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life science

Famous and Historic Trees Fun Nature and History Homeschool Unit Study

February 27, 2021 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

The beauty of unit studies is the ability to combine multiple subjects. This famous and historic trees fun study combines nature, history, and geography. Add in some art and music and it’s a memorable unit study.

Famous and Historic Trees

So today, I rounded up some fun resources for creating a famous and historic trees nature and history unit study.

Famous and Historic Trees Fun Nature and History Homeschool Unit Study

First, look at this book we fell in love with which gave us us the kick start to our ideas.

Celebritrees Historic & Famous Trees of the World states its for grades 2 to 4, but this idea can be used for a super great unit study for multiple ages.

Besides, the history and legend of the famous trees in the book gives plenty of chance for a deep unit study.

Also, there are plenty of books about the nature of trees and science and even poetry, but we loved learning about the famous trees of the world.

Although the book only lists 14 famous and historic trees of the world, you could easily add other features to the search besides the oldest, tallest, or biggest trunk.

Science of Trees

Next, add in a bit of science. How are trees defined? Look below at some of their characteristics.

Trees usually have a single stem, or trunk.Trees are woody plants.
Trees are at least 15 feet tall.Trees have a branched-out top called a crown.

Trees clean the air, give shade, cool our house, conserve energy, and attract songbirds. Trees reduce erosion and conserve energy.

Furthermore, look at the information on the historic trees.

Learning about the Methuselah Tree

The Methuselah Tree has lived more than 4,600 years. It is a Bristlecone Pine and it’s located in California.

  • Methuselah Tree Lesson Plan
  • A Bristlecone Pine Named ‘Methuselah’
  • Here is an outline map of California
  • About the Ancient Bristle Cone Pine
  • Read about the Bristle Cone Pine here
  • Learn about California history here

Moon Trees

Stuart Roosa was a former U.S. Forest Service worker who orbited in the command module of the Apollo 14 in 1971. He conducted scientific experiments in lunar orbit. He put hundreds of tree seeds in a packet and took with him to space.

When he got back to earth, the seeds were germinated and are known as “moon trees” and are found all over the U.S. and the world.

  • Read about the Moon Trees here.
  • Where on Earth Did NASA Plant Moon Trees
  • Moon Trees Stand as Living Testaments to First Voyages to Moon
  • Making of a Moon Tree Map

Famous Scythe Tree

This next tree is in Waterloo, New York and the Balm-of-Gilead stands as living monument to a young soldier that went off to fight in the American Civil War.

  • Scythe Tree
  • Read about the Story of the Scythe tree
  • New York word search
  • Here is a mini unit study too about New York.
  • Why is an Upstate NY historian trying to save a really old tree?
  • Map where some animals live in New York
  • New York Outline Map
  • Read more about the Balm of Gilead

Prison Boab Famous Tree

Another tree is the Prison Boab which is located in Australia.

It is a Baobab tree. It has many names. One is the Upside-Down Tree because it’s branches look like roots and it’s also just named Boab.

  • Derby Boab ‘Prison Tree’
  • Read here Inventing a Colonial Dark History: The Derby Boab ‘Prison’ Tree
  • Boab Trees YouTube
  • The Boab Prison Tree
  • Read The First Australians
  • Five-Day Australian Mini-Unit
  • Hands-On Geography: Australia Awesome and Deadly Animal Art

The Tule Tree

El Árbol del Tule (The Tule Tree) is located in Santa María del Tule, Mexico. It is a Montezuma Cypress and it’s estimated to be 1,400 years old.

  • Read about the Taxodium mucronatum tree here
  • Mexico geography
  • Mexico Lapbook
  • Read more about the Montezuma Baldcypress
  • Learn some facts about Mexico from National Geographic

Chapel Oak Famous Tree

Another famous tree is the the Chapel Oak which is located in Allouville-Bellefosse, France.

It is a huge oak with two chapels inside and a spiral staircase. It looks like something out of a fairy tale.

It is one of the biggest and oldest trees in France.

  • Read about the Le Chêne Chapelle (The Chapel Oak)
  • The Peculiar Chapel Of Allouville-Bellefosse
  • Look at this France Unit Study
  • Trees poem
  • Getting to Know France worksheet
  • The Ancient Oak Tree Chapel as Old As France Itself
  • Learn About the Geography of France by Creating A Solar Oven
  • Mighty Oaks from Little Acorns

Ficus Religiosa or The Bodhi Tree

This is a kind of fig tree in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka which is sacred to the Buddhists. They believe Buddha gained “bodhi” or enlightenment while sitting under it and meditating.

