Olive Oyl for President

Fieldtrip: Cope Environmental Center

Our Keepers group took a fieldtrip to Cope Environmental Center. We had a wonderful time tromping through the woods looking for bugs.

She Sells Sea Shells...

The blank blue cards are ones we have not found exact matches for.

Florida Memories

Learning Notes: Week 7

Phonics- Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

* Lessons 120- 124

Read Aloud - James Herriott's Treasury for Children

Math-

Timed addition sheets -0 thru -10 (11 problems)
*-0- 30 seconds
*-1- 30 seconds

MUS- Alpha ch19- Subtraction -0, -1 19A, B, Test

Science- Invertebrates & Vertebrates

* Crabs

Social Studies- SOTW 1
Ch6- The Jewish People

* Map
* Word Find
* Audio
Music- Cast recording Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat
Video- Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat

Keepers of the Faith
Fieldtrip -Cope Environmental Center

* Virtue: Contentment "For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content" Prov 4:11
* Lesson: Insects

Piano

* Pentascales
* C Position

Co-op
Choir

* This Old Man
* Over the River & Through the Woods
* Navajo Round

Spanish

* Rooms of your house

Coconut Crabs

Coconut crab - overviewBBC Natural History Unit

We are studying crustaceans and shelled mollusks this week. I am always flabbergasted when I see these ginormous coconut crabs. Check out the videos at Arkive.

We are also reading The Secret World of Crabs by Theresa Greenway and Seashells, Crabs, and Sea Stars by Christine Kump Tibbitts

Learning Notes: Weeks 5&6

Phonics- Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

• Lessons 116- 119 (aw, all...)
  

Read Aloud - Nim's Island- Wendy Orr

• Complete

Independent Reading

• I am King- Mary Packard
  
• Silly Stories Mix and Match - Caryl Koeling
  
• Card Game Directions
  

Math-
Uno, Skip Bo jr, Phase 10
Timed addition sheets +0 thru +10 (11 problems)

• 1 - 30 seconds
• 2 - 50 seconds
• 3- 60 seconds
• 9- 45 seconds

MUS- Alpha ch18- Introduction to subtraction 18A-C
Scholastic Math Games

• Apples
• Spaghetti
  

Science- Invertebrates & Vertebrates

• Giant Squid
• Octopus
• Variegated Sea Urchins
• Sea Turtles
• Shells/ Mollusks

VHS- Animal Life in Action: Animal Classification
Research for Cicada Report for Keepers

Fieldtrip: Mote Aquarium, G Wiz

Social Studies- SOTW 1
Ch5- Sumerian Dictator

• Map
• Coloring Sheet
• Word Find
• Narration
  

Keepers of the Faith

• Virtue: Contentment "For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content" Prov 4:11
  
• Lesson: Insects

Piano

• Pentascales
• Bass C
• C Position
  

Co-op
Choir

• This Old Man
• Over the River & Through the Woods
  
• Navajo Round

Spanish

• Numbers
• I want

Defenders of Sea Life: a Family Thing

Papaw picked up a gorgeous Cockle shell still hinged on the beach yesterday. While he was walking back he felt something on his fingers and thought that the muscle must still be inside... wrong. Inside was a baby octopus! I have never in my life, in dozens of trips to this area, ever seen octopuses but here we are putting them back in the Gulf everyday. Amazing.

I didn't think that an octopus could support itself out of the water but these little guys are frenzied and fast! You cannot hardly hold onto them for them scrambling to get away.
Unfortunately, Daddy found one that did not make it. We have studied it, counted suckers (80 per tentacle)... G wants to dissect it but I'm a wimp. He wants to see it's brain. Ugh. I am thinking of trying to preserve it.... we'll see.

Fun at Mote

Look at that cute Sea Turtle in the TED.

Buddies!

I wish I could have caught the seconds before this...
It looked like the turtle was trying to eat the fish on G's shirt.

Lessons from the Ocean: chapter 2

(A hatchling at the Mote Nursery)

I mentioned the other day that we were blessed to be able to watch the excavation of a couple of sea turtle nests. Well today, G and Daddy went for a walk a little farther down than normal and came across another set of Mote Volunteers. Again G was able to help dig the nest and this time inside was a LIVE baby turtle!!! So G got to watch (escort) the turtle make his way to the ocean to start it's life. If we can get the video off of Daddy's phone I'll post it.

• Sea turtles return to start laying eggs after about 20 years
• They will return to within 1/16th of a mile from where they were born
  

Teacher of One: Defender of Sea Life

Oh my goodness... I just saved a baby octopus! We were walking down the shoreline when I saw what I thought was a baby Ghost crab which G has been chasing. When I leaned over to look closer I saw it's tiny, translucent tentacles flailing around. Talk about a rush. I picked it up and it writhed all around so we really couldn't get a long look at it. I walked out into the surf and set him free. G said "Wow you didn't even mind getting your pants wet."

Below is not "my" octopus but I put this up to show you the approximate size. Mine had a yellow bell and clear body and tentacles.

Lessons from the Ocean

Early this morning G and I took off shelling. The waves were crazy high all yesterday so we figured the sea would churn up some interesting finds this morning. While walking we came upon a volunteer from Mote. She was out check on all of the turtle nests as they do every morning. She was off of her 4 wheeler so G and I went up to ask her about something we had seen the day before, which didn't turn out to be anything, she invited G to help her excavate a nest which had hatched a few days earlier. WOW!!

(Photo from William MacKenzie |Tortuguero Study Group (Aug 6-11) > Atlantic Green Sea Turtle Hatchlings (CCC))

They give hatchlings 3 days to get out of the nest then they go in and check things out. So we followed her! G helped her dig up a 3x3 foot square piece of mesh which is normally only 16 - 24 inches deep but the Gustav inspired waves covered it about 2 more feet. The mesh is to keep the raccoons and armadillos from eating the eggs. Once she had the mesh out of the way she used her hands to dig for the nest. Which was about 8 inches in diameter and a foot or so deep.
She pulled out shells, unhatched eggs, and 2 hatchlings that did not make it out of their shells. She let G count the whole eggs for her to documents, while she counted the partials, and they both buried the 2 that didn't make it together. It was amazing. G helped her a bit with a second nest... but we had been out for 3 hours and were turning pink so we said thank you and went home. She asked G if we would be here tomorrow... that she would tell us what she found in this second nest if we saw her in the morning. So Neat!!
She was so gracious and informative. Here are somethings we learned.

• Sea Turtle dot org- When I told her we were homeschoolers and that this was a great lesson she said to check out this site where you call follow tagged mommies back to their homes, including ones from here. She said there is lots of info for teachers.
• Turtles like alligators determine their sex by the temperature. Also even if they hatchlings are hatched... they won't come out of the nest if it is too hot. They'll wait until 1 or 2 in the morning when it's cooler.
  
• The eggs she found will not hatch. If they contain live turtles you can actually feel them moving inside. If she had found live eggs she would have reburied them, too.

What an incredible experience we were led to today.