D is for Dinosaur!



Clip Art by BioArt
 
 

We just wrapped up a week of bones not too long ago in which we touched on the topic of dinosaurs.  My kiddos liked it so much that I thought it was worth revisiting and creating an entire dinosaur week!

 

 

 

 

Here is a quick wrap up of some activities we did for "D is for Dinosaur" week:

 

- Dinosaur Sensory Bin                            - Dinosaur Mystery Painting

- Dinosaur Egg Hunt (spelling)                 - Dinosaur Double Trouble Game

- "d is for dinosaur" alphabet craft            - Dinosaur Classification

- Carnivore, Omnivore, Herbivore Venn Diagram

 

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Dinosaur Sensory Bin

 

I like to introduce every new week with:

 

1)  review of what we did last week,

2) an exploration of things that begin with the letter of the  week in our dictionary...we love  My first Dictionary by DK Publishing.  There are bright  pictures with simple yet accurate definitions.

3) a sensory bin!!

 

 

 

I try to create little "mini worlds" with my sensory bins to the best of my ability.  I always try to include things we already have lying around the house, a new object or two, and some manipulatives that we will be using throughout the week to serve as a "symbol" for the work (play) done in the unit.

 

For this weeks sensory bin, I used:

 

  - A rectangle aluminum casserole dish 

  - Plastic dinosaurs and trees we had lying around the house

  - A new pack of dinosaurs  {the manupilative/symbol of the week}

  - Blue glass beads for "water"

  - Rocks! 

  - Black beans and split peas (you could also add sand/dirt/coffee grounds)

 

 

 

 

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Spelling--Dinosaur Egg Hunt! 

 

Looking for another use of those Easter eggs hanging out in your kid's closets? :) 

I know I was.

 Objectives:  Reinforcing the fact that dinosaurs hatch from eggs (unlike mammals).  Recognizing the word "dinosaur"

 

 

This was a fun activity!  First I traced the word "dinosaur" on a piece of paper using the letters that were going to be hidden away in dinosaur eggs.  I got them from the dollar store quite some time ago, and they are still going strong!  Then I hid one letter in each egg (along with some dinosaurs and candy).  Armed with baskets and a sunny attitude, they ventured around until all the eggs were found!

 

We even did the activity again with lowercase letters later that week.

 

 

 

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Science--Dinosaur Classifications

Objectives:  Classify dinosaurs by diet and physical characteristics. First we read "My First Dinosaur-touch and feel" by DK publishers.  We really like DK books!  This book provides several touchy-feely pictures of dinosaurs and grouped them into groups (dinosaurs with spikes and frills, dinosaurs that are "meat munchers", etc).                                                                                     

 

We first looked at the physical characteristics of the dinosaurs.  We had some pretty realistic dinosaur stickers from Melissa and Doug.  I cut them out, and we first sorted them in pairs (my 2.5 yo helped with this).  Then I folded a paper in half and wrote one characteristic on each side of the paper.  For example, one side of the paper was for dinosaurs that walked on two feet, and the other were for dinosaurs that walked on four feet.  I provided a few examples and then let my 5yo think of other ways that the dinosaurs could be grouped.

 

We also sorted dinosaurs by what they ate.  This was also an opportunity to introduce venn diagrams.  On three cards I wrote "carnivore", "herbivore", and "omnivore".  Then I got out a few large pieces of string.  I made two overlapping circles with the string and labeled each category appropriately (the "omnivore" category was the overlapping area in the middle). Then, we got out all of our play food and groceries and sorted them into the kinds of things carnivorous, herbivorous, and omnivorous dinosaurs would eat--with a little creative latitude of course!  This was a fun one.

 

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Dinosaur Arts & Crafts

 

We did the "d is for dinosaur" alphabet craft.  The template can be found at Teacher Template:

 

We also did a dinosaur mystery painting.  I got the idea from The Do It Yourself Mom.  Please excuse my dinosaur drawing skills :)  But I thought my 5yo use of colors was very pleasing to the eye!

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed the weekly round up!! 

 

 

~Dee J.

