Insect/Spider 5 Day Plan

Monday
Math - Ladybug
game
Reading
- bugs and insects, eric carle,

Science
- bug/spider anatomy

Crafts - ladybug
necklace
Misc. -
scavenger hunt

Tuesday
Math - Bug
walk/graph
Reading
- insects, insects work together, i know an old
lady
Science
- types of insects

Crafts - paper mache
insects
Misc. -
grasshopper jump

Wednesday
Math - Tarantula
game

Reading - spiders, spiders lunch, little miss
muffet
Science
- types of insects
Crafts - make spider web,
tarantula

Cooking - curds and whey

Misc. - relay race, little miss
muffet pages

Thursday
Math - busy
bugs

Reading - dangerous insects

Science - fruit fly

Crafts - wasp chamber

Cooking - buzzy bees & ants on a
log

Friday
Math -
map

Reading - insects, eric carle

Crafts - jumping grasshopper

Cooking - Bug cake

Misc. - 
Bingo

Asia 5 Day Plan

Monday
- Panda

Crafts - Panda craft, color map of Asia
Math - file folder games,
math workbook

Science - cut out pictures of asian people, make paper,
look at the panda cam

Reading - Asia, Tiki-tiki-tembo, Ancient China, reading
lesson

Tuesday - Tigers
Crafts - tiger puppet,
color coloring page

Math - file folder games, math workbook
Science - wild
thing

Reading - Where the wild things are, wildlife, nepal,
tigers

Wednesday - Cobra
Crafts - paint coloring
page, make snake from tie, paint japan flag
Math - color patterns on
snake, math workbook
Reading - Japan, scary animals, reading
lesson
Cooking - Japanese lunch

Thursday
- Leopard

Crafts - make patterns from potato prints, color page,
fill in spots

Math - go on a pattern hunt, math
workbook
Reading - How many spots, China, reading
lesson

Friday - Yak
Crafts - color page, build
great wall of china

Math - math workbook
Reading
- reading lesson
Cooking - Canton Corn Soup

Neighborhood - 5 Day Plan

Another schedule for a week of preschool.  On nice days, take walks around the neighborhood and visit stores/bank etc.

Monday - Firemen/Policemen
Science - water experiments
Crafts - Fire collage, fire painting
Cooking - Fire truck cookies
Math - do pages in book
Misc - fire safety
Reading - Firefighters, police officers, community helpers, do a reading lesson

Tuesday - Grocery Store
Math - play grocery store, work with money flashcards
Crafts - 3 men in a tub craft, baker TP roll craft
Cooking - bake some muffins
Reading - Rub-a-dub-dub, Richard Scarry, do a reading lesson

Wednesday - Post Office
Math - Mail Carrier
Crafts - make a mailbox out of cardboard box, make stamps, mail letters
Reading - Richard Scarry, Mail Carriers, do a reading lesson
Misc - Work on learning her name and address and phone number.

Thursday - Bank/Restaurant
Math - matching game, play with money cards
Crafts - Make traffic light, play with cars, make a menu
Cooking - help with dinner - play restaurant
Reading - do a reading lesson
Misc. Get play money and checkbook/atm - play Bank

Friday - Library/Garbageman
Math - draw map of the neighborhood, math pages in book
Science - make compost piles with different types of items.  Watch how they decay.
Crafts - paint coloring sheets
Reading -community books, librarian, garbage, do a reading lesson
Play Bingo to review

Africa - 5 day plan

Another schedule for a week of preschool.

Monday - Ostrich
Color the map of Africa, look at it on Google Earth.
Paint the ostrich coloring page.
Math - Ostrich eggs. 
Reading - Africa book and Ostrich book, zoobooks, Do a reading lesson
Crafts - African Drum
Science - listen to sound of an ostrich.  Watch a video clip of it running.

