Mini Beaver Unit

Mini Beaver Unit 

I used to be burnt out homeschooling by Spring time. In fact I think it's a common phenomenon among homeschooling moms  ! This year I am so much more relaxed and I think it's because I am using this time to really engage the children in units that are fun for them - and educational !
This week we did a mini beaver unit.  There wasn't much that I could find for ideas online so we focused on one easy reader that we read every day  and added our activities around that.

One thing we did was start a giant book of our own with what we knew about beavers. We added information throughout the week and the boys all illustrated the pages. 

 First page

questions, answers & pictures

Busy Beavers

Because it was an easy reader , with lots of repetition and easy words I also spent time beginning to teach my 4 year old sight words. Or "popcorn" words as they are sometimes referred to. We started a "Popcorn word bucket" that we are going to continue adding to as we learn more sight words. 

Sight word recognition

To illustrate how beavers look and their characteristics I put together a make shift costume for the kids to experience.  This easily transitioned to dramatic play for the younger ones once our sit down lesson was through.

Beaver dress up

Beaver sandwich

We wrapped up the unit with a simple lunch in the same theme. I used peanut butter and it worked nicely to "glue" the eyes, nose, teeth and tail on.