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Geography Notebooking Pages

Aug32010
August 3, 2010 by 2 Comments

Even though we’re technically finished with our trip around the world, someone emailed and asked me to put together a few more geography notebooking pages to use while doing their ‘world travels’ this coming year. Don’t worry ~ I still have more country lesson plans coming for South America and North America!!

But because I am easily sidetracked, when I finished up the ones that Justine asked for I also re-vamped one of my older geography notebooking pages. Ready to see them?? Click on the text to download the pdf files.

country fact sheet notebooking page for geography studies

Country Factsheet Notebooking Page ~ place to write down facts about the country, famous people from the country {and add a picture or two}, famous landmarks, and other information.

country geography notebooking page

Country Geography Notebooking Page ~ Jot down some notes on the country you are studying: square miles, longitude/latitude, natural resources, religions, languages and more. It also has space to add a picture of the country you are learning about.

famous person notebooking page

Famous Person Notebooking Page ~ Have a famous person {explorer, artist, musician, or missionary} that lived in the country you are studying? This is a notebooking sheet to record some information about that person: where s/he lived, hobbies, childhood, and what they are famous for. There’s even a little space to add a picture if you’d like.

science fact notebooking sheet for geography studies

Science Facts Notebooking Sheet for countries ~ Similar in layout to the Country Facts Notebooking page, this has room for famous inventors/inventions, science facts about the country, plant and animal life, etc…



Hope these help you all out! If you’re just starting out with your geography studies, don’t forget to check out some of the other free printables that I have available for you to download:


 
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Filed Under: Geography, Geography Printables, Notebook and Worksheets 2 Comments

Updated Workbox Activity Cards

Jul282010
July 28, 2010 by 5 Comments

Just to let you know…I’ve updated the Workbox Activity Cards and added a few new tags after you all requested them. There are now a total 72 activity cards and 16 minute time cards and 12 blank cards.

 Workbox Picture Cards 2  Workbox Picture Cards 3    Workbox Picture Cards 4  Workbox Picture Cards 5   

Workbox Cards 4

Here are some of the additions:

  • Foreign languages ~ French, Spanish, German, Latin, and Greek
  • Subject cards ~ Bible, math, language, history, nature study, music appreciation, circle time
  • Sports ~ volleyball, soccer, trampoline, swimming, baseball, softball, basketball, karate and running
  • Extras ~ chores, video games, music practice, chess, violin, audiobook, clean-up, church, file folders, guitar and field trip and more…

If you need a good laugh, go check out Jodi’s post on her laminating adventures over at Granola Mom for God…I’m apparently an enabler ~ but you can thank her for the ‘potty’ card that was added to the mix! :)

Additional Workbox Resources

~ Workbox Weekly Grid ~ pdf download of the pages I put together for our kids including pink, purple, blue, green and white pages for Monday through Friday.

~ Preschool Number Cards ~ Number cards with some fun characters {if you are using the traditional workbox system}

~ Workbox system using number strips and workfolders {our system last year}

~ Velcro in BULK. I purchased the 3/8” velcro dots from Textol Systems but have also found larger coins at even better prices from Feiner Supply {and they have free shipping this month!}

~ Lots of great workbox links, ideas and ways to adjust the workbox system.

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Filed Under: Workbox Printables, Workboxes 5 Comments

Learning About Chile ~ Lesson Plans and Links

Jul272010
July 27, 2010 by 3 Comments

While Brazil is the largest country in South America, Chile is the longest. Off the southern coast there are thousands of small islands. We had fun learning that the seasons in Chile are reversed from those in the Northern Hemisphere {summer is December to March and winter is June to August}, comparing the Chilean flag to one of the US state flags {Texas} and figuring out which came first.

We talked a little about the Inca’s and Chile’s independence from Spain, about the five regions of Chile, and also about earthquakes and plates. We also used the time to talk a bit about Darwin and the theory of evolution {his visit to Chile after an earthquake} ~ maybe not typical geography studies, but it fit in when we were studying. You can view the other countries that we’ve studied from South America on my geography page.

Week 1 Layout

Monday

  • Review song about South America from Geography Songs {see words below}
  • Use atlas and globe to locate Chile; read in the atlas about Chile
  • Read one of our books from our bookshelf about Chile.

      South America

    Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia,

    Ecuador, Peru and Chile and Bolivia,

    Uruguay and Paraguay, Brazil and Guyana

    and Suriname ~

    These are the countries of South America.

    The French have French Guiana.

    The British have the Falkland Islands.

    Brazil is the biggest country and

    Chile is the longest.

Tuesday

  • Learn {and review} some terms: inlets, fjords, desert, strait, island, continental plate
  • Read together book on Chile  
  • Learned about the flag of Chile and completed our notebooking sheet

    Flag of Chile 

    Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Wednesday

Thursday

  • Reviewed geography song
  • Spent time ‘sightseeing’ on the Time for Kids ~ Chile page. 
  • Read together book on Chile

Week 2 Layout

Monday

  • Quick review about what we covered last week.
  • Visited the National Geographic Kids site to learn more about Chile
  • Independent reading from shelf
  • Filled out the map of Chile using our notebooking page.

