Friday, June 16, 2006

Pre-history Planning Update

Okay, so I mentioned before that I was developing a pre-history curriculum for my rising first grade ds, who I don't feel is quite ready for SOTW 1 yet. (and also I am not quite ready to reteach it so soon) It is supposed to based on a blend of TWTM and montessori's cosmic curriculum, remember?

Since you readers do not really exist except inside my head I won't wait for a response. It was mostly rhetorical, anyway.

I've been toiling away at it and man it is much, much, much more work than I realized it would be.

I spent hours just paging through the science books we already own and trying to coordinate them chronologically.

I never realized what a mish-mash some of those books are. Especially the dinosaur books. They jump back and forth and upside-down and start with Cretaceous, dabble in the Jurassic dinosaurs , then back to Cretaceous...And the only way you'd ever know it is the tiny timeline boxes or charts that usually accompany the illustrations.

Sigh.

Here are the plans, still in early development and missing a few resources, but a bit more fleshed out than last post...

Unit One
The Story of the Universe and Solar System

The basic idea to all the units is this...We use the clock of eras as our spine, and progress through natural history as it evolved. We pull in books (some read by me, some by them) on topics as we encounter them and have a montessori free-work period for doing research and using any materials/experiments that have already been presented.

It all begins with

creation/big bang blend story script with props, pictures and demos ala Mario Montessori (nope, not a typo...It's her son)
from Children of the Universe

Selected resources to give you an idea

What is a Star? Do Stars have points? Life cycles of Stars brainpop and stellar evolution video

Born with a Bang

What's the world Made of?

Solid/liquid/gas experiment &demo

Galileo'ss Drop & who can beat Gravity?

Children of the Universe Script 2-Solar System

Magic School Bus Solar System

3D solar system, inflatable activities

What makes day and night?
Demo/experiment

Moon seems to change, moon cycle chart

What is the moon?

Brainpop movie eclipse
eclipse activity with inflatable SS

Planets
Magic school bus lost in space
video

Solar system puzzle

Gid constellations book /stargaze

Field Trip: EPISD Planetarium and Space Exhibits
Memory Work: Planets in order from sun, and in order by size
Distance to the Sun
Distance to the moon
Phases of the Moon
songs from twin sisters Space Cd

Unit Two
The Story of The Earth

Children of the Universe Script 3 presentation with volcano demo
Begin clock of eras: The Hadean

Selected resources
How mountains are made
What is a mountain?
From Here to There

Eyewitness volcano movie
Fire and Ice mountain kit and activities
What is a volcano?
Why volcanoes blow their tops
Layers of the Earth

Rocks and Minerals
I am a rock
Lets go rock collecting

"Geology Field trip in a bag" activities

"Brother Air "--Everything Kids: air experiments
field trip-kite flying

"Sister Water "--
Waterdance
What is a river?
MSB at the Waterworks

Watercycle shower curtain and brainpop movie
What is rain?
What is an ocean?


Field trip-Rio Grande River & Elephant Butte Dam and manmade lake

Magic school bus Rocks and Rolls (if I can find it)
Erosion brainpop

Yahooligans weather brainpop movie

Caves and Caverns
I am a rock
ODYSSEY magazine
Carlsbad Caverns curriculum suggestions & web photos
What are Stalagtites?

Selected montessori-esqe activities to choose from
See here for ideas
Field trip: Carlsbad Caverns
Memory Work: Three types of rocks,
Seven continents by size
10 longest rivers by length
water cycle
Oceans

Unit Three
The Story of Life
part 1
(one-celled organisms up to the extinction of the dinosaurs)

Clock of Eras

From Lava to Life
Children of the Universe script 4
Long Black strip
(30 m of either black yarn or party streamer with 1 cm red to show age of earth/life time ratio)

Eyewitness Life movie
All about Fossils


Guide to Dinosaurs
1st encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life
Dino Detectives

Archeology dig discussion/owl pellets (mimic an archeological dig)

Nature study-fossils with hands on activities (will post later)

"First Life: one celled"--
World in a drop of water
Bacteria farm kit & activities
Bacteria: The Good, the bad and the Ugly

Triops: Dino Shrimp activity/ nature study

Trilobites
Clams

Invertebrates classification chart
Sorting cards
nature study: Worms mix soil

Magic school bus coral reefs
Coral nature study

Scorpions nature study

Squids and Octopi

"Age of Fishes "
Prehistoric fish coloring book and tape set,
Big Creatures of the Past
Amazing World of Plants

Eyewitness Shark
Plants-moss
Making coal

Large insects (big creatures)
First lizard
First encylopedia

moss

Amphibians and reptiles
Classification chart
1st encyclopedia

I can read about prehistory
1st encyclopedia

prehistoric sea life coloring book and tape
plants conifers

dinosaurs cd, tape, coloring book
dinosaurs activity book (dover)

Magic School Bus in the Time of the Dinosaurs
Dinosaur days step 2
Graveyards of the Dinosaurs


Dinosaur dig
dinosaur skeleton foam (from Mindware-looks just like wood) puzzles
Guide to Dinosaurs
Ch 7 Dinos of land, sea , and air
Did Dinosaurs live in your backyard?

Dinosaur World
Toy dinosaurs collection for sorting/playing and name ID and matching and activity cards

finish Did dinosaurs live in your backyard?
finish 1st encyclopedia

finish News about dinos

Eyewitness Dinosaur movie
Walking with Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs before Dark

Field Trip: El Paso Natural History Museum @ UTEP

Memory Work: Animal Classification, songs from twin sisters Dinosaurs and Zoology, common dinosaurs names &ID, Triassic-Jurassic-Cretaceous, carnevore/herbivore/omnivore

That's as far as I've gotten.


When the same book appears multiple times it means Ive had to separate sections by topic, I left the page numbers out for expediency's sake. Even if you imaginary readers really did exist and were interested, odds are you would be using a different set of resources, since many of my dinosaur books were bought second hand and are probably out of print.

I still have two more sections to plan: the Story of Life parts 2 and 3, and The Story of Man.

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