Saturday, September 6, 2008

Making evolution FUN!

Here are the books we picked up at the library today:

From Lava to Life : The Universe Tells Our Earth Story and Mammals Who Morph: The Universe Tells Our Evolution Story by Jennifer Morgan (NJ resident and fellow Rutgers grad)
Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story by Lisa Westberg Peters
Dinosaur Claws and Crests by Joanne Mattern
The Great Dinosaur Search by Rosie Heywood
The Best Book of Early People by Margaret Hynes

We've also got Usborne's Who Were the First People? coming from a Paperbackswap.com member (oh, how I love that site!).

I'm thinking we're going to start with a very light version of the Big Bang, cruise through an age-appropriate discussion of evolution, and then spend some time on dinosaurs and the first people--maybe 4 weeks of prehistory? I also want to do our first lapbook at some point during this fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants experience, but--surprise, surprise!--there aren't exactly a lot of pre-designed lapbook units on evolution. I know I can find one on dinosaurs, so if I can't rise to the occasion and design my own, that might be the way we go.

In general, though, I was able to find some great ideas to make this prehistory study fun:

Little Acorns Treehouse prehistory ideas (Aside to Kate: I came across this while Googling for ideas, and I knew the name sounded familiar. Sure enough, I checked your blogroll and there it was, LOL!)
Land of the Wee Ones dinosaur ideas
PBS's evolution site

I'll report back with any ideas and lapbook designs I happen to develop. Don't hold your breath, though!

2 comments:

Garden State Kate said...

I think we did one on evolution last year, I will look through my box of "projects"..never got around to starting a lap book..er book. ;-)

Angela said...

Just wanted to say hi! My 4.5 year old daughter and I are studying prehistory, big bang, evolution right now. It's fun to see another homeschooler teaching their young ones this fascinating stuff! :)

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