  • You can read about the fig tree here.
  • Geography for Kids about Sri Lanka
  • Read here about the characteristics of the tree
  • Map of Sri Lanka

The Famous and Historic General Sherman Tree

In the Sequoia National Park in California is the General Sherman or a giant sequoia.

The giant sequoias are very special because they are among the oldest and largest living things on earth. The General Sherman Tree, found in Sequoia National Park, is the largest living thing on earth. It is 274.9 feet tall, has a circumference (4.5 ft. above the base) of 83.2 feet, a base circumference of 102.6 feet, and a volume of nearly 58,000 cubic feet.

  • Read about the General Sherman here
  • 12 page lesson plan
  • Our Giant Sequoia Forests 12 page beautiful download
  • The largest trees in the world
  • The Giant Sequoia curriculum pdf

MORE Famous and Historic Trees of the World

There are other trees too to read about like

  • Anne Frank’s Chestnut Tree
  • Isaac Newton’s Apple Tree (Woolsthorpe, England)
  • Dueling Oaks in New Orleans, Louisiana
  • The Major Oak, Sherwood Forest, England
  • and the Emancipation Oak (Hampton, Virginia).

Study Tree Art

Add some beautiful art to your study about historic trees. Read about Joseph Farrington and his The Oak Tree. Read about Paul Cezanne and his Forest art.

Also read about Georges Seurat and The Morning Walk.

The Oak Tree by Joseph Farrington
Forest by Paul Cezanne

Also, look at Hands-On Literature Nature Study: Simple Tree Craft.

Tree Poetry

Learning and memorizing poetry about trees could also be copywork or to make nature journals.

Loveliest of Trees, The Cherry Now by A. E. Housman

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.


Binsey Poplars by Gerard Manley Hopkins

My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,
   Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun,
   All felled, felled, are all felled;
     Of a fresh and following folded rank
                Not spared, not one
                That dandled a sandalled
         Shadow that swam or sank
On meadow and river and wind-wandering weed-winding bank.
   O if we but knew what we do
          When we delve or hew—
     Hack and rack the growing green!
           Since country is so tender
     To touch, her being só slender,
     That, like this sleek and seeing ball
     But a prick will make no eye at all,
     Where we, even where we mean
                To mend her we end her,
           When we hew or delve:
After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.
   Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve
      Strokes of havoc únselve
           The sweet especial scene,
      Rural scene, a rural scene,
      Sweet especial rural scene.


The Way through the Woods by Rudyard Kipling 


They shut the road through the woods
      Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
      And now you would never know
There was once a road through the woods
      Before they planted the trees.
It is underneath the coppice and heath,
      And the thin anemones.

     Only the keeper sees
That, where the ring-dove broods,
      And the badgers roll at ease,
There was once a road through the woods.

Yet, if you enter the woods
      Of a summer evening late,
When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
      Where the otter whistles his mate,
(They fear not men in the woods,
      Because they see so few.)
You will hear the beat of a horse’s feet,
      And the swish of a skirt in the dew,
      Steadily cantering through
The misty solitudes,
      As though they perfectly knew
      The old lost road through the woods.
But there is no road through the woods.

Famous and Historic Trees of the World Lapbook

Too, I’ve created this fun famous and historic trees lapbook to use with this fun unit study.

Awesome features of my lapbooks.

  • Aimed at elementary to high school.
  • This is a .pdf  instant downloadable product and not a physical product.
  • You are paying for the printables, the lapbook.
  • My lapbooks are created for multiple ages. I aimed for elementary to high school for this lapbook. One of my reasons for aiming this lapbook for the upper grades is that I use a cursive font for the minibooks filled in with information.
  • Most of the minibooks have facts which accompany the minibook and a lot of the minibook are offered two ways. One way where your child uses the facts already provided by the minibook filled in and another way where your child can add his own research and not use the inside pages. Blank pages are provided for your student’s research.
  • You can use any reference materials, books, or online resources to complete the lapbook.
  • I don’t provide links in the lapbooks for filling out the information. This keeps my prices low for my products, but I do try to provide free links on my site as I can.
  • Because I have been a working homeschool mom for more of my journey than not, I need flexibility for using lapbooks. Proving a few facts from the main resource I use is one way I have of saving you time and giving you flexibility in how to use the minibooks.
  • Too, some of your kids may be older and you want them to do more research and some of your kids may be reluctant writers so you may want to mix and match pre-filled minibooks with blank minibooks. Flexibility is the key to my lapbooks.

