As we read about beavers in our chapter these past couple of weeks, I was intrigued by their similarities to us, and decided we needed to do some fun beaver activities.
I was intrigued by this picture in the Apologia: Land Animals
The two biggest similarities to my mind was the entry ways, and the ventilation shaft, which to my mind looked a lot like a chimney. So they drew out the houses, along with occupants apparently, and identified everything.
On the inside they wrote down one way we were different. I assume this is Batman’s, and the big difference he wrote down: Beavers have to swim into their house. We walk into our house.
I had originally wanted for us to go and build a dam at a nearby park, but the weather hasn’t been cooperative for the past couple of weeks for us to build a dam outside on the days we’ve been able to go. Isn’t that just the way it goes? So we improvised.
We built it out of pillows and blankets. Actually we did it twice. Once where the kids did it on their own, a second time where I acted as the current attempting to cause their dam to float down river. Naturally there are no pictures of the second version because I spent it all tangled up in kid arms and legs as they tried to stop me.
We used pillows as sticks, and blankets as mud. There have been nonstop requests to repeat this activity……. I wonder why.
Let’s see what others did this week:
Each week I’m spotlighting a few posts that were shared previously. Many posts get linked up later in the week and they don’t always get as many clicks as they deserve, so I’m trying to spotlight a few every week.
I love this study for density. it’s a great explanation, and I loved how they added things in afterwards to see what would happen. (Make sure to scroll down to the footer, for a fun laugh)
Source: homeschooljournal-bergblog.blogspot.com via Ticia on Pinterest
This is a great idea for Dental Health month right now (yes as a former teacher I am required to know when Dental Health month is), make your own toothpaste. Or you could do it as part of a study of anatomy, like I’m going to do next year.
Here’s a great chance to gather some electricity theme resources. I certainly did a happy squeal when I saw a Jean Fritz book AND a Magic School Bus book, but that just might be the nerd in me………
<div align="center"><a href="https://ticiamessing.com/category/science-sunday/" title="Science Sunday"><img src="https://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g344/Ticia1/AiMScienceSundaycopy.jpg" alt="Science Sunday" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
I love how you make learning about animals so much hands-on fun! It’s so easy with chemistry (which we’re doing at the moment), but I had wondered how I was going to move onto plants and animals without losing the fun element. Thanks for the inspiration!
For my kids the key is always find a way to act it out. They still talk about the bird mating game we did in our first year of homeschooling, almost 3 years ago when the boys were in kinder…….
This reminds me of a beaver dam that James made out of Zoobs. https://homeschooljournal-bergblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/school-and-play.html
I love all the hands-on school-play you guys have been doing lately.
(Thanks for the spotlight!)
I have this feeling there’s another series of yours I’ll be featuring soon……. Something about a zoo. I am hooked on that series.
Thank you SOOOOOOO much for the feature!! YAY!!!
I”m a sucker for a good resource list.
I didn’t know it was dental health month. We did a teeth activity today and one thing we did was count the kids teeth. When my eleven year old opened up I saw a big cavity. We will be visiting the dentist next.
Beavers are so cool! Have you read Thornton Burgess – Paddy the Beaver? It would go wonderfully with your lesson.
Oh no! How shocking to find a cavity.
I haven’t read that book, but it would go well. I forgot to add in the picture books we found at our library, there was a great beaver mystery one in it.
Really cool beaver dam! Almost as good as building one in a creek!
Plus side to me: they didn’t get wet.
Down side to them: they didn’t get wet.
But, they got to have a pillow fight!
oh, nice lesson! love the pillow beaver dam, sounds like something I could get my boys to build. of course, they’d probably want to trek out and build a real dam too in the backyard. thanks for the feature! 🙂 As always, look forward to your science lessons and link ups!
What a coincidence .. I just observed a pair of beavers last night on a family walk. 🙂