Autumn Treasures

A year ago at this time I was about to have my 10th child. (Time flies!!)  At about that time, I got an e-mail introducing these new Download N Go unit studies and an offer for a free unit.  The unit was Autumn Treasures.  I remember skimming it and saving it on my computer to "possibly look at and use at some point".   Little did I know, that a year later I would be using Download N Go as my main curriculum for some of the kids... not to mention reviewing units on this blog and loving every minute of it!

I made an error in my planning for this unit.  I thought I had an extra week and planned to use it over a 2 week period. So, we are not currently finished with it. I plan to post Autumn Treasures part 2 some time in the near future. Find it here.

At first, I thought that it was too early to start a unit on autumn.  I mean, it's technically still summer and I was originally thinking about doing this unit in October.  However, now that we are working on it, I think the timing is perfect. We have started observing nature early enough in the season to watch summer turn into fall.

Jenna and Emma in front of our green maple tree.
We'll take pictures like this all season as it
changes.

For those who are not familiar with Download N Go, it is a unit study curriculum for grades K-4.  Each unit is broken up into 5 daily lessons and covers a variety of topics within the main topic.

 In Autumn Treasures the daily topics are:

Day 1: What is Autumn?
Day 2: Science Secrets of Autumn
Day 3: People and Places of Autumn
Day 4: Time for Tips and Treasures of Autumn
Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Autumn

Just before starting this unit we were able to go to a local apple orchard that we try to go to every year.  We picked over 40 lbs of apples (it didn't take much time either).  This year we only picked two varieties; Ginger Gold and Gala.  YUM!  Besides just eating plain apples we have had apples with two different kinds of dip, apple cake, apple pie and apple crisp.  We are planning to make applesauce and possibly apple butter among other things.

Connor picking a Gala apple

Ellie

On the way to the car.  Lots of apples!!

apple cake

Constitution Day Special

Download N Go is offering a special until September 18 at midnight.  In honor of Constitution Day you can get a Patriotic Bundle of 3 Download N Go unit studies for $17.76.  It includes, Constitution Celebration, Ben Franklin and George Washington.  Semester bundles are also on sale.  See the Download N Go blog for more details.

Dolphins and Whales!

Over the past 2 weeks we have completed 2 Download N Go studies.  First we did Dolphin Days, followed by Whale Tales. Emma was so excited to learn about dolphins. She had been asking for a while to start on the dolphin study.  We learned a lot about dolphins and whales that we did not know.

On the last day of Pizza Party, I went to the library to pick up the books I had ordered for our Dolphin study.  The minute I got home the kids were digging into the books.  One of the nice features of Download N Go is the extensive list of books that you get.  None are necessary, but they are wonderful to add.

checking out the dolphin books

Some of the books from our dolphin study

Pizza Party Review and Give Away

Pizza Party is another great Download N Go unit study from Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse.  We had a great time with this unit learning about Italy, Galileo (and other famous Italians), how mozzarella cheese is made (and we bought some fresh to try), how yeast works, geography, volcanoes and more!  Not only that but we ate pizza! (and lots of it as you will see!)

These one week unit studies are designed for grades K-4. The more of these studies we do, the more I like them.  (Be sure to read to the end to find out how you can win a copy!) They are so easy for me to implement and we have fun learning too.

Pizza holds a special place in my heart because my husband and I met 23 years ago when we both got jobs at Papa Gino's (a pizza chain here) when it opened in our town.  We worked there for several years while going to high school and college.

In Pizza Party there are 5 days of lessons:

Sunny Seashells

Earlier in the summer Sunny Seashells went on sale and since it was already on my must have wishlist I purchased it right away.  We have spent a lot of time at the ocean and salt pond this summer and collecting shells.  I have to say that we didn't find as many as I thought we would, but it was a good experience anyway.  The kids love looking for treasures.

This unit covers many topics including mollusks, hermit crabs, geography, how pearls are made, uses for seashells and more!  The daily topics are:

Day 1: Seashells--What Are They?
Day 2: Seashells and History
Day 3: Types of Seashells
Day 4: The Science of Seashells
Day 5: Seashell Party!

We went to the county fair this week and one of the vendors had a giant clam. (I believe they were selling jewelry but I wasn't really paying that much attention. I was too interested in the clam.)  This one was only 70 lbs but it was neat to be able to see it.

Here are some pictures from our week of Sunny Seashells.

Jenna (hairdo by Emma) and Emma working on a tide pool worksheet.

an experiment-we put a shell in vinegar and let it sit overnight

Amazing Offer

I just heard that TOS is offering a free download of Download N Go Expedition Mexico until August 27!  We did this unit in the spring and loved it!  Don't miss out!  This is my review of it.

Download N Go

This year some of the children will be doing Download N Go unit studies. We ended last year with the Expedition Mexico unit and we all had a lot of fun.

We learned so many things about Mexico, did several projects and made nice lapbooks. The Download N Go units are designed for 1 week of study but we stretched it out over a 3 week period (which was probably too long but was OK for the first one).

One of our projects was making paper mache maracas. Katie (12 at the time) and I did most of the paper mache but all of the kids had fun painting them. It took quite a while to make them because we did several layers so that the maracas would harden. If I had it to do over again I would do the final layer in white paper so the newsprint wouldn't show through on the final product. We made them with small water balloons.

We also made Mexican sombreros out of newspaper. I'm not sure I'd try that again. They didn't come out that great and didn't last at all. I'd probably do it again with kids that were old enough to do it themselves.

The other big project we made was a paper mache volcano. That was a lot of fun. Sometime we are going to make one with Mentos and diet soda. For this one we used baking soda, food coloring and vinegar.

We also made homemade tortillas.  The kids loved eating them as much as making them.

And a few pictures of the finished lapbooks

I really wanted everything all together in the lapbook so we cut up the worksheets.

I added this butterfly life cycle booklet.

This accordian book was something I did using worksheets that I shrunk down to 1/4 of the original size.  

See my review of Roller Coasters and enter to win it free!