Oceans Unit

Wow, this unit was long! I'm guessing most people wouldn't want to spend as much time on oceans as we did, but there was tons of information, the kids LOVED it, and a couple life events happened that spread out the time longer than expected. My grandma passed away in January and soon after that, I ended up on bed rest due to my pelvic joints being out of place and unstable - most likely was a result of childbirth from baby girl (very painful, no sitting, very little walking for 6 weeks). Anyway, real life happens. I had a very precise plan, but we ended up getting through it all in the order that worked.

We started with an overall introduction of the ocean. We read

The kids LOVED this book. We read it over and over at bedtime too.

We also made coffee filter fish. I got the idea here but adapted it. We used coffee filters and markers, but just cut them into basic fish shapes after they were dry. Much easier...which is how I prefer anything and everything craft-related.

Our coffee filter activity soon turned into a complete building of an ocean. My home school style seems to be plan and organize and then provide for LOTS of flexibility. So far it seems to work for our family.

Dylan used the extra scraps to make a catfish

And a piranha. I love spontaneous creativity like that.

Preston was just thrilled to be given free reign of markers and water. We used a blow drier to speed up the process and had a kind of assembly line going. The kids had a blast so we made LOTS of these fish.

The rest of the ocean came to pass by accident. I printed off some ocean animals for Preston to color too keep him busy while Dylan and I read some books that were a little less than preschool friendly. Dylan thought it sounded fun to so before you knew it, we created an entire ocean mobile in the family room. The kids pretended to scuba dive on the carpet under the ocean. We had fun with it.

The following day we read the rainbow fish and then made our own rainbow fish from some of the scraps left over from our coffee filter fish. I got the idea here. We also checked out The Rainbow Fish on DVD and watched it that afternoon.

Trains, Planes & Automobiles (Modes of Transportation) Unit

We spent most of our time on trains and then decided to expand the unit into a modes of transportation unit. We added books about all sorts of trucks - fire engines, dump trucks, garbage trucks, etc - and also found books on airplanes and helicopters. I had way more field trip ideas by this point than I had time and other material so there are lots of things that we couldn't do. But here are a few of the highlights from the second half of the unit.

• Watched a movie about airplanes and helicopters
• Made our own paper airplanes - this day was for sure a favorite
• Read lots of books about cars, trucks, planes and helicopters to add to the train books we were still working on
• Visited Hill Air Force Base Museum

Things I Would Like To Do In the Future

• Tour of the fire station (and police station)
• Lesson on the basics of a motor from a mechanic
• Tour a semi-truck and learn about trucking (I happen to have two brothers-in-law who can help with this one, but I thought of it too late and couldn't get it scheduled in time. One thing I'm learning from planning my own units is to either plan WAY in advance or be more flexible with the field trips. There's a learning curve for sure).

Touring Hill Air Force Base Museum

Testing our paper airplanes

Books We Read

This book was AWESOME! We made every airplane in the book and tested the flight patterns of the different airplanes.

Pretty fun and informative movie

Train Unit

I decided to do a train unit to attempt to reel Preston in a bit. That kid is obsessed with trains and I thought there was a lot I could do with it. Dylan quickly informed me that he did not like trains as much as Preston. Two minutes into our first lesson and he changed his mind. I guess I really do like trains, Mom. They're really interesting. Sold! Here are some of the things we did as part of our train unit.

• Read an article I found that included a brief history of trains - horse-powered, steam engines, diesel engines, electric trains, and the future of trains. This was actually better for us than many of the books. It was a really good introduction to our unit.
• Read lots of books about trains from the library, from short board books to in-depth books about the history of the railroad
• Visited the Union Station Railroad Museum in Ogden
• Road the train at the zoo
• Went to the Treehouse Museum to play with trains
• Made construction paper animal trains (we called them zoo trains)
• Set up toy trains and played all day
• Made our own tickets, set up chairs and pretended we were riding a train, complete with train whistles and ticket punching
• Drew pictures of trucks and trains using a step by step book we found at the library
• Road the Light Rail (electric rail system in SLC)
• Watched a movie called "Big Trains, Little Trains" that the kids LOVED
• Listened to "I've been working on the railroad"
• Finger play (I had the kids learn this)

Here is the train engine on the track (hold up thumb)

Here is the coal car just in back (hold up pointer finger)

Here is the box car to carry freight (middle)

Here is the mail car. Don't be late (ring)

Way back here at the end of the train rides the caboose through sun and rain (little)

• Visit the Golden Spike National Historic Site (timing didn't work out, but our plan is to go see the reenactment this spring)
• Ride the Front Runner Train (Another thing that didn't end up happening yet, but will eventually. The plan was to ride down to SLC and then have a day there.)

