School's Out!

Today is our last offical day of school.  YIPEE!!  Penguin is super excited to celebrate this evening.  She's already dreaming of restaurants where to wants to eat tonight.  Tomorrow we'll take a break ... we all need a break.  The weather is beautiful here, so I think we'll go out & enjoy some sunshine tomorrow.  Friday is our big concert, so we'll be heading over to Gammage for rehearsals, etc that will go on for the majority of our day.  But, much to Penguin's dismay, summer school will be starting Monday morning. :)  Educating & learning never stop around here!   Summer school will be more relaxed & fun, but we will keep plugging away & reviewing.

At the request of one of my readers who'd like to learn more about homeschooling, I thought I'd share something we have been working on in Science this past week.  Penguin loves to learn & read about animals, so I thought we'd take it a step further and learn about their environments & throw in some unusal animals that we don't usually hear or read about.

 

A Walk in the Desert, A Walk in the Tundra, A Walk in the Deciduous Forest, A Walk in the Prairie, A Walk in the Rain Forest & A Walk in the Boreal Forest ... this is what we've been reading this week. Penguin learns about all those animals that she loves in so much more detail than she usually does.  These books also teach her about climate, plants, adaptations, seasons, soil, etc.

Each book begins with a glossary to help with words that might be new to her vocabulary.  The books are PACKED! with photos (at least 2 per page), maps & little side notes that give interesting facts.  The books are also very well written and make learning more interesting & fun.  For example, "All around the town, praire dogs stand guard.  They sit upright, with their paws folded neatly against their stomachs.  They scan the landscape for signs of danger.  Yip-yip-yip! Something has alarmed the praire dogs. A herd of bison is coming toward the town."  And of course that page includes large, colorful photos of praire dogs standing upright and bison walking across the praire.

If you'd like to check-out these books for yourself, they are written by Rebecca L. Johnson & published by Lerner Publications Company.