Do you have a yearning to learn more about this rare, unique and amazing mammal? Well, here are all the resources, links, etc that we used to learn about this Australian animal!!

The lapbook:

• Platypus Animal Study and Lapbook by Homeschool Share. Really the only one out there and very helpful.

Books:

• Platypuses by Sara Louise Kras
• Electric Animals by Natalie Lunis (this has a two page piece on the platypus’ ability to use electroreceptors to find food)
• Platypus by Chris Riddell (a story book not a non fiction book)
• A Platypus, Probably by Sneed B. Collard III
• Platypus, A Century-long Mystery by William Caper

Crafty Bits:

• Make your own Platypus on Learn Create Love by using their instructions HERE. We put our legs on with brads and went without the googly eyes.
• Make your own Platypus paperbag puppet using instructions by Danielle’s Place HERE. The cutting is a little advanced on the feet for true preschoolers but we managed!
• We didn’t make it to this craft but it looks fun, make your own Perry the Platypus out of felt and foam HERE.

Colouring Pages

• P is for Platypus HERE.
• Flag of Australia HERE.
• A random Platypus HERE.
• Mommy and baby with eggs HERE. Though the eggs are bigger than they should be etc etc.

Worksheets

• Compare the tracks of various Australian animals HERE.
• Learn a bit about the Platypus and colour one as well HERE.
• Wordsearch for the older kids HERE.
• All about platypus colouring page and fill in the blank riddle HERE.
• Duck Billed Platypus Anatomy HERE.
• Platypus mini book to fill in yourself HERE.
• Platypus notebooking pages with colour image of a swimming platypus HERE.
• Templates that we used for our end of book facts of interest HERE.
• Not so much a worksheet but a POEM!! 4-40 has a great platypus poem HERE.

We have an amazing picture of platypus babies thanks to Facebook via Dr. Carin Bondar – Biologist with a Twist. Keep in mind her Facebook profile HERE does have some more mature content this picture is certainly worth it! The tagline with this picture when it made its way to my timeline is as follows:

Here’s your daily dose of adorable – baby platypuses! There’s no official name for baby platypuses, but they’re often referred to as puggles or platypups.
Platypuses are one of the five extant species of monotreme, meaning that they are mammals that lay eggs. It’s also one of the very few venomous mammals – the male has a “spur” that’s capable of delivering enough venom to kill a small dog.

Babies

Videos:

I will for the most part embed, but some do not allow it. Hopefully these will remain valid videos for some time! Our first video is from youTube subscriber 911TRUTHINATOR and is a longer educational piece on the “World’s Strangest Animal.”

National Geographic and their dangerous hunter themed video. I will warn you, they pump up the platypus to seem scary (??) the kids did NOT approve.

A short video of the Senior Platypus Keeper Ian Elton with Ember the 6 month old platypus.

In Australia, Go Paddling With the Platypus. Seriously… we live on the wrong continent. This video gives a bit of a close look to a playful platypus.

Check out the video below to see a platypus doing platypus things at Mount Field National Park.

Of course there are all the moments of Perry the Platypus on Phineas and Ferb. We specifically borrowed The Perry Files from the library. Wild Kratts also have a platypus focused episode called Platypus Cafe that you can purchase on Amazon.com.

Helpful links:

• Wonder how the platypus got its name? Well Wiki Answers knows right HERE.
• National Geographic Kids Creature Feature platypus HERE.
• KidsBiology.com has a brief page on the platypus HERE.
• Squuidoo has a great fact page HERE.

Part of the lapbook calls for looking at the Echidna who is the other mammal in the Monotreme family. So here are our links that we used to supplement what tiny bit of information we had in our library books!

• EnchantedLearning has a page with an anatomy picture HERE.
• Activity Village has a mini book we used to record what we learned HERE. We took the little file folder shape from the lapbook and made it into a pocket to put our mini book in.
• Kids.net.au has a great Echidna page HERE.

We used two videos with our Echidna. I am warning you now, youTube seems to carry a lot of information on the male reproductive organs of the Echidna. The two videos I have below do NOT cover this aspect as I did not feel that the… uniqueness of this portion of the animal was necessary to our learning.

First a National Geographic Video – World’s Weirdest.

And our second video about an Echidna Puggle at Taronga Zoo. Unlike the platypus, the echidna has an official name for its babies – the puggle.

And that is that! Here are a few of our pages! I hope this comes in helpful. If it does, please send me a message, leave a comment… etc.

Platypus cover

A couple sample pages

And two more

I love it, everywhere I looked it basically states that the T Rex is basically THE most FAMOUS dinosaur of all times!! And it is rather easy to see why – a HUGE carnivore (though not the biggest ever), this dinosaur was around at the end of the age of dinosaurs. With its distinctive and HUGE jaws and tiny almost humourous arms it is a very memorable predator. Made even MORE memorable by its key part on Jurassic Park! 

