Rain Forest- Afternoon on the Amazon

e started learning about Jungles and Rain Forests in our book club about Lions....this week we learned more during the Afternoon on the Amazon book.

We also took a field trip to the Rainforest Cafe ! Their educational field trips are not too expensive and certainly gave us a lot of information.

1. Review What is the rainforest...layers etc

2. Talked about the life cycle of frogs
I have a set of frogs in various metamorphic stages, from tadpole, all the way through frog.




3. poison arrow frogs and the bromeliad

4. Learn about Bromeliads

5. Make a bromeliad




6. Talk about all the animals that live in the rainforest

7. Share letters from Koko to class
Yes! Koko actually returned a letter to the class, along with a lot of FAQs and some samples of her artwork! It was very rewarding.

8. Make a rainstick
Ok, this is one of the most authentic, and harder, versions of rainsticks to make. There are easier ones available for younger kids.

Mailers with nails





Nails all through, criss-crossing each other




Rainstick with shower curtain as decoration


We just Modge Podged it on



Working on them


All done!



Extras

Monkeys in the rainforest game
Read the great kapok tree and talk about it
Facts about Tarantulas

My previous posts on this subject are:

Forming a Co-op
Magic Tree House Index
Dinosaurs Part 1
Dinosaurs Part 2
Vikings
Ninjas
Pirates Part 1
Pirates Part 2
Knights Part 1
Knights Part 2
Ancient Rome & Pompeii Part 1
Ancient Rome & Pompeii Part 2
Ancient Greece & Olympics Part 1
Ancient Greece & Olympics Part 2
Day of the Dragon King; Ancient China
Ancient Egypt Part 1: Mummies
Ancient Egypt Part 2: Pyramids
Gorillas In The Morning
Tigers At Twilight
Polar Bears At Bedtime
Lions at Lunchtime

Lions at Lunchtime

Lions at Lunchtime, a Magic Tree House Book, was set in Africa. For our book club we learned about lions, of course, and also various African things....


1.Who were the Masai
I used various websites to share information with the children
masai culture
africa
masai and i

2. Swahili words
I found a website (sorry didn't save it!) that has pictures of objects and their swahili names. I cut them out and gave each child a few to read. It was fun seeing which words we already know in the English Language (Simba, etc)

3. Honey Guides
I told the children how these birds were used...which brought us to honeycombs!

4. Honey Combs
I bought a jar of honey with the comb still in it, so the kids could see what it is. Then they got to try some








5. Crayon Batik Craft
I printed out various African Animals Coloring Sheets. I explained batiking and away they went.





6. Rumble in the Jungle
I read this to them, showcasing all the various animals in the Jungle

7. Lions facts


8. Color African Masks
They colored these while I read some Lion Facts

9. Sleeping Lions Game

10. Lion Cub Game




Extra:
Making Drums out of cups

My previous posts on this subject are:

Forming a Co-op
Magic Tree House Index
Dinosaurs Part 1
Dinosaurs Part 2
Vikings
Ninjas
Pirates Part 1
Pirates Part 2
Knights Part 1
Knights Part 2
Ancient Rome & Pompeii Part 1
Ancient Rome & Pompeii Part 2
Ancient Greece & Olympics Part 1
Ancient Greece & Olympics Part 2
Day of the Dragon King; Ancient China
Ancient Egypt Part 1: Mummies
Ancient Egypt Part 2: Pyramids
Gorillas In The Morning
Tigers At Twilight
Polar Bears Past Bedtime

Polar Bears Past Bedtime

Out of all the Magic Tree House Books and crafts, the below Northern Lights craft has to be one of the most beautiful...I wish I could someday see them myself!

1. First we talked about "What is the arctic circle?"
I use a globe and a print out of the Arctic Circle

2. Read some facts about the arctic from the research guide

3. Learned about the Aurora Burelais (Northern Lights)

4. Paint Northern Lights
I used this picture of the Northern Lights as my inspiration. We used black construction paper and painted broad sweeping strokes of beautiful colors of paint all across the paper. Then added some sugar to some water and brushed that over the paint. When it dried it glistened. This was my favorite because it was really pretty!

