Tag: little house on the prairie

Little House In The Big Woods Adventure: Week by Week PE, Health, and Safety Lessons

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog2 Comments

**This post may contain affiliate links to some of the products and resources that we have used. These are provided at no extra charge to you and help to support our blog and family if a purchase is made through these links. -Thank you!

Here are our Lesson Plans For PE, Health & Safety

On weeks where there are several activities listed just choose a couple that interest you the most to work on.

Tip: If you want to go to a certain week/chapter or subject simply push the ‘ctrl’ and the ‘F’ button down together and a small bar will pop up. Type in the week number or chapter number you want and it will take you to it.

Week 1: Chapters 1 & 2

1. Stranger Danger

  • Practice what to do/say in different scenarios like:
    • Saying ‘Not my Mommy/Not my Daddy‘ if a stranger tries to grab you.
    • Kick, Fight, Bite, Make Noise if a stranger tries to grab you.
    • Have a secret family password for emergencies when you may need a ‘stranger’ to pick up your kids.
  • Discuss different ways a stranger may try to trick your child:
    • try to lure you into a vehicle saying that your  parent is sick and they were sent to pick you up
    • they may say they have something to show you and ask you to come with them
    • try to find out if you are home alone
    • may ask to come inside your home to use the phone
    • may ask for help to find a lost pet
  • Discuss ways to stay safe:
    • NEVER wander off without telling an adult where you are going
    • NEVER talk to strangers
    • NEVER accept items from a stranger
    • NEVER go with a stranger
    • NEVER tell a stranger you are home alone (or post about it on social media)
    • NEVER open a door to a stranger
    • DO find a safe place and tell someone what is happening
    • DO walk away from a stranger
    • DO call your parents or 911 if you do not feel safe

Be Smart Stay Safe: A Video Teaching Kids to Be Safe DVD Plus 3 Music CDs

Be Smart Stay Safe: A Video Teaching Kids to Be Safe DVD Plus 3 Music CDs

2. Games/Outdoor Play

Week 2: Chapters 3 & 4

1. Gun Safety

  • Discuss the importance of gun safety.
  • Make a list of gun safety rules.**
  • This would be a good time to have someone you know show your kids how to properly handle a firearm.
  • Discuss what you learned.

2. What is Rabies?

  • Watch the Old Yeller rabies scene (may not be good for younger kids).
  • Discuss the importance of not playing with wild animals or animals you don’t know.

Old Yeller 2-Movie Collection (Old Yeller/Savage Sam)

Old Yeller 2-Movie Collection Old Yeller/Savage Sam

3. Whole Foods vs Processed Foods

  • Discuss the differences of whole foods and processed foods.
  • Make a list of whole/processed foods in your kitchen.

Fun song for younger kids:

4. How to Read Nutrition Labels

5. Games/Outdoor Play

Week 3: Chapters 5, 6, & 7

1. What Happens When You Don’t Bathe?

  • Discuss what happens when you don’t shower.
  • Discuss how it could impact your relationships.

How to Take a Shower- a pilot video in a relationship series

  • Write out the steps to taking a shower **

2. Happy, Healthy Kids: Fresh Air

  • Discuss how Laura must have felt when she couldn’t go outside.
  • Discuss the benefits of fresh air.
  • Go outside and do something fun for 30 minutes!

3. Games/Outdoor Play

Week 4: Chapters 8 & 9

1. Benefits of Square Dancing

  • Sign Up For Square Dance Lessons. Check wheresthedance.com for a location near you.
  • Or check out these lessons here.

2. Benefits of Natural Light

  1. Laura describes how the sun felt on the trip to town, how does the sun feel where you are today?
  2. Discuss the benefits of sunlight.

Cool Outdoor Activities: Great Things to Do in the Great Outdoors

3. Games/Outdoor Play

Bonus: Check out Jigging

  • Watch this video:
  • Give it a try:

Week 5: Chapters 10 & 11

1. Honey vs. Sugar

  • Discuss the differences between honey and sugar.
  • Have a taste comparison and make a graph of who prefers which.

2. Nutritional Value of Cheese

  1. Discuss the nutritional information of cheese.
  2. Taste several types of cheeses, compare nutritional information.

3. What is Cholesterol?

  1. Discuss what cholesterol is and how it affects your body.
  2. Name 5 foods high in cholesterol and 5 foods low in cholesterol.

