Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Insect unit study

Today we read through little one's newest issue of National Geographic Little Kids.  Its a great magazine for little hands and LO is always excited when it comes in the mail.  He collects the animal cards in a small plastic container and reviews them often.  I love how the magazine tests his critical thinking skills by doing differences, matching, searching, sorting, and categorizing.  The subscription is only $15 for the entire year.  We subscribed for 2 years and saved even more money.

After enjoying the magazine together, we focused on an Amanda Bennett unit study called "Insects".  LO loves bugs!  It is meant to be a weeklong unit including lapbooking for kiddos ages K through 4th grade.  I purchased it for $5 from an email from Amanda Bennett deals.  I signed up for her email updates and deals.  Since LO is still young (just turned 4), I modify the unit appropriately.  We do everything together.  I did all the reading and he dictated to me his responses.  He did draw his own pictures for those activities.  He really enjoyed watching the videos in the unit and the online games.  He also pulled out his toy insects so that we could identify each and decide whether they were truly an insect.  We spent a long time discussing the differences between spiders and insects.  We also spent a lot of time discussing vertebrates and invertabrates.  And we pulled out LOs books about bugs and read through them.  We are only halfway through the first day of the unit plan and we have learned so much already.  I figure that if we keep going at this pace that the unit will take us a few weeks, which is fine with me.

Little one wanted to continue on the bug theme by playing Willy's Wiggly Web.  Its a great Discovery Toys game that practices the fine motor skill of cutting with scissors.  The goal is to free the bugs from the web without freeing the spider.  The game has playing cards and rules for various ages.  We play the easiest level and LO loves it!

Currently LO is resting on the couch watching The Magic Schoolbus.  Speaking of The Magic Schoolbus, we have joined The Young Scientist Club for a year. LO will get one Magic School Bus kit each month for only $10 a month!  I bought it via a 50% off advertisement on www.educents.com. I highly recommend joining this free teacher resource website.  There have been many great deals offered since it started a few weeks ago.

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