Lions at Lunchtime

We read through the book all at once so it was a bit much to go through these review questions all in one sitting but there were some good ones in there, some including family discussion like...
   Tell about a time you and another person worked together.
   Tell about a time you felt frightened of something.
   Have you ever heard about an animal helping a person?

The word matches I did out loud and gave the kids a few choices to pick from. They did very well with it.

* Find Tanzania and Kenya on a world map. (we actually did this at the beginning of the book so we'd know what we were reading about)

* A crossword to review, making for a fun way to review vocabulary words.

* Fun facts about animals that migrate.

Fun activity: 
Let the kids use their fingers to make a peanut butter and honey sandwich.  (Hannah just did this since Eli hates peanut butter)

(currently out of honey so we used a lil Agave Nectar)

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Afternoon on the Amazon

After Jack and Annie spent an afternoon in the Amazon rainforest dodging mangos and facing perhanas, crocodiles, vampire bats, and army ants, we spent some time learning more about rainforests.  We assembled a book filled with the things we learned.

Here were our activities...

1. On our book cover we glued a map marking the rainforests of the world.  We made a small dot marking where we live and I even showed them where Rio is because that's one of the kids' all-time favorite movies. 

2. Then we reviewed the layers of the rainforest trees and added on the description and a short list of animals that live in each part. I'd read aloud the description and they'd guess where it belonged.

3. We learned about the different animals that live in the rainforest. The kids colored and cut out all the animals on a worksheet from here. (just sign up your email and you get a whole list of different theme worksheets you can download) They worked hard on this page. Eli especially took time really coloring each picture and cutting closely around the edge of each one.

4. Then we learned about some of the foods that come from the rainforest. I did the cutting for them this time (while they were working on the last page)

5. And the people that actually live there. I didn't want to go into all the details of their lifestyle, but the pictures give a glimpse. Just wanted them to know there are people there with a whole different way of life.

6. The rainforests are in danger and are being cut or burned down.

Our complete book

7. I happened to have some mango peach juice so we finished with a lil treat. It was a perfect ending.

 Then as they were finishing, I was asking them questions about what we just learned. And because it's fun to see them raise their hands I'd say Raise your hand if you can name a fruit that grows in the rainforest... name an animal that lives in the rainforest... Why is the rainforest in danger? Name a way that we can help.

I'd say it was a fun afternoon!

Click HERE to download the food, people, and danger pages.

More rainforest activities and worksheets are HERE.
And questions to answer as you read through the book (and other Tree House books) are HERE.

Night of the Ninjas

Our afternoon reading with the kids today was out on the trampoline. It was so perfect. Eli and Hannah have taken on playing the roles of Jack (big brother with glasses) and Annie (care-free sister) and like to act out some of the scenes. It's quite cute!  =)

Here are our follow-up activities: (they were mostly discussion type instead of hands-on things this time)

1. Find Japan on the world map and globe. 

2. Talk about Ninja clothing (also called shinobi shozoko)

CLOTHING COLOR

    * Black or dark blue clothing was for dangerous night missions so they could remain hidden.

    * What color do you think they'd wear for winter missions so they could blend in with the snow? white

   * They wore a green kind of camouflage pattern when they need to blend in with the forest surroundings.

    * In what situations do people wear camouflage clothing here today? We talked about and looked at pictures of soldiers and hunters.

    * What are some animals that have camouflage skin that can change according to their surrounding? 

OTHER DETAILS

    * Clothing covered all of their skin. And had many pockets all throughout it, inside and out.  What do you think they put in all of their pockets?  Storing small tools and weapons. And a small first aid kit in case they came across animal bite or poison.

    * Tabi boots had a slit between the big toe and second to make it easier for climbing ropes and scaling walls.

3. I never really could find much to watch or do about Ninja moves but maybe you'd have better luck?

4.  Nature discussion regarding the rules from the book:

* Use nature -- Jack and Annie used the moonlight and shadow from a stick to find which direction was east -- We can use the sun and shadows to find direction or time. We can also use nature to build shelter or raft or tools.

* Be nature -- Jack and Annie became still as rocks to hide from the Samurai warriors towering right over them.  -- When we confront dangerous animals we can remain still as a rock or become big like a bear to protect ourselves.

* Follow nature -- Jack and Annie followed their mouse friend across the stream to get where they needed to go. -- When lost you can follow a stream as a guide to a nearby town.

5. Project: Try out the shadow stick method to find direction.

    * Find a very straight stick and stand it up in the ground on a flat area. 

    * Mark the tip of its shadow with a rock. 

    * Wait at least 15 minutes (we waited 30 for bigger results) and mark the new shadow tip. 

    * The first shadow mark is west and the second shadow mark is east. You can then figure out north and south.

 6.  {Faith Connections} Ninja master: a mysterious wise person who knew many secrets of nature. They had meetings in hidden caves.

* Who is our great ninja master? God. He is mysterious, we don't know everything about Him, He is so great we can't comprehend everything. He is wise and he knows everything about everyone and he knows everything about nature because He created it.

* Where can we go to meet Him? Anywhere because God is everywhere. Although in other parts of the world where people are still not allowed to worship God or go to church, Christians will have secret meetings in caves or basements or homes in order to worship God in secret.

As you can see, we are very serious about our studies around here...  =)

 

HAPPY SUMMER!

Arg!! {Pirates}

We read this book awhile ago and while I had jotted down several supplemental activity ideas, it took awhile to actually sit down follow through with a lesson plan.  I'm really looking forward to having time with the kids home this summer and we can continue through these books!  

So here's Book #4 of the Magic Tree House series. We spent the morning learning about pirates!

Activity 1. We completed a chart, learning about the myths and facts of pirates. I wrote each tidbit on an index card and we taped it to the appropriate column. This introduced the idea that not everything we hear about is actually TRUE. It also introduced the terms "fact" and "myth". The kids were surprised at some of the things that aren't actually true! (Info came from here. Click on picture for a larger view of our cards.)

Activity 2. Using this fun blog we figured out what our pirate names are and made name tags for the morning. And by "made name tags" I mean we wrote it on a label sticker. =)

Eli is "Green Lip Bill"

Hannah is "Cold Tooth Sue"

Carter is "Long Eye Kid"

And I am "Blue Leg Gert"

Activity 3. Then we assembled a little booklet about some of the different kinds of pirate ships. I read the description, and the kids tried to guess which picture matched it. And we glued it into the booklet. (Cut one piece of paper in half the long way and fold over both pieces to make a booklet. DOWNLOAD pirate ship info and pictures here.)

Activity 4. Following this drawing guide we drew our own pirate ships! They actually turned out quite good. The kids were proud and hung them in their rooms.

 I love these little hands at work.

the rainbow looking lines are cannons

Hannah's picture. She just likes to write Eli's name on things.

 Activity 5. We learned about some pirate vocabulary by creating our own crossword puzzle. I added the word list on the side. (Type in this info into this site to create your crossword--it's so surprisingly quick and easy! Like 5 minutes, tops!)

Intro to Egypt

So over the summer Eli and I have started reading The Magic Tree House book series aloud {me reading}.  We LOVE our adventure books!  You see, the tree house takes the two children to wherever they point to in a book.  It takes them to all different time periods and countries!  We typically read an entire book in one sitting because they're that good.  And then afterward we spend some time learning more about the place we read about! I actually started Eli a notebook just for these tree house books. After we finish a book I have him draw a picture about it.  Book #1 I had him draw a picture of a tree house. Book #2 I had him draw a volcano and the town of Pompeii.  Book #3 I had him draw a pyramid.  And then we continue with more learning activities.  Here's what we did after reading Mummies in the Morning, a book about Egypt, pyramids, and mummies!

Activites (you could go MUCH more depth but I just wanted to do a little overview):

1. Find Egypt on a world map. I would LOVE to have a huge poster of a world map for the play room, perhaps one with some images that depict the different regions but have yet to find one. Haven't really searched much though either.

2. Look at pictures and diagrams of real pyramids.

3. Build your own pyramid -- paper craft found HERE. You're supposed to coat it with sand, but after I selected some "clean" sand from our sandbox it still smelled like cat poop so I threw it out and we just left it as the paper pyramid.

4. Write your name in hieroglyphics using the symbol key. In the story Jack and Annie decoded hieroglyphics to help the ghost-Queen find her way to the Afterlife.

 These are all our names HANNAH, SARAH, ELIJAH (Eli wanted to put his full name), and DAD. Carter was napping so he wasn't part of the activity. Eli did his own but I helped with the others.

 5. Play a mummy computer game. This "treasure hunt" helps you learn more about Egyptian traditions and some of the things they include in the mummy's tomb.

6. Using toilet paper wrap each other like a mummy. I chose Hannah to wrap up because 1) I would take a lot of toilet paper to be wrapped. and 2) Eli was more likely to be the better wrapper. Although I did most of this. (note: I used curtain tie backs to tie Hannah's feet and arms together so should wouldn't accidentally break through the paper right away.)

7. Watch a History Channel Netflix video about pyramids and what's inside! Fun family activity!

8. Discussion: What IS the Afterlife and how do WE get there?