Planning My Next Mini-Unit Study - Animals!

   So here I am, another week, another mini-unit. Last week was about the life-cycle of plants. This time, the next chapter in our Science book is about Types of Animals. Now since I am doing this unit with M6 & L8 I can just go with the basics for now & do a more in-depth unit with them at a later time. 

Some of the things covered in this section are:

• What is an animal?
• What are mammals & birds?
• What are amphibians, fish, & reptiles?

    This unit may take more than a week since I am going to get more in-depth with their history studies this week. We will be alternating each week between science & history so we (*I*) don't get burned out!

   My 1st step is to look through the chapter & see what each section will cover. Then I go to HomeschoolShare.com to see if there are any lapbooks covering any of these. Usually, I don't find one specific lapbook that covers all of the sections so I will then pull pieces I need from different ones. Also, some great places to look that have decent priced ones are AJourneyThroughLearning.com, Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett, & Knowledge Box Central. 

• WOW...my 1st search resulted in a ton of great lapbooks! Now to sift through them all!

   Doing a search for the specific subject & adding "unit study" or "lapbook" along with it works great. I use my Swagbucks search bar so I can get points for planning my unit studies!! woop woop!  You can find activities, crafts, books, videos, & tons of great ideas to go along with it!

Here is what I've found so far:

Animal Needs

• I just found this cute game to go along with the habitats lesson! 
• What Animals Need Graphic Organizer
• Exploring the Basic Needs Unit Study
• Animal Needs pdf (This one has a few lapbook pieces with it)

Mammals

• Mammals resources
• free Mammals lapbook!

Birds

• Birds resources
• Bird Characteristics

Amphibians & Reptiles

• Amphibians Unit
• Label Reptiles & Amphibians worksheet 
• Amphibians resources
• Reptiles resources
• Frog Life-Cycle printout & Label Me worksheet 
• Virtual Frog Dissection

Fish

• Free Fish Lapbook! 
• Fish resources

   Now it's time to collect & print all of these great finds that I want to use. I usually store them in a file folder that I will end up using for our lapbook. Each day, I will do a read-aloud from our book & then do a lapbook piece or activity that corresponds with that section!

Happy Planning!