AIMS Fabulous fractions - TOS Review

AIMS provide integrated learning books for science and math. We were offered their Fabulous Fractions book for review. The book came with a CD and and a set of fraction tansparencies.

Fabulous Fractions is a hands on set of activities for grades 3-5. The book comes with a CD of printables (same pages are included the book for copying) and is available for $21.95 or as a PDF for $19.95. You can also purchase the fraction transparencies for $14.95 and the fraction circle model for $7.95.

It worked well for us. Tulip (5), Sunflower (7) and Lilly (9) loved it 

and even Rose (3) joined in some of the activities.

Planning was fairly easy (it did require some prep work - usually printing and cutting) and it was really easy to fit into our schedule. The activities do vary in length but average at 30 mins so it proved great for joint lessons at the start of the day. The activities were a fun, engaging and practical way to learn and understand fractions.

This is so much more than a workbook - through games, activities, questioning and problem solving, it gives you a firm grasp of fraction concepts. We had great fun with this and I can highly recommend it (especially as it's so easy to use).

You can read what the other crew members thought over at the TOS Blog

Disclaimer - I was given a free copy of the book and transparencies so I could provide an honest review of the product.

Geography Notebooking

I discovered some free note book pages from Notebooking Fairy and the girls have been having great fun with them.

I simply cut up a load of landform pictures, provided glue and left them to research and write their own descriptions : )

Amazing Animals - TOS Review

Amazing Animals by Design written by Debra Haagen is a wonderful story that introduces the idea of Gods intelligent design of animals.

Debra is a homeschooling Mum with young children, she noticed that there were no books available to teach her younger children about intelligent design so came up with this story.

It begins with John and Sarah going to the zoo. During the tour they discover new animals and their tour guides explain how each is unique and designed specifically for a purpose, while the kids get to ask all sorts of interesting questions, resulting in a conversation with their parents after the trip where they discuss how these things don't happen by accident but they are as God intended.

                                                  


I love that this book gives the children an insight into the intricacies of animal specialisation and the fact that it uses 'grown up' vocabulary - words like strategy, predator and camouflage are explained nicely within the context of the story.

Rose and Tulip have both enjoyed reading this and it's firm becoming a favourite. I'm eager to see what she comes up with next (fingers crossed for a series)

The book is aimed at preschool to 3d grade and is available from Tate Publishing for $8.99 or as an ebook for $7.99.

You can see what the other members of the crew thought at the TOS blog


Disclaimer: I was given a free digital copy for the purpose of providing an honest review.

Botany - week two

Our Botany unit this week focused on classification of plants.
I collected samples of the different types of plants and used them to discuss the classification process.

We then moved onto studying the differences between monocots and dicots (which provided a great excuse to go flower shopping). We cut up a tulip and a rose stem to view the differences in the vascular bundle arrangement,

studied the differences in the leaf shape and vein pattern

and counted the petals,

then placed them in the correct location on our chart.

We also identified a few flowers we found in the garden (please excuse the dandelion - the girls seem to think they are a wonderful flower and I regularly get bunches shoved into a pot as a gift)

We used the monocot/dicot exercise from Montessori for everyone which comes with a great explanation of the differences between monocots and dicots.

and they finished by writing up their notebook pages.

Tree Art

We looked at the shape of trees for art - first we made a tree shape from copper wire and then they drew it and compared it to a leaf skeleton they'd discovered in the garden.

and played a couple of games of storm the castle - this is a free maths game from Ellen McHenry and is a great way to practice maths while having fun