Yusef and Samira, my two eldest, are currently putting together a project folder about triops. We recently set up our Triop Tank Project and the two of them are working together to make a fact file containing information, pictures, drawings and observation worksheets that relate to the project.
More details soon insha’Allah.
As part of our Dinosaur theme studies I decided it would be fun to let the kids grow their own ‘living fossils’ that have been around since before the dawn of the dinosaurs. Triops are aquatic crustaceans that can be found all over the world … they are sometimes referred to as tadpole shrimp. You can read more about Triops here.
I bought this Triop Park set from Argos for £18.99. This set is quite large and comes with additional extras but you can get smaller and cheaper sets if you shop around on places such as Amazon and Ebay.
This set consists of a large plastic moulded tray which contains a separate section which serves as a nursery for hatching your triops and an L-shaped tray for growing your own ‘jungle’. An extra plastic fitting attaches to represent a volcano and the set includes lava stones which can be placed in the top of the volcano.
*** The instructions claim the lava stones glow in the dark … we found this not to be the case but anyway we used them as an addition to our Rocks, Minerals and Fossils studies and Samira, who is currently studying the Rock Cycle, enjoyed looking up about lava stones and how they are formed.***
The set also included a plastic ‘fossilised’ Triceratops replica which we decided to bury in compost and grow our jungle on top. By the way, the jungle is actually a packet of grass seeds.
Amina and Basma spooned the compost into the L-shaped tray, burying the Triceratops skeleton, added some water and then sprinkled some grass seeds on top and pressed them down with a spoon. We plan to ‘excavate and discover’ the Triceratops at a later date.
Everything mentioned above is supplied in the set including compost, seeds and spoon. The only thing you need to supply yourself is bottled/distilled water because the triops cannot survive in tap water because of the chlorine content.
The triop eggs come packed in a sealed foil pack. They are microscopic and are contained within the detritus. We filled up the nursery area with bottle spring water and shook half of the pack content into the water, saving the other half in case the first lot don’t hatch, or in the case of growing a second lot of triops.
The eggs can remain dormant for upto 15 years and become activated when they come in contact with water. In the right environment the triops hatch within 24 hours. We actually put a desk lamp over our nursery to provide extra light and heat (as recommended in the instructions) and we were surprised to find our hatchlings scooting around in less than 24 hours!
At first they are really hard to spot because they are mere white specks and we could only see them using a magnifying glass. We also found a couple of other creatures hatched out that had also been lying dormant in the detritus including a water flea and a fairy shrimp, but they didn’t last long … they became triop food!
For the first 3 days the hatchlings feed on the detritus in the water and then they are fed daily with the shrimp food supplied in the kit.
While we waited for the triops to grow and become more visible, Yusef and Samira began putting together their Triop Project Folder which contains details, pictures, drawings and observations about triops.
The kit recommends releasing the triops from the nursery into the main tank after 2 weeks. By Day 12 we were in fact down to one very large triop who appears to have eaten the other hatchlings. Originally we had around 8 triops.
We laid the gravel and sand provided in the bottom of the main tank and filled it with bottle spring water. I used the spoon to scoop the triop into the main tank and cleared out the remaining detritus from the nursery area and refilled it ready for the second lot of eggs.
We are now enjoying watching as our triop grows … it doubles in size almost daily and is fascinating to watch it swimming. The grass grew quickly and the triop actually bites and feeds on the strands that dangle in the water!
Yesterday we added the final batch of eggs to the nursery and we hope to have a few more triops to add to the main tank insha’Allah. Perhaps we will try adding them earlier to avoid them becoming cannibals!
We then hope to carry out some of the non-invasive experiments suggested in the instruction booklet including encouraging the triops to spawn and then perhaps we could start a second generation.
I had the idea to design this wall chart while my daughter, Samira was learning about Animal Classification. She made her Animal Classification Lapbook a couple of months ago and I thought this wall chart would be useful for all the kids to refer to anytime we need to look into Animal Classification.
The chart can be used to look up various animals from the different groups. And we can also practise identifying animals and putting them into their correct groups.
Under each sub group are a set of cards that can be removed and re-attached using sticky tack (although felt and velcro would work better, something I may re-do at a later date insha’Allah).
The Animal Kingdom is divided into two Phylum, the vertebrates and the invertebrates and the Phylum are then sub-divided into classes. There are 5 main classes of vertebrates and 4 classes of invertebrates.
I made a heading for each class. You can see in this picture below. Each heading includes details of the identifying features that are present in that class, i.e. Mammals are warm-blooded, give birth to live young, have hair or fur, etc.