 

 

C is for Caring

It's almost Valentine's Day again, and now is a perfect time to have a conversation with your children or students about caring.  For me, caring is about giving and receiving love from people, places and thing/objects.  So when we throw around the phrase "I don't care" we are affirming that we do not want to give or receive love.  Which is...well...a place where many of us don't want to be.

For this post, I have included:

(1) a sample conversation you can have with your little significant others about caring (2) activities designed to help children artistically express how they give and receive care in their lives (3) a link to a *FREE* emergent reader that your little ones can illustrate  (4) a song and (5) a few good reads on "caring".

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Talking to the "littles" about caring

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Caring is giving your love to another person, place or thing/object.  We can give our love to family members and friends, pets, our homes and even our toys.  We can show our family, friends and pets love by telling them we love them each day and by doing things together.  We can show our love for our home by helping to keep it clean and fixing anything that is broken.  We can also show our love for our toys by picking them up and placing them back in their places when we are done playing with them and playing with them carefully so they don’t break.

Who do you give your love to?  How do you show them love?

"I Care" by Angela Leeper

What things do you give your love to? How do you show them love?

What places do you give your love to? How do you show them love?



"The Peace Book" by Todd Parr

When we take care of people, places and things—or show love to them—often times they will show love to us.  So we get back the love we give.  If you show your brother love by giving him a hug, sometimes you might get a hug back.  If you help pick up your toys and play with them carefully, your toys will be easy to find the next time you want to play with them and they will not be broken!  If you fix things around the house when they start to break, your house will look good and keep you safe.

 

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Artistics Expressions of Care

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1)    “I care” collage—Write or type the words “I care” in the center of a page or poster board.  Have several magazines available.  Invite your students to cut and paste pictures of the things they care about on their poster board.  Afterwards, you can have a “show and tell”.  Are there things that are similar across collages?  What are some differences?

2)    “I care” reader—I have put together a free printer-ink and artistic child friendly reader.  {Get it from my TPT store here} Each page in the reader includes one to two sentences expressing what we give care to and who gives care to us.  All pages are blank so that independent illustrations can be added.  If you have students/children who are not particularly keen on drawing, you can provide pictures of families, pets, toys, and other things that children care for.

3)    Make your own Belly Badge—If you have little ones who are in to the Care Bears, this is a great idea!  First review some of the belly badges the Care Bears have.  The badges are symbols for how the bears show that they care!  After your review, invite your child/students to draw a symbol of how they care on the back of a paper plate.  (This is also a good time to explore what a “symbol” is too).  Then punch holes in the sides of the plate and tie it around their waste with some string. Now they have their own belly badge!

Yes I Care! Song

 

{To the tune of London Bridges Falling Down}

I give my love because I care (hands and arms out)

Yes I care (whisper), Yes I care! (shout)

We give our love because we care (hands and arms out)

For each other (arms make a big circle over the head and to the ground)

 

 

I feel love because you care (hands on the heart)

Yes you care (whisper), Yes you care (shout)

We feel love because we care (hands on the heart)

For each other (arms make a big circle over the head and to the ground)

 

Always give and accept love with grace :)

~Dee J.

B is for Bones

         For some reason I have been avoiding the whole alphabet-themed lesson planning like the plague. But...my son has taken an interest in learning time, and we needed to find more activities that he could participate in.  Oh, and my daughter absolutely loves alphabet crafts.  So I (at  first) reluctantly accepted their desires to start focusing on one letter a week.

To my surprise, alphabet-themed weeks are in no way limiting!  Instead it helps focus my mildly scattered mind on a few topics.  Focusing on one letter at a time is helping my daughter to get a better grasp on listening for initial sounds. 

For "B" week we focused on "bones" and "bears".  I admit, we had waaay too much fun with bones that we hardly got around to bears, but we did do a few activities.  

Here is what we did this week!