Tuesday - Hippo
Color coloring sheet with markers
Math - do pages in math book - practice writing numbers
Reading - Hippo books, Do a reading lesson
Crafts - texture paint
Music - listen to African music
Cooking - Sweet Potato Cookies
Science - listen to sound of hippo, watch a video on Africa

Wednesday - Cheetah
Color coloring sheet with pastels
Math - Jaguar Spots, running like a cheetah & measurements
Science - animal coverings, listen to african languages
Reading - cheetah books, animal camouflage, zoobooks, Do a reading lesson
Crafts - Rain Stick
Cooking - Cheetah cookies

Thursday - Elephant
Color coloring sheet with crayons
Math - pages in math book
Science -  listen to sounds of an elephant.  Make habitat.
Crafts - using salt dough recipe, make some elephants - bake and paint them.
Cooking - Ginger Root Beer
Music - fingerplay, play along with rain stick and drum to african music
Reading - Elephant books, Do a reading lesson


Friday - Zebra
Color coloring sheet with colored pencils
Math - Zebra matching game
Reading - Zebra books, Africa book, Lion and the Mouse, Do a reading lesson
Crafts - stamp with rubber stamps
Color a map of Africa again, and mark where the various animals live.
Review the week.

Insects/Spiders Unit Study

Another preschool unit
study.  A lot of these ideas I got off of a very well done insect
unit study I found online.  I printed it off a few months ago - I
can't find the site again, either.  If I come across it, I'll post
it.  I hope I can find it - it was great - color coded and
everything.

Some tips from doing this one:  Don't
use Elmer's glue for the ladybug necklace.   It's too easy to
rip the felt out of the caps.  If you're going to do the paper
mache insects, it is a week long project.   Fun, but a long
project.  And you'll need to use sturdy glue to glue them
together.   I also used toothpicks in between each section to
hold it together better.  For the bingo cards I made, I made them
1 inch by 1 inch.  I should have done 2 inches square
instead.  And the puff paint spider web wasn't that
cool.   The puff paint bottle was hard for the kids to
squeeze, and when it was all done....it was cool to touch since it was
dimensional, but the paper was flat.  I had been picturing the
paper a bit more dimensional along the folds, but it
wasn't.   So nothing spectacular there LOL.


Reading
I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
Little Miss Muffet
Eric Carle insect books
Bugs and other insects / Bobbie Kalman & Tammy Everts J 595.7 K
Dangerous insects / Missy Allen, Michel Peissel J 595.7065 A
How insects work together / Jill Bailey J 595.7156 B
Insects / Anna Claybourne J 595.7 CLA
Insects, bugs, & art activities / Steve Parker & Polly Goodman J 595.7 PAR
Spiders, centipedes, and millipedes / Sally Morgan J 595.44 M
Spider's lunch : all about garden spiders / Joanna Cole J 595.44 C

Math
Tarantula's Bananas
Duplicate
tarantulas and bananas.  Color, laminate and cut out.  Have
her match the number on each tarantula to the correct group of bananas.

Ladybug Game
Duplicate 5 copies of ladybugs, and number 1-15.  Color, laminate,
cut out.  Have her look at the number on the back of each ladybug,
and then place the correct number of black beans on the back of each
ladybug.

Give the kids each a magnifying glass and a
notebook.  Go outside/on a walk and mark down how many bugs they
find.  When we come back inside, make a graph of the kinds and
amounts of bugs they found.

Do the activity cards with Busy Bugs
Practice adding with rubber bugs.

Draw a map of our neighborhood.  Take a bug and figure out how to get from one place to another, following the roads.


Science

Identify body parts of insects

Learn about metamorphosis

Learn about the types of insects:

decomposers
garden helpers
edible insects
pollinator
herbivore
carnivore

Fruit Flies
Take
a ripe piece of fruit and place it in an open glass jar.  Put it
near an open window for a couple days.  Place a cap on the jar and
leave it in a warm area.  Watch what happens to the fruit. 
(In a few days, fruit flies should emerge - gag)

Listen to sounds of insects on the computer/by cd

Food/Cooking
Make curds and whey
- either the real way by making homemade yogurt, or heat 2 cups whole
milk until just boiling.  Remove from heat and add a tablespoon of
vinegar and stir.

