MEGA Collection of BOTANY Unit Studies

Finally, I compiled all our botany lessons in one post. It’s easier to make it as a reference in the future and to you dear readers as well! These are the activities we have done for the past years, when Mavi was still in preschool.  I hope you find all of these helpful in your own homeschool journey.  Just click any of the links below, to direct you to the specific post.

(In no specific order)

• Learning about flowers. This is THE FIRST TIME we dissected a flower and Mavi had a fabulous time learning about the parts!
• The Tree. Our FIRST LESSON ON TREES and comes with a DIY tree felt puzzle
• Parts of a plant. Mavi was only 2 years old here when we study the different parts of a plant using nomenclature cards.  Was he bored? No!! He had fun looking for the different parts in grandma’s garden.
• Fruits and Vegetables Unit
• The Bean Seed. Identify the parts of a bean seed and observed how they sprout.
• The Plant. Mavi was attending Montessori preschool and brought home his plants.  We review the parts of a plant using a real  one at home. 
• Looking into Trees and Leaves.  We matched leaf shapes, create trees in different seasons and identify the parts of the leaf/tree.
• The Plant Life Cycle (Photosynthesis).  We did a little experiment on how water travels through the plants.
• Tree Shapes. Yes! Trees have different form and shapes.  We worked on this outdoors and identified the shapes of the trees in our yard. How fun!
• The Poinsettia.  Seasonal lesson, especially during Christmas.
• Leaf Shapes.  Montessori-inspired activities. We collected leaves in the park and matched our collection to the leaf shapes nomenclature card.
• Inside of a fruit.  Making fruit prints!
• Life Cycle of an Apple.  Lots of crafting!
• All about flowers [1] and [2].  We usually study flowers in springtime.  Here we looked into the different parts by dissecting a flower, collected flowers in the yard and used it as a paint brush.. and more outdoor flower observation.
• Flower DIY foam puzzle.
• Parts of an apple and tomato.  Yes, we dissected these!

 

You can also visit my Pinterest board for more ideas!

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Toddler Beginnings 06

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Aside from endlessly reading books, I added farm animal basket for him to explore as he is showing interest on them now (he just used to mouth them!).  You can get these animals from Amazon, Schleich, Symths Toys or Safari Toob.  Mine was from Amazon UK .  The picture book (Baby’s First) on the other hand was from Book Depository, and again you can get them from Amazon.  I love that these animals are big!  They are easily to grasp and play with.

I’ve seen these animals at Marks and Spencers as well, and you can get them from Hamley’s too.

                    

  I am making use of our Learning Resources Critters Counters from Amazon.  Since Vito loves putting small objects into small spaces, this is what I put up.  Oh don’t worry, that empty tub of Pringles is mine!

See how I placed the tub in the floor and the counters on the table? That’s for Vito to bend, good practice for gross motor skills ey?

                       

Oh those tiny fingers!  He would complain whenever the counter will not fit.  Oh, they do fit sweetheart, you just have to push it a little bit harder LOL.  I’m showing him how to push it more… though at times he still couldn’t get the idea.

Scribbling, we do this mostly in the afternoon when I’m sitting down resting.  I got him this My First Crayola Jumbo Pens from Amazon. 

And this, Melissa and Doug jumbo puzzle from Amazon again (don’t well love Amazon).  He loves taking away all the animal pieces, and putting them in the basket LOL.

Oh yes, don’t forget to check our St. Patricks’ Day activities! 

No formal musical instruments here.  Just more on singing songs, dancing and making music with our body!

We were blessed with a beautiful weather last Sunday.  And you know me, I don’t love staying at home when Mr. Sun is out. So here we are… even if it is still a little bit cold. 

More tot series here!

Introducing Picture Graphs

One of the most important topics which I find very useful when I was in the university and as a professional for some time was picture graphs.  As an engineer, we always looked at statistics, comparing data and interpret them to come up with a solution to a problem.

Now, this is where our picture graph lesson comes in. I introduced this to Mavi because of my experience, and of how useful this in real life.

There are a lot of ways to come up with data collection activities and interpreting the output using picture graphs.  Here I will show you how we did it at home in two ways.

Roll a Dice

Roll the dice a number of times (depends on you) and record the how many instances the number appears.  Discuss the graph to your child.

Link Cubes in a Bag

I placed the equal number of link cubes in the bag, Mavi and I have to pick up a cube one at a time.  We then have to put an X or mark the chart when a certain colour appears.

In each activity, try to describe your graph and ask questions like:

1. Which link cube did you pick the most?
2. Which link cube did you pick the least?

Another suggestion is that, you can create a WEATHER CHART.  Let your child record the weather, if it’s sunny, rainy or cloudy.  We were supposed to do this, but you know in Ireland… it is always RAINING… so this idea will not actually work for us :D

So there you go!  This is a very very easy activity to prepare. Use anything that you see in the kitchen, no need for printables… just create the chart in a piece of paper and that’s it!  Enjoy the activity and goodluck!

More math ideas from my Pinterest board!

