTube videos showing how penguins get around, how they protect their babies, and how the babies get their food. It was all VERY interesting, and penguins continue to fascinate me. I am itching to watch "March of the Penguins" again :) Maybe next week...