The Great Kapok Tree

OK Let me start out by saying we were supposed to be rowing "The Raft" with our other two homeschooling families this week, but dh suggested (LATE SUNDAY AFTERNOON) that I save that one for warmer weather and he will help the kids build a real raft on a lake. How could I resist THAT opportunity? Sooooo... after much scrambling on my part, I decided to read "The Great Kapok Tree" by Lynne Cherry. Well, you have no idea how RIGHT UP THE ALLEY of my now 11 year old this is! And it ties in so nicely with his birthday (so really perfect to have done this week)- he had asked for an animal cake, so I made him a Rain Forest cake-- and we will take him to lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe tomorrow (Shhhhh!!!! Don't tell anyone- none of the kids know about it yet!)!!

Most of my planning came from Homeschool Share.

I think our lapbooks are going to look great!! There were so many ideas on that website. We also were able to watch some streaming videos about the rainforest from our library, and we all enjoyed a viewing of "Fern Gully" last night. We have learned about dozens of animals and some about the Yanomami Indians that live in the Amazon rain forest (a great book for that is "Amazon Diary" by Hudson Talbott). We were reminded that God has loaned us the earth and we are to be good stewards in taking care of it for Him. The kids made this huge mural for our classroom (that is our classroom door you are looking at):

This has been a fun, relaxed week for all of us, I think :o)