Buzzy Bees
Fill a drinking cup with juice (nectar).  Make large paper flowers
and tape them to a drinking cup.  Put a straw in the glass (so it
comes out the center of the flower).  Drink the nectar from the
flower like a bee or butterfly would.

Ants on a Log
Fill a celery stick with peanut butter, and put raisins on top.

Bug Mountain Cake
Bake a dome cake and a rectangle cake.  Place dome cake on top of
the rectangle cake - frost with chocolate frosting.  Cover with
2-3 cups of crushed chocolate cookies.  Arrange rubber bugs on top
of cake, crawling down the mountain.

Crafts
stamp with my insect rubber stamps

Make a spider web - fold
a piece of black paper in half lengthwise, widthwise, and
diaganolly.  Open up and lay flat.  Trace with white puff
paint over the fold lines.  Make a spiral circle over that with
the paint, let dry.

Ladybug necklace - Paint
backs of 2 bottle caps red.  Draw black dots on one of them. 
Glue a strip of black felt to the insides of both, to make a
hinge.  Glue a photo inside.  Put yarn around the hinge for a
necklace.  (this will make more sense when we make it and I post a
photo)

Paper Mache Insects ( dh and I think this is the coolest project....I have a feeling we're going to have a lot of big insects around the house LOL)


Blow up balloons and tape them together to make body shapes.  Tear
newspaper into strips about 2 inches wide, and dip them into a 50/50
flour and water mix.  Cover the balloons with the newspaper strips
- let dry for an hour or so inbetween layers.  The more layers,
the sturdier the insect.   When you are all done, let dry for
a couple of days.  Pop the balloon with a needle.  Paint the
insect, and attach pipe cleaners for antennae, and whatever else you
want for eyes, wings, etc...

Make a Tarantula
Cut out a spider body and attach pipe cleaner legs.  Make it lifesize - 10 inches across, legs extended.

Queen Wasp Chamber
Paint 9 toilet paper tubes brown, and glue in a pyramid shape. 
Glue one grain of rice in each tube.  Make a wasp out of yellow
clay - use pipe cleaners for legs and antennae.  Draw on details
with black marker.  Place wasp in one of the chambers.

Jumping Grasshopper
Cut out a 3 cup section of a cardboard egg carton.  Paint the
outside green.  Put a rubber ball in the middle cup, pushing a
straight pin through each side to hold it in.  Cut out legs and
wings from green construction paper, and glue to the sides and
top.  Add eyes. 

Music
Ants go Marching 1x1 (I hate this song )
I Caught a Baby Bumble Bee
Listen to Flight of the Bumblebee

Bible Verses
Prov 6:6, 30:24, 25, 27  Exodus 8:20-32, 10:1-20, Joel 1:2-4 Psalms 105:31

Misc. Activities
Go on a scavenger hunt.  Give them a list of insects (use pictures or stickers for the list), and as they find them, mark them off.

Grasshopper Jump - make an obstacle course of things for them to jump over.

Relay Race - Have them race each other, doing things like the caterpillar/inchworm crawl, grasshopper hop, etc.

Bingo
Make a 5x5 card, with images of insects or numbers on the
squares.  Either call out the name of an insect and she has to
find it and put a marker on it, or ask a question with a numerical
answer, and she has to find the number and put a marker on it.  Ex
- How many legs does an insect have?  Or have a pile with matching
pictures, and flip over the pile, one by one and find the matching
image - first with 5 in a row wins.

