Pawpaw Holler Home

Writing

August Writing Prompts –freebie of the month from Fortunately For You Books.

Learning The Alphabet

Preschool Printable Alphabet Worksheets –weekly freebie from CurrClick.

Science Curriculum

Otter’s Science -“A homeschool science curriculum where you can combine a multitude of ages, use "living books" and do lots of hands on activities!”  3 versions -for different grade levels.

Related posts:

• Homeschool/Educational Freebies: Art Lessons
• This Week’s Freebies From Homeschool Freebie Of The Day
• Homeschool/Education Freebies And Citizen Science Opportunity For Learning About Fireflies (Lightning Bugs)
• Studying Nature with Children
• Homeschool/Education Freebies: Science Experiments, The Vikings, Patrick Henry and More
• Hands-on Science: Crystals
• Hands-on Science In Your Mouth!
• Fun Science: Bubbles

Blessings,

Denese

Sites About Fireflies

The Firefly Files –facts, resources and fun

What Makes A Firefly Glow?

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Synchronous Fireflies

Unit Studies On Fireflies

Fireflies Unit –free monthly unit from SchoolExpress (scroll down for link)

Fireflies: Twinkling Lights Of The Meadows –extensive online unit geared toward beginning readers, lots of hands-on activities. From Evelyn at Hands-On Learning.

Firefly Printables

Firefly or Lightning Bug Printout –science printable

Catching Fireflies Coloring Sheet

Citizen Science: Firefly Watch

Museum Of Science Firefly Watch –going on now. Sign up and share your observations of fireflies in your backyard to help scientists learn about the geographic distribution of fireflies and their activity during the summer season. Wonderful educational activity for the whole family.

Related posts:

• It’s Firefly Time In The Smoky Mountains

Blessings,

Denese

Free Astronomy Fair

The Fifth Annual Southern California Astronomy Exposition takes place this Saturday, July 18th, from 10am-7pm at Oceanside Photo & Telescope, 918 Mission Avenue, Oceanside, California.

Almost forty astronomy product manufacturers & organizations will be on hand demonstrating their newest products, holding mini-seminars and offering special pricing plus there are three giant giveaways this year.

Astronomy Giveaways

• The SCAE Onsite Giveaway for attendees of the July 18th event, aged 14 & up.
• The SCAE Kid’s Giveaway, for kids up to 14 who attend the event on July 18th in the company of a parent or guardian.

(Over 25 prizes worth $20,000 will be awarded, must be present to win.)

And…

The Online Giveaway For Everybody

The SCAE Online Giveaway, where everyone, even those not attending the expo, can sign up for a chance to win one of four prizes worth a combined total of $12,000. Prizes include:

• Apogee U8300 CCD Camera and filter wheel
• FLI Microline ML8300 Color Imaging System
• Stellarvue SV80ST Telescope with M1 Mount & Accessories
• Orion Skyquest XX12 Intelliscope Dobsonian

One entry per person, must be 18 years old. Winners will be chosen at the SCAE on July 18th, 2009.

I’d really like to have one of those telescopes, wouldn’t you?

Enter today!

Blessings,

Denese

Need a microscope?

Lab Essentials, Inc. has a monthly microscope giveaway!

This month’s giveaway is a “My First Lab Duo-Scope”, a combination compound & stereo microscope, valued at $110.

To enter the giveaway, send an email with your name, address, and phone number to: contest@LabEssentials.com. On the subject line, put "Contest Entry."

Only one entry per family.

The drawing for this month’s winner will be held on July 31, 2009.

Blessings,

Denese

This week’s free product at CurrClick is a live science class from Questio Verum Academy.

Water,Water Everywhere -Students will learn about water by watching videos, completing assignments, writing about experiments, completing online quizzes, and participating in discussions about “water” with their classmates.
This creation science based class is designed for elementary students, sign up by April 3rd.

Related Posts:

Homeschool/Education Freebies: Science Experiments, The Vikings, Patrick Henry and More

Denese

Some Things We Do To Study Nature

• Nature walks.
• Identify, identify, identify everything. We invested in field guides for our area on trees, birds, insects, wildflowers, butterflies, reptiles and amphibians so we can correctly identify everything.
• Take pictures.
• Drawings.
• Record the the dates of wildflowers as they come up and when they bloom.
• Press flowers, ferns, leaves, moss.
• Bark rubbings.
• Use our nose; my children can identify by smell alone: sassafras, sage, peppermint, rose, pine and many others.
• Keep an ongoing nature collection.

Free Nature Study Resources

Spring Nature Study -vintage lesson guide for primary age students with poems and short stories about Spring, studies on seed germination, soil, rocks, earthworms, flowers, birds, Easter lessons, outdoor activities and much more. Available today only, from Homeschool Freebie of the Day.

