Deserts, Grasslands and Rainforests

*You can add in the Arctic Tundra to this week along with the other habitats, but we are saving it to do with our study of ice and glaciers.

Read

1. Usborne's First Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of Our World - pgs. 42-47
2. Warhol's - Grassland; Forest; Desert
3. Other books coming soon.........

Experiments/Projects/Crafts

1. Rainforest & Desert Diorama & African Savanna Diorama from "Instant Habitat Dioramas"

Interactives

1. Rainforest at Night
2. Serengeti 
3. Amazon Jungle Journey

Videos

1. Planet Earth - Deserts; Great Plains; Jungles; Seasonal Forests
2. Bill Nye - Deserts; Forests
3. Temperate Rainforest
4. Cactus (Desert)
5. Brain Pop - Savanna
6. Brain Pop - Ecosystems (Deserts)
7. Grasslands

Games

1. Magic School Bus Habitat Game
2. Habitat Game
3. Deserts and Rainforests activities

Rivers, Floods and Oceans

*We already covered oceans a few months ago, you can find an index of resources here.

Read

1. Usborne's First Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of Our World - pgs. 26-29; 32-37
2. Rivers; Nature's Wondrous Waterways - Harrison
3. Floods - Koponen
4. Floods - Trumbauer

Experiments/Projects/Crafts

1. From "More Mudpies to Magnets" - p.81 Water Flow, p.82 Sand Shake, p.90 High Tide Wipe Out, p.94 Muddy Muddy River and p.95 Cleaning Muddy Water
2. What Lives in a Pond? and Life in the Sea from "Science Mini-Books & Manipulatives"
3. Pond & Ocean Dioramas from "Instant Habitat Dioramas"
4. Flood PDF booklet
5. Deep Sea Craft and Other Activities
6. Wacky Water experiment

Interactives

1. Animations
2. Flood Animations

Videos

1. Planet Earth - Fresh Water; Shallow Seas; Ocean Deep
2. Bill Nye Lakes & Ponds; Rivers & Streams; Ocean Life; Wetlands
3. Floods - Schlessinger Science Library 
4. Rivers
5. Wetlands 
6. Brain Pop - Underwater

Games

1. Sea Game
2. Lakes, Rivers, Oceans games

Trip to a Pond

We are learning about ponds this week along with rivers, floods, etc.  We decided to take a trip to a pond nearby and the birds were ready for us.  We got to feed them some bread and look at them and K loved it.  The only downside was all the bird doo everywhere and we still had some on our boots.  Luckily, my daughter suggested to splash in a puddle on our street at home and the doo came right off our boots!

 

SOTW 2: Chapter 14 - Viking Boat

 

*New 2nd Grade Daily Schedule

We are trying out something new with our schedule and its really a trial to see how it goes.  At the end of the school day when it's time for history or science, we are exhausted.  The thought occurred to me yesterday about doing a history/science day and only doing those subjects on that day.  Since we school 4 days a week right now, I'm going to use the free day for history and science.  This will actually free up time on the other 4 days (1 hour each day!) of schooling.  So shorter days 4 days of week sounds great to me.

We are also adding in Geography/Map Skills because I've found some great lapbooks and material that covers things K hasn't learned yet and not sure when she will learn.  Things like longitude/latitude, directions, etc.

Here is our new schedule:

Mon-Fri
Bible
Reading - 30m morning; 60m evening

Mon, Wed and Friday
Spelling - 40m
Grammar - 10m
Writing - 10m
Cursive - 10m
Math - 40m
Geography/Map Skills - 20m

Tuesday 
History - 90m
Science - 90m

Weekend
Art - 1 hour
Home Economics - 1 hour

Daily (Sun-Sat)
Piano practice -10m
Violin practice - 10m

Husband Helps
Bible
Reads classics
Music

Under the Ground, Caves and Caverns and Mountains

Read

1. Usborne's First Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of Our World - pgs.38-41;30-31
2. Early Bird Earth Science: Caves - Walker
3. Caves: Mysteries Beneath Our Feet - Harrison
4. How Mountains Are Made - Zoehfeld
5. About Habitats: Mountains - Sill

Experiments/Projects/Crafts

1. Make Stalactites & Stalagmites
2. Cave & Mountain Dioramas
3. Make a Cave Model

Interactives

1. Soil Safari Underground Interactive - click "get in"
2. Virtual Caves
3. How Caves Form
4. USGS Cave Poster
5. Unleash an Avalanche

Videos

1. Planet Earth - Caves & Mountains
2. Bill Nye - Caves
3. Brain Pop - Mountains
4. Brain Pop - Mountain Types
5. Caves by Marie & Michelle
6. All About Land Formation & All About Soil - Schlessinger Science Library

Kindle Fire Homeschool Apps

If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment!  Here are the apps we have so far that are homeschool-related:

Free
50 States
Awesome Arithmetic Free
GeoQuiz
Developer Whiteboard Demo
KJV Bible
Kid Math Game
Learning to Draw is Fun
Let's Do the Math
Periodic Table
Speed Anatomy
US Presidents
Rhythm Cat
Music Sheet Workout
Flash Cards Max
The Candy Factory HD
How much do you know about History?
Peter Pig's Money Counter
This Day In History
PowerVocab
Telling Time
Picasso - Draw! Paint! Doodle!
MathOpen - Kids Math workout 

Buy
Touch Bible (KJV Bible + Strong's) - well worth the 99 cents as a study bible