     Mapping Chile Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Resources and Websites

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Filed Under: Geography, Geography Printables, South America 3 Comments

Preschool Corner ~ Preschool Workbox Cards

Jul92010
July 9, 2010 by Leave a Comment

I’m supposed to be packing.

Obviously I’m not.

We leave tomorrow to visit with family for the next week and there are bucketloads of things that I should be doing, and truckloads of things that I would rather be doing.

This last week has been full of fun for Kaleb ~ lots of swimming to ward off the over 100 degrees that have been sweltering our area. AND we went on a family date to see Toy Story 3.

Once Mommy got over the sticker shock of how much it is to see a movie these days, it was all ok. {Ok, really, I’m still in shock}. But the movie was wonderful and if you had been there with us, you would have noticed me dabbing my eyes to sop up the tears. It’s one we will see again…but only after it’s out on video.

I’ve been putting the finishing touches on our new workbox weekly grid system and since Kaleb is all excited about Toy Story now…I made some new workbox cards for him to use that are based on the movie characters. The Preschool Workbox Number Cards have been edited to add a new page of numbers, so the set now includes Toy Story 3, Monsters Inc, Nemo, Chicken Little and A Bug’s Life:

image image image

click on the pictures to download the pdf file

Kaleb will only have one sheet with his workboxes and still use the number system this year. It’s just easier for him and will help him with identifying his numbers and sequencing, so we’re going to stick with it. I’ll be sharing more about how we’re working on chores with him too ~ soon.

But first I need to get us packed for vacation.

Check back in next week and I’ll {hopefully} share more with you all! :) You never know…I might get all caught up in vacation and post about completely random things! Have a great week and thanks for joining in the Preschool Corner!

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! The updated guidelines can be found here if you need them.
 

 
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The Weekly Grid Workbox System

Jul82010
July 8, 2010 by 44 Comments

Weekly-Workbox-Grid-visual-organizer-for-homeschool-copy.png

Last year we first started using workboxes and for the most part, we followed along the way it was supposed to go ~ except we used workfolders rather than workboxes. This year, after talking to the girls a bit, we revamped our system to make it work better for us. Ginger-Snap-Shots did this very thing last year with her girls with a little bit of a different twist.

This year, instead of using numbers for both the girls and Zachary, we’re switching to a more visual system. This way the kids can see what is expected of them each day. We also ditched the number strips because it was getting plain ol’ tedious for me to pull, switch, and sort the numbers everyday.

The Workbox Weekly Grid Layout

Our new workbox system will have the entire week laid out ahead of time. I have planned out what days we’ll be covering certain subjects and can lay out each child’s week in a short amount of time. Their new card system is closer to the size of an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper and each day has it’s own sheet.

Here’s a peek at Laurianna’s Weekly Workbox Grid so you can get a visual of what I am describing:

Workbook Weekly Grid

If you look closely, you’ll notice that the velcro that attaches the workbox activity card is actually on the corner of the card {I used 3/8” sized velcro coins}. The front of each of the cards has another 3/8’” velcro dot in the top right corner. When the kids are done with that subject/activity, they can simply flip the card over {see the picture below}.

Workbox Weekly Grid example

Here’s a look at the entire week laid out as individual days. It is a lot of tags, BUT I don’t have to keep resticking them since they get flipped over. :) Friday is always skimpy since that’s the day that we have co-op and end up playing with friends.

Workbox Weekly Grid Cards

The cards for each day have all been put together on a jump ring and they hang on the wall from that ring. Each child has their own special color of the Weekly Workbox Grid {because you all know that I color-code my kids}. The first page of the workbox weekly grid is actually their chore and daily ‘to do’ list ~ click here to see our chore system. :)

Workbox Weekly Grid Storage

Using the Workfolders

We are still using the workfolders this year, and they will hold the worksheets and books that the kids are using for the entire week. Instead of having numbers on each folder this year, each page will have a subject card showing what should be in that pocket.

Here’s a little peek inside a folder to show you how we’re tying the workfolders into this system.

Workbox Workfolders

In the left pocket are Laurianna’s math cd-roms along with some scratch paper to do her math work. In the right hand pocket is her spelling progress chart. You can see a ‘Mom’s help’ tag on the pocket too ~ showing that she is going to need my help with this subject. Our folders have a total of 12 pockets, so the remaining pockets have subject tags for language, writing, history, science, Bible, handwriting, reading, etc…

Laurianna has been excited about this because she can actually work ahead in her school week if she would like to! If she wants to do three math lessons in one day, she can do that and then flip over those cards on the upcoming days.