Skeleton Nomenclature                         Where are the Bears? Geography Activity

Make a Model Spine                               Paper Plate Bear Art

Make a Model Rib Cage                         Make Clay Bones

Bone Readers & Games                         Bone Number Bond Activity

**ABCs of Life Focus:  What does it mean "to be"?**

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Science:  Anatomy

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Obviously, focusing on "bones" lends itself well to the study of biology.  We also talked about dinosaur bones. We used the following books (which many were, conveniently, written by authors with names that also start with "b"):

> "Bones" by Stephen Krensky:  a well-written non-fiction book with interesting bone facts

> "Dem Bones" by Bob Barner:  goes along with the song "Dem Bones".  Cute illustrations, but the kids were a little confused about the "dry bones" part :)  And a lot of bones are omitted.

> "Dinosaur Bones" by Bob Barner: a lot of facts about dinosaur bones--perhaps too many for little learners, but the book is written so that they are 

optional.

> "Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones" by Byron Barton: tells a sequential story of how paleontologists find bones and put them together in a museum.

Nomenclature

We practices the scientific names of some major bones with these {FREE} skeleton nomenclature cards:

 There are 13 cards (both blank and colored) for the (1) skeleton, (2) skull, (3) pelvis, (4) spine, (5) rib cage, (6) hand bones, (7) foot bones, (8) humerus, (9) radius, (10)  ulna, (11)  femur, (12)  tibia, (13)  fibula.  You can get these free nomenclature cards at my TPT store.

Model-Building

We built a model of the spine for our vertebrate/invertebrate unit, but it would also be useful to include here!  We definitely referenced our model during bone week.  

You will need: 

-a pipe cleaner

-wagon wheel noodles

-soft foam beads

Assembly:  string noodles and soft foam beads on a pipe cleaner alternating one by one.  The wagon wheel represent the vertebrates in the spine, and the soft foam beans represent the discs that keep our vertebrates from rubbing each other, and ultimately causing damage. Now use the model to demonstrate how your spine can bend!

You can also make a model of a rib cage!  To facilitate the understanding of the function of the rib cage, get a wire whisk and pieces of clay or play-dough.  The whisk represents the rib cage, and the clay/play dough represents our "squishy organs" such as the heart and lungs that the rib cage protects.  Demonstrate how easy it would be to damage a lung or heart if it wasn't in a cage by playing with some play dough (you can even attempt to shape it into a heart/lungs).  Then place your play-dough organs in the wire whisk.  Now try to damage the organs. Have a discussion about how our bones protect other important parts (like the brain).

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Science:  Geography

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Where are the bears? We also did an activity to locate the regions in which many bears live.  We read Bears, Bears Everywhere by Bob Barner.

This book provides some information on how bear species differ by diet, cub rearing, and location. We talked through the map in the back of the book to understand the dispersal of bears around the world.  Then we got out our own large felt continents.  I found and printed pictures of bears that were in the book .  Then we matched the bears with the continent that they live in.  

We also read Brown Bear, Brown Bear (again, we did a Brown Bear unit not too long ago) but this time we encouraged our oldest to read it on her own!

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Math--Number Bonds & Counting

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Bone Bonds!

I am working on two fronts with my children.  My youngest is just starting to associate the written number and the word.  My oldest is learning to break numbers into smaller numbers via number bonds.  Number bonds are a new(er) addition to the Core Curriculum that I was previously unfamiliar with, but the skill makes sense to me!

I created the "Bone Bonds" puzzle for children who are just beginning to explore number bonds.  Of course, you can get it free through my TPT store.  This activity is a series of 13 puzzles that include all number bonds from 1 to 5 and one worksheet.  Cut the bones apart on the dotted lines, and then work with your child to put them back together.  Draw notice to how many different ways you can get to the number five!  (i.e. 1 and 4, 2 and 3, 3 and 2, etc..)

Krista Mahan Teaching Momster also has very cool skeleton-themed number puzzles that we used that is FREE at the TPT store.  They can be adapted for younger and older students.

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Literacy--Bones and "to be"

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We found a beneficial reading activity (for free) from Sally Landers called "Cuttin' It Close--Skeleton Close Read".  This is activity helps with reinforcing some of the scientific bone names.  

Finally, we are doing a series called "ABCs for Life" to supplement our science and literacy-centered fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants curriculum.  For the letter "b" we discussed what it meant to "be".

