G'day Mates... Expedition Australia

Why is Waltzing Matilda stuck in my head?  Or the lyrics "Laugh Kookaburra, Laugh?"  Hmmm... could it be that my 3 world travelers and I have been to the Land Down Under?  (No, not the kids lair in the basement!)  Actually, we have again had the privilege of completing one of Amanda Bennett's wonderful Download N Go units, and this past week our selection was none other than Expedition Australia.  What tremendous fun we have had exploring the Outback, discovering the native wildlife, discussing the unique music, and learning the lay of the land together!!!

Expedition Australia is a downloadable unit study designed with young students in mind.  Lasting a week in length, the units are perfect for K-4th grades.  Each DNG contains embedded video clips, website links, lapbooking elements, notebooking pages, supplemental activities, and recommended reading lists.  DNG units are interactive and exciting for children yet easy and manageable for parents to implement.  Listed below is an overview of the daily topics we studied and a peek at some of the activity pages available.

Day 1: Where on Earth is Australia?

Day 2: Some of the Special Places in Australia

Day 3: A bit of Australian History

Day 4: Cool Things to Know About Australia

Day 5: Fun and Games in Australia

 

My animal lovers really enjoyed Expedition Australia because there was wildlife a plenty!  Kangaroos, koalas, and the funny little wombat too.  Our public library's collection had the perfect books on these fascinating critters.  It makes this Mommy smile because my children don't have to be entertained merely through fictional texts sporting recognizable cartoon characters, but that they can be equally engrossed in factual books.  Through DNG's my kids are becoming quite familiar with the non-fiction side of the library.  (An experience, I believe, I was lacking in my youth.) 

In keeping with my wee ones obsession with animals, we reminisced about our recent trip to Kentucky Down Under.  This attraction hosts many Australian influences.  It is a piece of the Land of Oz tucked away in the Bluegrass.  We remembered how we tried to get the kookaburra to laugh.  We had as much luck doing that as we did making a decent sound on the didgeridoo.  We recalled petting kangaroos, and while we never saw a joey peep out of it's pouch, we were able to see it moving and kicking inside.  This was an excellent trip, and it was great to tap into the kiddos prior knowledge when studying Expedition Australia.

While I really, really enjoy eating a good steak at Outback, it is much more economical for my family of 5 to study the Outback - more educational too!  As all DNG titles, Expedition Australia is available for purchase and immediate download for $7.95.  However, for a limited time, you can purchase Expedition Australia for $5.95.  This deal will end November 8th, so don't delay! 

 

Also of special interest, the DNG Blog is hosting a giveaway for two Australia Political Maps from National Geographic.  What could be a better addition to your study of the Land Down Under?  In order to be entered in the giveaway, simply visit the DNG Blog and leave a comment.  While taking this step to be the next giveaway winner, be sure to check out the Expedition Australia blog tour.  See how other families utilized this study in their homes, and make note of things you won't want to leave out when your family goes on their own educational Expedition Australia trip.

"They’re Grrrrreat!" Terrific Tigers DNG

Serving on the Download N Go review team, I was provided with the Terrific Tigers DNG at no cost in exchange for my honest opinion of the product. My three little animals truly enjoyed this week long unit study and have walked away with a wealth of information.  In the words of advertising icon, Tony the Tiger, Amanda Bennett's Download N Go's, we think...

 "They’re Grrrrreat!"   

Designed specifically with students in K-4th grade in mind, the Terrific Tigers Download N Go is content rich, yet extremely user-friendly.  While step by step instructions are provided for the week long unit study, you are still afforded the opportunity to tailor fit the activities to the varied learning styles and needs of your children.  Within the download, multiple learning activities are offered including: interactive weblinks, embedded video clips, lapbook components, notebooking pages, puzzles, coloring pages, suggested activities, and a recommended reading list.  See the daily themes listed below, and take a sneak peek at some of the Terrific Tigers DNG activity pages below.

                                                                                                          

Day 1: What is a Tiger?                                       

Day 2: Getting to Know Tigers

Day 3: Where Are the Tigers?

