الحشرات (Insects)

Lately we've been incorporating unit studies in our homeschool. Its been a lot of fun and it holds the boys interested. I let them pick a topic or base my unit study on a question one of the boys has asked. "O" has been into animals lately so that's what our main focus has been on.

So far we've done a unit study on skunks (weird I know but boys will be boys ), owls, and next will work on bees. All of the unit studies were in English so I decided to make whatever we study next in Arabic. 

The boys requested to do a unit study on Insects so that's what this post is about. 

Vocabulary:

1. الحشر : The Insect

2. الحشرات : The Insects

3. النمل: The ant

4.  The spider العنكبوت

5. The butterfly الفراشة

6. The grasshopper الجندب

7.The fly  الدبابة

8  The bee النحلة

9 The mosquito البعوضة

These are some of the books we used in our study

I used card stack paper and bonded them together using craft rope.

Ancient Egypt

This unit study was a lot of fine for me and the boys. We explored both modern day Egypt along with Ancient Egypt.

Here are some of the books we enjoyed and used during our studies:

• Ms. Frizzle's Adventures Ancient Egypt
• Who Built the Pyramids
• The Story of Musa 
• Passport to the past Ancient Egypt
• Explore Ancient Egypt
• Pyramids 50 Hands on Activities to Experience Ancient Egypt ( this was my favorite book its filled with tons of hands on activities)

 We started by learning all about the geography of Egypt:

• We located Egypt on the map and Cairo along with the Nile River
• Learned how to say hello and goodbye along with other phrases in Arabic
• Colored the Egyptian flag and learned about its meaning

Letter P Craft

I wanted to share more letter of the week craft ideas. A enjoyed making all the crafts for the letter P and I hope your little ones enjoy it to :)

Russia Unit Study

During our study of Russia we;

• Read fiction/non fiction books about Russia
• Found Russia on the map 
• Colored the flag of Russia
• Talked about what continent Russia is in and reviewed all the other countries we studied that are on the continent of Europe
• Made a Russia Lapbook
• Learned how to say Hello in Russian
• Made matryoshka nesting dolls
• Learned about the Tundra and the animals that live there
• Finally we stamped our passport to conclude our study of Russia

DIY Moon Clock

O and I made this moon (Idea came from here) clock together after discovering his love for all things space. I purchased a wooden clock face from Micheals and we painted the back and sides all black.

Beginning sound word wall/Alphabet Tree

When A started his letter of the week activities I knew I wanted to make him a word wall and an alphabet tree. I decided to make him a picture word wall because he isn't reading yet.

Letter M Craft

Craft time is always a big hit are our house espacially when it ties into our letter of the week. Here are some crafts A did for the letter M.

What Is A Scientist?

What is a Scientist?

After our introduction lesson about science. I decided to explore what and who a scientist is with the kids. I started of by drawing a scientist on the white board, we read What is a scientist by Barbara lehn. This is a good go along book to introduce what and who a scientist is.

Letter R Snack Idea

 

A is working on the letter R this week. So for a cute snack idea we made rainbow cupcakes. He loved mixing all the colors and making swirls in the batter.

DIY Felt Food Apple

After making the felt banana for my boys and seeing how much they loved it I decided to making them another. These are going to take me a while.

First I made a strawberry but it didn't turn out so well that's what happens when you try to hand sew something at midnight. I scrapped that idea and made an apple instead. The strawberry wasn't hard to make but I was working with very little brain power that night. Oh well I'll return to that project another day. I'll stop talking and show you some pictures of the apple felt food I made.

Introduction to Science lesson

 

The boys and I did an intro to science lesson today. I started off by reading What is Science? by Rebecca Kai Dotlich. This book is beautifully written simple words and easy to understand concept about science. The pictures are amazing my boys loved reading this story and picked up a tone of information about what science is.

Letter T craft

A and I worked on the letter T this week. He had a blast with this letter because it included some of his favorite things like Tiger, and Train.

I wont bore you with all the phonics things we did this week. So I'll share some of the crafts for the letter T we worked on.

