Pernella & Charlie's Plant Lapbooks...

This lapbook was a lot of fun to make and we learnt so much about plants, leaves, trees and flowers.
We ended up with so much information that we had to add an extension to the folder.

I think this was such a successful project for them both as it wasn’t just sitting down and learning theory but also lots of hands on things to do. We spent a lot of time outdoors in gardens, national parks and the beach looking at all types of plants. We went to a plant nursery and chose some herb seedlings to grow in flowerpots. The children planted them, watered them and even used them when cooking. We watched nature documentaries and read lots of books. And then of course is the fun part of cutting out, colouring and sticking everything into the folder. Which is then surpassed only by the proud look on their faces showing their work to Dad, Nanny and Grandad.




So a little about what we learnt was photosynthesis, uses for plants, their life cycles, stems, how seeds spread, the roots and habitats of plants. The parts of a flower and plant and what they need to grow. The plant structure, what is a fruit, leaves, seeds, types of plants, parts of plants we eat and a bit more besides.




We used a variety of resources to make this lapbook.
There was a free plant lapbook at mediafire
Lapbook on plants at homeschool helper
Lots of information at Homeschool Share
Enchanted Learning
and the cover page from Notebooking Nook

In the beginning....

I thought the children would enjoy making a series of A4 posters to show the seven days of creation.

We had a lot of fun ripping up paper, creating collages, finding pictures from magazines and using stickers to create our wonderful masterpieces. After they had finished I laminated them. Most importantly the children learnt how God made our truly, amazing world that we live in and we had seven fantastic posters on our wall to remind us every day.


On the first day of creation the Lord God did make the heavens, earth and light
Genesis 1:1-5

On the second day of creation the Lord God did make the sky between the waters
Genesis 1:6-8

On the third day of creation the Lord God did make the dry land, seas and plants
Genesis 1:9-13

On the fourth day of creation the Lord God did make the sun, the moon and stars
Genesis 1:14-19

On the fifth day of creation the Lord God did make the fish, sea creatures and birds
Genesis 1:20-23

On the sixth day of creation the Lord God did make the land animals and man
Genesis 1:24-31

On the seventh day of creation the Lord God did rest...
and all things made were very good
Genesis 2:1-3

Collecting Leaves

Our June nature study was spent learning about leaves. We printed out a illustration of a leaf from enchanted learning. We coloured, labelled the parts of the leaf and then spent some time learning them and stuck it into our notebook. We went outdoors in our garden looking for various types of leaves. The children collected a few samples to use for their art work. They took some time to properly look at the leaves, even using a magnifying glass to study them closer. Then they compared colours, texture, shapes and smells of their collected leaves.



We watched the tuitional on handbook of nature study to learn some tips on drawing leaves.



Pernella & Charlie chose a few leaves to do some leaf rubbings in their nature journals using crayons. They painted a nature scene, then they sketched some leaves and used pastels to colour and shade them in. The children did some beautiful work.




Later back in doors we spent some time looking in the 'encyclopedia of discovery on nature' about incredible plants and lastly found a Bible verse that mentions trees and wrote it in their journal for copywork.

Oh to be a geologist

A recent outing to a homeschooling family's home was a huge success. The family have over three acres but the best thing ever (according to Pernella & Charlie) was the dry creek bed at the bottom of the garden. (In the wet season this is a deep flowing creek).


The children were sent down to gather a few rocks to bring back to the house to paint. After quickly painting a rock, my two went back to the creek bed to spend more time examining rocks, looking for cystals and eventually making there way back up the hill with hands and pockets full of rocks to take home.

Just for fun

The Waterhole

The Waterhole by Australian author Graeme Base is one of our all time favourite children’s book to read. It is a very simple story about a group of animals gathering around a waterhole. As the story continues the waterhole begins to shrink and eventually dries up but then the rains come… The book is set in different countries and shows their wildlife. There is even a famous landmark hidden in the background of each page so you know which location the animals are from. For example, on the first page you know that you are in Africa because you can see Mount Kilimanjaro in the distance. Likewise you can see the Taj Mahal on the Indian page and on the Australian page you can see Uluru.

There are frogs in each scene of the book and as the waterhole dries up we see less and less frogs. Frogs are ‘bio-indicators’, which simply means they show the health of our environment where we live.

Both Pernella & Charlie love anything and everything about animals & frogs so I decided that the Waterhole would make a great science, social study, art and geography lesson for term one.



We got a A4 excercise book, photocopied the front cover of the Waterhole and stuck it on the front. Covered it with clear contact.



After learning about the author/illustrator we spent a lot of time studying about frogs. We learnt about their life-cycle, different species, parts of a frog, their diet, habitats, classification and predators. When we first started this study it was our rainy season and the children got to collect frog sporn in our garden. We made a pond and watched the tadpoles hatch into frogs We documented everything and took photos and stuck them in our book.




We then next spent time exploring the different countries in the book. We learnt where they were on the map, a little bit about their culture, famous landmarks and the children chose a animal from the region to study.





We also looked at the rivers and streams around the world, the ecosystem, about rain and the water cycle and the extinction of animals and reptiles. We went to the museum to see their rainforest display and we did a lot of nature walks outside looking for frogs. We even found a frog at the beach. We watched DVD's on the different animals around the world and read lots of books. We also looked in newspapers to find any interesting articles on wildlife.

The children really enjoyed doing this study and putting their books together. We all learnt so much and it didn't feel like school work at all - big grin...

Some great resources we used were:
Homeschool Share
Homeschool Helper
National Geographic kids
World Atlas
Enchanted Learning
Printable Maps

Photos of our newest pupil ~ Lola aged 7months...

A visit to the Library...

I took my children to the library last Thursday. Such a great place to visit for family's on a budget. Nothing quite like sitting in the middle of aisles searching through the different books to find ones to take home. In the end we chose books to help us with some subjects we are covering this term. We have books about our earth & sun, the weather, a few about artists - their life & works. Of course we chose some stories to read together & my big girl snuck in a few dinosaur books. Also much to our delight we also found out that you can hire DVD's and educational computer games. Because I was in town I met my friend there for a a latte (yep my library has a new coffee shop!) it was so nice to just be able to sit and chat & catch up with each other’s news. Yep the ultimate experience – surrounded by books & sitting on a couch sipping coffee…


Pernella & Charlie looking at all the books when we got home.


Lola not wanting to miss out also.

Nature Study at our beach

We go to the beach regularly & it is a great place to do an impromptu nature study. Here are some photos of Pernella and Charlie looking for snails and crabs while the tide is out. If they had their way they would be at the beach this very moment – big grin!



If we give our children regular opportunities to get in touch with God’s creation, a habit is formed which will be a source of delight throughout their lives. (Karen Andreola, A Charlotte Mason companion pg 253)<