May 4-5

Another weekend another busy 2 days! And I am most certainly NOT complaining! So starting with Saturday… it was a rather special day. FREE COMIC DAY! Oh and the 4th of May (May the Forth Be With You… har har Star Wars… Har Har). We lucked out and earlier in the week got a postcard from the Source (the best comic/gaming store in the state) with all the information.

Our adult bag… sounds awful, but they had kids and adults divided…

Getting to the back of the store

Busy

So we planned in advance and met up with a childhood friend of Ken’s recently in the process of moving back to Minnesota from New Mexico, Matt. His twins who are almost 4 are also in state but they were napping so he came solo.

Ok you can JUST see the side of Matt’s face sorry

They had free comics (of course), pop and chips… oh and people all over in cosplay… everyone from Santa to Batman to WonderWoman… oh and SAILOR MOON! So of course  Trinity had to have her picture taken with her!

Sailor Moon!

Iron Patriot

We took random pictures, shopped around… and got a boardgame for Ken and the kids to play… this one is a cooperative.

The kids’ stash (repeats but lots to enjoy)

Castle Panic

Of course before we went there it was the first Saturday of the month AND Trinity’s first full month as a 5 year old we had Home Depot to enjoy first! No aprons to take home for Trinity but the guys will go earlier next month.

She DID get her first pin!

Plant Pot holders

Sunday was originally going to be Ken’s first soccer game of the beer league… BUT He ended up sick so I lucked out and got another Sunday out with Bree… Lily… AND Quinn!!! Perfect timing as Bree ended up with a car issue that meant she needed to go drop her car at the mechanics. So she was able to do that and have her inlaws drop her back at home while I hung out with the kids. As I am sure you can imagine I was NOT complaining.

My tiny charge

My able assistant

Of course this meant I was there with my CAMERA! Quinn is an avid photographer and photo subject when it comes to me and my camera. He helped me take a few… and also starred in a few himself.

Peach

Digger

Perry

And in balloon form

Add in tummy time images…

BABYYYYYYY

So many smiles today

Just general cuteness…

Babies love these bag sleepers but man do they ride up!

What a face

And a moment of milk drunk sleep…

Full tummy

It was a brilliant day… and with no car there was nothing to do but walk to the nearby DQ. Such a new thing for me… they only had hotdogs! Yummy though. So we packed the kids and the camera and headed out to enjoy the day.

In the carseat and ready to go into the stroller

Quite an interesting neighbourhood

The beauties themselves

Seriously a quirky neighbourhood… love this mailbox

We had a bath snuck in amongst the random fun… apparently sink washes are NOT fun, especially when mommy gets the idea of using the sprayer! Oops!

Seriously Aunty, put the camera down and SAVE ME

That left us the rest of the afternoon to hang out, visit, watch Perry the Platypus and take a boatload of pictures! There WILL be an overflow!!

Baby! Note the bracelet that was a gift from the nextdoor neighbours

Shhh you will just have to check back to see the rest

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

FOR PLATYPUS RESOURCES PLEASE GO TO “PLATYPUS IN DEPTH”

February 19-20

Of all the creatures out there the kids chose the Platypus to learn about… This rather unusual and unique mammal has been on their minds for some time. Actually since their first viewing a the children’s show Phineas and Ferb with its spy/pet character Perry the Platypus. With my still getting over a rather nasty head cold we didn’t dive right into our library books BUT we did discuss what knowledge we already had – regarding the platypus AND Perry. There had been a brief post episode chat about the platypus on Wild Kratts too, the boys told me about it. So I was rather impressed as to what facts they could come up with!

Zander’s “real” platypus and Perry as a spy out of Lego

Gavin’s Perry the pet and Perry the spy (note the hat)

Of course you and I know that P is for Platypus, but did you know that platypus can be rainbow coloured? Trinity assured me that it is very possible!

P is for Platypus!

We will be posting an entire blog that stands alone with all of our platypus links and resources. While I really am not the person to be creating a lapbook etc myself I love being able to collect and share all the items we combine together to supplement the lapbooks etc others have come up with. Like I did with the Chinese New Year poster I plan on doing so with the rest of our unit studies. Emanuel has requested PENGUIN after we are done the platypus and, also to look forward to, we are covering St. Patrick’s Day (poster) and Dr. Seuss’ birthday (mini folders) on March 2.

The boys with their tracks and the animals that make them

Zander and his Platypus with moving legs (not sure about the crazy smile, I think he just likes making faces!)

Emanuel and his Australian colouring page

Today Emanuel and Trinity watched Dinosaur Train on the laptop and then drew me up two meteor showers! Very pretty! I am looking forward to being able to read to them and get to the real story time and dinosaur fun!

Meteors

Of course Echo had to make her mark on our day… first with a mess, then dancing and then… pouting… she is talented!

Turn your back for a minute…

Boogie baby

/pout pout

Wednesday had us reading our first platypus book – Platypuses by Sara Louise Kras. We discussed where Australia is in comparison to where we are in North America. I have a tiny globe I picked up for a dollar or so from Michaels that worked to show them where we are, Australia is, where China is and of course where Aunty Esther and Uncle Ted are from… oh and where Nana and Baba are right now! I really want to invest in a good globe eventually. They tend to run rather expensive for the fancier ones with stands but I think it would be a great investment.

Sorry about the flash, but the link above will take you to purchase or has the info for you to find the book at your local library

We are starting to touch on St. Patrick’s Day a little too, just colouring pages and word searches but it is always fun to start thinking about it now. It think this is going to be a rather impressive poster, heavy on the green and gold!

St Patrick’s Day themed math problems

There was a new Wild Kratts to enjoy – we learned all about termites this time! I love how excited the kids get about each episode.

Termites

Gavin spent some time on his sewing. We are trying to get back on track with that. I love sitting together working on our crafts!

Stitching away

So we are not the most exciting of people to read about this week BUT we did learn a lot about the platypus! And thanks to the existence of Facebook I was able to share an image a friend posted of the most adorable baby platypuses! A combination of iPad, Facebook and absolute cuteness! I promise much more in the way of platypus knowledge and more interesting endeavors as this cold subsides and we move onto all the other interesting schooling items we have planned so check back!

Awwwwww