Links:

Insect Worksheets
Lots of Insect Coloring Sheets
Itsy Bitsy Spider craft ideas
Awesome Insect clip art


Books I used:
Crafts for Kids who are Wild about Insects - Kathy Ross

Asia Unit Study

Here
is another almost finished ideal unit study for our first month of
school.  It was hard finding stuff online for Asia, and I need to
make another run to the library for a few more books for
ideas.   But this is a good start.    I'm
nervous and afraid at the same time to start - it will be nice to see
how this plays out in reality, and where I'll need to tweak it. 
Not to mention how this will work with a 2 year old running around

Look at Asia and Great Wall of China on Google Earth
Coloring map of Asia
Lots of maps I converted these to black and white with the photocopy option in Photoshop.

Animals to study:
Panda Bears
Tigers - coloring page
King cobra - coloring page
Yak - coloring page
Snow Leopard - coloring page


Math
Color the snake with patterns

Go on a pattern hunt.   Walk around the house, finding things that have a pattern on them.


Science

Have her cut out pictures of Asian people and animals from magazines
and glue to paper.  Talk about how God made different kinds of
people.

Wild Thing
Pour
powdered Plaster of Paris into a ziploc bag - add a little water. 
Close tightly.  Have them squeeze and twist the bag into a 'wild
thing'.  Let dry, remove from bag.   Paint.  
Talk about what happened to the liquid and the dry, what it felt like,
etc.  Experiment with other wet/dry mixtures - wet sand - what
happens to the liquid?  Evaporation/condensation

Reading

These are very good books:
China: the people / Bobbie Kalman J 951 KAL
China: the culture/ Bobbie Kalman J 951 KAL
China : the land / Bobbie Kalman J 951 KAL
Japan: the people / Bobbie Kalman
Japan: the culture / Bobbie Kalman
Japan: the land / Bobbie Kalman

Ancient China / Judith Simpson J 931 A
Tiki-tiki-tembo
How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have?
Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak
Asia / Malcolm Porter and Keith Lye JR 950 POR
Are tigers ticklish? : see God's character in His creation /  Debby Anderson E A
The kids' wildlife book / by Warner Shedd J 591 S
Scary animals / by Jean de Sart J 591 S
Japan / Adele Richardson J 952 R
Into wild Nepal / John Woodward J 591.95 INT

Crafts
Panda craft  Page 2

Make a snake

What you will need: Old ties, polyfil stuffing, wiggly eyes, glue, wire (from a hanger)

What to do:
1.
If you would like your snake to be bendable, straighten out a wire
hanger or use some other type of wire. Make sure you fold down the ends
of the wire with some needle nose pliers so that the edges are very
smooth. Insert the hanger into the tie.
2.   Stuff the tie with polyfil from each end of the snake.
3. Glue or sew the tail end of the snake closed.
4. Push some stuffing up into the point of the snakes head (the wider
end of the tie).  Glue the end closed and glue on some wiggly eyes
to finish.

Potato prints - make patterns with them.

Make a cobra out of clay

Build the Great Wall of China
Mix 4 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, and 1 1/2 cups of water. 
Knead it and shape it into bricks that are 2x3 inches, and about 1 1/2
inches thick.  Bake in a 300 degree oven for 30 min.  Then
stack, and build.

Make a tiger puppet with paper plate and
popsicle stick - decoupage orange tissue paper onto plate, paint on
black stripes and face.

Rice Paper
Fold a white piece of tissue paper in half.  Open the paper up and
lay it on top of smoothed out plastic wrap.  Arrange pressed
flowers and leaves on one half of the tissue.  Fold the other half
of the paper on top.  Use a paintbrush and coat the entire piece
with a 50/50 mix of glue and water.  Let paper completely dry,
then peel off the plastic.
Food/Cooking
Japanese lunch
Ramen Noodles
Matchstick Carrots
Pea Pods
Shredded Lettuce
Chopped Onion
Sliced Mushroom

Heat 2 TBL oil in wok or lg frying pan. Stir in all veggies and cooked
meat stirring constantly. Fry for aprox 2-3 minutes. Add the flavor
pkts from the Ramen, sugar and boilingwater. Make a well in the middle
of the veggies and meat and place noodles in the liquid. Cover and
simmer 2 minutes. Stir and cook additional minute.  Sit on pillows
on the floor and eat with chopsticks.

