Archive for the ‘Lapbook’ Category
Tales from the Circle C Ranch Book and Lapbook Review
Jun
Our favorite time during our homeschool day is when we read together. On a typical day I read a chapter from a book and Hailey reads a chapter from a book. We both look forward to reading time and I am always on the lookout for a good book we can use for school. When the opportunity came up to review Tales from the Circle C Ranch by Susan K. Marlow author of the Circle C Adventures series, I went to the website to check it out. I was able to download the first story in the book and was I immediately hooked! There is also Andrea Carter’s Tales from the Circle C Ranch Learning Lapbook that goes along with the book, and we love lapbooks so we were excited to check that out too!
So, how did we use the book and the lapbook?
Each day we read a portion of the book. Some of the chapters were short, so we could read more than one and others were longer. Sometimes Hailey did the reading and sometimes I did the reading.
Then if there was a part of the lapbook that went with the reading for the day we would do that as well.
This is the front cover of the lapbook.
This is inside the first folder.
Hailey’s favorite part of the lapbook was the Mercantile activity on the bottom left side of the red folder. In it is a price list of items one might have found at the general store in the 1800s. Hailey had to pretend it was 1874 and that she had $2 to spend at the store. She was able to pick several items, including a toy whistle for 10 cents, a comb for 40 cents, a harmonica for 60 cents, and a few other items.
This is the inside of the second folder.
One of my favorite lapbook activities was the limerick section. We learned how to write a limerick and that the sillier the limerick is the better. I thought it was going to be a hard activity for Hailey to do, but she loved it! She wrote several limericks, and we spent the rest of the day making up more silly limericks. She picked one of her favorites for me to share with you:
I had a lovely cat,
who was ever so fat.
He had another owner,
who was covered with toner.
The owner was a stinky rat.
Pretty silly, but we had a lot of fun with it!
I asked Hailey what she thought about Tales from the Circle C Ranch and she said it was a lot of fun to read. She said her favorite short story was The Best Gift of All, a story where Andi was at the store trying to find the perfect gift to buy for her mother. The problem was that Andi had spent most of her money, rather than saving it, so she couldn’t find anything to buy. Hailey said she enjoyed that story because she thought it was more special that Andi made a present for her mom than it would have been if she had bought her one. She also said she really enjoyed making the lapbook and all of the parts in it were fun to make.
I really enjoyed Tales from the Circle C Ranch and would definitely recommend it. Not only does it include fun stories, but it’s a great way to learn about the 1800s. I love historical fiction and I think using a historical fiction book with a lapbook is one of the best ways to learn.
Want to learn more about Circle C Adventures:
Third Grade Weeks in Review
Nov
Here are some of things Hailey has been busy learning about over the last couple of weeks.
Language Arts:
We used the Johnny Appleseed unit from The Razzle Dazzle Classroom to take a little break from our regular language arts curriculum. We read several books about Johnny Appleseed and learned about what a tall tale is. Hailey made this cute craftivity to show what she learned about him.
A little closer look
We also read “Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie” and then Hailey described the characters, setting, problem,
steps to solve the problem, the solution, and her opinion of the book.
History:
We have been studying all about Egypt and made a representation of the Nile. This is what it looked like after 1 week. Hailey flooded the Nile again.
We took a break from our Egypt study to learn about Columbus Day. We used a unit from The Razzle Dazzle Classroom for this too- I just love her stuff!
This is the inside of the lapbook that we made.
Science:
We did this fun experiment as Hailey is learning about light and reflection- there is a clear plastic container with water in it on the edge of the counter. There is a fork on the bottom of the container. When you kneel down on the ground and look up at the surface of the water the fork looks like it is upside down the on the surface of the water.
We did this demonstration to see how a lunar eclipse works. The flashlight is the sun, the big ball is the earth, and the little ball is the moon. Hailey was able to see how the earth is the the path of the sunlight.
So there is a little look at a few things we have been working on in 3rd grade.
Week in Review
Jul
I can’t believe how fast this school year went by. This was our last week of 2nd grade (which was almost a month ago, I’m finally all caught up!). I very clearly remember the first day of school and wondering how I was going to do this homeschooling thing all year long. But, we made it and we both loved it!
Hailey on her last day of second grade. I wish I could slow down time, she is growing up so fast.
Here are some of the things we did during our last week:
Language Arts:
We finished up our author unit study about Tomie dePaola from Around the Kampfire. After we read “Little Grunt and the Big Egg,” Hailey created a book about how she would care for a prehistoric pet if she had one.
On the first day of school Hailey made the top picture (which Hunter colored on while I had it hanging up on the wall :-(). On the last day of school, I had her do the same paper and then we compared how her answers had changed or stayed the same.
Science:
Our butterflies hatched! Hailey was able to watch one come out of its chrysalis.
We started with 5 caterpillars and ended up with 5 butterflies that were all able to fly away. One seemed to have damaged wings, but when the time came to fly away it was able to fly.
Hailey put together a lapbook all about caterpillars and butterflies to show what she learned during our unit. Most of the printables are from here and here.
Inside the first flap. The top shows the life cycle of the butterfly.
On the bottom there is a little booklet where Hailey wrote out the life cycle of a butterfly. Then she made a butterfly diagram.
This is inside the next flap of the lapbook.
On the top there are butterfly cards that show many of the types of butterflies. Next to that is some butterfly math. Underneath is a Venn diagram comparing butterflies and moths.
On the bottom of this flap there is a little booklet that shows the predators of butterflies, another booklet that shows the defenses butterflies use to protect themselves, and also a little booklet to show the lifespan of a butterfly.
This is the last page of the butterfly lapbook.
On the top there a book to show the different flowers that butterflies like. There is a observation journal where Hailey wrote about what she observed in the caterpillars we watched turn into butterflies. Then there is a little caterpillar with some facts about caterpillars.
This section has a butterfly Hailey made to show the symmetry of butterfly wings. There is also information about what caterpillars and butterflies eat.
We had an amazing first year of homeschooling!! We are enjoying summer vacation right now and waiting for our new baby to arrive 🙂
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Week in Review
May
Here is a little bit of what we’ve been up to lately:
History/ Language Arts:
We have been preparing for our upcoming vacation to Disney World, so we read Who Was Walt Disney? We really enjoyed reading this book, it was so interesting! Even Hunter sat and listened to it most of the time.
After we finished reading the book, Hailey did a book report in the shape of a Mickey Mouse head. On one ear she wrote the name of the book and who the author and illustrator are. On the other ear she wrote when and where Walt Disney was born and when he died. On the other papers she wrote 3 adjectives to describe Walt Disney, a question she would like to ask him, her favorite quote from Walt Disney, and a timeline of his life.
Science:
Hailey has been learning all about roller coasters and how they work. We used an Amanda Bennett unit study all about roller coasters and had a lot of fun with this unit!
Hailey drew some pictures of different kinds of roller coasters.
We did one test where we used 2 different ramps- one long…
…the other short. We checked to see how far the car would go after it came off each ramp, and which ramp would send the car further.
Hailey used several different websites for fun roller coaster activities.
We did another experiment. This time we used the same ramp each time. First we put one book under the ramp, then 2 books under the ramp, then 3 books under the ramp and finally, 4 books under the ramp. Hailey predicted what she thought would happen, then we tested it to see what would happen and measured the results.
We finished up the unit by making this roller coaster lapbook that covers everything Hailey learned about.
Other:
Hailey and Hunter made some little clay bowls for Mother’s Day. First they shaped the bowls, and while the clay was still wet, they added beads and sequence. Once it dried, they used water colors to paint.
The completed bowls, they turned out cute.
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