Day 4: The Science of Tigers
Day 5: Cool Things About Tigers

As I've mentioned in previous DNG reviews, one of my favorite things to do is to take the booklist to the public library and acquire as many supplemental resources as possible.  I was thrilled to find that our local library actually shelved a number of the Terrific Tigers DNG recommendations.  I loved seeing my children soaking in factual information from the non-fiction titles as well as being entertained by the fictional stories hosting tigers as primary characters.  Additionally, with Terrific Tigers, I found titles in several different cultural literary genres.  We read:

1. Tiger Soup by Frances Temple (An Anansi Story from Jamaica)
2. The Tiger and the Dried Persimmon retold by Janie Jaehyun Park (a Korean folktale)
3. How Tiger Got His Stripes as told by Rob Cleveland (a Vietnamese folktale)
4. Nine-In-One GRR! GRR! told by Blia Xiong (a Laotian folktale) 

Caleb used a couple of his favorite Leapfrog electronics to do some exploring and discovering on his own.  His favorite Leapster game is Animal Genius (which he is well on the road to becoming), and he used his TAG reader pen to learn more about tigers from his National Geographic cards.

Finally, always up for an animal adventure, a zoo membership is something that our family has had since Caleb was 6 months old.  It is one of our all time favorite family outings.... especially now that we can enjoy it with 3 little wild ones.  Our zoo has a great tiger exhibit with tiger training sessions twice a day.  It is a great up-close, yet thankfully, not too personal, encounter with this amazing creature. 

  

 



Terrific Tigers DNG was a fantastic unit study.  Not only did my family enjoy it, but several others have blogged about their positive experiences.  Click HERE to read the reviews of others.  You would believe that such wonderful educational materials would be costly, but I assure you that Amanda Bennett's Download N Go's are budget friendly.  In fact, for only $7.95, you could purchase the Terrific Tigers DNG, download it immediately, and be ready to begin the unit.  Just click HERE!

As a special bonus for my readers, Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse have provided me with ONE FREE TERRIFIC TIGERS DNG to GIVEAWAY!!!!  You definitely want to enter!  Please note:  TOS/DNG affiliates including the DNG Review Team and TOS Crew are not eligible to participate.

MANDATORY ENTRY:  Visit the Download N Go website.  Choose another DNG you would be interested in using.  Leave a comment and be sure to include an email address to contact you.

Additional Entries...  be sure to leave a separate comment and an email address for each entry.
1)  Follow my blog through Google Friends. 
2)  Follow my blog through Networked Blogs.
3)  Post about this giveaway on your personal Blog, Facebook, or Twitter.

The giveaway ends Sunday, October 31st.  A winner will be drawn at random and notified by email.   

ROCKING ROBOTS



***I was provided a complimentary copy of this product in exchange for my honest review.

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Rocking Robots... oh, yeah!!!!  Before this review begins, I do have a confession to make.  Spurred on by the title, I am guilty of turning the music up and attempting to teach my little ones to do THE ROBOT... hahahaha!  Now, you will notice there are NO pics or video.  I didn't want to show off, impress you, scare you. 

Aside from our dancing, we had a great time studying the Rocking Robots Download N Go unit.  The Old Schoolhouse and Amanda Bennett have partnered to create an engaging, appealing, educational unit.  This study is geared for Kindergarten through 4th grade.  The unit includes daily lesson plans complete with online video links, notebooking pages, lapbook components, and suggested resources.  See the overview of the week's study listed below: 

Day 1: What Is a Robot?

Day 2: The History of Robots
Day 3: People and Places of Robots
Day 4: Science Secrets of Robots
Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Robots
 
Our days were spent reading some great picture books from the library including: 
R Robot Saves Lunch by R. Nicholas Kuszyk
Hello Robots by Bob Staake
My Robot by Eve Bunting
The Trouble with Sisters and Robots by Steve Gritton
Robot Zot! by Jon Scieszke
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Ted Dewan

We enjoyed watching the videos embedded within the unit and completed some of the provided notebooking pages.  Caleb, especially, did really well with the Robot Color-By-Number page.
 

Since we were studying robots, we re-introduced some toys.  As children do, we cycle through toys, so it was time to return SPIKE, the robot dinosaur into play.  He was joined by a couple other robotic dinosaurs and a robot dog.  
 
 

 
When not playing with the real robots, the kids were busy creating/designing robots of their own with one of their new fixations... Bendaroos.   