Painting the Aurora Burelais




5. Polar Bear book
I had these pre-printed. The kids colored them while I was talking about Polar Bears

6. Polar Bear Facts


7. Snowflake craft
If you hate glitter, this is not for you. I did not enjoy this craft!

Snowflakes





8. Snowman snack
Made out of marshmallows and pretzel sticks





My previous posts on this subject are:

Forming a Co-op
Magic Tree House Index
Dinosaurs Part 1
Dinosaurs Part 2
Vikings
Ninjas
Pirates Part 1
Pirates Part 2
Knights Part 1
Knights Part 2
Ancient Rome & Pompeii Part 1
Ancient Rome & Pompeii Part 2
Ancient Greece & Olympics Part 1
Ancient Greece & Olympics Part 2
Day of the Dragon King; Ancient China
Ancient Egypt Part 1: Mummies
Ancient Egypt Part 2: Pyramids
Gorillas In The Morning
Tigers At Twilight

Tigers At Twilight

For our lesson on Tigers at Twilight we did some various crafts and games..and had a jungle themed snack. I don't always incorporate food, but I try to when I can!

1. Snake craft
We did a combo between Felt Snakes and Hanging Snakes Combining them didn't work too well..I'd choose one or the other next time!


2. Tiger Bookmarks
I printed these out and let them cut them out, color, add borders etc, while I was talking to them about Tiger Facts.

3. Snack!
Jungle Juice and Animal Crackers which they had to eat like an anteater...picking up with straws

Sucking up the Animal Crackers



The ingredients being added


The juice mixing up


4. Some more Tiger Facts

5. How The Tiger Got His Stripes
This is a script. Before class I printed out 4 or 5 copies, highlighted speaker 1 throughout, speaker 2 throughout, etc. They read this story aloud to the other children.


6. Why do they really have stripes?
Camouflage

7. Games!
Lion Lion Lion Tiger game. Instead of Duck Duck Goose....it's Lion Lion Tiger!

Hot Potato-Lion game- I turned my back on the group and gave them a stuffed lion (didn't have a tiger). They had to toss it back and forth amongst themselves and whoever was left holding it when I said LION! was out


Lion Lion Tiger Game



My previous posts on this subject are:

Forming a Co-op
Magic Tree House Index
Dinosaurs Part 1
Dinosaurs Part 2
Vikings
Ninjas
Pirates Part 1
Pirates Part 2
Knights Part 1
Knights Part 2
Ancient Rome & Pompeii Part 1
Ancient Rome & Pompeii Part 2
Ancient Greece & Olympics Part 1
Ancient Greece & Olympics Part 2
Day of the Dragon King; Ancient China
Ancient Egypt Part 1: Mummies
Ancient Egypt Part 2: Pyramids
Gorillas In The Morning

Gorillas In the Morning

This was a relatively short lesson....a lot of talk, not a lot of crafts.

1. Gorilla Facts
I printed off some basic facts and went over them

2. Sign Language
We discussed the concept of sign language and learned a few signs. Some of the children knew some, so they shared their knowledge also.


3. Endangered species
We learned about this in our previous lesson, so it was a good reminder

4. How humans affect mountain gorillas
Poaching and Environmental Encroaching

5. Read Koko's Kitten


6. Draft a letter or draw a picture for Koko.
Originally I was going to have the children draft a letter each, and then time providing, type them into email for Koko. When the actual lesson came, I had less help than needed to transcript for all the non-writers, so I added in drawing, and just decided to mail the whole packet.
Koko.org has a Kids Club...info for teachers and how to contact Koko.


Extra
Make a Rain Stick
(this seems like it has been my fallback activity a couple of times now! Maybe one day we'll get to it.)


My previous posts on this subject are:

Forming a Co-op
Magic Tree House Index
Dinosaurs Part 1
Dinosaurs Part 2
Vikings
Ninjas
Pirates Part 1
Pirates Part 2
Knights Part 1
Knights Part 2
Ancient Rome & Pompeii Part 1
Ancient Rome & Pompeii Part 2
Ancient Greece & Olympics Part 1
Ancient Greece & Olympics Part 2
Day of the Dragon King; Ancient China
Ancient Egypt Part 1: Mummies
Ancient Egypt Part 2: Pyramids

Ancient Egypt Part 2: pyramids

Our second week on Ancient Egypt was about Pyramids!

