Mr. Popper's Penguins

Well, we finished Mr. Popper's Penguins today. I was rather surprised at how much N~ enjoyed doing this project. When I decided to add a lapbook into our literature time, I was doing it mainly for the girls. I pretty much just gave the kids the materials and let them go to it, doing what they wanted to do while I read. N~ loved it. I should've known. He's the hands on kinda guy. He did every minit book I put in front of him. I think it helped that he enjoyed the story and that there was lots of cutting and pasting involved. Here's a glimpse inside his finished lapbook.







I found this lapbook on Homeschool Share. Great site!

Geography Fair

Oh how I wish that I would have taken our camera to the geography fair last month! A d'oh moment for sure! Ah well, we did take pictures beforehand...

Our finished board. Each of the region pockets held a state lapbook for each state in that region.


Here is the front of Oklahoma. We happened to have extra stickers for OK. We didn't use all the stickers on every book.


The inside is a map. The kids labeled rivers, mountains, and other important geological features.



The back page contains information that we gathered for that state.


The state birds/flowers worksheets I got ~HERE~
The state maps that I used, I got ~HERE~
I made up the back page worksheet myself. I've uploaded it to Homeschool Launch. Homeschool Launch is AWESOME! There is a link in my sidebar. It takes 30 seconds to upload things you make to share with others, so PLEASE SHARE! No sense in re-inventing the worksheet:)

We taught the kids the state capitals using this book:

It uses cute pictures to help them remember the state and capital. For instance, on the cover is an Ark Can Saw a Little Rock. Little Rock, Arkansas! Great way to remember!

At the actual geography fair we had a booth in which we passed out apple pie and cracker jacks. H~ also sang with her kindergarten class in front of the group. It was sweet...again, regret for no camera...

This project was actually our entire year's worth of geography for N~, Q~, & H~, culminating in the fair itself. However, from this picture you can see who helped quite a bit!

Popping Along

We are popping along with our Mr. Popper's Penguins lapbook. (oh man, I crack myself up) N~ is working on alphabetizing the penguin names in this picture, and I just find it so great that after all these years he still sticks that tongue out while he's concentrating!