The individual animal cards are then attached under the correct class heading on the wall chart. You can see that humans are classified as mammals but we have placed the picture of the human above the animals because of the unique position that Allah gave us when He favoured Mankind above all Creation.
Similarly, you can see under the Phylum invertebrates that there are various classes. Invertebrates are the most numerous of all the creation in the Animal Kingdom and some classes are sub-divided again into smaller groups. Such as the Arthropods who are sub-divided into crustaceans, insects and arachnids, each group having its own identify features that sets it apart from other arthropods.
Again, the cards are placed under the group headings. The group headings list the identify features so that the children can easily identify to which group the various animals belong.
If you would like to make your own wall chart you can find the printable files to download free from my File Share Widget which you will find as you scroll down the right of the screen.
This is my son, Yusef’s Lapbook all about dinosaurs. Recently, he reached a chapter in his science textbook that covers fossilisation and dinosaurs so I thought we would make that a rest point for him where he could do some lapbook work.
He recently made a flap book all about Fossilisation which you can see here. And my younger two girls have also been working together on a Dinosaur Totbook which is now complete and available to view.
We are also doing a few other dinosaur activities which everyone has been taking part in, including art and crafts, file folder games, fossil-making and even a mini project to hatch and grow our own Triops.
Exciting stuff … more details soon insha’Allah!
A while ago Yusef was reading a book called “100 Things You Should Know About Elephants” published by Miles Kelly. It’s a fascinating book packed full of fun and interesting facts. Who’d have thought there was so much to know about elephants … and Yusef has managed to cram quite a few of those facts into this lovely lapbook, masha’Allah.
I found a great set of templates for an elephant lapbook on the Homeschool Share website which we used to complete our lapbook.
This turned into a rather large lapbook in the end containing lots of information and interesting facts. Below are pictures of what the lapbook looks like as the pages are unfolded.
First is a small flap about how elephants communicate.
Next is a double flap looking at the extinct relatives of the elephant. Yusef glued down the pictures and wrote in the information.
Here is a flap all about elephant babies.
This is a small flap book about the family names for elephants, i.e. the mother, father and baby.
Next is a petal book all about the sensitive elephant trunk.
This is a fold out book about the strong bonds between elephant herd members.
This is a triple flap Venn diagram comparing the Asian and African elephants.
Next is a flap containing a Venn diagram comparing the modern day elephant to its extinct relatives.
Here is a stack book on classification of the elephant. To learn more about classification you can check out this great Animal Classification Lapbook.
There were two blank elephant-shaped templates that we didn’t know what to do with so I thought it would be fun to stick elephant jokes on them.
Next up are some English language exercises. This is an accordion book all about elephant adjectives followed by a flap book containing elephant adjectives and synonyms.
This is a pocket of vocabulary cards related to the subject of elephants.
On each card is a word and on the reverse Yusef wrote the meaning.
This is a pocket containing an elephant jigsaw puzzle. Yusef coloured the elephant picture and then we cut it into squares that can later be pieced together to complete the jigsaw.
This whole page is dedicated to a set of vocabulary flaps.
Under each flap the word is broken down to explain the meaning.
This is a triple flap matchbook about the elphants brain, skin and tusks. Yusef wrote information under each flap.
Here is another accordion book all about Terrific Trunks containing diagrams and information.
Here is a small flap containing information about elephants ears.
This balloon-shaped book shows how long elephants live on average in the wild.
This is a factbook stapled together. On each page Yusef wrote a fact that he found interesting accompanied by a drawing.
Here is another accordion book all about trunks. Yusef copied some information from the internet into this book.
This is an interlocking book explaining why elephants are endangered.
We like this clever little window book all about Elephant Olympics. It looks at the physical things that elephants are good at and not so good at and why the case may be.
More elephant jokes…
This flap explains what elephants like to eat and how much they usually eat comparing the difference between males and females.
We learned that elephants, like humans, are mammals so in this flap book we compared and completed a checklist of mammalian features for both elephants and humans.
This flap looks more indepth at 3 mammal body organs – the brain, the heart and the lungs.
Inside each flap Yusef wrote information on how each of the organs function.
This is a small flap all about where elephants live, i.e. their habitats.
This folding window flap book is very nice, all about war elephants. The Homeschool Share website suggests answering questions on Hannibal but instead we chose to add an Islamic element and do a small history lesson on Abraha, the Yemeni Christian who came with his army of elephants to tried and failed to destroy the Ka’bah in Makkah.
Here is a double flap book about elephants height and weight comparing between African and Asian elephants.
Next is a nice triple flap book all about Horton the Elephant. For anyone who deosn’t know, Horton is a character creation of Dr Seuss. He is a kind and caring elephant as portrayed in the two poems penned by Dr Seuss.
