Noah's Landing Field Trip

Llama, Zebra, Donkeys and Anthony

Jacobian Pigeon, Dora and Alex

Zoboomafoo's friends:) (aka Lemurs)

Bearded Dragon ( I believe)

bald python, Anthony and Dora

Alex's turn

New baby Lemur

My arch nemesis, rose haired  tarantula

My skin is crawling like this thing on the boys

Not on the zoo's list of animal, common toad Anthony found:)

This is no ordinary zoo, Noah's Landing, is a non-profit organization that teaches kids like no other zoo we have ever been to.... This is the place that Alex volunteers at and has an awesome family behind the scenes and in front of the tours as well. If you are lucky enough to be close to this zoo then you don't want to miss a tour on Saturdays 11am and 2 pm!! If you are REALLY lucky you will get Dora as your tour guide, she is one of the most informed people we have ever met. The animals that she rescues are very lucky to end up here. After we visited one of their special events last year, I made up my owl unit study to go along with the special guests that were there.

What's GROSS and INTERESTING?

 And the answer is..... OWL PELLETS!! As you can see (well kinda of!) from the pictures above, he documented the size of the pellets. Then much to my grossing out factor, he gently dissected the pellet by pulling the fur and bones apart.  Yes, I am grossing out just thinking about it, but I just couldn't walk away!! He only did one of the pellets and Anthony did one of the others, both boys had to figure what it was that this owl ate (which in this case was a Barn Owl) The poor victims here were rodents.  As our unit study on owls is wrapping up, Alex has been studying owls a little longer than expected. He has had some field trips that involved seeing owls and then other things that have come up, like driver's ed driving,vacation, having a sick mama for over a week, you name it it came up:)  This week we will finish up the owls and move on to the next animal that he is wanting to learn more about. But to finish up this unit study, has to get together all his findings and put the information into a visual aids such as a lapbook or power point presentation. Also he has a report that is due by the end of the week which he will be reading to all of us next weekend. As always, we are working on his paragraph writing and increasing his vocabulary, at least I could make his vocabulary a little more exciting with online vocabulary games from one of my favorite sites~ Vocabulary/SpellingCity.

This whole unit study was a great learning experience for both of us for his first lessons as a 9th grader. As we move forward to the next animal, I have learned of some things to take out or worksheets that were redundant.  It makes this homeschooling through high school an ever involving adventure that I can't wait to hear the ending!!

Owls Unit Study, ready to go!!

Well I am pretty proud of myself!! Why you ask? Well I have Alex's first animal behavior/biology/literature unit study for his high school year ready to go! I am pretty excited to see how he likes it. I have decided that he will be using some animal behaviors books (college books) along with a list of online sites, and literature books. (like the one I have shown here). 

As you can tell from the book I picked and ohhh the title of the post our first unit is OWLS:) I have gotten several free resources online and paid for some unit studies from Currclick, another great site that I am using to help with the spelling and vocabulary is SpellingCity. Alex loves the unscramble game along with letterfall game, yes I know it may seem a little on the young side for him but since he is a visual learner these types of games help him out. And really who cares as long as he is learning the meaning of the words and how to spell them.

Other fun activities we are going to be doing is visiting the local raptor center, and the zoo. This way he can see the birds that he has studied and he will also be doing some art, by bringing his sketch book and drawing the birds in their habitats. One of those fun things that creeps up with the wonderful internet, is owl cams, basically they have a camera inside a nest and you get to see them in their nests. Molly the owl was a hit with us last year so we will be watching out for her and any other that I can find. This way he can log , what is going on in the nest at different times of the day and night. I will make a report due on his findings towards the end of the study which I am thinking will last about 2 weeks. It might be longer if he really gets into it, that is the luxury of homeschooling you don't have to stop learning when you are enjoying it!! There are a lot of other activities planned and I am hoping to be able to share with you all as we do them. 

I think that one of things we are going to be doing that he is the most excited about is dissecting owl pellets, and probably a close second is watching movies based on the books he will be reading and other nature shows on owls. When he is done studying owls, then the next week he will pick 3 birds of his choice and research how they are different and similar to owls. This way we will have birds pretty much complete unless he desires to study any others down the road! I am thinking "Birds" would be a great movie for him to watch afterwards so that he can tell me how realistic the movie was to him. 

Writing is a subject that we have been struggling with since the beginning so we are going to be doing a lot of grammar  as prep work over the summer. That's is why I am putting so many reports into the mix for next year with hard work from the both of us I am hoping to get him over the hump!!