The Rocking Robots DNG was a real treat for us.  We enjoyed this study and highly recommend it to others.  Sound like something you are interested in?  Homeschooling on a budget?  GOOD NEWS!!!!  DNG's are so affordable!  You can be studying Rocking Robots (an entire week plus of curriculum) with your kiddos for only $7.95.  Interested in how other families used the Rocking Robots DNG?  Be sure to check out other reviews here!

PIZZA!!!!! Party, Deal, and GIVEAWAY!!!

Who doesn't love pizza?  Growing up, do you ever remember studying pizza in school?  I know I don't, but that is exactly what my kiddos did this week.  I'm thinking a YUMMY education is definitely the way to go.  Again, as a member of the Download N Go Review Team, I was given the opportunity to review the PIZZA PARTY DNG.  This product was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review.  Read others reviews and get more great ideas on ways to use this product HERE.

Amanda Bennett's, PIZZA PARTY Download N Go is a week long unit study for kids in K-4th grade.  The unit includes videos, web links, notebook pages, lapbook components, and an extensive list of additional resources that can be utilized.  For this study, I was extremely pleased.  We were able to find a large number of the books on the suggested list in our public library.  We read a considerable amount of fiction books with pizza themes including some of our favorite characters:  The Berenstain Bears, Bob the Builder, Curious George, Arthur, and The Boxcar Children.  We checked Pete's a Pizza and found a DVD as well.  It always fun to "watch" a book after reading it :-)

We had a blast creating our mini-pizzas.  It was a perfect lunch after a hectic morning running errands.  Not too messy, but lots of fun!  When we were finished, we enjoyed some family game time.  We pulled our Noodleboro Learning to Listen Pizza Palace game off the shelf.  We gave our listening skills a work-out as we really listened to the ingredients each of us wanted put on our pizza.  This was great for my two English language learners.  We have not played this game since coming home from Ethiopia, so some of the "silly" ingredients included were NEW words for us.  I love fun ways to add to their growing vocabulary.

Don't worry... this study isn't all fiction and food.  See the daily themes below.

Day 1: Pizza—What Is It?

Day 2: The Story of Pizza

Day 3: Types of Pizza

Day 4: The Science of Pizza

Day 5: Let’s Have a Pizza Party
 

 
We touched on history and geography as we studied Italy.  Using math, we did an elementary fractions lessons discussing how to slice a pizza.  Probably one of our favorite parts was learning about the process of making cheese.  We read Hold the Cheese Please! and the kiddos were so very intrigued that "Annabelle" the cow was the origin of cheese.  We read this more than once :-)  We looked at the lives of famous people including Marco Polo, Galileo, Michaelangelo, and of course my favorite Vivaldi.  Not surprising, this music buff loved the videos of "The Four Seasons" included in the Pizza Party DNG.  After watching them, the kiddos colored pics of each of the season as we listened to the music again.  It was so pleasing to me that they recognized portions of the music from their favorite tv show "Little Einsteins" and their "night-night" music that plays in their rooms.
 
The culminating activity in the Pizza Party DNG is planning a Pizza Party.  It just so happened that due to leaving on vacation next weekend, we had Rachel's early birthday today.  Our original "taco bar" plan got changed to a pizza party, and on our to-do list for tomorrow is making a fruit pizza to share. 
 
Are you craving pizza yet?  Would you like to have a PIZZA PARTY all week long and learn lots of delicious things in the process?  If so, now is definitely the time...  usually a DNG is $7.95, but in celebration of tomorrow's National Cheese Pizza Day the Pizza Party DNG will be on sale for $5.00!!!  Click here to take advantage of this sale.


Even better than a sale...  FREE!  Courtesy of Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse, I am afforded the opportunity to giveaway one Pizza Party DNG.  Hooray.  The winner could be you.  There are several ways to win.  Please be sure to leave me comments for each of the items you complete below.  Obviously, the more you do the better your odds of winning. 

1.  Leave me a comment telling me your favorite pizza topping.
2.  Follow my blog or remind me that you are already doing so.
3.  Follow my blog using Facebook's networked blog or tell me you are already a follower.
4.  Blog, Twitter, or Facebook about my Pizza Party DNG.

Due to the fact that we are leaving for vacation next Friday, I will end my giveaway, Thursday, September 9th at 5 p.m. EST.

DNG Giveaway Winner and a FREEBIE for everyone!

