We have the featured piece of literature. We have the study themes chosen. We have checked out our corresponding books from the library. And now we need to put together some daily activities to reinforce what we have been reading.
Let's face it. Very rarely are we the VERY FIRST one to be forced to come up with some activity ideas for something we are studying. MANY have forged before us. And, I take advantage of those persons of inspiration DAILY! What in the world did we do before the internet?? I shudder to think.
Like I previously stated, I knew that I wanted to do some activities with The Secret Garden around the themes of "gardens", "tea parties", and "plants". I specifically wanted to do a full plant unit.
So I Googled.
And I came upon a FREE plant unit study by Susan Kilbride at FuntasticUnitStudies. This study was one chapter from her book Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers (which I just received complimentary from Ms. Kilbride in return for a review. It will be coming soon.)
This plant study was PERFECT for us! I was able to add it to the end of our other list of activities I had taken from Inside the Secret Garden to come up with about 28 days of activities (one per day)!
I had also found some other great activities, like flower pounding and balloon botany, just by Googling my themes with the key words "lesson plans" or "activities".
For Charlotte's Web, same thing. One place you can always go to, especially if you enjoy lapbooking, is Homeschool Share. Although it did not have a specific unit on Charlotte's Web, it did have units on farming, pigs, and spiders. So, I browsed through the activities, printed off puzzles, coloring pages, and lapbooking components, and created my own Notebook of activities. After we listen to a couple of chapters of Charlotte's Web, and read a couple of picture books, Brynne typically does one or two activity pages.
For our Ice Age (movie) unit, Googling pulled up a great book (that our library had) with some geology activities. I also came upon a great activity using Oreos.
Really, folks, the possibilities are endless. It just requires spending a little time Googling, taking notes, bookmarking (or pinning or clipping) websites, and then making your calendar of assignments for each day of the unit.
I don't do Pinterest. (Don't judge ... I don't do Facebook either). But, I do know that many find the most amazing ideas with that resource.
Tomorrow I will share the last thing I do when planning a unit study on a piece of literature. Make sure you browse through the other posts in this unit and leave comments on each so that you can be entered to win my The Secret Garden prize pack.
Here are the other posts in this series, in case you have missed them:
Day 1 ~ Choosing a Piece of Literature
Day 2 ~ Choosing the Themes to Study
Day 3 ~ Choosing Corresponding Books from the Library
And also see what other great 5 Days series are being shared on the TOS Crew blog. I have gotten some AMAZING ideas for next year!
More great tips :) I especially like what you said about the possibilities being endless...they truly are! Ideas abound everywhere on the internet and in the library, if you know how to look.
ReplyDeleteHomeschool Share is one of my favorite resources! What DID we do before the Internet?
ReplyDeleteI linked to your series on my Classic Books for Girls post today:
http://embracingdestiny.blogspot.com/2012/05/5-days-of-classic-books-for-girls-heidi.html
I love making our own lapbooks and literature unit studies, so it has been fun reading your posts everyday. I only recently started on Pinterest, but truthfully I don't really know what to do with it. ;0)
Thank you for sharing great tips! :) We love lapbooks and unit studies.
ReplyDeleteI am really enjoying this series, Nicole! I am glad to see that early in your homeschool journey you discovered freedom, it took me several years!!
ReplyDelete