MY GUARANTEE: To treat you like I want to be treated which means I know at times technical problems may cause glitches, so I will do everything possible to make your experience here pleasant. I value your business and value you as a follower. I stand behind my products because they are actual products I use and benefit from too. Though I cannot refund purchases after you have been given access to them, I will do what I can to be sure you are a pleased customer. Read carefully what you get on your digital download. If you have questions, email me FIRST at tina homeschools AT gmail DOT com.

  • Dynamic Famous and Historic Trees Lapbook for Multiple Ages

    $2.75
    Add to cart
Famous and Historic Trees Fun Nature and History Homeschool Unit Study

More Tree Facts

Also, you’ll love these resources for studying about each of these varieties of trees.

  • Where do trees get their mass from YouTube
  • Parts of tree
  • Benefits of trees
  • Download tree diversity sheets with some fun fact cards
  • 680 Tree Fact Sheets

You’ll love these other studies:

  • History of the Texas Cowboy, Cattle Drives, and Chisholm Trail
  • 20 Nature-Inspired Kids’ Novels to Nurture Interest In the Outdoors
  • Above & Below: Pond Unit Study, Hands-on Ideas, & Lapbook.
  • Super Seashore Watching Unit Study and Beach Lapbook.
  • Foraging and Feasting Nature Unit Study and Lapbook.
  • Wildflowers Unit Study & Lapbook.
  • From Egg to Sea Turtle Nature Unit Study & Lapbook.
  • Colorful Winter Bird: Northern Cardinal Lapbook & Unit Study.
  • Free Arctic Ground Squirrel Lapbook & Unit Study Resources

Hugs and love ya

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Geography, Geography Based, History Based, Lapbook, Lapbooks, My Unit Studies {Free Printables & Hands-on Ideas}, Nature Based Activities Tagged With: geography, hands-on activities, handsonhomeschooling, history, history resources, homeschool geography, homeschoolgeography, homeschoolscience, lapbook, lapbookresources, life science, nature, nature study, science, sciencecurriculum, trees

How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

September 18, 2020 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Bird Feeder With Kids Activity

How to make an easy jumbo stick bird feeder with kids is a fun project to do with the kids for a bird unit study or just because.

This diy bird feeder covers fine motor skills, problem solving, art, science, following directions, and more.

Making a bird feeder with kids is a great rainy day activity that gets kids asking questions and investigating with little prompting.

Too, creating a craft can just take a few minutes.

How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Craft sticks are a homeschool staple for a reason!

They can be used in so many ways and in this case they are the perfect material for a simple bird feeder that your kids can create with a little help from you. 

Here is the quick and simple list for this easy bird feeder:

  • Jumbo Craft Sticks 
  • Wood Glue/Craft Glue
  • Strong Twine
  • Bird Seed

Easy directions for making a fun nature craft bird feeder:

We used wide craft sticks as a base and the sides of our simple bird feeder but you can use standard sized if you like.

First, create a base platform by lining your sticks up, 7 jumbo craft sticks is the perfect width for laying the sticks lengthwise.

How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Our Journey Westward

Next, glue a stick across each end of your base.

How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Avoid using hot glue as the heat outside tends to soften the glue and your birdhouse will fall apart. Instead use a wood glue or tacky craft glue like E6000.

Use colored sticks or outdoor stain if you wish first on your craft sticks if you like.

Then, alternate two sticks in one direction and then two in the other until you have built it up as high as you like.

How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Allow glue to dry overnight to be sure its secure.

Then, slide 4 long pieces of twine between the top most sticks on each of the 4 sides, tie it off.

How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Finally, pull the 4 string straight up and tie the end into a knot about 12”-15” up, trim off excess.

Our Journey Westward
How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Fill with seed and place in a shady tree.

How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Also, to make your bird feeder last longer than just one season give it two coats of spray sealer before filling and allow it to dry thoroughly to make it water safe.

Bird Vocabulary for Nature Unit Study

Additionally, I’ve added some words for vocabulary, spelling, placing in alphabetical order, and handwriting practice.