Canton Corn Soup
Mix
3 c. Chicken Broth, 16 oz creamstyle corn, 3 TB apple juice and 2 TB
soy sauce in pan.  Bring to boil.  Mix 2 TB cornstarch with
1/4 c. watr and add to soup.  Separate 2 eggs.  Lightly beat
whites.  Remove soup from heat, and add whites slowly, swirling
with fork.  Season with salt and pepper.


Misc. Activities

Practice picking up cotton balls with chopsticks.
Paint a Japanese Flag
Go to an authentic asian restuarant

Music
Chinese Children Songs mp3
Chinese Music
Helpful Links
Learn how to use chopsticks
Unit Study Planning Sheet

Books I used
Instant Science for Primary Grades by Sam Ed Brown

Neighborhood Unit Study

Here is another unit study for September.  Later I'll divide this into 5 days as well.

Topics to learn about:
Grocery Store
Bank
Post Office
Restaurant
Garbage Man - Coloring Sheet
Policemen - Police Coloring Sheet
Firemen - 32 page coloring/activity book to print 
you'll need to do Image Resize and resize it to an 8.5x11 page - the
pages are zipped and when unzipped, are only a couple inches big.
Library - Coloring Sheet  

Math
Mail Carrier
Duplicate
and cut out mail carrier hat.  Copy houses and letters, let her
color them.  Laminate and cut out.   Put the mail hat
on.  Line up the houses in a row.  Look at the numbers on the
houses, and find the matching letter.  Deliver the letter to the
house.

Play grocery store with her play food.  Use money to buy things.  Play with her money flashcards.


Science
Have dh bring home some blueprints.  Show her what they are.  Learn what the lines and symbols mean.

Learn about water.  Gather various items that absorb water and
items that don't.  Put them in water and see what happens.

Crafts
Make a fire collage using red, orange, and yellow bits of torn paper.
Rub-A-Dub-Dub Nursery Rhyme
Paint a plastic bowl.  Cut out images of 3 people and place inside the tub.
Duplicate coloring page. Baker TP roll craft

Fire Painting

Directions:
Using colors associated with fire (red, orange) squirt or
draw thick lines of paint on paper and add a few drops of black
paint here and there. Press clear plastic wrap onto the paper
and squeegee the paint around. Pull plastic off of the paper
using a strong vertical pulling action. (This will cause the paint
to look like fire.) When paint is dry have the children glue a
black cutout of a house (windows cut out) and/or a black cutout of
a fire truck.

Food/Cooking

Fire Truck Cookies
Ingredients

Graham Crackers
Black licorice
Oreos
Red icing
Have
her spread icing on cracker.  Put oreos on for wheels.  Put
licorice horizontally, halfway down the cracker, as a hose.

Bake some cookies or muffins

Misc. Activities
- Teach her our address and phone number.
- Cut out a shape of a traffic light and a red, yellow and green circle.  Use with matchbox cars.
- Play "Red Light, Green Light"
- Learn fire safety rules: never
play with matches; if clothes are on fire, stop, drop and roll; to
avoid smoke, stay low and go; keep away from hot appliances; and
practice home fire drills.
- Learn about 911
- Make a mail box out of a cardboard box.  Make letters and 'mail' them.
- Play restaurant - have her help with dinner, make menus, etc.

Matching Game
Find object or pictures that correspond with different community
helpers (mailbox, dentist chair, firetruck, etc.). Additionally find
pictures of community helpers in uniform. Let your children match which
object goes with what helper.

Baker
Doctor
Firefighter
Mailman

Books to Read:

There is an excellent series I found, called the Community Helpers
series.  They are published by Bridgestone Books, and are perfect
for preschool/kindergarten age.   A lot of the Dee Ready
books on this list are part of that series.  