Handbook of Nature Study -the classic for teaching children, by Anna Botsford Comstock. Part of a Charlotte Mason education, free from Google Book Search.

Overview of Charlotte Mason Nature Study

Nature Study: Charlotte Mason Style -great Squidoo lens with tons of resources for studying nature, Charlotte mason style. Includes; nature study basics, info on nature walks and journals, activities, links to free lesson plans and printables and much more.

Nature Study by Season -let the weather dictate your nature studies with these monthly ideas and activities from roamschool.com.

Related Posts:

Homeschool/Education Freebies: Flowers and Wildflowers

Neat Links: Nature and Spring

Denese

Learning About Flowers and Wildflowers

Flower Children: The Little Cousins of Field and Garden -a lovely vintage picture book depicting many different varieties of flowers as small children, with accompanying rhymes.
Free e-book from Homeschool Freebie of the Day, today only.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Teacher Resources -free pdf downloads of activities and mini-lessons for use in the classroom or field to learn about wildflowers.

• Fun Facts
• Scavenger Hunt
• Collecting and Pressing Wildflowers
• The Pollination Game
• Butterfly Gardening
• Many more…

Most of these lessons and activities apply to field trips to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas; but many can be used in or adapted to classroom and home study.

Spring Flowers Wordsearch -for beginners, free printable from Kaboose.com.

Florida Wildflowers Coloring Book -free printable (scroll down to "Environment – Plant Industry"), from Florida Department of Agriculture.

Recommended Field Guides

Audubon Field Guide to North American Wildflowers

Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide

Fall Wildflowers of the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains

Related Posts:

Neat Links: Nature and Spring

Signs of Spring in the Holler

Happy learning,

Denese

Mouth Experiments -Eeew! Free e-book of experiments and fun facts about our sense of taste, from Homeschool Freebie of the Day. Available through the weekend.

The Milk Taste Test -Teach your preschooler that different kinds of milk tastes different with this easy and fun preschool science experiment, from Preschool Rock.

Lifesavers Experiment -Simple experiment to demonstrate relationship between taste and smell. An Exploratorium Science Snack.

Apple Pie without Apples -trick your senses, make a chemical apple pie.

Does a mint make your mouth cold? -kitchen science experiment.

Taste of Outer Space -a neat experiment that illustrates why it is harder to drink in outer space, from Easy Fun School.

Facts and News

Your Tongue -all about the tongue; talking, mixing food, swallowing, tasting, and germ fighting; from Kids Health.

Girls have superior sense of taste to boys -results of Danish study.

New Bacterial Species Found In Human Mouth -ScienceDaily, Aug. 11, 2008

Denese

Let’s blow some bubbles!

Bubble Activities and Lessons

Incredible Bubbles -mini-e-book of bubble experiments and activities from Homeschool Freebie of the Day, available today only.

Bubble Stationery -make homemade stationery and envelopes with soap bubbles.

Bubble Mill -make a homemade bubble mill; harness the power of the wind for maximum bubble blowing efficiency.

Bubbles in the Wind -science lesson for grades K-4.

Bubble, Bubble Oh How They Bubble! -learn scientific method, graphing using bubbles; science lesson for grades 4-6.

Bubbles: Science or Fun? -science lesson for middle grades.

The Life of a Soap Bubble -high school lesson plan.

Bubble Geometry -experiment with bubbles; make wands in different shapes.

Bubble Sites

The Bubblesphere -all about bubbles including several recipes, history, references, games and much more.

Soap Bubbles -the science of soap bubbles, from Exploratorium.

Bubble Town -more bubble fun; recipes, games, how to blow big bubbles and free poster.

The Art and Science of Bubbles -bubble art, telescope, “Bubblearium”, games, recipes and more.

Frozen Bubbles

I’m Forever Freezing Bubbles -activity for cold weather.

Make Frozen Bubbles -chemistry experiment with dry ice, adult supervision required.

Dry Ice Crystal Ball Bubble -make a giant bubble using dry ice, adult supervision required.

AntiBubbles

AntiBubbles -all about antibubbles.

Making Antibubbles -a simple science project.

Bubble Photography

Just Bubbles -beautiful bubble photography.

Bubble Frenzy -a beautiful picture, very creative.

Bubble Art Photography -Created by Fan Yang, check out the rest of the site for more bubble fun and science.

FreezeBubbles -beautiful photographs of frozen bubbles.

Bubbles Trapped in Ice -picture of air bubbles in ice, O’Dell Lake, Cascade Mountains, Oregon

Denese