  • Extinct
  • Endangered
  • Aviary
  • Talon
  • Beak
  • Flock
  • Flight
  • Wingspan
  • Migrate
  • Flitter
  • Raptor
  • Ornithology
How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

More Bird Activities For Unit Studies

Keep on expanding upon this activity by turning it into a full study with books, games, and some fun activities, I have lots of ideas for you below!

  • Make a Bird Color Bar Graph to keep track of what types of birds visit each day.
  • List 5 birds of prey, 5 song birds, 5 Water Fowl, and 5 birds that cannot fly.
  • Put together this free Bird Journal and and expand this activity into a full unit study.
  • Put together a Bird Nesting Bag to provide birds with some extra supplies for nest building.
  • List 3 birds that are now extinct and 3 that are endangered.
  • Make a sensory bin for younger children with bird seed as the base, add in nest building materials like sticks, and small plastic birds for some educational play.
  • Try making your own birds nest with found items in the yard like sticks, bits of string, grass, moss, and, vines.
  • Find out what your state bird is and draw a picture or paint a picture of it.
  • Research what 5 traits make a bird like feathers, wings, beaks or bills, laying eggs, and an adapted skeleton.
  • Use craft feathers as manipulatives for counting or to create a craft.
  • Use a roll of art paper and a yard stick to measure the wingspan of an eagle. Seeing it drawn really gives a better idea of size.

As well as spelling words, I’ve gathered up some bird writing prompts below.

Writing Prompts for Bird Unit Study

  • If you could be any kind of bird what would you be and why?
  • One day as I was flying high above I saw…
  • What do you think the birds are singing about? Put it into words.
  • You wake up and a giant eagle is waiting outside your window, you climb on his back, tell about your adventures.
  • What do you think birds do for fun?
  • What is your favorite bird and why?
How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Bird Games and Bird Books

Also, look at some of these fun games and books to add to your unit study about birds.

You’ll love these other resources for learning about birds:

  • Hands-On Nature Study: Bird Color Bar Graphing Activity
  • Hands-On Nature Study: Make a Fun Bird Nesting Bag
  • Colorful Winter Bird: Northern Cardinal Lapbook & Unit Study
  • Easy and Fun Nature Study: Beautiful Birds
  • Winter Nature Craft: How to Make Easy DIY Bird Feeders
  • Free Bird Journal – Hands-on Nature (Coloring & Identification Pages)
  • How Animals Cope With the Cold (Easy Nature Study)

Hugs and love ya,

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Hands-On Activities, Nature Based Activities Tagged With: birdjournal, hands-on, hands-on activities, handsonhomeschooling, homeschoolscience, life science, nature, nature journaling, nature study, science

Beware of Ocean Pollution: Fun Science Activity for Kids

September 9, 2020 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Have you ever wondered about the effects of ocean pollution and other waterways?

Beware of Ocean Pollution

It’s important that we bring it to our children’s attention now so they can make responsible choices and be part of the clean up solution!

The best way to do this of course is through a fun hands-on activity that lets them see first hand how easily water is polluted, how difficult it is to clean it up and to make it like it was before.

Beware of Ocean Pollution: Fun Science Activity for Kids. It’s important that we bring it to our children's attention now so they can make responsible choices and be part of the clean up solution! The best way to do this of course is through a fun hands-on activity that lets them see first hand how easily water is polluted. You’ll love this easy hands-on science! CLICK HERE to go there! #oceanpollution #handsonscienceforkids #homeschoolscience #oceanpollutionactivity

This project can be done with things around the house; you may just need to grab a couple items from Dollar Tree or somewhere else.

First, gather all your materials before you bring in the kids. Kids lose interest quickly if they spend a long time waiting at the table for you to find everything.

Beware of Ocean Pollution: Fun Science Activity for Kids. It’s important that we bring it to our children's attention now so they can make responsible choices and be part of the clean up solution! The best way to do this of course is through a fun hands-on activity that lets them see first hand how easily water is polluted. You’ll love this easy hands-on science! CLICK HERE to go there! #oceanpollution #handsonscienceforkids #homeschoolscience #oceanpollutionactivity

Better yet if you have an older kid who knows everything right now (wink) get him or her to do the gathering of supplies.

Next, here is the list of supplies for the hands-on ocean pollution science activity.

  • A large shallow container
  • Blue food coloring (optional)
  • sea shells
  • clean sand (optional)
  • water
  • plastic sea creatures
  • feathers

Teaching Kids About Ocean Pollution

Then, here is the list for the pollution items and the list for cleaning items.