4. Wasp Stings

  1. Discuss the body’s reaction to a sting.

How To Treat Bee & Wasp Stings

  1. Discuss how stings were treated in the book.
  2. Write out a step by step sting treatment plan.**

5. How to treat a Fever with Herbs

You can also watch this video about using natural medicines:

  • Discuss how fevers are treated today compared to how they were treated in Laura’s time.
  • Look up pictures of the herbs you learned about. Bonus points if you can draw them in your notebook.**

 Herbs Coloring Book

Kid’s Herb Book, A: For Children of All Ages

6. Games/Outdoor Play

  • Play ‘Steal the Cheese’. Divide into two groups and each group needs an equal amount of cheese (sticks, bean bags, balls, etc). Line up the ‘cheese’ on each side behind the players. The goal is to run and steal the other team’s cheese without getting caught. The first team to steal all the cheese or catch all of the other team’s players is the winner.
  • Square Dance Lesson

Week 6: Chapters 12 & 13

1. Food Pyramid

**Check out this site for more ideas.

  • Discuss what you learned.
  • **Complete one or two activities below:
    • Use construction paper to make a ‘My Plate’ or ‘Food Pyramid’ guide. Cut out pictures of foods from magazines to make a collage.
    • Plan a healthy meal and grocery list using the ‘My Plate’ model.
    • Go shopping and help make healthy food choices.
    • Pretend to be Popcorn and jump up and down to music.

2. Importance of Protein

  • Name 3 nutrients we get from meat and where else we can find them.
  • Discuss the importance of protein in our diets and what happens when you don’t get enough protein in your diet.

3. Calories In 6 Of The Most Popular Fast-Food Kids Meals

  • Discuss what would happen if you only ate fast food.

4. Games/Outdoor Play

Week 7: Finishing Up

  1. Practice making healthy food choices
  2. Research Cabin Fever and ways to prevent/cure it.
  3. Make a Giant Tic-Tac-Toe Game

Bonus: Research Tobacco.

(mentioned in Chapter 9)

  • Discuss what you learned.
  • List 3 different side effects of tobacco use.

Games/Outdoor Play

  • Play any of the games listed above or choose your favorite game to play.
  • Continue your Square Dance lessons.

**BE SURE TO SAVE A FEW SAMPLES OF YOUR WORK FOR YOUR  PORTFOLIO!  TAKE PICTURES OF BIG PROJECTS!

Little House In The Big Woods Adventure: Week by Week Science Lessons

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog2 Comments

**This post may contain affiliate links to some of the products and resources that we have used. These are provided at no extra charge to you and help to support our blog and family if a purchase is made through these links. -Thank you!

Here are our Lesson Plans For Science

On weeks where there are several activities listed just choose a couple that interest you the most to work on.

Tip: If you want to go to a certain week/chapter simply push the ‘ctrl’ and the ‘F’ button down together and a small bar will pop up. Type in the week number or chapter number you want and it will take you to it.

Week 1: Chapters 1 & 2

1. Read about bears or watch a video about bears.

 

For the Little Ones:

 

2. Read about panthers or watch a video about panthers.

 

 

3. Research Microbes and Bacteria.

 

  • Discuss what you learned.
  • How do they affect us?

4. What is Density?

 

Bonus Lesson: Why did the fire burn different colors? (Parental supervision needed for some activities!)

  • Discuss what you learned.
  • Ask your parents if you can have a campfire and use these Cosmic Magical Flame packets to watch the flames change colors.

Week 2: Chapters 3 & 4

1. Read about owls or watch a video about owls.

2. What is Rust?

  • Discuss what you learned.

3. Study the respiratory system.

Watch a video and older kids can do some independent research.

Week 3: Chapters 5, 6, & 7

1. Study the Digestion system.

2. Research Maple Trees

  • Describe how to identify a Maple Tree.

3. Research about collecting maple syrup.

  • Discuss what you have learned.
  • Write out the process for making Maple Syrup. Use this Sequencing Worksheet.
  • Bonus: Draw a picture to go with your project.

Week 4: Chapters 8 & 9

  1. Research and Study animal tracks.

2.  Study the skin.

3. Study the sun.

Week 5: Chapters 10 & 11

1. Study the moon.

2. Research Yellow Jackets vs. Bees.

 

  • Discuss what you learned. Why are Bees so important?
  • Make a Venn Diagram to show the similarities and differences of these two species.
  • Example:

Image result for venn diagram example

 

Week 6: Chapters 12 & 13

1.Research Deer.

  • Watch a video and older kids can do some independent research.

