Journey to Excellence

PENGUINS! When I saw that we could have the opportunity to review Lots and Lots of Playful Penguins by Marshall Publishing, I leaped at the chance!! When Eli and Brynne were little, they loved Lots and Lots of Jets and Planes , and we checked them out from the library more than once. I was pretty sure the Penguin videos would be a huge hit, because my kids are obssessed with penguins. In fact, just the week before, Eli chose to write a story pretending that he was a penguin. Marshall Publishing and Promotions, Inc. , not only produces the Lots and Lots of ... series of dvds, but history dvds and many other products, including As Seen on TV products. We were given the opportunity to choose between four dvds: I had a hard time choosing which video we should choose, because every single one of them excited me! But, ultimately, because of the kids' interest level and their ages, we chose to review the Lots and Lots of Penguins and their Happy Feet dvd set that i...

This week was a designated "unit only" week, which means that it was one of the original weeks we had planned to take off this year with our previous schedule . I intended for it to be an easier week. But, goodness gracious, we were busy! We did find ourselves having a difficult time getting started in the mornings because of our most recent distraction ... It thrills me so much that my kids love The Brady Bunch that I haven't even freaked on those days when we haven't started school until 11:00 a.m. or so. The kids watch an episode we have DVR'd while they eat breakfast. But sometimes that leads into two or three episodes. Or, like today, a total of 4 ... well, we had to see if the Bradys got out of jail in the ghost town and whether Bobby and Cindy ever got rescued at the Grand Canyon! ~ Penguins ~ Our unit study this week was "Penguins". My kids absolutely love penguins, so it was definitely an interest-led week. We used a video that we ...

We are doing a unit on Penguins this week, inspired by a product we are reviewing for the Schoolhouse Review Crew. My friend e-mailed me a great resource called A to Z Stuff . She thought I would be interested in the Space unit, and I am, but while perusing the site I found a section on Polar animals, including Penguins . It has some amazing resources, lesson plans, and activities. We are using some of them this week. The site also linked to SeaWorld/Busch Gardens . Did you know that they have entire unit studies on marine life?? There are about 12 different complete lesson plans, that include science, spelling, vocabulary, math, art, and more. And there are lesson plans for different age levels. I chose the K-3 lesson plans on Penguins, and my entire week of lessons were planned for me. It is some really great stuff! I love it! If you are doing any marine biology studies, it is certainly worth a look.