You're a community helper / Karen Bryant-Mole J 331.7 B
Community helpers from A to Z / Bobbie Kalman J 331.7 K
Fire fighters ; by Dee Ready J 628.9 R
Police officers ; by Dee Ready J 363.2 R
Richard Scarry's busy workers E S
Richard Scarry's postman pig and his busy neighbors E S
Michael Berenstain's When I grow up : Oh, the things I can be! /E B
My teddy bear at work / Irwin Jorvik, Ltd E M
Mail carriers / by Dee Ready J 383.145 R
Librarians / by Dee Ready J 023.2 R
Garbage and recycling / Rosie Harlow, Sally Morgan J 363.728 H
Where does the garbage go? / by Paul Showers J 628.44 S
Field Trip possibilities:
Visit a bakery
Watch the butcher at the grocery store
Have her go with me to a dr. appointment
Go to the post office.

Good Links

Fingerplays and Songs
Coloring Pages
Unit Study Planning Sheet
Community Unit Study links

Books I used:
Let Loose on Mother Goose by Terry Graham
Instant Science for Primary Grades by Sam Ed Brown

Africa Unit Study

 Here is my ideal unit study for our first week of school.  Later I'll break it up into 5 day sections.

A few notes about this one: - doing the stripes on the zebras freehand
is a pain to make a matching pair.   I'd recommend doing it in a
photo-editing program.  The Sweet Potato cookies were very
good.  I was surprised.  The kids keep scarfing them
down.  The homemade ginger ale......so-so.   It had slightly
too much of a ginger aftertaste for me, although I bet that could be
remedied by adding more water or sugar or lemon juice.  Don't use
brightly colored cups for the African drums...the white tissue paper
doesn't cover all that well, even after being stained.

National Geographic Live WildCam in Botswana

Geography
Map of Africa to color
look at Africa on Google Earth

Animals to Study:
Ostrich - Ostrich coloring sheet
Hippo - Hippo coloring sheet  Another one
Cheetah - Cheetah coloring sheet
Elephant - Elephant coloring sheet
Zebra - Zebra coloring sheet

Math
Ostrich Eggs
Make 20 copies of ostrich eggs.  Number eggs from 1-20; laminate
and cut out.  Have her line the eggs up in order from 1-20, and
then from 20-1.  Ostrich eggs can weigh up to 3.3 lbs.  
Find an equivalent weight and let her see how heavy it is. 
Compare to a chicken egg.

Jaguars' Spots
Make copy of sheet of jaguars.  Have her count the number of spots
on each jaguar.  Place an equal amount of dried beans on top of
each jaguar.    Print out the numeral equivalent to each
jaguar, and have her match the number of spots to the numeral.

Zebra Stripe Matching Game
Print out blank Zebra image
onto index cards.  Draw different amounts of stripes onto each
image - have 2 of each kind. Mix up the cards and let the her match the
stripes.

Cheetah running/measurement (Zoobooks activity)

Science
Animal Coverings

Get a variety of different animal coverings such as hair, fur,
feathers, etc.  Play with pieces, talk about them.  
Have her cut images of animals out of magazines and match the animal to
the type of covering.  Talk about why God gave each animal the
covering that it does - think about why a zebra with feathers (and
other examples like that) might not work.


Listen to sounds of the animals, either on cd or internet.
3 Hippo video clips, 1 audio

Listen to different languages being spoken, either on cd or internet.

Make a Habitat
- Using finished elephants, make a habitat for them - go on a walk and
find bark, grass, and leaves.  Put in a box with some water.

Cooking/Food

Zimbabwe Sweet Potato Cookies

2 1/2 cups (625 ml) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons (7 ml) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (2 ml) baking soda
1/4 teaspoon (1 ml) salt
1/2 cup (125 ml) butter or margarine (1 stick)
1/4 cup (50 ml) sugar
1 tablespoon (15 ml) grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon (5 ml) nutmeg
1/4 cup (50 ml) honey
1 egg
1 cup (250 ml) grated, raw sweet potatoes


Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C).

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium-size mixing bowl. Set Aside.


