In case you are not familiar with Amanda Bennett’s Download N Go series, they are a comprehensive unit study geared toward K-4th grade students but could easily be used with older children as well. Everything is organized and prepared for you. It includes videos, websites, activities, and lapbook components. You don’t have to spend a lot of time doing research, all the work is done for you. There is a comprehensive book list included for each unit. I usually spend 30 minutes to an hour reading over the material, printing, and putting books on hold. Some might think there is a lot of printing but you can print as much or little of the materials as you decide. I print all the lapbook pieces and some activity pages and the rest we work on orally together. It works out perfectly for our family.
Here are some of the books we used for this study.
Take a look at what is included in Winter Wonders. Each day is broken down into 5 days/Objectives:
1. What is Winter?
2. Science Secrets of Winter
3. People and Places of Winter
4. Time for Tips and Treasures of Winter
5. Goodies and Gadgets of Winter
Click on the picture below to take a look at some sample pages.
Each day is filled with plenty of interesting videos and activities as you learn all about winter, snowflakes, hibernation, winter safety, the Iditarod Race, “Snowflake Bentley”, and so much more. There were also lots of fun recipes to try and the favorite around here…science experiments!
Here are a few that we tried this week:
"When Does Water Float? " We learned about density and how water becomes less dense when it freezes.
This experiment helped us to understand why we use salt on our sidewalks and roads during the winter.
Their hypothesis was correct. The ice cube with the salt melted much more quickly.
Almost on queue, the snow begin to fall and we were able to catch some snow crystals to examine. I love it when a plan comes together! *smile*
Snowflake Bentley we are not but we were able to get a pretty good look at some individual flakes.
We made some Hot Chocolate with one of the recipes included in the unit. Noah said, and I quote, "It was the best hot chocolate in the world!" and thats saying alot coming from him!
So we decided that Snowflake Tortillas would be the perfect snack to go along with our hot chocolate.
And it would be even better served on our snowman dishes.
We were right!!!! YUM! A perfect way to spend a winter afternoon.
We also made lots of snowflakes to decorate the windows.
One of the days, we were studying about an artist that does winter paintings named Robert Duncan. Imagine the kids surprise (and moms) when we discovered on our very own wall some of his art work!!! Love his stuff by the way, combines some of my favorite things- kids, animals, and snow.
After looking at alot of his winter scenes, we thought we would give it a try.
Micah hard at work.
This is Noah's. It's a little abstract but if you look closely you can see row upon row of bare trees.
I was very impressed!
We had such a great time with this study. So many different things to try. I love the opportunity to have this quality time with my kids and these units make it so fun and easy.
Here is a shot of the outside of our lapbook.
I would gladly recommend these Download & Go Units to anyone. You can order Winter Wonders here. Great product for a great price!
You can learn more about the Download N Go Series and all the titles they offer here.
You can also check out the DNG Blog for all the latest information and specials.
***Disclaimer Statement: We were provided a copy of this product, free of charge, for the purpose of writing an honest review her on my blog. The opinions expressed here are those of my children or myself.***
2 comments:
Looks like a really fun week!....We've been having fun with Winter Wonders, too...
Thanks so much for sharing - what an adventure your crew had! The photos were fantastic, and I love the Snowflake Bentley snowflakes on black paper shot. :) Now, off to make some of that hot chocolate!
Amanda B.
www.UnitStudy.com
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