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!

K is for Kangaroo

Kangaroos have been the topic around here for the past couple days. We had a lot of fun learning various facts about them, particularly in the area of protecting their young. Just as baby kangaroo finds safety in its mother's pouch, we talked about how God wants to keep us safe too, especially from things that can hurt us spiritually. He wants us to stay close to Him so He can protect us.

We made kangaroo-shaped badges (sorry, no picture) with our words to remember written on them: "I am safe in God." We read verses on finding safety in God - Psalm 4:8, Psalm 16:1, and Psalm 31-29-20 - and talked about how they applied to our lesson.

Here are some highlights from of our kangaroo-themed lesson:

I had a couple of new students in my class yesterday!

One thing we learned about kangaroos is that they have the ability to jump up to 40 feet, in one bound. To demonstrate just how far that was, I measured how far the kids could jump. Madison went 4 feet, Noah 1.5 feet. Then we measured out 40 feet. See our marker just to the right of Madison's shoulder? That was 40 feet. The kids were amazed, and I was too! Forty feet is quite the distance!

We made kangaroo pencil holders using paper cups for the pouches, craft sticks for the feet and necks, and brown paper for the tails and faces. I probably should have just printed off a picture of a kangaroo to glue on as the head because as you can see, I'm no artist. I thought they turned out to look more like cats, but the kids were happy with them, so I left them as is.
(http://mama-jenn.blogspot.com/2009/10/k-is-for-kangaroo-weekly-homeschool.html)

We learned that kangaroos live in Australia, so we looked up where Australia is located on our globe, in our World Atlas, and then labeled it on our world map. We also read a fun story called "Who's Upside Down?" by Crockett Johnson. In the story, a kangaroo in Australia studies a picture of the earth in a geography book and decides she must be upside down.

We have some friends who are now missionaries in Australia, and we talked about how they probably see kangaroos on a frequent basis now. One of their girls was in my daughter's Awana and Sunday School classes, so it was neat to be able to add more of a personal connection to this lesson.

We read a cute story called "Joey Runs Away" and then made our foam lowercase "k" into a kangaroo.
(http://totallytots.blogspot.com/2010/02/now-i-know-my-abcs-k-is-for-kangaroo.html)

"The Kangaroo" by Sabrina Crewe
"Katy No-Pocket" by Emmy Payne

After reading "Katy No-Pocket", Madison illustrated her own picture of Katy the Kangaroo, and all the animals listed in the book.

"Guess Who Hops" by Sharon Gordon
"Young Kangaroo" by Margaret Wise Brown

After reading "Guess Who Hops", we talked about the various animals that can hop, and then Madison drew pictures of all that we came up with. She titled her picture "Hop and Hop Hop Hop". Along with a kangaroo, she thought of a frog, a grasshopper, a bunny, herself, a butterfly, and a bee. For those last two, she reasoned that they maybe hop while they are on the flowers, so I let her go with it.

Stay tuned for the Zebra lesson!

Vote in the Homeschool Blog Awards

Lifelong Lessons has the honor of being nominated in the blog awards, in a couple different categories:

#5 Best Crafts, Plans, and Projects Blog

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Make sure you read the terms and conditions before you vote, and only one vote per person, per household is allowed to vote for each category. The votes are based on the computer's IP address. That means, if there are 2 people in the household who would like to vote but you only have one computer, one person will need to go elsewhere to vote, or vote using a cellphone. But be honest and only vote one time.

Thanks for voting, and feel free to spread the word!

More Penguin Activities

We made penguin badges with our words to remember: "I show love to everyone, especially my family."

For a fun art project, we made balloon penguins that stand up on cardboard feet.

A grid work page, which created a picture of a penguin
(www.makinglearningfun.com)

"The Life Cycle of an Emperor Penguin" by Bobbie Kalman
"Polar Creatures" by Benita Sen

"Nanu, Penguin Chick" by Theresa Radcliffe
and our foam lowercase "p" penguin
(http://totallytots.blogspot.com/2010/03/now-i-know-my-abcs-p-is-for-penguin.html)

And finally, we watched the movie "March of the Penguins" as a family this evening. It was a great ending to our unit on penguins.

P is for Penguin

We have begun our P/penguin unit, focusing particularly on the Emperor penguins. Our words to remember are, "I show love to everyone, especially my family" and a key verse we talked about was Romans 12:10: "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves."

We talked about our families and how God wants us to be kind to everyone in our family. He wants us to always love them, even though sometimes it may be very hard. An example of this is the Emperor penguin father. After the mother lays the egg, the father puts the egg on his feet to keep it warm with his body. For two months, the father stands on the ice and snow in Antarctica, with the egg on his feet, and he doesn't eat a single thing that entire time. We all decided that we wouldn't do very well as an Emperor penguin!

Here are some penguin-themed activities that we did today:

"The Emperor's Egg" by Martin Jenkins is a great children's book that describes the parental behavior of Emperor penguins. It focuses on how the male keeps the egg warm until it hatches, and it describes how the parents care for the chick after it is born.