  • cooking oil
  • food crumbs
  • pieces of plastic bag
  • dish soap
  • toothbrush
  • sponge
  • cotton balls
  • paper towels
  • coffee filters
  • cotton swabs
  • tongs
  • small nets
  • coffee grounds
  • straws
  • soil

Water Pollution Exploration

Start by adding items to your container that belong, explaining to your child that these are the items that naturally occur in an ocean and are part of its ecosystem.

Fill your container with several inches of water.

Beware of Ocean Pollution: Fun Science Activity for Kids. It’s important that we bring it to our children's attention now so they can make responsible choices and be part of the clean up solution! The best way to do this of course is through a fun hands-on activity that lets them see first hand how easily water is polluted. You’ll love this easy hands-on science! CLICK HERE to go there! #oceanpollution #handsonscienceforkids #homeschoolscience #oceanpollutionactivity

If you like add a few drops of blue food coloring to your water and mix in.

Beware of Ocean Pollution: Fun Science Activity for Kids. It’s important that we bring it to our children's attention now so they can make responsible choices and be part of the clean up solution! The best way to do this of course is through a fun hands-on activity that lets them see first hand how easily water is polluted. You’ll love this easy hands-on science! CLICK HERE to go there! #oceanpollution #handsonscienceforkids #homeschoolscience #oceanpollutionactivity

Place sea creatures, seashells, and sand if you are using them.

Beware of Ocean Pollution: Fun Science Activity for Kids. It’s important that we bring it to our children's attention now so they can make responsible choices and be part of the clean up solution! The best way to do this of course is through a fun hands-on activity that lets them see first hand how easily water is polluted. You’ll love this easy hands-on science! CLICK HERE to go there! #oceanpollution #handsonscienceforkids #homeschoolscience #oceanpollutionactivity

Next, talk about what happens when we visit the beach or travel on the water.

Beware of Ocean Pollution: Fun Science Activity for Kids. It’s important that we bring it to our children's attention now so they can make responsible choices and be part of the clean up solution! The best way to do this of course is through a fun hands-on activity that lets them see first hand how easily water is polluted. You’ll love this easy hands-on science! CLICK HERE to go there! #oceanpollution #handsonscienceforkids #homeschoolscience #oceanpollutionactivity

As you talk about oil the spills from ships, trash that is tossed aside instead of being safely placed in trash containers let your child add each of the pollution items you have provided.

Stir it all up together. What has happened?

  • The once nearly clear and pristine water is now discolored.
  • Creatures are covered in oil and dirt.
  • The water no longer looks appealing at all to play in does it?
  • Turtles, dolphins, sharks, and other animals get plastic wrap around them.
  • Sea animals choke on items that don’t belong in the ocean and die or are suffering from the effects.

What can we do to clean up the ocean? 

Ocean Pollution Clean Up Activity

You can pick up bigger items if they are floating on top with a net or tongs, but what about items that sink to the bottom of our deep oceans?

Beware of Ocean Pollution: Fun Science Activity for Kids. It’s important that we bring it to our children's attention now so they can make responsible choices and be part of the clean up solution! The best way to do this of course is through a fun hands-on activity that lets them see first hand how easily water is polluted. You’ll love this easy hands-on science! CLICK HERE to go there! #oceanpollution #handsonscienceforkids #homeschoolscience #oceanpollutionactivity

Demonstrate how to use cotton balls to absorb some of the oil on the surface of the water.

Toss in a few feathers to demonstrate what happens to water birds when they pick up oil and other undesirable things from polluted water.

Beware of Ocean Pollution: Fun Science Activity for Kids. It’s important that we bring it to our children's attention now so they can make responsible choices and be part of the clean up solution! The best way to do this of course is through a fun hands-on activity that lets them see first hand how easily water is polluted. You’ll love this easy hands-on science! CLICK HERE to go there! #oceanpollution #handsonscienceforkids #homeschoolscience #oceanpollutionactivity

Use Dawn dish soap, a toothbrush, and other items to try and remove the oil and debris from the feathers.

Beware of Ocean Pollution: Fun Science Activity for Kids. It’s important that we bring it to our children's attention now so they can make responsible choices and be part of the clean up solution! The best way to do this of course is through a fun hands-on activity that lets them see first hand how easily water is polluted. You’ll love this easy hands-on science! CLICK HERE to go there! #oceanpollution #handsonscienceforkids #homeschoolscience #oceanpollutionactivity

Dawn has a program for cleaning up animals that have been injured due to oil spills. You can read a bit more about it here at Dawn Helping Saving Wildlife for Over 40 Years.

