Bass Pro Field Trip

Really, it was a trip to get Papa a new fishing rod.  But, since it was technically a school day, we made it educational.  We took our local species cards and headed over to the fish tank.  At Bass Pro, you can see many of the local fish in their central tank.  So, we took out our cards and identified all the fish in the tank.  

It was not easy!  And, it was certainly helpful eating up time while Papa talked about rods to the sales guy, and talked, and talked....

Color: DIY Color Box

I've been trying not to buy Color Box 3 for ages.  I think the layout is SO PRETTY.  But since I couldn't justify it, I made a DIY version with paint samples from Walmart.  I'm not into taking big piles of free stuff from stores, but this time I made an exception, as I will likely laminate and maintain this collection, using it to choose paint over the next hundred years. 

I found that the biggest time investment is FINDING the shades in order.  It was a workout for my eyes!  I don't like the one that I can't cut off the name of the shade without making my card tiny, so I had to hand pick the colors individually.  (I think these are Better Homes and Gardens)  Then I went home and lopped off the name.

I *think* I have EIGHT of each color blue, red, yellow, green, orange, purple.  I have the browns and black but they don't have a place on my color wheel, so we put them to the side.

Since my kids are older, we mix all the cards.  They sort by color and then shade.

First we lay out the primary colors.

Then we add the secondary colors.

Full disclosure, my kids don't LOVE this activity like I do.  But after performing it a few times, I found them lining up all their markers, pencils, and crayons by color and shade and sorting them into containers.

Grading: Mini-Knobbed Cylinders

I would love to buy the giant knobless cylinders, but I can't justify the price yet.  Especially when my heart is set on a $128 mass kit.  And an $80 tessellation kit.

Anyway, these were $25 and get the point across. They are challenging enough to hold my nine-year-olds attention if you get them out all at once.  The four sets are as follows:

These are popular every time I get them out.  They aren't as sexy as the big ones, but we have a storage issue and the mini set doesn't take up much space.  

Grampa's Garage

Oh my, the bounty we plundered in my daddy's garage.  I haven't even gotten to some of it, but this is what we have out this week.  Fancy, huh?

Mama's Box of Magic Cards

Since I don't have a dedicated school room, I keep this magic box of cards to fuel my one-on-one time with the younger kids, and once in a while, the Bigs.

My very favorite is the science sequencing cards. In our school, sequencing is the BIG DEAL in kindergarten.  First this happened, then THIS happened, and FINALLY this happened.  I HEART using science for kindergarten sequencing.  No lame-o sequencing of teethbrushing.  I want to slip in some RICHNESS.  

I won't give you ever single specific link, but if you are willing to file through the freebies at each site, I can tell you where to get them: 

1.  FREE Cicada Life Cycle at Montessori Tidbits 

2.  FREE Butterfly Life-cycle from Montessori Mom

3. FREE Frog life-cycle from Montessori Mom

4.  FREE Moon cycle from Montessori Mom

5.  FREE Season cycle from Montessori for Everyone

6.  FREE Apple life-cycle from Montessori for Everyone

7. FREE  Pumpkin life-cycle from  Montessori for Everyone  followed by a baby dino life cycle from ???.

I also like sorting and go-together cards the are science-based.

1.  (not free) Carnivore, Omnivore, Herbivore cards from Montessori for Everyone

2.  (not free) Real life Geometric object sorting cards from Montessori for Everyone

3.  (not free) Patterns in Nature sorting cards from Montessori for Everyone

4.  FREE sorting and go-together cards from Montessori for Everyone and the left from a garage sale.

5.  FREE butterfly sorting and go-togethers from the classified cards at Beautiful Sun Montessori.  Not all of the butterflies have a pupa and larva to match, but ENOUGH do to make it worth your while.

My daughter LOVES them!

Alphabet Object Boxes

The boy uses these to sort beginning sounds.  He pulls the object out of the box and places it below the glued letter inside the lid.