After reading about Emperor penguins and how the male penguins are wonderful fathers, taking care of the egg in the blistering cold, the kids made a card for the wonderful father in their lives. On the front, they drew pictures of an Emperor penguin father with the egg on its feet. We wrote "A Wonderful Father"

and the inside says "That is what you are!"
Madison also drew a picture of her and Noah on the inside of the card. Nate sure loved the cards!

Penguin coloring pages

A penguin number game. I said a number on the page and Madison had to find the number and put a little colored chip on it.
(www.makinglearningfun.com)

Letter P Word Search and Handwriting Tracing Page
(http://www.first-school.ws/t/word-search/alphabet/p.htm)
I have also began teaching the basics of monetary values. Today we learned about the penny and what it is worth.

We talked about where penguins live, in Antarctica. We looked up Antarctica in our Children's World Atlas, found where it was located on the globe, then labeled it on our world map picture.

We also read a book called "Icebergs" by Jenny Wood that described many iceberg facts, stories, and activities.

I demonstrated with ice cubes how a large portion of an iceberg is actually unseen, under the water. We talked about how icebergs can be very dangerous to ships because so much of them can't be seen.

Our penguin treats, made from raiding the Halloween candy! Snicker bars (with vanilla cake frosting on them) for the bodies, a couple different types of chocolate Tootsie Rolls for the wings and the heads, orange Tootsie Rolls for the feet and beaks, and Smarties for the eggs. The kids really enjoyed these for dessert after lunch!

More on penguins tomorrow!

Everything Elephants

This unit has been all about elephants. We talked about how some people say that an elephant never forgets, and how we also should never forget the wonderful things that God has done for us. We spent some time listing out all the wonderful things God has done for us in our own personal lives, and thanking Him for those things. We read through several Bible verses that talked about remembering the good things the Lord has done. (Psalm 103:2, Psalm 77:11-12, 1 Chronicles 16:11-12)

It was fun learning new things about elephants that I had never known. For example, did you know that an elephant can reach with its trunk, all the way down to its stomach, suck the water out from it, and use that to spray on its body to keep cool?! Madison and I found that very fascinating. A little gross, but fascinating nonetheless!

As is the case with us, we did many activities and projects dealing with elephants...

We made our elephant-shaped badges with our words to remember: "I will remember what God has done for me."

We read quite the assortment of books for this unit!

"Elephants A Portrait of the Animal World" by Leonard Lee Rue III - there were tons of great pictures of elephants in this book! We didn't read through the book though, because it was quite wordy for a Kindergarten class. But we looked at all the awesome pictures and talked about them.

"17 Kings and 42 Elephants" by Margaret Mahy had great illustrations and a fun poem about some kings and elephants on a journey.

"Elephant Magic for Kids" by Anthony D. Fredericks included a lot of facts and information on elephants with wording that was easy to understand for the kids.

"What's It Like To Be A Baby Elephant?" by Honor Head - we read through this for our Science lesson

"Elephant in the Bathtub" by Kristina Andres and "Stand Back, Said the Elephant, I'm Going To Sneeze!" by Patrica Thomas - we read these just for fun.

We read one of my favorite children's books, "Stand Back," Said the Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze!" by Patricia Thomas. I absolutely loved this book as a child, and discovered, that I still do! It was so much fun to read it again to my own kids. After we read it, I had Madison illustrate some pictures of a couple animals, what they looked like before and after the elephant's big commotion. She chose the giraffe, who ended up getting bent in half, and the leopard, who lost all its spots. I also had her pick an animal that was not in the book, and draw what she thought that animal might look like afterward. She drew an octopus, who's arms got all tangled up.

We spent quite a bit of time talking about where elephants live in Africa and Asia. We located both continents on the globe and we looked up the various countries that elephants can be found in, in our Children's World Atlas book. I also printed off an outlined world map and we labeled Africa and Asia on that map.

Madison did another word search for letter E words, and they colored an elephant picture.
(word search from http://www.first-school.ws/t/word-search/alphabet/e-sh.htm)

I loved how my kids' hand print elephant pictures turned out!
(idea from http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/search/label/Letter%20Ee)

These cute elephant finger puppets came from www.enchantedlearning.com

I found a cute cut-and-paste craft idea using basic shapes to create an elephant. We also did an elephant-shaped dot-to-dot.
(http://www.first-school.ws/activities/shapes/animals/elephantshapes.htm)
(dot to dot from www.makinglearningfun.com)

We read "Chickens Aren't the Only Ones" by Ruth Heller and made our foam lowercase "e" into an egg. It's not an elephant, I know. But it goes with the "e" theme. The book talked about various types of animals like reptiles, amphibians, and mammals, so it was a good basic introduction to that.
(idea from http://totallytots.blogspot.com/2010/07/now-i-know-my-abcs-e-is-for-egg.html)

I didn't plan ahead for a clever elephant snack, so this is what I happened to come up with on a whim. Ham for the face, crackers for the ears, a couple broken pieces of Club Sticks crackers for the trunk, raisins for the eyes, and peanuts, for the peanuts. Not my greatest creation ever, but it worked.