Congrats Heidi B. - you are the winner of the Roller Coasters DNG giveaway!  Enjoy this wild ride with your precious kiddos :-)

Now, the only thing better than Heidi getting a FREEBIE is EVERYONE getting a FREEBIE!!!!  That's right... courtesy of The Old Schoolhouse everyone can receive Amanda Bennett's Expedition Mexico Download N Go absolutely free.  Click HERE to get your free download.  Don't delay - this offer is only good through August 27th!!!!

Roller Coasters... we took the ride! Now, it's a GIVEAWAY!!!!!!

As most of you know, I left behind my career as an elementary music teacher to homeschool my three little ones.  If the past week is any indication of the amount of learning and fun our family is going to have, I am in educator heaven!  Thank you Amanda Bennett and Download N Go for an exciting, innovative, thrill-ride each and everyday in my living room. 

I have the privilege to serve on the DNG Review Team, and therefore, was provided the Roller Coasters DNG, without charge, for the purpose of writing an honest review.  Download N Go units are designed to be a week in length and are targeted for students in grades K-4.  Each Download N Go is filled with colorful graphics, engaging activities, video links, notebook pages, lapbook components, and lists of additional/supplemental resources.  Honestly, I believe there is enough information provided to expand the study well past a week.

Below is an overview of the study as well as a peek at some of the pages included:
  
Day 1: What Is a Roller Coaster?
Day 2: The History of Roller Coasters
Day 3: People and Places of Roller Coasters
Day 4: Science Secrets of Roller Coasters/Rides
Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Roller Coasters

In my home, I'm teaching two kindergarteners and a preschooler, I wondered exactly how much the kids would be able to do and comprehend.  From experience, I can confidently say that young students enjoy the DNG's tremendously.  Just after Day 1 of our study and watching some of the online videos, I came into the living room to find my kiddos "playing roller coaster" on the couch.  They were so excited and too cute!

My kiddos love to color and draw, so it was no shocker that we had to get out our drawing paper and markers to make some rollercoaster masterpieces.  They were definitely fridge-worthy!  As much as they enjoyed drawing, Jeremiah, Caleb, and Rachel really liked being able to design their own roller coasters on the computer and watching the simulated ride.  They even built their own roller coasters in the hallway using books from their shelves, a few pieces of their Thomas the Train tracks, and their favorite Hot Wheels cars. I was impressed that a 3, 4, and 5 year old could pull this off experimenting on their own.  This was a great activity!

Due to my kids age, I opted not to do the notebooking activities.  It would be too much writing, and actually, Mommy would be the one jotting down all of the kids' dictation.  However, that did not eliminate all of these activities because we were able to discuss them and Caleb, especially, was able to answer orally.  Jeremiah and Rachel are my Ethiopian cuties.  As you can imagine, since they have been with us just shy of 6 months, there are always opportunities for vocabulary building.  Aside from the obvious word "Roller Coaster," we were able to talk a lot about antonyms:  fast/slow, high/low, up/down, and straight/curved.  Hidden opportunities abound.... you'll definitely want to check out these other Roller Coaster DNG blog reviews to see other creative ways people used this study. 

The Roller Coasters DNG was the perfect, engaging, hands-on, creativity catalyst to join our phonics, math, reading, and history.  I look forward to using many more DNG's in the future, and in fact, I believe, I will use Roller Coasters again too. I think it would be perfect to re-visit in a few years, possibly when the kids are 3rd & 4th graders.  They will be able to study gravity in more depth and do the notebooking pages independently.  Hopefully, they will be able to look back and remember some of the fun we had this past week as well.  Making memories and learning at the same time - that is my goal!!!!

Would you like to give the Roller Coasters DNG a try?  It is available for purchase here for a very reasonable $7.95.  You can also enter my giveaway...  I am authorized to give 1 complete copy of this study away.  The winner could be you!!!!  How do you enter? 

1.  Follow my blog.  (Leave me a comment saying you are now a follower.)

2. Mention my blog's giveaway on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  (Leave me a comment telling me how you shared about the giveaway.)

3. Visit the DNG site and leave me a comment telling what DNG title you are most interested in (Please leave a comment.)

So....  you have 3 opportunities to get your name in the giveaway drawing.  Just be sure to post in the comments section, and leave me an email address so I have a way to contact you if you are the Big Winner!  I will hold the drawing Thursday @ 1 p.m. EST.  Be sure to check back for the announcement!