 

Big and Bulky Items

Larger Workbox items

We’re still using the same system for ‘big and bulky’ items that we did last year. Each kiddo has their own special big bin on the bottom of Kaleb’s workbox station. He’ll use the top 8 bins and the bottom four are for bigger items like puzzles, leapsters, games, etc… I’ll explain more about Kaleb’s workboxes later in a preschool post.

Yes, it’s a lot of laminating on my part. And lots of tiny velcro dots. BUT in the long run, this is the system that the kids and I have talked about and will work best for us. Sometimes keeping my sanity is more important {grins}. Having the cards all in one place and not scattered over our table or everyone’s cards in a bucket helps me out immensely. Since our schedule doesn’t change much from week to week, I’m able to quickly flip cards and re-stock their workfolders in one sitting.

I’ve included some additional links for you all below to help you out if you are using workboxes or want to use a system similar to mine. :) If you have a question, please feel free to leave a comment with your email address so that I can answer you!! I’m sure I’ll be posting updates about our system to further answer questions, but this is it in a nutshell!

Workbox Resources

~ Workbox Weekly Grid ~ pdf download of the pages I put together for our kids including pink, purple, blue, green and white pages for Monday through Friday.

~ Jump rings – essentially these are key rings that open up easily so you can add to them. We use them in the top corner of our Weekly Grid so we can flip through the days easily.

~ Workbox Picture Activity Cards ~ Overall, there are a total of 32 picture cards, 24 minute cards, and 4 blank cards for you.

~ Preschool Number Cards ~ Number cards with some fun characters {if you are using the traditional workbox system}

~ Scotch laminator ~ this is the laminator I use and until July 31, 2010 there is a $20 rebate when you buy the laminator and a 50 pack of laminating pouches. I love mine so much I bought a spare {sad, but true}.

~ Workbox system using number strips and workfolders {our system last year}

~ Velcro in BULK. I purchased the 3/8” velcro dots from Textol Systems but have also found larger coins at even better prices from Feiner Supply {and they have free shipping this month!}

~ Lots of great workbox links, ideas and ways to adjust the workbox system.

 
Note: You might notice that some of our activity cards differ from the ones that are in my Workbox Picture Activity Cards pdf file because they are specific to our family ~ and are images that are not from Microsoft clip art. I have not included them because although we are using them for our family, they are not copyright free {First Language Lessons, Teaching Textbooks, Complete Writer, Awana, etc…}.

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Filed Under: Organizing, Our Classroom, Our Schedule, Workbox Printables, Workboxes 44 Comments

Brazil and Rain Forests ~ Lesson Plans & Links

Jul62010
July 6, 2010 by 3 Comments

The first week in our study of Brazil we focused more on the country itself and during our second week we learned more about rainforests. Brazil is the largest country in South America ~ almost half of the land in the continent is within the border of Brazil {pretty amazing, when you think about it!}.

The Amazon river also flows through the country of Brazil, making it a great opportunity to read the book Afternoon on the Amazon by Mary Pope Osborne with all of the kids and use the Rain Forests companion guide in our study. You can view the other countries that we’ve studied from South America on my geography page.

Week 1 Layout

Monday

  • Review song about South America from Geography Songs {see words below}
  • Use atlas and globe to locate Brazil; read in the atlas about Brazil
  • Read one of our books from our bookshelf about Brazil.

      South America

    Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia,

    Ecuador, Peru and Chile and Bolivia,

    Uruguay and Paraguay, Brazil and Guyana

    and Suriname ~

    These are the countries of South America.

    The French have French Guiana.

    The British have the Falkland Islands.

    Brazil is the biggest country and

    Chile is the longest.

Tuesday

  • Review geography song
  • Learn {and review} some terms: rain forest, river, jungle, pampas, grasslands, wetlands, plateaus, and plains 
  • Reading together book on Brazil {Amazon River} ~ Afternoon on the Amazon 
  • Filled out the map of Brazil using our notebooking page. We also shaded in the rainforest area.

mapping brazil notebooking sheet

 Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Wednesday

 flag of brazil notebooking sheet

Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Thursday

Week 2 Layout

Rainforest Diorama

from McKenna’s rainforest diorama

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

  • Read chapters 5-6 from Rain Forests
  • McKenna put together a diorama of a rainforest. We had some 3 dimensional rainforests animals and she wanted to make one to go along with what we were learning. It wasn’t super-detailed, but she did {most of it} on her own. I printed off a scene from the rainforest and she used the picture to line the box and then added some branches and vines along with the animals to decorate it.

Rainforest Diorama   Rainforest diorama

Thursday

  • Review geography song
  • Read chapter 7 from Rain Forests
  • Put our lapbook pieces on a cardstock sheet to add to our binder.
  • Summarized one of our reading books and copied summary
  • Added our notebooking pages to our binder and stamped our passports!

Books We Used

Resources and Websites

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Filed Under: Geography, Geography Printables, South America 3 Comments