All Things Z

Zoos and Zebras were the main topics of this lesson (although we also learned other "z" words like zipper and zigzag). We learned that zebras have stripes that help him hide from other animals. However, we also discussed that nothing on Earth - zebras, people, or any other animals - can hide from God because God sees and knows everything. We learned our words to remember: "I can't hide anything from God." Hebrews 4:13 and Psalm 33:13 were the Bible verses that we read to go along with that.

We spent the last 3 days doing all things Z...

This activity was probably Madison's favorite one in the whole unit. We read "If I Ran the Zoo" by Dr. Seuss, which is a story about a boy named Gerald McGrew. He decided that if he ran the zoo, he's let all the regular animals go, and fill it with more unusual (made-up) beasts like the scraggle-foot Mulligatawny from the Desert of Zind, and the Fizza-ma-Wizza-ma-Dill bird from the Island of Gwark.

Madison's assignment was to make up some animals of her own that she would put in Gerald McGrew's zoo. She had to draw the animal, then come up with a name for it and tell where it was from. I love the things she came up with!

In the picture above, you see Kumba Tatuma from the land of Macaroni and Cheese Broccoli Salad Dish, and Samba Kazooza Nooza from the jungles of Tuna Salad.

A couple more of her zoo creations: an animal simply known as Viak, and a bird called Fuma Tuna from Anna Patanna.

After reading about a made-up creature in "Put Me in the Zoo" by Robert Lopshire, we created a picture of the creature from the book. We drew his outline, punched holes in colored paper, and glued them to the picture.

We read "A Zoo for Mister Muster" by Arnold Lobel. Madison then illustrated a picture from the story.

We read "Keep Trying Little Zebra!" by Christina Wilsdon - which, as Madison picked up on, was a great story in perseverance.
We made our foam lowercase "z" into a zebra.

Zebra Addition Worksheet
(http://additionworksheets.org/)
Dot to Dot Page
(www.printactivities.com)

We read "Zebras" by Jill Anderson and learned about Africa, which is where zebras live. We found Africa on the globe and in our world atlas.

We discussed the various animals that lived in Africa, then made a little poster. I drew an outline of Africa on a piece of construction paper, printed off various pictures of animals that live in Africa, and the kids colored them and glued them on. Madison added some other details to the picture - she colored yellow in the middle of the picture to represent the Sahara desert, and at the top of the picture, she drew a picture of herself with an umbrella, because she is in the African rainforest.

We also played a game where I described an animal and they had to guess what it was. For example, I said, "I'm thinking about an animal that lives in Africa, and it is the biggest animal that lives on land". They, of course, guessed the elephant. They also had fun coming up with ways to describe an animal for me to guess.

We talked about how every zebra has its own unique set of stripes, kind of like our fingerprints. I printed off a picture of a zebra and the kids painted their zebra's unique stripe pattern on it.

I found this cute, zebra art project idea on one of my favorite homeschool blogs "Mama Jenn", and knew that I wanted to try it with my kids. But to be perfectly honest, it just didn't have the results I was hoping for. Maybe on any other day, it would have been just fine. But I was dealing with poor attitudes today, and enthusiasm lacked all-around, including in art, which is typically the bright spot of our school day.

Anyway, the idea is to put a picture of a zebra in a box. Squirt some drops of black paint onto the edges of the paper. Add some marbles to the box, then shake the box so the marbles drag the paint across the zebra picture. This give the zebra some pretty cool looking stripes.

With my first attempt, I put way too much paint on the edges, so our zebra came out looking more like the Black Stallion. For our second attempt, I did less paint, but the marbles kept rolling under the paper. So then I figured out that I had to tape the picture down. We got this result:

Then I remembered Mama Jenn's comment about cutting out the picture first before rolling the marbles on it, because once it has been painted, it's difficult to find the zebra outline. Yeah, that would have been a good idea.

Finally, my third attempt produced this:

It was a cute concept, but in the end (with my hands covered in black paint), I decided that it just wasn't a "paint with marbles" kind of day.
(idea from http://mama-jenn.blogspot.com/2009/11/z-is-for-zebra.html)

Here is the one thing that I had planned, but did not get accomplished (yet). I found the zebra cut-outs on www. homeschoolshare.com and I wrote out a few addition problems for Madison to solve, using the zebra pictures. However, we have to think in terms of priorities for a 5 year old. Do a math worksheet, or go outside and play with the new neighbors girls who just moved in? Let's just say, it wasn't a tough decision. Zebra math can wait. Things like meeting your new next-door neighbor girls can't.

TGIF!