We defined "to be" as how we behave or act.  The main point for us was to understand that there are several ways "to be" and that it changes all the time throughout the day.  I wrote "be" on one note card and a series of ways to be on other note cards.  For example, "silly","quiet", "loud", "calm". We then talked about how, even though we change our way of "being" all the time, there is a piece of us--that is connected to God and each other--that always remains loving.  We must remember to find our way back to this way of being in all we do.  Allow your child some creative space to draw a map to guide him/her back to "being love".

Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day

*~Be Love~*

-Dee J.

ABCs of Life

I admit that I often get caught up in teaching in the mode that I was taught in. A very fact-oriented method consumed with right answers and momentary memorization techniques. However, as I grow older I realize the most important things I learned occurred outside of the classroom.

Our decision to home school has been a tough one for me to navigate. I am a champion of the public school system—I spent 23 years of my life in school and picked up an A.A., B.A, M.A. and PhD along the way. But no matter how many acronyms I put after my name I felt as if I never learned anything at all. My advisor in graduate school summed it up well after witnessing my dissatisfaction with the reaches of science, "It seems as if you are looking for something else."

I admit that I am a lover of science, but I have also become an enormous appreciator of the art of living through intuition. We have both external and internal worlds to navigate. We suffer dearly when we focus on one at the expense of the other. I choose homeschooling because I know learning the lessons of living a purposeful life is just as important as academics. I feel that the distinction between learning about the world and being of it should be seamless. A marriage of science and mysticism—being willing to accept the facets of life that are beyond our five senses, and taking a critical approach to what it is we claim to know.

That is why I have been working on what I like to call "The ABCs of Life". Lessons that both parents and children can benefit from together. They remind us what it means to be the most authentic versions of ourselves that we can be. Which, by the way, is the most important lesson of all. :)  Enjoy!

 

I included one or more words for each letter of the alphabet. I will update this page weekly to include child-friendly definitions, activities that may be used to support the ABCs of Life. If you have any suggestions, or if you simply like the idea, please leave a comment!

A— appreciate, always, aware

B— "be", believe

C— care, complete

D— dare, destiny

E— emotion, eternal

F— focus, forgive, free

G— give, grace, golden rule

H— heal

I— imagine, intent, intuition

J— joy

K— kind

L— love

M— mind, miracle

N— neutral, now

O— observer, open

P— peace, present

Q— quiet

R— receive, release, rest

S— soul, surrender

T— thankful, together, tolerance

U— unity, unique, unlimited

V— vow

W— welcome, whole, will

X— examine

Y— you

Z—zeal or zest

Happy trails!

DeShauna J.

(Photo Credit:photo credit: duncan via photopin cc)

The Mother of Learning is Connection: Tips to Improve Memory

 No matter how many times you bludgeon students with facts, they will not truly understand the material until the information is refashioned as their own.   

In my far too many years spent in school, I heard over and over again that if you study with a certain "frame of mind" or environment, you will be able to recall what you studied better by replicating this same mental and/or physical environment.
 

If you studied in your pajamas—wear pajamas to your exam! If you had a certain writing utensil, answered questions in a certain order or outlined your essays in a particular way—do it on the test. I too prescribed to this logic and even succumbed to dressing up on test day to make me feel better about myself. (Somehow putting on a dress made me forget that I spent the previous eight hours with a box of pizza, a chipped coffee cup and stain-encrusted sweat pants).

Rest assured there is no "magic" going on here. Your pen, lucky socks or any other ritual did not directly impact your test scores, but what did?

Non-physical reality and physical reality interact to create an endless variety of conditions. Belief in magic arises when we are not aware of all of the physical and non-physical "players" or variables in any given situation.

States of mind combine with physical cues that govern the parameters we can witness in any given situation.  When we are learning, we are bringing something into our awareness—we are "expanding" or consciousness.

It is a bit like hearing a song you have always known, but someone says, "Hey, did you notice the singer makes a reference to our hometown in the last chorus?" Then your perspective of the song may change. You are still the same person, the song is still the same song, but your connection to the song has changed. Your brain—representing your conscious awareness—has "rewired" itself to include new subroutines.

