Once upon a time, we wandered around with nature notebooks trying to capture nature study. Eventually, we gave up because we lacked focus. Our story changed when we started NaturExplorers this year. Each unit we've used has had a happy ending.
We finished out our fall nature studies with Spectacular Spiders.
Jason was able to join us again for this one. Great family fun.
Our first victim. Just kidding. We only observed.
Some got closer than others.
We were able to watch this one weave. Stunning, beautiful, wondrous.
Looking up something in the spider guide.
Learning about venom!
Another day of spider hunting.
We found lots of egg sacs in our haunted garage.
We added a few things to this study. I made some kindergarten kit printables for Simon (see yesterday's post to download these freebies).
Elijah tried Spider Symmetry.
Elijah also learned about synonyms and rewrote "Itsy-Bitsy Spider." We both thought the entire process was hysterical, and I want to thank Farley over at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for this fun idea. I underlined the words I wanted him to change. I showed him how to use a thesaurus. He chose new words and wrote his version on the stationary page.
The minute arachnid scaled the rain gutter.
Down came the rainfall and pushed the arachnid out.
Out came the brightest star and fried up all the drizzle,
and the minute arachnid scaled the gutter again.
The study comes with plenty of great notebooking pages for older kids. You can grab my additions by clicking on the picture below.
We will be taking a break from nature studies until January; I'm sure my boys will be ready to get back outside then!
Would you like to try NaturExplorers? The Homeschool Share blog is having a grand giveaway right now! Go enter to win!
This is a very neat lesson! My kids and I think spiders are very interesting as long as they are not crawling on us. Be careful because the web in your garage looks like a black widow web. We had several in our yard this summer. I think my daughter will enjoy this lesson. Thanks for sharing!