Well I am clearing up my emails as I work on the blog, sewing and school… so what do I come across but my emails to myself about Thanksgiving! And Remembrance Day to boot! Well I figured I might as well share the helpful links here. If nothing else, the next time I search Thanksgiving or Remembrance Day here on the blog to find useful resources I will be in luck!
Kids National Geographic and their interpretation of the first Thanksgiving HERE
Social Studies for Kids and their thoughts on the Mayflower HERE
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!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Monday was a GOOD day, education wise. We had a teacher helper today – Ken cleared his schedule up to help out and watch how we do things. It was nice to have another adult to field questions. That is one thing I struggle with with the boys – the idea of needing to wait for your turn, the rule of putting their hands up and waiting their turn is a tough one.
Emanuel with his supervisor
We had lots to accomplish though… Emanuel had his dinosaur as usual… Trinity her workbooks… And then we went onto the fun stuff. After a Sunday of learning we HAD TO get going on the journals, the process of the apple cider making AND the best thing of the day. Of course we had to sit down and work on those Zombies for Cousin David. Gavin and Zander are becoming pros with the terrific instructions Art for Kids has up on their site. Definitely bookmark them!!
Cousin David’s Zombies
The 3 boys got to recite their newest fall poem for you all to enjoy! A Little Elf which can be found HERE with a whole list of fall poems!
We had TWO crafts for the day. Our first was a repeat of Sunday’s leaf rubbing. The boys went out into the yard and grabbed leaves from our yard. These pictures are going to be mailed back up north to friends and family.
On its way to Aunty Xinny
Note Aunty Karyn in the scene
The other craft is from Activity Village… spidery fingerprints. You can find the instructions HERE. A definite repeat for our family. I managed to get the ink pad from Jo-Ann’s with a terrific coupon AND it is washable off the fingers. We used baby wipes and had zero problems and great results on the paper.
Dirty fingers!
Completed bugs
Tuesday was a bit of a lax day as yours truly was unaccountably wiped out. BUT we rallied after a brief period of Lego/iPad fun while Mommy napped. Echo has FINALLY figured out the sit and spin.
Spin baby spin
We have decided to get a move on on the Halloween decorations… so today was a garland made out of pumpkins and bats. The twins traced and cut out the template shapes and everyone pitched in on the feature creating. I opted to snip the feet off our bat template to make the cutting out a little easier. You can find templates etc. HEREon the UK site.
Twins stapling while the littles sort out the pattern
So proud!
Our corner
I had the kids help me on a book review that was posted HERE on our site. It was our first kids’ book and it was seasonal! We really enjoyed Into the Pumpkin by Linda Franklin. It was fun to ask them what they thought and then simply write it out to share! I have a few more books to do this for, all advanced copies so I am sure there will be more posts to share.
We read more of Judy Moody, the book is one huge giggle for the kids and they are constantly brain storming for their me collages that they are working on.We have taken the angle of the joy of listening to a story and reading with the family over a lapbook intensive unit with this one. Next week we will take a break in our Judy Moody story to listen to our HALLOWEEN themed book!
Add in a finish by Gavin of his review reading book (so much progress!).
