Resource for Nature Notebooks

If you are doing a Nature Notebook à la Audubon, may I suggest National Geographic Encyclopedia of Animalsas a resource.



It is easy to use if you are searching for an animal (table of contents and index), gives nice color drawings for each, includes the scientific name for each AS WELL AS of an overview of animal classification in the beginning pp.10-11 (the bio of Audubon we are reading talks about scientific names for the animals so it's a good way to get into the topic).

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species

The overview is wonderful and shows how for the mallard it gets narrowed down each time from Animalia to Chordata to Aves, etc. And then it gets even better! On each page this information is detailed. For example, the border of the pages for mammals are color coded orange, birds are red, reptiles are purple, amphibians are blue, fish are green, and the invertebrates are teal. The system of classification is further reinforced on each page in small print above the title.

Monotremes: 1 Order, 2 Families, 3 Genera, 3 Species

Marsupials: 7 Orders, 19 Families, 83 Genera, 295 Species

Pelicans: 1 Order, 6 Families, 8 Genera, 63 Species

and so on. There is general information about each group of animals that would be good for a nature notebook (on the facing page) as well as maps which show where in the world these animals live, "Conservation Watch" for those that are endangered, and more. A wonderful resource from National Geographic! $16.47 right now on Amazon and well worth every penny if you are looking for an overview of the Animal World (focus on vertebrates) and a resource which groups similar animals together for purposes of comparison.

Amazing Squirrel Book

I just found an amazing squirrel book by accident so I am quickly posting the link so I don't forget it!

Squirrels by Brian Wildsmith

Cherry Clafouti

Here is a quick and delicious dessert recipe. The cake batter is made in a blender!


Cherry Clafouti

1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
¾ cup all purpose flour
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1 package (16 oz) frozen unsweetened pitted Bing cherries, thawed and drained

2 cups vanilla ice cream for serving (optional)



1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 10 inch pie pan with cooking spray.

2. In a blender or food processor, combine the milk, flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and salt. Blend until smooth. Pour a thin layer of the batter into the prepared dish and bake for 8 minutes.

3. Remove the dish from the oven and place on a baking sheet. Spoon the cherries evenly over the bottom. Pour the remaining batter evenly over the top. Bake for 1 hour or until the clafouti is puffed up and browned. Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Serve warm, topped with the ice cream, if using.

Poetry Resources

Choosing the poetry for our beeswax modeling, I am finding some wonderful resources online. Here is a collection of links:

http://www.cqsb.qc.ca/svs/434/tpoetry.htm
click on each type of poetry for an example


I love this one! It's from the Library of Congress --
Poetry 180: A Poem a Day for American High Schools
http://www.cqsb.qc.ca/svs/434/tpoetry.htm


A wonderful new poem picture book I found
Earthdanceby Joanne Ryder




The Complete Poetical Works of James Whitcomb Riley on Google Books
see "Dusk Song - The Beetle"


The Collected Works of Langston Hughes Volume 2: The Poems 1941-1950 on Google Books
see "Snail"

Montessori Great Lessons - Passport

This is strictly a Montessori post -- regarding the Five Great Lessons. In my teacher training (www.montessoritraining.net) we were asked to come up with our own new spin on the Great Lessons. Hah! This is a tried and true dyed in the wool steadfast unchanging part of the Montessori curriculum for Lower Elementary. What new could I possibly add? But then I remembered that in Kindergarten at our school the children do a World Tour and they have a paper passport booklet that gets stamped with a stamp representing each country as they "travel" and study places all around the world. And I thought, you could do a Time Travel kind of passport for these history lessons.

Here are some ideas (as I brainstorm this for the first time -- I actually last night couldn't sleep because I got excited about purchasing a stamp collection for this so that next year we can try it). These links are all from addictedtorubberstamps.com.


The First Great Lesson
The Beginning of the Universe and Earth

Day One: The Milky Way



Day Two: Rain




The Second Great Lesson
Life Comes to Earth

Day One: Trilobite



or Fish




Day Two: Dragonfly



or Frog



or Fern



Day Three: Flowering Plant



or Bird



or Mammal




The Third Great Lesson
Humans Come to Earth

Day One: Human Brain



Day Two: Fire



Day Three: Arrowhead




The Fourth Great Lesson
How Writing Began

Day One: Hieroglyphs



Day Two: Alphabet



or Japanese Script




The Fifth Great Lesson
How Numbers Began

Day One: Handprints



Day Two: Number 7

Bird Songs, Eastern US Region

I just purchased a CD set of bird songs which I recommended years ago on my blog -- lent to me by a friend after a birdwatching nature walk which she led my children and I on when we were homeschoolers. Now that we are studying Audubon in the classroom, I thought it would be a good purchase for the school. This is for the Eastern region of the US.

Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs: Eastern Region

Books About Nuts

I am using the idea in Active Arithmetic about making the figures with nuts on the tabletop in addition to making them with our bodies outside on the blacktop. I purchased a large quantity of nuts but I was looking for a story to use to introduce it. I was thinking of an animal that likes to arrange the nuts it has collected for the winter into beautiful patterns. I thought first about Squirrel Nutkin but he doesn't really like to collect nuts (as is clear in the story). Then I thought about


but there's no squirrel or chipmunk in it. Next I thought about


which has a badger with a sack full of nuts in it. This is the best I can come up with. Any other suggestions?