We followed up My Side of the Mountain with On the Far Side of the Mountain. We are hoping to get to Frightful's Mountain (the last book in this series by Jean Craighead George) before the end of the year. I am a strong believer in using quality fiction to enhance any area of study. I know that growing up *I* made deeper connections with content when I read a corresponding book that engaged me. There are many studies that back this up, one of the most prominent from Jim Trelease, author of The Read Aloud Handbook. Highly recommended.
Our study of wolves culminated with a viewing of the movie Never Cry Wolf. If you have never seen this film before, you might want to check it out. It was a Disney production that came out in 1983 chronicling Canadian scientist Farley Mowat's summer spent studying wolves in the Arctic tundra. He was sent there to 'prove' that wolves were dangerous and were responsible for killing the arctic caribou. But what he discovered about wolves and even his own human nature makes for a truly compelling movie. You can also read his book by the same title.
I love the 'One Small Square' series of books by Donald Silver. Covering a variety of biomes from your own backyard to the African Savanna (and many in-between!) these colorful books are chock full of interesting facts, drawings, stories and ideas for your own exploration. The neat thing is that each book gives experiments and activities to explore the biome even if you can't get to your own Tropical Rainforest. ;) We have already used the Arctic Tundra book this year and will soon be using Cactus Desert. Let me take this moment to say that I am never against using a good quality childrens' book as a resource for students of all ages. While it obviously isn't 'complete' for an older student, a good book is a good book!
One activity Kerry had the kids work on that turned out to be far more difficult (and fascinating!) than we might have imagined was to practice identifying trees by closely observing the bare branches of winter. Marvin cut small limbs off of 5 trees out here on the property and the boys used the MO Dept. of Conservation book A Key to Missouri Trees in Winter to try to determine which tree the limbs came from. Whew! That was tough! We might 'think' we observe closely but it didn't take long to realize that our powers of observation could use some fine tuning. Interesting activity, for sure!
We will be returning to our old friend, Disney, for a special treat in the next week or so. We will be watching an episode from the Walt Disney True Life Adventures series called The Living Desert. This is one of my favorite nature documentaries ever! Yes, it is ancient in modern terms (released in 1953) but it is surprisingly still up to date thanks to the use of the then new technology of stop action filming. This Oscar winning documentary is filled with macro shots of flowers opening in slow motion, an arroyo going from dry creek to raging river, and a close-up look at the everyday lives of desert animals and plant-life. Great stuff!!
The other night we 'dissected a frog' under rather unusual circumstances - no formaldehyde included! :) Actually, we used a pretty impressive app for iPad called Frog Dissection that takes a student through each detailed step in the process of dissection. It then provides 3-D imagery of the internal organs, short video clips to provide more information and lots of interactive activities including a final quiz. Currently, there are only 2 dissection apps available, frog dissection and rat dissection (which is not quite as in-depth as the frog) but I hope that they will come out with more. Note - I just saw they have an app called Cell and Cell Structure. Just downloaded it, too! :)