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Study of Rocks and Minerals for Kids (with FREE Cards)

** Contains affiliate links at no cost to you **

Oh here we are again, my son’s favourite topic: rocks! Last year we worked on identifying the types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.  This year, I added minerals to our studies, to advance our learning about the Rock Cycle.
This years’ objectives for  Rock Cycle study:

1. Review the classification of rocks
2. Identify the characteristics of rocks
3. Identify the characteristics of minerals
4. Difference between rocks and minerals
5. Products of rocks and minerals

Materials used:

• Igneous rock collection
• Metamorphic rock collection
• Sedimentary rock collection 
• Minerals collection.    
• Digital microscope (optional) Was used to examine and take magnified digital pictures of the surface of rocks and minerals. This device can become handy in taking magnified digital pictures of tiny insects, objects, or any creatures.
• Rock and Fossil Hunter Book  A really good book that provides a table of rocks and minerals, with lots of experiments and activities.

This is how we worked on each rock.  I created learning cards for each collection, the links are at the end of this post.
  Comparing rocks and minerals
Comparing Pyrite (fools’ gold and real gold)
Colours of minerals.  Trying to draw and identify the colours of each mineral.


Rocks vs Minerals.  Combined a few igneous, metamorphic and minerals then have Mavi sort them according to:  minerals, rocks and “not sure”.  Mavi had so much fun here!
  Looking closely.  We used our digital microscope (husband provided this) to have a closer look at our rocks and to check for some crystal formations :)

Metamorphic

 Igneous

 Minerals

Get your FREE printable files from the links below:

• Igneous Rocks
• Metamorphic Rocks

You can also purchase an entire pack of rock materials (I suggest this!).  If you have a budget, it's better to get them all at once so you can pull out a prolific rock study.  Any of these two would be perfect!

• Rock and Fossil Collection
• Earth Science Collection

St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Toddlers

I am not really a fan of seasonal themed activities. Why? For a busy Mom like me, it is difficult to prepare and assemble materials.  The fact that we live far away from the city, our resources are quite limited. It is hard to find materials that fits well in a specific theme.

But… we all have to agree that it is fun to do with your little kids.  It’s cute and fun! And the kids will have that festive feeling of the celebration.  That’s why, because this month we are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day here in Ireland, I am trying out these seasonal themed activities with Vito!  Yes, I’m testing the water and see if I can pull off a seasonal themed activity and let’s see where this will lead me.  We’re not doing a bunch right, we’re only trying those that are easy to prepare and feasible for us.

[Tried and Tested] Tower High Learning

I came across Tower High Learning through random search in the internet for affordable Montessori puzzles.  I am so happy that I found another shop in the UK that sells Montessori materials.  As I skim through their online shop, I’m surprised that they offer a waay more affordable price than any shop I’ve encountered!  Excitedly, I contacted their costumer service for inquiries and they responded promptly to all my queries.  Marie, who runs the business is very friendly and easy to talk to!  So without hesitation I purchased a few puzzles for Vito and Mavi to work on this year. 

And guess what? They arrived after 2 days!! How cool is that??  To think that I just paid for regular shipping. Amazing isn’t it?

And yes, nothing beats the smell of new Montessori materials, waiting to be opened!

My botany puzzles!! I regret not getting the seed and roots!

  My Zoology puzzles:  bird, turtle and frog.  Must save for the the fish and butterfly.

I purchased this version of which there’s a skeleton presentation on the board of the puzzle.

 

And here’s my beautiful beautiful Asia Continent Map puzzle. Shining, shimmering… splendid!

And yes all those little tiny pieces all sits well on its board. Love it!  Wishlist: must get the control map next time!

Ahhh… oh how I love the puzzles! They’re on the lower price range but they were more than perfect! Flat, and all the pieces fitted well.

I have to start my “wishlist” for Christmas.  I can’t wait till  my next purchase when my funds are enough.

So don’t forget to checkout Tower High Learning if you are in Europe and looking for affordable Montessori materials.

 

**This is not a paid post or review.  Just wanted to share this amazing shop that sells affordable Montessori materials to Moms out there that have tight budget like me!

Fun Math Activities for Numbers 20 to 99

So we’ve been practising our Mathematics since we came back from our big break.  We’re almost done with our study on 2 digit numbers (20 to 99).  Now you might be wondering why we need to stick around here. Well you see, though Mavi knows his addition and subtraction by heart, there’s still a lot more in mathematics than that.  To explain, here’s a few of our “brainy” activities (this is how Mavi describes it!).

Count Me!.  Using our decanomial beads, I laid out 20 sets for Mavi to count using what he has learned previously on counting tens and ones! 

Place Value.  Here’s it is in Singapore Math. I copied the activities in our Math notebook so that we can reuse the workbooks from Singapore for Vito.  Mavi works on this using mental math, no manipulative needed.

Find the number. This thinks that this is a very tricky game. I made a lot of questions and clues for him to find the correct number using our hundred board.  This is to test his analysis. Example:   8 less of 35 is?

 

Smallest and Greatest number. Given the number series (I prepared 10 for him), identify the smallest and greatest.  Again he finds this difficult, but upon teaching him the trick, he was able to answer the questions quickly.

Another version is to arrange the given set (15 sets) from smallest to greatest and greatest to smallest. Arranging from smallest to greatest was very easy for him, but he complained that doing the other way around is more difficult. He gets confused between numbers.  I even added 1 digit number (number 6), to my surprise he considered it as “60” rather than “06”.  So I therefore conclude that conventional counting, that is from smallest to greatest is waaay more easier for them than the other way around!

                

Why don’t you try this with your kids and let me know how they feel about it! 

More math activities here!

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