Edu Mini-Plan: Habitats

While getting my hair done the other day my hairdresser made an interesting suggestion, "Why don't you share all these thing with other mommies?" (The "school" activities I do with my girls). I mean, it really got me thinking. Teaching is something I thoroughly enjoy & it is why I pursued my degree in the education field, but to actual go out there & teach other kids is really not my passion right now. Given the opportunity to enrich my own kids lives & not have to actually go out & work has been a true blessing. BUT why can't I still possibly help other kids without actually going out there & being a their teacher? There are tons of GREAT stay-at-home-mommies that would love to teach their kiddos nothing short of everything, but maybe have not been given the tools to develop lesson plans or boredom buster daily activities to keep them busy. I know that I already share a lot with my readers & do mention "Fun 4 Lil' Ones" activites from time to time, but I think I am going to add in mini lesson plans in a simple format that SAHMs or dads can follow if they would like. So, without further delay, here is my first Edu Mini-Plan:
On Wednesday, I am going to begin habitats with the girls. My lil' ones are toddlers so I will just be touching the surface on this topic. I am going start off with taking the girls on a walk around our neighborhood & having them point out all the animals & even bugs that they see or even hear. When we get home I will take the list of everything they found & in the lil' journals I created have them draw pictures of what they saw. You might have to write in captions what the scribble actually is if your child is younger. After they are finished drawing, I am going to touch on each thing and have them think about where they might live. For example, a spider lives in a web & birds live in trees. I will then explain the that where they live is called their "habitat". Before you think this is way to advanced for a toddler I would like to point out there is a whole episode dedicated to this word on Sesame Street & also what will it hurt to challenge them a lil' bit with vocabulary that is a lil' more difficult? They can do it! If your child owns their own pet, you can also use that as an opening for this new topic. Where does Fido live? What does he eat? Etc.Literature is a very great sidekick to help you enforce new learning. I have a few books already on animals & their different environments that I am going to read to the girls, but I think a trip to the library could also be fun!
Another activity I will be doing throughout the week is trying to plan meals or at least snacks that make them really think about what creature might enjoy the same food they are eating. For example, carrots & other vegetables can be connected to rabbits. Maybe they can figure out that the milk they are drinking comes from a cow & them ask them where that cow's habitat is. Get creative, there are no rules here.
An activity I am really excited about is that I am going to take a poster board & create 4 different habitats. In one corner I am going to color it white & actually put some ice from the fridge there to create a cold place for an animal to live. In another area I am going to create a forest using various twigs, grass & leaves that I can find from outside & glue those down. I will also be creating a desert environment & an ocean environment. I am going to get together a lot of their tiny animals figurines (Animal Planet makes some great ones or you can even use the animals from Little People sets you can find at Toys R' Us) ad have them take them 1 by 1 & decide which habitat each animal would be the most happy. If you don't have animal figures, print some off the Internet & just cut them out.
A closing activity to help solidify what they have learned is I am going to assign each kid an animal & read them a book about their animal. I want them to get from that what their animal eats, where they live, & then 1 other fact. I am then going to take them to the zoo to observe all the animals, but their overall all mission is going to be to find the animal they were asigned.
There are a lot of online games, videos, books available at the library, & worksheets you can make-up yourself or print out ranging from all ages pretty much. I have listed some resource sites you might want to check out below. You can make this topic as deep or as simple as you need to depending on your children's ages. Incorporate science experiements, art projects (have them make masks, create a replica of their own habitat, etc), or recipes where ever needed. The possibilities are endless! School doesn't have to be boring for your kids or you!Resource Websites:
Match-up worksheet & answer sheet from Learning Treasures
http://www.learningtreasures.com/science/animals/animal_match.pdfhttp://www.learningtreasures.com/science/animals/animal_match_answer.pdfAnimals & habitats worskeet
http://www.learningtreasures.com/science/animals/animal_habitat.pdf

The Great Habitat Match-up Gamehttp://www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus/games/habitat/index.htmAnimal notebookhttp://www.learningtreasures.com/make_an_animal_notebook.htmIdeas Galorehttp://www.ehow.com/list_6372122_preschool-art-ideas-habitats.htmlhttp://blogs.scholastic.com/prek_k/2009/04/learning-about-habitats-rainforest.htmlhttp://www.brainpopjr.com/science/habitats/

I swear, they did
it to themselves.
They thought they
were just hilarious!

Pretending to sleep
with Dada
in 1 of the playrooms. Lol!