Riding the train at the zoo

Our animal trains

The Union Station Railroad Museum

Outside the Union Station Railroad

Trains at a restaurant called JC Mickelson's in Nephi

We ate there on our way home from a family trip and the kids loved it!

Books We Read

Nothing incredible to report on books. They were all fun, but nothing spectacular. The article I found online was actually the best at keeping their attention and giving an overall history of trains. But here are some we read during the unit.

This book was long, but was really interesting and informative. We ended up reading a couple sections a day until we finished it.

This book was really fun. It helps you draw all sorts of trucks and trains one step at a time. For those of us who are quite artistically challenged, this was a fun way to get in another art project.

This was a favorite of my preschooler

Native American Unit

After our Mountain Man unit, it felt quite natural to ease into a Native American unit. So many of the artifacts from the Mountain Man Rendezvous were Native American. Also, we watched a couple awesome drum dances while we were there and the kids could not get enough. Again, I got many of my ideas for the unit from Frolic and Farce, although my kids' interest died after awhile so we moved on. Here are some of the things we did during our Native American Unit. Unfortunately I only managed to capture a few moments on camera.

• Read lots of books (some of our favorites listed below)
• Watched lots of home videos - our wedding video, one of my grandparents we had made for them and a few I've created over the years
• Created totem poles
• Made fry bread - this was a hit so we did it a couple of times, once for dinner and once as a dessert
• Created our own drum circle with different drums we created
• Pulled out Dylan's Thanksgiving costumes from Kindergarten last year and dressed up like Native Americans
• Visited the Museum of Natural History - the first Monday of the month is free! They have a whole section on Native Americans with miniature figurines in display cases. Reminds me of Night at the Museum. :) My kids LOVE this museum! They often have new things they are displaying so it changes from time to time, which makes it easier to go more than once. Last year they did a huge display on frogs, which my kids really enjoyed.
• Visited the Treehouse Museum - we spent some time in the teepee and read a few books about Native Americans, but again, we always end up doing whatever draws the kids in the most that day.
• Another trip to the zoo. We were specifically looking for a wolf, but never found him. Dylan was pretty disappointed. I love how he figures out my intent and then is on a mission. He is really good at incorporating play and other day to day events into our unit. He got out his zoo map and was guiding me to our destination.
• Practiced shooting Dylan's new wooden bow and arrow (no worries, the arrow is rubber)
• Watched Pocahontas (I hate that Disney completely botched the story - even Dylan caught onto that fact - but it was still fun to watch the movie).
• Listened to lots of Native American music. Dylan is in a little music class - Musikgarten - and they had a whole unit on different Native American tribes, complete with music, so I referred to that often.
• Made a book of months. Dylan made a cool calendar with one month per page on it. He wrote the name of the month at the top of each page and then drew things to represent what we do that particular month. It was pretty cute to see what he came up with for each month.
• We revisited the unit again briefly at Thanksgiving, talking about the pilgrims and Indians, making headbands with feathers for a family party and reading stories I borrowed from a neighbor about the first Thanksgiving, Squanto and Native American tribes throughout history.

Dylan's totem pole

Forming a human totem pole

Trip to the Museum of Natural History

Marcos was able to join us on his day off

Another trip to the Treehouse Museum

Thanksgiving craft

Pilgrims and Indians - a short play about Thanksgiving the cousins put on during a family night activity we did the week of Thanksgiving

Books We Read

Again, I got my original book list from Home School Frolic and Farce and supplemented with a few more I found that worked for us.

Like the kids from Frolic and Farce, this book was also a favorite for my children. Dylan loves hearing about how other people live and learning about all sorts of different cultures. It was eye-opening for him to realize how the lives of Native Americans have changed over the years. Also, we got the recipe for our fry bread from this book.