Be Ocean Explorers

Examine clean ocean water, polluted ocean water, and “cleaned” up water.

Grab 3 clear glasses and place water and food coloring in one.

Beware of Ocean Pollution: Fun Science Activity for Kids. It’s important that we bring it to our children's attention now so they can make responsible choices and be part of the clean up solution! The best way to do this of course is through a fun hands-on activity that lets them see first hand how easily water is polluted. You’ll love this easy hands-on science! CLICK HERE to go there! #oceanpollution #handsonscienceforkids #homeschoolscience #oceanpollutionactivity

Take some of your polluted water and place in the second.

Finally, after you have cleaned up your water some, put a coffee filter over the third glass and run your cleaned up polluted water over the coffee filter.

Beware of Ocean Pollution: Fun Science Activity for Kids. It’s important that we bring it to our children's attention now so they can make responsible choices and be part of the clean up solution! The best way to do this of course is through a fun hands-on activity that lets them see first hand how easily water is polluted. You’ll love this easy hands-on science! CLICK HERE to go there! #oceanpollution #handsonscienceforkids #homeschoolscience #oceanpollutionactivity

Compare the difference in water color and quality.

Even the water that has been cleaned up is still not left unchanged, it is cloudy, dark, and still contains trace amounts of debris.

This makes a big impact on my kids as it allowed them to understand how big an impact peoples actions can have on our water sources.

Beware of Ocean Pollution: Fun Science Activity for Kids. It’s important that we bring it to our children's attention now so they can make responsible choices and be part of the clean up solution! The best way to do this of course is through a fun hands-on activity that lets them see first hand how easily water is polluted. You’ll love this easy hands-on science! CLICK HERE to go there! #oceanpollution #handsonscienceforkids #homeschoolscience #oceanpollutionactivity

Look at some pollution vocabulary and spelling words to use for an ocean or water unit study.

  • Pathogens
  • Waste water
  • Pollution
  • Biodegradable
  • Hazardous
  • Pollutant
  • Habitat
  • Conservation
  • Ecosystem

If you are looking for read aloud or independent reading books for your child that go along with the theme you need not look any further than your bookcase or library and grab something anything that has an ocean theme like Island of the Blue Dolphins, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, Treasure Island, or Swiss Family Robinson! 

Continue with your study using some great books to look through or use as living text books.

Earth Science Activity for Kids

This hands-on activity can easily lead into learning about all the fascinating creatures who live in the sea.

Lastly, teaching kids to learn how to care for our earth by not polluting the oceans empowers kids to be part of the solution and no the problem.

You’ll love these other resources to keep expanding how to care for the ocean and enjoy the beauty it provides:

Beware of Ocean Pollution: Fun Science Activity for Kids. It’s important that we bring it to our children's attention now so they can make responsible choices and be part of the clean up solution! The best way to do this of course is through a fun hands-on activity that lets them see first hand how easily water is polluted. You’ll love this easy hands-on science! CLICK HERE to go there! #oceanpollution #handsonscienceforkids #homeschoolscience #oceanpollutionactivity
  • Oceans Unit Study and Lapbook
  • Ocean Unit Study – Ocean Layers
  • Ocean Unit Study Language Arts: Message in a Bottle
  • Humboldt Who? Hands On to Understand Ocean Currents & Their Effect On The Galapagos Islands
  • Super Seashore Watching Unit Study and Beach Lapbook
  • Edible Geography – Sea Levels
  • How to Dissolve a Seashell – Beach Hands-on Fun Activity
  • From Egg to Sea Turtle Nature Unit Study & Lapbook
  • Winter Homeschooling – Look to the Sea. 17 Hands-on Activities for Two to Teens.

Hugs and love ya,

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Hands-On Activities, My Unit Studies {Free Printables & Hands-on Ideas}, Nature Based Activities, Science, Science Based Tagged With: earthscience, hands-on, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, homeschoolscience, life science, nature, ocean, science, sciencecurriculum

How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

August 15, 2020 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

A fun kids diy flower press can turn a simple wildflower (or garden flower) unit study into a fun and memorable unit by adding in some simple hands-on activities.

