The Pinay Homeschooler

The Plant Kingdom

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Presenting to you Plant Kingdom printable material. We used this recently in our Plant Kingdom nature study. This is perfect for grade-schoolers who want to learn and understand all about the world of plants and how they are classified.

Fossils for Kids

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Because Mavi is fascinated with dinosaurs and fossils, I always make it a habit to include it yearly in our homeschool activities. If you are interested learning about our previous dinosaurs and fossils lessons here are the following links:

For this year, I focused on fossils alone as I wanted Mavi to understand how they became so relevant in defining history.

Fossils by definition are organisms or objects that indicates former presence of an organism which has been preserved in any natural deposit in or on the earth’s crust. We examined the fossils we have on hand: Safari Toob Fossil replicas, coral fossils and the animal impressions that we made.

There are different types of fossils. One famous type of fossil is the preservation of insects found in resins, now known as amber. Another are moulds of animals or plants; trails or tracks of animals and dinosaurs from thousands of years ago.

With this we made our own animal impressions using Safari Toob animal figures. They all end up so pretty! Making animal impressions in a clay is one of the easiest way to recreate a fossil. Another is embedding an animal or object in an ice or clay similar to an amber.

These are coral fossils which we got from our latest trip to the Philippines. Mavi described the difference between moulds and cast fossils like those of coral cavities that were filled with mineral substance.

Then we examined each of our Safari Toob Ancient Fossils and identify them. (Source: Safari Toob Fossils)

Eurypterid. A sea scorpion called Mixopterus was discovered in Norway. They ranged from 5 inches to over 7 feet long.
Fossilized Fish. This is a Diplomystus specimen, typical of a surface feeding fish. The Green River limestone deposits in Wyoming, USA have beautifully preserved all the fine details of these fossils.
Dinosaur Skin. This is a famous fossil “mummies” of a duck-billed Hadrosaur which became entombed in a sandstone after its death. The real one can be found in North Dakota, USA.
Tyrannosaurus Rex Tooth. This tooth was found in Montana, USA. The T-Rex, one of the greatest predator possess the largest single teeth of any dinosaur. They used these double edge, serrated blades to slice off huge pieces of flesh.
Dinosaur Foot. The discoveries of dinosaur tracks and footprints are grouped into similar types and they are given generic names. Anchisauripus prints were from a small plant-eater found in the state of Connecticut, USA.
Velociraptor Claw. Velociraptor are very efficient hunter because of these large sickle-shaped claws that grow on each hind foot. This claw was found in Mongolia in Central Asia.
Ammonite. This is an ancient mollusc with a spiral shell. These marine animals existed for more than 135 million years. This species is known as Peltoceratoides and was discovered in Russia.
Giant Crabs. Did you know that crabs evolved from lobsters during the Jurassic Period? This original specimens from Washington state, USA are among the finest preserved crab fossils having been buried in sand, soon after their deaths.
Trilobite. They are one of the most important groups of early animals and their unusual appearance and age, make them appealing to fossil collectors worldwide. They first appeared in the early Cambrian period and become extinct in the Permian, 320 million years ago.
Fossilized Frog. This fossilized species of frog is fully articulated and possibly the ancestor of the modern spade foot toad. This was collected in Wyoming, USA.

And the best part of a studying fossil is experiencing how these Palaeontologist dig and discover fossils!

Materials used in the tub:

Learning Resources Fine Motor Tool Set
Oatmeal
Random magnifier glass
Paint brush
Safari Toob Ancient Fossils

Be sure to pin this post for future reference!

Simple Activity for Ageing

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Mavi and I were discussing how and why people get old. I whipped this activity instantly to show Mavi what happens when you grow old.

I printed out Mavi’s pictures from birth to present. One profile picture to represent each year.

With these pictures, I asked Mavi to arrange them according to his age. I added labels to match the pictures.

After a few stumbles, he managed to correct his work and finally completed his timeline. He was amazed to see his face changed! And there was some point wherein he can not tell the difference between his face (ages 4 and 5).

So this is how I demonstrated to Mavi the process of ageing. The body changes, as well as the features. You can also show your kids their baby’s book to show that they are gaining weight as they grow. Talk about their milestones as well and the major development in their body.

I am so glad I took photos of him. Will continue this for as long as I can.

Thanks for dropping by and hope that you like this post!

Nature Study: The Plant Kingdom

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Have you ever explored the fascinating world of plants? If not, you're missing out on a truly amazing subject area! One way that we've learned about plants is by visiting our local forest park. During these visits, we take the time to observe and discuss the different types of plants we see there, including trees, flowers, shrubs, and more.

For example, we've talked about why mushrooms are not technically classified as plants. We've also explored the differences between ferns and mosses, which are two unique types of plants that often grow in the forest.

But our learning doesn't stop there! We've also brought the study of plants into our home. We've researched different plant species online and in books, and even started our own small garden to observe how plants grow and develop.

Overall, exploring the plant kingdom has been a fun and educational experience for us. If you haven't delved into this subject area before, we highly recommend giving it a try!

It looks like Mother Nature has finally answered our prayers for good weather, as we have been blessed with a week of bright sunshine and warmth!

Today, we started our session by introducing the Plant Kingdom Chart. Just like the Animal Kingdom, plants are also classified based on their structure and characteristics. During the presentation, Mavi had a lot of questions, but thankfully, I had fact cards prepared for him to read aloud, which helped him understand the different groupings better.

Mavi is an active learner who asks a lot of questions. Whenever you answer one of his questions, expect more follow-up questions. That's why I always have fact cards on hand. Sometimes books are not available, and I don't use the internet during our lessons.

Of course, if you have books available, you should definitely use them for reference. At home, we have a book called 'World of Plants' which we've been using for the past three years. I absolutely love this book because it's very informative and has lots of beautiful pictures that can be used for presentations.

After learning all the necessary concepts, we headed out to the nearby forest or park to observe and investigate the plants. It is worth noting that the helmet worn by one of us was not a fashion statement, but rather a safety measure while using the scooter. Mavi collected some plant samples so that we could examine them more closely at home.

Liverworts and mosses are abundant in this forest and throughout Ireland. The sides of this tree stump are covered with non-vascular plants.

Mavi is investigating a conifer tree in search of its male and female reproductive parts. He notes that the leaves are waxy.

And there you go, any kind of non-vascular plants again.

We investigated the stream to confirm the growth of mosses, liverworts and horsetails in damp places.

The last part was identifying dicot and monocot plants. Daffodils were identified as monocots. We plan to extend our nature study to include dicots.

We collected some samples and brought them back home for examination.

That concludes our introduction to the plant kingdom. We will continue our nature study in the upcoming warm weather, particularly during summer vacation. I am excited to have Vito join us for sensory exploration.

Here's a preview of our Plant Kingdom Learning Resource: