living and non-living

Our homeschooling theme for this past week was Alive and Non-Living -- talking about and exploring the differences in living and non-living things, deciding what makes something alive, and comparing the similarities between different types of living things. We took walks to identify living and non-living things, pretended to be all sorts of different plants and animals (comparing differences in how they breath and eat and grow and move), explored some plants that look like and are named for animals (see J's drawing of an Egret Flower for an example -- anyone whose kids get the magazine My Big Backyard will recognize where that inspiration came from!), and of course, we read books! Among them were:

What's Alive by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott. This is another in the Let's-Read-And-Find-Out Science series that I mentioned last week. It provided many opportunities to discuss what's alive and what isn't, and why, and as a bonus was a gentle and brief introduction to the concept of death and dying (which is something we've not really broached with our kids yet, but I liked the way this book handled it). While reading the rest of the books this week, and on our walks and adventures, we had plenty of opportunities to talk about what was alive and what was not. The text of the book actual directs you in an activity where you draw pictures of the things you see around the house/yard/park and then sort them into living and non-living things, which the kids really loved. This also sparked a discussion about things that were once alive, but no longer are, like our wooden fence rails, and the hay the sheep eat.

The Tin Forest by Helen Ward and Wayne Anderson. This is an absolutely wonderful tale of an old man who lived in the middle of a wasteland, who used his imagination and building skills to created a non-living wonderland out of garbage (tied in with both our theme this week and with Earth Day/recycling talk from last week!), which then attracted a jungle full of life. Beautiful story and illustrations, this book is an absolute must-read!

Into the Night by Deborah Heiligman, illustrated by Melissa Sweet. In this simple tale about nighttime falling, a mother and son reminisce about their day spent together on an outing where they explored and collected all sorts of natural treasures. Many opportunities to discuss which of their discoveries were living and non-living, and also served as a wonderful bedtime tale in addition to being supportive of the nature walks that are an important part of the Enki curriculum. Another great book!