Just a few dollars and a little time are all you need to create an easy perfectly portable flower press that you and your child can use again and again.

How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

Turn everything from black-eyed susans to hydrangeas into a dried keepsake.

Furthermore, make dried pressed flowers for crafts, homemade potpourri, or to put into a scrapbook.

Kids DIY Flower Press

Also, this flower press is great for on the go and can be toted around in your backpack to bring your floral treasures home.

Because it’s such a frugal project, everyone can have their own.

We spent $2.00 on wood at Dollar Tree; we had paint and twine already on hand making it a frugal and fun activity with a purpose.

You will need :

  • 2 thin unfinished wood pieces
  • twine
  • hot glue gun/sticks
  • card stock
  • paint 
  • foam brush
How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

Directions: 

I found these two unfinished wood pieces at Dollar Tree (my favorite place to find  inexpensive supplies for homeschool projects) in the craft section.

If you don’t find them there you can get any two precut wood pieces from the craft store. Just be sure they are ¼” thick or less.

Paint one side of each of the wooden pieces and allow to dry completely.

How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

Trace around your shape onto cardstock to create layers for your flower press.

How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

You don’t need more than two layers, but you can cut extra as you will want to replace them after every few uses due to the moisture it will collect.

Steps for DIY Kids Flower Press

First, cut 2 pieces of twine into two foot lengths.

Then, hot glue one of the pieces of twine to the corner of the painted side of the wood. Secure it well.

On the other piece of wood glue the second length of twine to the opposite corner of the first.

If you prefer to give it a more finished look you can cover it up by glueing on silk flower or greenery like we did here. 

How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

To use your flower press lay flowers between sheets of cardstock on the bottom wooden piece, lay the other on top and wrap twine as tightly as you can around the sides, tying it off into a bow.

Allow your flowers to sit in the press for 2 or 3 days until flat and fully dry.

How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

Hands-on Ideas for Kids DIY Flower Press

Try some of these additional hands on activities to expand on your flower explorations!

  • Head outside and gather up flowers from locals fields or your own backyard and try them out on your new flower press. Once you have them home search through field guides  or use an app try to identify each.
  • Find out your state flower and try to locate one.
  • Use a real flower to label each of the parts.
  • Plant your own wildflowers after making these Wildflower Seed Bombs.
  • Take apart a flower and identify the parts- petal, pistel, stem, stigma, filament, etc…
  • Use watercolor paint to recreate your flower finds on paper.
  • Dig deep into this Wildflower Unit Study & Lapbook.
  • Try to identify at least 10 different types of flowers.
  • Create a flower sensory bin for young children with fresh flowers, leaves, and stems.
  • Young children can also count the petals on the flowers. 
  • Use different types of flowers on long stems as natural paint brushes.
  • Plant a flower garden or even a small container of flowers together.
How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

In addition, here are some great resources to help you identify your flower finds in the field or at home.

Trees, Leaves, Flowers, and Seeds

Audubon Field Guide to Flowers

Pocket Guide to Wildflowers

Fandex Wildflowers

Whether you have a budding botanist or love being outdoors, you’ll love making this fun DIY flower press.

How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

If you’re wanting to add a few more activities to this activity, I know you’ll love these ideas below.

  • Wildflowers Unit Study & Lapbook
  • How to Easily Make Fun Seed Tape With Kids
  • Fun Kids Activity How to Make Wildflower Seed Bombs
  • How to Make a Fun Kids Root Viewer
  • Hands-On Mixed Media Flower Art Fun Nature Study
  • Easy Seed and Gardening Unit Study for Kids (Middle – Upper Elementary)
  • Foraging and Feasting Nature Unit Study and Lapbook
  • Hands-on Ancient Babylon: Hanging Gardens Fun Activity
  • How to Easily Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO
  • Fascinating and Fun Honey Bees Unit Study and Lapbook for Kids
  • Labeling Parts of a Honey Bee LEGO Fun Activity For Kids

Hugs and love ya,

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Hands-On Activities, Nature Based Activities, Science, Science Based Tagged With: hands-on, hands-on activities, handsonhomeschooling, homeschoolscience, life science, nature, nature study, science, wildflowers

Labeling Parts of a Honey Bee LEGO Fun Activity For Kids

June 30, 2020 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Your kids will love labeling the parts of a honey bee lego activity.

Bees are fascinating little creatures from how they create their honeycombs to maximize space, to how they know to fan the hive to keep it cool.