1. Read them Hidden World: Egyptian Tomb

2. Make sugar cube pyramid

Elias and friend making pyramid


Chase and Elias with Pyramid



3. Learn about the Egyptian Language-hieroglyphs
I used a set I had bought years ago
Fun With Hieroglyphs Stamp Set




4. Stamp names on Cartouches (necklace nameplates)

Elias stamping his name in hieroglyphs


The whole group with their cartouches


Extras
101 Wacky Facts About Mummies

My previous posts on this subject are:

Forming a Co-op
Magic Tree House Index
Dinosaurs Part 1
Dinosaurs Part 2
Vikings
Ninjas
Pirates Part 1
Pirates Part 2
Knights Part 1
Knights Part 2
Ancient Rome & Pompeii Part 1
Ancient Rome & Pompeii Part 2
Ancient Greece & Olympics Part 1
Ancient Greece & Olympics Part 2
Day of the Dragon King; Ancient China
Ancient Egypt Part 1: Mummies

Ancient Egypt Part 1: Mummies

Ancient Egypt is always a BLAST to do! This study took us 2 weeks. In years past we've mummified a chicken, and a fish.

This year we thought we'd follow our friend Jene's example and mummify Barbie. It's a lot less smelly! You can follow along with what we did from her great explanation.

1. Mummify Barbie

Cutting out amulets to put in the wrappings


Barbie getting "salted" (I found naked Barbies at the thrift store for about $1 each)


Ripping Muslin to wrap Barbie. I started each piece with 2" cuts all across the top. made the pulling MUCH easier!


Wrapping Barbie


Finished Mummies


Mummies


2. Toilet Paper Mummies
We wrapped a roll of toilet paper around each child, until they were a mummy! Then they got to "break free"

TP Wrapping


TP Mummy



Some of us then decided to make Snow Angels in the TP



Lest you think we were wasteful, we composted all the rolls of toilet paper! Note, the younger the wrappers are, the more rolls of toilet paper needed, because they don't have the arm span to go around and around continously...rather keep breaking and restarting.


Look for Ancient Egypt Part 2!

My previous posts on this subject are:

Forming a Co-op
Magic Tree House Index
Dinosaurs Part 1
Dinosaurs Part 2
Vikings
Ninjas
Pirates Part 1
Pirates Part 2
Knights Part 1
Knights Part 2
Ancient Rome & Pompeii Part 1
Ancient Rome & Pompeii Part 2
Ancient Greece & Olympics Part 1
Ancient Greece & Olympics Part 2
Day of the Dragon King; Ancient China

Day of the Dragon King, Ancient China

This is the week of Day of The Dragon King in our Magic Treehouse Bookclub. It only took us one week to cover.

Day of the Dragon King Outline

1. Talked about the significance of Dragons and animals as symbols

2. Make a Dancing Chinese Dragon
I had pre-printed out dragon heads





3. Talk about Silk and silkworms
I showed the class some silk, and an old book that shows pictures of the process of making silk

4. Talk about rice, and the importance of it.
I happen to own Chinese Rice Pattern Bowls. I showed them to the class, how the rice granules are baked into the pottery and how translucent they look afterwards.


5. How to eat with chopsticks

6. Chinese feast
This unit was in January, which happens to be when Chinese New Year is...so Party City had 1/2 an aisle with neat little party decorations, hats, chopsticks, plates and more!






Extras:
All sorts of printables and activities


My previous posts on this subject are:

Forming a Co-op
Magic Tree House Index
Dinosaurs Part 1
Dinosaurs Part 2
Vikings
Ninjas
Pirates Part 1
Pirates Part 2
Knights Part 1
Knights Part 2
Ancient Rome & Pompeii Part 1
Ancient Rome & Pompeii Part 2
Ancient Greece & Olympics Part 1
Ancient Greece & Olympics Part 2