Cream the butter or margarine with the sugar in a large mixing bowl.
Mix in the lemon peel, nutmeg, honey, and egg. Then, stir in the grated
sweet potato.

Blend the flour mixture into the sweet potato mixture.


Place rounded teaspoons of the cookie dough onto an ungreased cookie
sheet. The cookies should be spaced at least 1/2-inch (1.25 cm)
apart.  Bake for 7 minutes.

Cheetah Cookies (from Zoobook magazine)

Ginger Root Beer
Peel
1/4 lb of ginger root.  Thinly slice.  Put in a pan with 3 c.
water - boil, cover and reduce heat and cook 20 min.  Throw away
root.  Add 1/2c. lemon juice and 1/3 c. sugar.  Stir until
dissolved.  Pour into a jar with a lid and refrigerate.  To
serve - fill glass 1/3-1/2 full with syrup.  Add ice and cold
water.


Books to Read

Zigby camps out / Brian Paterson E PAT
Zebras / by Anthony D. Fredericks J 599.665 FRE
Yellow Hippo / by Alan Rogers E R
Hippos / Jenny Mary Markert J 599.734 M
Africa / Malcolm Porter and Keith Lye JR 960 POR
Ostriches / by Caroline Arnold J 598.5 ARN
Big egg / by Molly Coxe E COX
Cheetahs : fleetest of foot / by Eulalia Garcia J 599.74 G
The cheetah : world's fastest land animal / Joy Paige J 599.75 PAI
Aesop's Fable - The Lion and the Mouse
Animals in camouflage / Phyllis Limbacher Tildes J 591.472 T
Elephants : trunks and tusks / Adele D. Richardson J 599.67 RIC
Elephants The giant animals series/ Johnston, Marianne J 599.67 J
Saggy Baggy elephant : no place for me / by Gina Ingoglia E I
Here we go, Harry / Kim Lewis E LEW

Crafts
Stamp with my giraffe, lion, and zebra rubber stamps
Texture painting with animal shaped bath toys

Rain Rhythm Sticks

Materials: 
Paper towel tubing, plastic lids from milk jug, tape, beans or rice or cereal,  felt tip markers.

Description:
Decorate
a paper towel tube with markers and sticker.  Close one end off
with a milk cap, sealing it with masking tape just to make sure the
filling doesn't come out.

Partially
fill the tube with dried beans or rice. Close the other end with a
cap.  Then let them shake, shake shake. It sounds just like
raindrops!

African Drum
Glue two styrofoam or plastic cups together, bottom to bottom and let dry.  Tear off 4 to 5 inch lengths of masking tape and completely cover the opening at the top and bottom of the cups.  Decoupage white tissue paper all over the outside of the cups and when dry, brush overtop with coffee or strong tea.  Draw geometric or other designs around the top, middle and bottom of the drums with permanent markers.

Salt Dough Elephants
2 c. flour
1 c. salt
1 c. water
Mix and knead.  Make figures, bake at 250 until brown. 

Music

AFRICA FINGERPLAY

I'd like to go to Africa      (Point to self.)

Where natives build straw huts like this (Join fingertips of two hands and form roof)

Where elephants have big, gray trunks (clasp hands and swing arms in front like a trunk)

Where natives’ arrow seldom miss (Shoot arrow in pantomime.)

Where lions shake their manes and roar (Shake head & roar)

I'd like to go to Africa. (Point to self)

Get a CD from the library with african music on it.
African drums

Misc. Activities
Play with felt animals from Betty Lukens flannelgraph Bible stories - The Felt Source

Possibly take a field trip to a nearby Ostrich Farm

Get a National Geographic (or similar) video on Africa

Good Links
Wildlife Safari
Desert link
National Geographic Coloring Sheets
Unit Study planning page link
 
Books I'm using:

A to Z Math Games by Karen M. Breitbart (picked it up at a garage sale for $4!!!)

Instant Science for Primary Grades by Sam Ed Brown (another yard sale find!)