From Possums to Owls and Back Again

Possum or Opossum is the word of the day today… we decided to do a search online and find everything we could find on possums. There was actually a bit to learn, some cute (and educational) YouTube videos AND some worksheets I was able to download and print out… don’t worry I plan on sharing! We got MOST of what I wanted to do (pre-assembly) today leaving just the working on our new terminology and assembly for tomorrow. Zander drew his own picture with a possum in it… and a rabbit and a bird with worms… he worked really hard on it and it shows!! Now links and videos…

Virginia Opossum mini documentary… and a good EnchantedLearning info page… though you do need to be a member to use that one I think. Seriously I think the subscription to them is WELL worth it! And then there is the Ringtailed Possum page there as well. We read through the pages and talked about the new words and enjoyed looking up images of each type. If you want to go more the Australian route there is more to find on that as well… But first, fun facts about Opossums that includes a word search, some true and false trivia, jokes, facts and colouring can be found here

Baby possums ARE cute… the kids were adamant on that one! Want to see an adorable picture of one? Then you just have to click here.

7 baby possums that were rescued… did you know that babies leave their mother within like 4 months of birth! AND the average lifespan of one in the wild is 1-3 years! Here is the wiki page about Opossums

Zander and his possum picture... the possum is the grey creature on the left, next to the grey bunny!

I found some colouring pages the kids enjoyed as well. What about a different breed of possums? The Sugar Glider. Gavin liked this one. Oh yes and back to the Australia centred info… here is a great page for that! If you need a page for writing about them and then illustrating going to our UK favourite and get THIS page. Or do their mini booklet.Working on their possum assignments

We read THIScute poem, did the question sheet (as a family) and then wrote our OWN favourite animal poems. A good first attempt for the boys I think!!!

Boys' poems

Oh and for tomorrow we are taking bits out of this lapbook and making up the rest of our info. Just writing out bits and pieces of interest and then ASSEMBLY! So I hope this gets anyone else going who is doing possums or interested in them! It was a bit of a search for information… and I did have to go through some not so nice videos on YouTube to find ones I liked for the kids! Oh this one made the kids laugh and laugh!!!

Now let’s see, the list of new words that we are working on learning that go with this… marsupial, nocturnal (not new but they still forget it), herbivore, prehensile, omnivore, predator and hind (as in hind foot). I am sure there are more but these are some that stand out! I will post up our finished lapbook as soon as it is done and link it BACK to this entry but hopefully all this information will make the job of learning about possums/opossums more enjoyable for someone else! 

Gavin is determined to design his OWN cross stitch… so today we worked together on something new. He made the cherry all on his own and I helped him with the handle on his watering pot. It was a bit tricky a we played around with it on another piece of graph paper before transferring it to where his cherry was. I am so proud of him for wanting to go with this and try and really be involved in something I enjoy so much!

Cherry and a watering can

I have managed to sneak out with Karyn to Dollarama today to purchase… MORE SOCKS!!! I am trying something new… I am going to try and sell my spare sock owls. I am starting slow with a Facebook page you can check out called It’s a Hoot! If you cannot see that I put up information on my deviantArt pageabout it as well! My goal is to make the money to pay for Ken’s Christmas present really, and have an excuse to make more sock owls! I put the striped ones at 10.00 plus shipping costs… I have no idea if that is a price people are willing to pay or not but hey, it is worth a go right? 

New socks!

I have been working on a new cross stitch pattern – one of our own designs, but I can’t share it here until AFTER Christmas as it is a gift. I should be able to finish Anna’s stocking soon though and THAT I can share. Cross stitching has not been the priority but I am working on refocusing at least a little bit of my spare time.

So we started with Opossums/Possums and ended with owls… we have had continued potty success with the only oops in a naptime pull up! So life is good… busy, loud and chaotic (so the norm)… but good!

In her red, white and blues today

3 thoughts on “From Possums to Owls and Back Again

  1. Am amazed at how much work you put into teaching your children. They are learning so much, the poems were so cute and loved the video of the Sugar Glider??, did not know they were related to possums, so even adults can learn something.

  2. Thanks Emily! We probably would have had even more to share if I had gotten a library card in time but this amount of stuff was really all the kids could handle attention wise. I know I learned a lot too!

  3. Pingback: "A Stitch in Time" » Blog Archive » Are We Really Almost to October?

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