Materials Needed:  Dollar Tree foam letters, Walmart $.94 pencil case, glue, paint pens, and a crapload of objects from Dollar tree, Michaels, Hobby Lobby and the like.  I tried to do six per sound.  Our book (100 Easy Lessons) does the phonics in this order 

1.  The "mesa" box.  I say it MAY-suh, but it should be MEE-suh.  Anyhoodle, it's M, long E, S, and short A.

M: milk, monster, moose, makeup, monkey (ignore alligator, he belongs in the last row--quality control stinks here)

long E:  equals, easel, evil, eagle, earrings

S:  star, stapler, scissors, spoon, sea horse, school house, snake, sewing machine

A:  ambulance, antelope, ant, astronaut, apple

2.  The "dirt" box:

D: disk, dish, daisy, dragonfly, dressform (something is missing.....hmmm.  Oh, it's a dinosaur.)

short I:  insect, infant, inchworm, igloo, iguana

R:  rock, rhino, ray, record, rice, ring

T:  turtle, takeout, tree, tiger, tractor, and a missing teapot (currently serving a fore mentioned dinosaur)

*The kids don't usually use these for what they are intended, but retrieving them from the correct box and returning them to said box is kind of like sorting, right?

3.  The "CONTH", which is now the CON box since I can't find a darn thing in the word that uses the second sound of TH.  This, that, them...not very object friendly.

C:  cow, cactus, cat, crown, cookie, camel

short O:  olive, ostrich, octopus (still working on this pile)

N:  needle, necklace, nail, nickel, nuts, nail polish

Classified Cards for West Tennessee

I've seen plenty of sets of cards for kids that have species from all across the world, but I realized that I didn't care how much they knew about species in Zimbabwe if they couldn't tell a vole from a shrew in their own backyard.  (Now mind you I probably couldn't either before I made this set for them, so don't think I know so much.)  All of these species are native to our area, but I'd like to share them just the same.  If, however, the people who's pictures I used want more than a photo credit, I shall be forced to immediately remove these links.  Get ALL my stuff here.

1.  West Tennessee Reptiles (almost all photos from here)

2.  West Tennessee Mammals:  (all photos from here or Wikipedia) 

There are lots...

So many, in fact, that I didn't list all of the species of rat, mouse, shrew, and bat.  

They were all brown and looked alike.  And how many times have you been close enough to a bat in the day time to identify the species? (*Edit 1/16:  I will probably go back and make these with all of the species, as the children are very disappointed with these generic cards.)

3.  West Tennessee Fish:  (almost all photos from here)

And though we didn't do all 12 bats for our area, I did think it necessary that as children of an avid fisherman, they know all the species of bass Papa catches.

4.  West Tennessee Amphibians: (all photos from here)

5.  West Tennessee Birds: (photos primarily from this gorgeous site and the rest from here)

Wow, there are a lot of birds.

I only did ones that live here year round or there would have been a 100 more.

And while I was at it, I made a bunch of shell cards for my daughter who is currently obsessed with them.  She has a card for every shell in her collection.  These are, of course, not local.  And she doesn't want me to cut them apart yet as she sorts all her shells onto the mats. (Photos from here, here, and here)

DOWNLOAD IT ALL HERE

I used whatbird.com for the year round birds, and the Smithsonian North American Mammal site for the Mammals.  But for the fish, reptiles and amphibians, I used local site that would be of no use to you.  However, but you may be able to find your own local species by zip code here.  I will warn you, though, that it will generate more species than are truly local for you.  We only have a few salamanders here but according to the local field biologists, we only have two that are common enough to care about.

Grading: Bolts

This is one of our favorite activities.  I saw it first in Montessori at Home.  He has a specific set of measurements for grading the bolts, washers, and nuts, but my home improvement store didn't carry those sizes, so I just got the biggest bolt I could find and worked my way down in increments.  The associate on that row must have thought I was crazy.

Anyway, I just used a dollar store tray and sheet of foam with at least six different sized bolts, nuts, and five matching washers.  I have  the kids grade them according to size and then put them together.  At first they tried to do it without grading, but as a larger washer will fit on any of the bolts that are smaller, they got  confused, so grading is necessary. 

Of course my boys HAVE to think outside the box...

 And let's don't forget the bunny ears....