Some people will remember those newly discovered lyrics next time they hear the song and others won't. The disparity lies in our individual frequencies. Much like a radio tunes in to specific waves to play music, the human mind responds to cues.  The extent to which we are aware of these cues lies on a continuum from completely conscious to totally unconscious. The more we are able to physically and mentally incorporate a perspective into our own reality, the more "conscious" of it we become. 

Those who remember "more" have incorporated a perspective more completely. They can imagine the information as real, lively, actionable and valid, and thus build a connection with it. The words, pictures and music are more than just letters, lines and notes; there is a bridge built between them. People who remember well are good "meaning makers". 

  

Tips to Developing the Skill of "Meaning Making"

1. Tell a story or situate an idea with a perspective they are already aware of. When we say "mean" in the phrase, 'that didn't mean anything to me', then we are inferring that the intention of the message did not reach us. The bridge between us and the message didn't "work".

2. Create something. When we engage in an activity that allows a great deal of creative latitude we are permitting the learning material to interact with a student's own physical and mental environment. This not only encourages meaning-making, but allows the teacher and fellow learners to experience new perspectives on learning material.

3.  Introduce perspectives, not facts. The mind requires facts to build a solid foundation of knowledge. Yet, when introducing information for the first time, or if a student is struggling with some material, discussing the general viewpoint is more conducive to facilitating meaning-making. Facts have the set-in-stone feeling that seem impossible to amend. However, focusing on the social/economic/political ("human") elements of a body of facts pumps blood into lifeless definitions and formula.

4. Make a bridge from new materials. Many of you may be aware of the Montessori Method of learning made famous by Maria Montessori. One of the paramount techniques of this genre of teaching is creating materials that include a variety of senses. As teachers, we often over-emphasize the logic muscles, and forget that our senses work together to create a wonderful, meaning-making experience. Even if you are teaching college students, find a way to incorporate the sense of touch, smell, hearing, sight, etc into your teaching.

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These tips are meant to help you create material that students can meet with on their own terms. The goal should be to grow knowledge by sowing a seed—not by transplanting whole plants into a new garden. Allow space for revelation to happen and new knowledge to form.

Thank you for your time. I am another you,

~*DeShauna J.*~

Teaching the Inner Child

What makes the experience of childhood so exquisite is the feeling that you exist in forever.

"In the Moment" by Matt Anderson

Children often get caught up in the moment. They feel, touch, taste, smell and generally sense everything that comprises the moment. They are so in tune with that moment that they can't tell you what that moment is because they are coupled to forever.
 

Adults find this place too by surrendering to the sense of now. Forgetting your fragmentary existence as a body who is interacting with other bodies. We let our non physical awareness steer our bodies away from fear of judgment into the joy of unity—which is more easily achieved by looking beyond the body into the timeless spirit that connects us all.
 

When we are in this "space" we hand over the keys to our physical body to our spirit. We see the world differently because we allow the true observer to replace that which is simply the fractured reflection comprised of judgments from parents, peers and passersby. This "observer" knows no judgment, no "sin" because it is aware of the reality-binding power of unconditional love. It views no harm—no foul—only love.

When we see through the eyes of the physical body, and not the spirit, the physical body is given the power to create your experience. It's a bit like giving your car the keys and letting it drive itself. A car doesn't truly understand integrity, honesty, truth…and neither does your physical body. It is a function of the mechanical (in our case organic) parts that make it. 

Applying this to a teaching situation…when approaching your students, teach through your own inner child and you will reach the inner child of your students. Allow space for the student to be more than just a physical body. Speak from the non-judgmental, eternal perspective you hold within you. With this approach, the learner will have fewer reasons to develop mal-adaptive teaching patterns that block information. Nothing can be taken personally if you respond to the spirit, not the person. 

Thank you for your time. I am another you,

*~DeShauna J.*~

Let’s Talk about Unity

I started my "official" homeschooling year with a unity theme. For me, the idea that we are all one is the basis of every eternal truth. However, the lesson is deceivingly simple and in my experience, we have to be really aware of our thoughts and behaviors to be a living principle of unity.  And let's face it--this is an important lesson your kids are probably not going to receive in public schools.