Letter T Sensory Bin

A and I have been working on the letter T this week. One of his favorite parts about every letter study is the sensory bin. I put together a sensory bin using rocks, green stones and all the material from his letter T phonics box.

DIY Felt Food Banana

I've been wanting to make some felt fruit and vegetables for the boys, but I never got around to making them. After one of our Arabic lessons I needed to come up with a fun way to teach the names of fruits and vegetables in Arabic.

After searching online I was inspired to make them a set of fruits/vegetables out of felt. I've only made one so far I am planning on making as much as I can this weekend.

Floor Pouf

I friend of mine recently lent me her sewing machine (May Allah reward her ameen). I've always wanted to learn to sew but I convinced my self I wouldn't be very good at it. With alot of help from my friend and the internet I decided to give it a try.

I decided to make a floor pouf as extra seating in our homeschool room. This was the second thing I made after getting the sewing machine.

IKEA Hack

I have been looking for a storage solution for our school room. We have an IKEA Expedit shelving unit, to go with it I recently purchased Drona storage boxes. These boxes hold a tone of things which was perfect for storing all our puzzles, craft supplies, Lego pieces, etc.

I went with the black color well because that's all the had in store that day. Since our shelf is black everything kind of blended together. After searching for a solution to make this shelf POP (just a little) I decided to stencil some numbers with white paint on the boxes.

This was exactly what I was looking for they look so cute and this only took me 5 minutes to do. I know this isn't your usual IKEA hack but its a fun and simple project.

Supplies you will need:

Drona storag boxes (or any container you desire)
Number stencils
Stencil brush
White paint (or any color you desire)

That's it !!!! :)


We are linked up with We Made That

Letter M phonics Box with Cold Rice play

A had a blast today with this activity, not only was he practicing his sounds he was enjoying playing with rice (which is his faviourite by the way).

After putting this phonics box together I started searching the internet on how we can play with these. I came across this post from 1+1+1=1. 

She incorparted the phonics box with rice play, this was perfect for A. But I wanted to add something extra for our winter theme. I found this cold rice play idea from Growing a jeweled rose. Don't you just love the internet the possiblities are endless :) here's what we did today with our Letter M Phonics Box.

Cold rice sensory bin

Letter M phonics box content 

Linked up with:

 tote school gathering place
 Stir the Wonder
No time for flashcards
We made that

DIY Kids Art display

All moms can relate to this whether you homeschool or send your kids to school. Where should we display our children's beautiful creations.

This was something that was bothering me a lot. My children love craft time and so do I, but at the end of the week we they have made tones of beautiful creations that just does not fit on the fridge. So I went online where else but my faviourite place pinterest to find some inspiration.

Here is what I came up with....

Source

Source

Source

 

After going through so many different ideas I went with this one because it was the look that I was looking for and it was cheap :).  She spray painted her's but I decided to go with a stain. Go to her site here for a full tutorial she does a great job and is very detailed.

Here is what our art wall looks like. I used a piece of 1x8 which was like $1.92 from Home depot. They cut it into 3 equal parts. I took it home stained it added some clips from Walmart using gorilla glue. I mounted it on the wall and hang my boys art work up. It was super easy and the cost was very cheap to make. 

 The wall decal is from New York Vinyl

Letter M Phonics Box

A and I have been working on letter sounds, even though he knows all his sounds sometimes he gets confused when its time to isolate that sound with its corresponding object/word.

After reading Counting Coconuts (read her how to she does a fabulous job in explaining, and gives plenty of resources where you can find the mini figurines) I decided to put together my own phonics box for A.

I will be making each box as we go along and sharing our ideas on how A is using the box.

Letter M phonics box:

Moose, Mom, Money, Monkey, Millipede, Marble, Mouse

I am using a small container to store these figurines. I don't really like having all these small boxes I think there going to take up to much space but right now this is what I have. It will change as soon as I find something else to store them in. Each box will have a label with the letter so that A is able to find his boxes without my help.