So it was more a case of sifting through sites to find good ones than the usual panicked hunting down of SOMETHING. The Natural History Museum had an amazing 3D rendering on their site HERE. Emanuel loved National Geographic’s little silhouette comparison of the Tyrannosaurus Rex and a school bus HERE. UCMP had a nice article HERE complete with a photo of a skeleton. Dinosaur About.com again had a great 10 fact list HERE. Kids Dig Dinos has a great drawing on its site of a T Rex along with a fun little question to answer HERE. National Geographic Kids has a little set of fact card  type things to look at and if you wish print HERE. Want a map and a timeline? Go to Kidsdinos.com and find it HERE. About.com (main site) has some links within their page to other like dinosaurs and articles of interest HERE. Of course there is EnchantedLearning and their page on the dinosaur HERE. Our colouring pages of choice can be found HERE. Don’t forget about Wiki and their rather dry but informative article HERE.

Of course we had our video time. Start with the multiple options on the Tyrannosaurus Rex on DSC discovery.com which included a TERRIFIC one on baby T Rexs HERE. And then there is our choice youTube video… enjoy!!!!

Added little something something for the dinosaur/T Rex lover in all of us is the short list of dinosaur related/themed books we collected from the library:

1. I am a Tyrannosaurus by Anna Grossnickle Hines
2. Dear Tyrannosaurus Rex by Lisa McClatchy
3. How the Dinosaur Got to the Museumby Jessie Hartland
   

   Fierce

I have to admit I felt my foreign-ness Monday, up in Alberta it was a long weekend (as was greatly reflected on my Facebook feed) – Heritage Day actually. But here in sunny Minnesota it was business as usual. This did work in our favour, as while we could not do our calling up north we COULD do our errands locally… that means that as of the end of Monday we had gotten Ken a haircut (he had also shaved! So if pigs fly do NOT be surprised!), ordered our library cards (with no bills in our names of course, we were able to fill it all out and then to prove that you live locally they mail them out. If you are telling the truth you get it then…), mailed the first of the penpal letters (9 in all!) and opened an independent chequing account at a local credit union (did you know that having a bulletin from the local church you visit is enough for residency? At least for that place… we haven’t picked a church yet). I cannot get my name on it until I get a Social Security Number but it is a start! 

So many envelopes

So not only is Ken searching for that lovely 9-5 job but he is also clean cut and shaved, which means he is ready to interview when need be! So please, positive thoughts and prayers that the process is not a lengthy one and the job all we had hoped! I really do feel that we are finally where we need to be for the time being! 

The smiles on these creative faces (they are making their own boxes out of paper) is proof that we are doing the right thing (Gavin)

There is a major sale going on on Currclick right now! So I bopped over there and with some of my remaining paypal cash from previous surveys I ordered a grand total of FOUR downloadables for 1.80 Canadian! With the Mars rover recently landed and a meteor shower supposed to be in the making asap I figured why not do a quick hunt for lapbooks and notebooks regarding Mars… I chose a quick one day one for the twins… you can find it HERE. And then there was the dinosaur one I came across by accident HERE and finally TWO on Minnesota… a State study and general lapbook. I may just have to go back and think future topics and snap up a few more to save on my desktop. One of the ones I bought was only 30 cents! 

Today we faced a quieter day, or tentative plans to see Quinn and Bree fell through but the excitement of the removal of some trees in the backyard by Baba and Daddy made up for it. The removal of those trees left branches for play. 

Tree removal

Watching Daddy

So of course they did… they made their very own little “tree house”. I love the creativity and teamwork that went on. It was still a rather warm day so the shade was lovely under the other trees and for the kids, the sun deck. 

Tree house

School wise we continued with our workbooks, and added in some time for Gavin with a small cross stitch project that managed to sneak its way into our luggage on the way down here. He actually was quite the go getter on it today. He has pretty much mastered the half stitch, as long as I can keep his attention on the pattern. 

My little stitcher

Emanuel got to try out one of my newest Target purchases… a little set of dry erase ABC cards. 

Who can resist dry erase?

We also added in our Mars items. I have found some wonderful print outs from Education.com. I will share links to those later. We also found a great show on the On Demand on tv here from National Geographic kids called Is There Life on Mars? They were not totally enthused but after watching it we had an interesting talk about what they thought. So I quickly recorded the information so that tomorrow they can draw their own ideas out in some sort of picture form. 

Now to continue on with the themes… keep the kids active in their learning and of course HAVE FUN! After all what sticks better but the things we enjoy, love and accomplish with a smile on our faces???

Dancing babies