Halloween 2009

Fall Fun on a Farm

We decided at the last minute to go to Walden Farm with one of the area homeschool groups when we heard that one of Gerrick's favorite friends was going.










Have a Happy Halloween!

Johnny Appleseed Lapbook

cover image chosen by Gerrick through an online search


appleseed cards (1-20) used to play War
fact or fiction card sorting
apple patterns (attached with velcro so that it can be played multiple times)
map of Johnny's travels
Johnny Appleseed Grace


Apple Cycle cards (attached with velcro)


Parts of an Apple diagram (I wrote the terms on labels, which he placed on diagram.)
An Apple Tree through the Seasons


Hidden Pictures


Books:
How Do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro
Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellogg
Who Was Johnny Appleseed? by Joan Holub

Stephanie recommends this DVD, but I couldn't get my hands on a copy--maybe later.

Artsy Mamas' Art Date

Today we met friends at a park for an Artsy Mamas' art date. This month the kids were encouraged to dress up, and Gerrick decided to be a skeleton pirate. Here he is applying his make-up before we left home; I really like the vertebrae he added to his neck.



The kids played on the playground awhile, and then we all went on a nature scavenger hunt. Things were going great until we walked onto the trail and found bloody bodies. Yes, apparently we wandered onto the scary hayride path. Of course, Gerrick thought it was great and all focus on nature was diverted to the scenes of bloody massacre. (He was miffed that I didn't get a shot of the "truck accident".)




Finally we got back to the pavilion and made nature mobiles, had a picnic, and shared healthy snacks. Then it was back to the playground.



After our friends left, we ventured down another trail. This one was much prettier.

Owl Lapbook & Resources

We did a little research on owls this week. We started off by reading about owls in Animal Encyclopedia and watching a few online video clips:

National Geographic: Snowy Owl,

BBC Worldwide: Wild Owls Hunting in the Arctic,

Baby Owl Ejects Pellet (This is an amateur video; mute the volume.).


We went to a park class (Thanks for planning this, Courtney!), where Gerrick and some of his friends were timed to see how fast they are compared to owls, were measured to see how wide their arm spans are compared to that of an owl's wingspan, counted to see how many times they can flap their arms in 10 seconds compared to an owl, and more...




We looked at a lot of owl images online, but Gerrick thought this one by Jan Brett was perfect for the cover of the lapbook.


He enjoyed dissecting an owl pellet (Thanks, Sarah!) and drew a picture of the pellet and some bones in this observation booklet.

He dictated what owls eat and I wrote in the Owl Diet booklet.

We used this wheel and pictures from this site to record the four kinds of owls found in Tennessee: barred, Eastern screech, great horned, and barn.

We listened to owl sounds at this site and then completed this activity.


He used this chart to try to identify what the owl who produced his pellet ate. (His conclusion was that it definitely ate some kind of bird & gray furry mammal.)

He also really enjoyed a virtual owl pellet dissection and asked me to take a photo of the screen for the lapbook.

This diagram of an owl's digestive system caught his attention during the owl image search, as well.


I printed these little owls on cardstock and attached them to the tree on the back of the lapbook with velcro so they can easily be removed and used as math manipulatives. We played with them all week.

Outside Today

Jack-o-Lantern Jars

When I saw this project, I instantly knew it would be a great new family tradition for us. We signed and dated the bottoms of our jars and plan to make new ones each year to add to our collection. To light them, we're using LED tea lights that I found on clearance sale months ago, so I don't have to worry about Gerrick catching the house on fire while he's playing with them.

Playin' at the PowWow

We spent today at the Tennessee State PowWow. Gerrick got to spend some quality time with a friend while I was able to catch up with her sweet mama. Aside from a bit of rain and the temperature not getting above 50 degrees, we had a great day.