The fact that we are connected as ONE is so simple and fundamental. It is such a basic truth, that we often overlook it in favor of categorizing and re-categorizing ourselves and our relationships with one another and Spirit. At times, our scientific and artistic minds agree on this fact and it is referred to what we would call a "Renaissance" (remembering) period.

 Yet like the yo-yo, we "drop down" from this perspective by forgetting this truth or feeling as though we have learned all that we can from this perspective. Traveling down the yo-yo's string, we long to return back to the lone finger that holds the string and yo-yo together. Some call this God, others Spirit or Creator, but whatever you call it collectively we understand that we feel separated from whatever "It" is, at the bottom of string and we have steered away from something central to our lives. Traveling back up to the string, we remember our interconnectedness and the sanctity of all life and rejoice in this connection. As children, it is imperative to understand the unity of all things before we tearing this connection apart, for this web of causation is our home. 

 When all goes wrong, everything is right in the perspective of unity.

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A *free*coloring pages on the theme of Unity from glad.is:

I am in the place where we all are ONE.

The place where everything begins.

And where everything will end.

And where we all unite as FRIENDS.

 -DeShauna J.

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 _{Talking about Unity with your child(ren)}

 

It seems to me that the idea of unity is quite easy for children to grasp. In the womb it would seem that babies are embedded in a reality of connectedness—the sway of amniotic fluid, the rhythmic beating of the heart and the sweet sound of muffled surroundings.

Of course, I don't remember being in the womb so I am using my imagination a bit here, but it would seem that the infant may first realize its separateness as they come to the realization that they have their own voice, fingers, toes, and other parts. The journey of separation is already underway as this brand new human being learns to navigate the world through cooperation and conflict with other conscious beings. 

The Crayon Kingdom by Jennie Bishop is a great story to read to young children!

Here is an "outline" or storyboard for your unity discussion with your family.  (I had this discussion with my then 4 1/2 year old, and she totally got it and still talking about it 6 months later).

1. We were all created by the Creator. Some call it God, or Spirit, etc.
2. When the Creator created us, a piece of the Creator was placed in everything and everyone. So, although we have separate bodies, we share a connection to the same source (God, Spirit, Tao, etc.) that created all things.
3. We were given minds and hearts that connect us to God/Spirit and all things Spirit created.
4. This place in our minds and hearts is where there is unconditional love…which means that we share love with everyone and everything no matter what they do. Even if they may not act nicely or like us, we still have love for them because we remember the place where we are all one. We can call this Big Heart Love.
5. The Earth is also all connected and we are connected to the Earth. We are connected to the animals and trees, the water and the fire. Every piece of the Earth has a piece of us in it, and we have a piece of us has a piece of the Earth in it. We are also connected to all of the planets, and stars, and everything in the universe because we were all created by the same thing.
6. The word "UNITY" expresses the fact that We Are All Connected. The word UNITY means that everything is brought together as ONE. In the word Unity is the "root word" "uni-". A root word is the one part of a word that you kind find in lots of other words that always has the same meaning. In this case, "uni" means "one. We have heard this root word before in words like UNIcorn (which means one horn), UNIcycle (which means one wheel), and UNIque (which means one of a kind).

 

What does it mean if we are all connected and we are all one?

• What we do and say can help other people feel happier (or sadder). We should play, talk and connect with other people like we want to be played with, talked to or connected with.
• We need to treat everything on the planet (animals, plants, etc) with love because we are connected to them.
• When we work together with unconditional love in our hearts, then we can reach the place in our minds where everything is connected. This is the place where ideas that help everyone and everything come from.

Art project:

• Link paper clips together to create a chain to represent the connection we have to each other, the Earth, space and the Creator who created everything 

Writing/art prompts:

1. What does the place in your mind where everything is connected look like?
2. What can you do to feel connected to everyone and everything?

 Thank you and please share any resources on teaching UNITY to young children!


~The Spirit in me honors the Spirit in you~



-DeShauna J.