Australian Dry Forest & Woodlands Nature Study Guide

Description

The Australian Nature Study Guide contains:

• a whole chapter on how to use the nature study guide.
• 10 nature study lessons.
• a list of additional nature study activities.
• a resources list.
• 102 Notebooking Pages
• Tree Identification Cards

The Australian Dry Forest & Woodland Nature Study Guide is:

• Focused on dry forest and woodland ecosystems and the animals and plants that thrive there.
• Self-contained and ready to use. Additional resources are suggested should you choose to dive deeper into a subject but they’re not necessary. Dip your feet in or dive in. The choice is yours!
• Integration of subjects to save your sanity and time.
• An activity-based program for multiple ages – Kinda to 15 yrs.
• Flexible. The Guide can be altered to suit all home educating approaches and styles.
• Adaptable. The themes within the weekly studies can be altered to suit your climate and locality.
• 62 Pages, digital curriculum in PDF format.

Let’s Go Walkabout!

Each chapter in the dry forest and woodland nature study will prepare you with the knowledge you need to answer questions when they’re thrown at you by eager explorers. It is by no means exhaustive. I’ll be referring you to helpful resources or links on the week’s topic if you’d like to research it further and dig deeper. These resources and suggestions for digging deeper and are located in the sidebar where you’ll find the following five prompts.

Inspire

Be inspired and motivated with activities, videos, songs, field trips, or a reminder to review a topic covered in another nature study guide. I hope these ideas enhance your nature investigations.

Discover

Discover stories and poems related to the week’s theme which will offer enjoyment and ignite excitement for the topic. Read them aloud to the children or listen to the read-aloud version on YouTube. Included with this guide is a notebook page to list the titles of books you and the children have read. Utilize the book report and poem study notebook pages. File these in the student’s portfolios.

Investigate

Research the week’s topic with the reference books listed. This is not a complete list and there are many great books available. If you have a resource sitting on your bookshelf or have access to another through the library, please use those reference books instead.

Engage

Invite the children to a group activity with the craft suggested here. If you don’t have time for the extra student assignments, then this is the activity for the week. These ideas will enhance their understanding as they begin to focus on the subject. Photograph activities and use the activity notebook page to paste the image and write a summary of what was made or learned.

Explore

Explore the dry forest and woodland ecosystems with the ideas listed here. Allow the children to play freely and once their energies have been exhausted (somewhat) begin to engage them with questions and activities. Give them the opportunity to ask questions and share their nature discoveries with you. You’ll be able to gauge their interest and understanding of the content covered. Photograph the excursions and use the field trip activity page included with this unit to record places you’ve visited. Place activity pages into their individual portfolios.

Assignments & Projects

Assignments and projects have been suggested for the four learning styles. The learning styles have been categorized according to how a particular personality learns best. This model was developed by the Myers-Briggs system.

Notebook Pages & The Portfolio

102 notebook pages have been included with this desert nature study. Please use them to record field trips, activities, experiments and projects. File the pages into a ring binder to provide a safe place for all the work accomplished through the unit. All notebooking pages are to be filed in a portfolio for presentation and record-keeping purposes. The portfolio can be subdivided with the weekly themes or according to subject areas. It’s up to you.

Vocabulary Words

A list of vocabulary words has been included for your convenience. They can be defined through dictionary work, used as spelling words, or create a word wall. File the list in the portfolio.

Extension Activities

This section includes a topic related to the current lesson. If a child is interested in learning about a concept then engage him/her in a mini project to indulge their curiosity. Record the work and add it to the portfolio.

Come along! Let’s walkabout the bush.

NOTE: This dry forest and woodland nature guide can be used independently of the Math in Nature: Data & Statistics Guide