Bees are used in so many ways than just the delicious honey they produce.

We use beeswax in cosmetics, candles, as a coating, and bee venom is used as a holistic treatment.

Labeling the Parts of a Honey Bee

Because they are so very important to our world as pollinators I think it is important to educate our children about them from the beginning.

If you’ve been homeschooling awhile you know that hands-on activities really drive home information in a fun way that really makes it stick, often better than any worksheet could.

Since most kids love LEGO, I thought that an activity using them would be a hit with the kids and turn an ordinary and possibly boring homeschool lesson into something unique and fun.

Turns out I was right- The kids loved doing this project and I hope you and yours will too!

Grab a big bucket of LEGOS and a handful of bee books and let’s get started.

You will need:

A LEGO baseplate.

LEGO Classic Green Baseplate 2304 Supplement for Building, Playing, and Displaying LEGO Creations, 10cm x 10cm, Large Building Base Accessory for Kids and Adults (1 Piece)

Assorted LEGO bricks

LEGO Classic Medium Creative Brick Box 10696 Building Toys for Creative Play; Kids Creative Kit (484 Pieces)
  • Cardstock paper
  • A book or printout of parts of a bee
  • Pen or marker

Hands-on Activity for Honey Bee

Directions for honey bee LEGO:

You can make this as simple or as involved a LEGO build as you like depending on the age and ability of the child.

Using the larger Duplo blocks to create a simple bee and let your child point out the various parts of a bee as you call them out is another idea.

Provide your child with a book or printout on the parts of a bee to use as a model and a variety of LEGO to build their bee model. 

Give them a large variety of LEGO bricks to build with, I love this starter box for kids just beginning a LEGO collection.

I keep a box for each kid separate from all the other LEGO in the house just for school projects like this.

LEGO Classic Medium Creative Brick Box 10696 Building Toys for Creative Play; Kids Creative Kit (484 Pieces)

Have them start with creating a head, thorax, and abdomen using yellow and black bricks.

Add wings using white bricks.

For older children you can differentiate forewing and hindwing if you like.

Use long single row black bricks to create 3 sets of legs.

Finally add eyes and antennae.

Cut small strips of cardstock and add the names of whichever bee parts you would like your child to identify.

Give them the strips and let them locate each part on their LEGO bee, with so much interaction while building and then labeling they are sure to retain much of the information they get from this build.

Here are some additional bee activities to try 

  • Create a honey bee lapbook.
  • Create the life cycle of a bee using LEGO again.
  • Pick up some local honey and try it right out of the jar as well as in a recipe or two.
  • Make a honeycomb by cutting down toilet paper tubes and bending each ring into a hexagon, glue each together to create any size you like.
  • Paint a watercolor bee or beehive.
  • Thumb through one of the books listed below and learn some more bee information-make flashcards.
  • Plant flowers in your yard to help support the bees, very important pollinators.
  • Make a mason bee house to put up outdoors.
  • Preschoolers can work on fine motor skills by transferring “pollen” (yellow pom poms) from one flower (colorful bowl) to another with tongs.
  • Research all the products we get from bees.
  • Give your child a bee themed writing prompt for handwriting, creative writing, and grammar practice such as “ What if there were no bees?” or “ The day I turned into a bee…”.
  • Dynamic Honey Bee Lapbook for Multiple Ages

    $2.50
    Add to cart

Hands-on Science: Labeling the Parts of a Bee

Books for Bee Unit Studies

Nature Anatomy, Julia Rothman

Bees: A Honeyed History

The Honeybee

The Magic School Bus Inside a Beehive

The Bee Book

What if There Were No Bees?

You’ll love these other hands-on science activities.

  • Fascinating and Fun Honey Bees Unit Study and Lapbook for Kids
  • 41 Easy Hands-on Faith-Neutral Science Activities for Kids
  • Hands-On Science: Handprint and Fingerprint Activity
  • Easy Hands-on Science: Animal Camouflage Activity Hunt
  • Easy Hands-On Science: Label the Atom Playdough Activity
  • EASY Hands-on Earth Science: Fun Water Testing Kit
  • Hands-On Science: Label the Skeleton System Activity

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Hands-On Activities, My Unit Studies {Free Printables & Hands-on Ideas}, Nature Based Activities, Science, Science Based Tagged With: bees, hands-on, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, homeschoolscience, life science, science

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