The Salamander Room

Last week be began our study of The Salamander Room from FIAR volume 3. I wanted to do this one last year at this time, but we finished the year with some plant studies instead. This year, the animals won! This unit is a biology teacher's dream and we are going all out. On the way are frog eggs and caterpillars. Our habitats await their occupants. The kids are excited.


We are using the FIAR Fold n Learn again. The first activity I pulled out was the list of nature items the boy names in the book- the things the salamander will need. So, I had the kids start by naming things from memory. Then I read the book again and they got to "take notes". I7 did really well at this. This one is R9's. She chose to draw pictures for her list.
E11's list along with his list of what a bullfrog needs. Each child has chosen an animal for their own Salamander room and they will get to make a diorama.
J4 is joining us for this study. He chose to cut the pictures and I glued them down and we talked about what each item was. Then I let him look through the book for others we hadn't mentioned. He listed 8 more! Very observant. He dictated them to me and I wrote them down. His notebook page looks great!
One of the assignments from the FIAR manual is to make a story that switches settings. So, I7 dictated one to me that I typed into StartWrite of course. This has made for good copywork for I7 this week. He'll be doing more this week. I love StartWrite!!
I7's page along with his list for a bat habitat. Mammals weren't exactly in the plan for the week, but I7 loves bats so we can make do.
This unit will take us to the end of the school year. We are taking a look at freshwater habitats and all the critters that live there. There will be classification fun, studies of amphibians, insects, reptiles, and microscopic life. Should be a fun time!

We've already taken a field trip so those pictures will be coming up.