2.Research Thresher and Discuss what horsepower means today.

  • Watch a video and older kids can do some independent research.

 

  • Discuss what you learned.
  • What does a thresher do?
  • How has the meaning of horsepower changed?
  • We used some gears to show how a thresher worked.

3. Research germs.

Week 7: Finishing Up

1. Pick out a previous topic to research more and write a report about it.

2. Check out some other forest animals. Which ones have you seen before?

3. Check out these other videos for more information for you Gold Rush Speech.

  • How is Gold Mined?
  • How is Gold processed?
  • How is Gold used?

 

Fun Projects:

  • My kids also enjoyed reading:

 Bears on the Brain (Science Solves It!)

**BE SURE TO SAVE A FEW SAMPLES OF YOUR WORK FOR YOUR  PORTFOLIO!  TAKE PICTURES OF BIG PROJECTS!

 

 

 

Kirby’s Kids Grade by Grade Homeschool Reading List

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog30 Comments

**This post may contain affiliate links to some of the products and resources that we have used. These are provided at no extra charge to you and help to support our blog and family if a purchase is made through these links. -Thank you!

Here is a list of books that we will be reading with our homeschool. I will update the list as we go through this journey. Many of these books can be found at your local library for FREE but I have provided Amazon links where you can find most of them ‘used’ for cheap. We also keep an Amazon list of books that we would like to purchase and sometimes they are gifted to us for Christmas and/or birthdays.

You should keep a record of the books read. You can do this in a notebook or using this printable HERE. (My kids like the plain ones so they can doodle around the margins but I may try to come up with a ‘prettier’ one later.)

I have also been using a lot of these books with some of the Novel-Ties Study Guides and other unit study guides that I have found online. I try to find as many FREE guides as I can but that isn’t always possible.

Remember that even though I have included Amazon links to these titles you may be able to purchase them used or at a different site for a better price. You may also have access to these books on your Kindle or other reading devices. Be sure to check back in as we will update this as we add more books to our own favorites here!

You may also like to check out these links for book reports:

Pre-K/Kindergarten

These will need to be read-alouds

First Grade:

Some of these may need to be read-alouds

Second Grade:

Third Grade:

Fourth Grade:

Fifth Grade:

Sixth Grade:

Seventh Grade:

Eighth Grade:

Ninth Grade:

Tenth Grade:

Eleventh Grade:

Twelfth Grade:

Updated May 31, 2022

printable-reading-listDownload

Kirby’s Kids: Our 2018-2019 Homeschool Curriculum Reveal

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog5 Comments

*This post does contain some affiliate links which help to support our blog and our family.

Ohhhh! I am so excited to be sharing this post with you. The kids are pretty excited about it too! My fingers are going faster than my brain as I am typing and somehow or another they are managing to put into words what I want to say. I did show a sneak peak of some of the items we’ve received in this post here but now I am going to show you everything we have right now.

If you haven’t seen my latest posts about homeschooling check out the links here but if you are only interested in what we have planned for this year, please keep scrolling.

I’ve been talking about how excited I am for our next homeschool year and I just can’t wait to get started. I have actually talked about this curriculum before but its been awhile. My kids are finally at the age that I think this will work out really well for everyone. Continue reading “Kirby’s Kids: Our 2018-2019 Homeschool Curriculum Reveal” →

The Little House On The Prairie Debate

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog4 Comments

I just couldn’t believe what I saw on Facebook the other day. It was quite a shock to read that the American Association for Library Services to Children announced that its prestigious Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, which has been around since 1954, will now be known as the Children’s Literature Legacy Award.

According to the Washington Post it says that they voted to remove her name from the award because of a passage in the opening chapter of ‘Little House on the Prairie’. Yes, times were different back then but I feel that we can use these as teaching moments. I mean we don’t have the power to go back and change history but we can use lessons from the past to better our futures. Or if we choose not to use these as important lessons we can always skip over the questionable parts and not even read them to the children.

I’m not saying anyone is wrong for feeling the way they do as we are all entitled to our own opinions. I also know that some more take offense to things more easily than others. I really do believe that none of this was written to intentionally cause harm to anyone though. It was just a different time and a different way of life. These were my favorite books as a child and I have them on my bookshelves right now. I have no plans to remove them or stop my kids from reading them either.

You can read more about this debate in these articles here:

If you don’t have these books but would like to get them you can find them here or you can get the DVDs here. We are currently reading Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography which my kids and I are really enjoying.

**This post does contain affiliate links.