We read the two poetic stories about Horton and discussed some of his characteristics. Then Yusef used that information to complete the character flaps. We also watched the film called Horton Hears a Who.
These are a set of cards strung together and taped into the lapbook. They contain information about elephant occupations.
This is a bar graph comparing Yusef’s height to the height of an African elephant and an Asian elephant as well as other animals.
Finally, on the reverse of the lapbook is an envelope containing a set of word activity worksheets, including crossword, word search, spelling games and vocabulary games.
If you would like the files for this lapbook or the worksheets you will find them available to download for free from my File Share widget on the right of the screen.
This is my daughter, Samira’s lapbook all about dolphins. I found most of the templates for this on the Homeschool Share website.
I also made a few additional templates of my own and I’ve made all files available to download from my File Share widget that you will find as you scroll down the right of the screen.
This lapbook is A4 size made of two A3 sheets of card taped together which are folded in on one another to close as an A4 size book. When it opens out at the first fold you can see two sections of mini books, and further content is revealed on the 4 pages that fold out to open the entire lapbook.
One of the first mini books is a window flap book looking at the differences between dolphins and porpoises.
Under each flap Samira wrote the description of the various body parts.
Next is a square fold book about the names for the dolphin family members. It folds out to reveal the names for the mother, father and baby dolphins.
This folded flap opens to reveal a bar graph showing the sizes of different dolphins and whales.
This is a cute dolphin-shaped tri-fold book all about mammals. On each section Samira wrote about one mammalian feature and drew a picture.
Next is a hinged book looking at the differences between toothed whales and baleen whales.
Then there is a small pocket with words containing the sound “ph” in them.
This is a small colouring by numbers activity.
Here is a nice spelling activity … how many words can you make from the word ‘dolphin’ ?
This is followed by a dolphin anatomy tab book. On each page Samira pasted the diagram and wrote some information.
Next is a rectangular T-book all about dolphins that are trained and how they will work for fish.
Then we have a classification flap book.
Here is a pocket of vocabulary cards that I created for Samira.
This is a folded flap containing a Venn diagram comparing the diets of dolphins and orcas.
These are a collection of page flaps that have word activity worksheets pasted on either side including wordsearch and crosswords.
This page contains a worksheet all about dolphin babies.
Above that is a set of fun fact cards that are strung together and taped to the page.
Next up are two flaps, one about Dolphin pods and one about echolocation.
This is a tri-fold book containing a maths problem.
I created this pocket of dolphin species cards and on the reverse of each card Samira wrote the name of the dolphin and we looked them up and used an atlas to find out where in the world they can be found.
This is a triple flap match book all about the way dolphins move in and out of the water.
Finally, on the back of the lapbook is this alphabet dot-to-dot that makes a picture of a dolphin.
This is my daughter, Samira’s Animal Classification Lapbook. We have been doing a lot to do with animals lately and alot of vocabulary has been cropping up relating to classification and I was fortunate enough to find this Animal Classification Lapbook on the Homeschool Share website.
Samira completed the lapbook and I also made a few extra worksheets for her to review what she had learned. We also made an Animal Classification Wall Chart for interactive learning.
Here’s what the lapbook includes as the first page folds out.
Here is a close up of the Wordsearch and Crossword puzzle that I made.
On the reverse is a Missing Word activity sheet.
Here is what the lapbook looks like when it’s opened out completely. It’s packed full of little mini books.
The first page contains mini books all about how animals are classified.
The next two pages are divided into booklets on Vertebrates and booklets on Invertebrates.
First up is a flap looking at the structure and classification of animals into their various groups.
Then there is a double flap to understand what are vertebrates and what are invertebrates.
At the bottom of the page is two mini books explaining that vertebrates are split into 5 main groups and invertebrates are split into 4 main groups and under the flaps Samira wrote the names of each of those groups.
In the vertebrates section the first minibook is all about mammals and how mammalian features are identified.
Then we have a stacked set of cards all about amphibians.
Below that is a matchbook about fish and a T-book all about reptiles.
Finally, completing the vertebrates section is a set of fact cards all about birds which are held together with string.
Moving onto the invertebrates section, the first flap is all about arthropods. Under the flap Samira explained what an arthropod is and listed a few examples.
Next is the echinoderm matchbook. Echinoderms include animals such as starfish, sea-urchins and sea cucumbers.
Next to that is an accordion book about annelids. The only examples of annelids that we were able to find seemed to be various forms of worms.
And finally, a collection of cards strung together containing facts about mollusks – land and sea varietes.
This was a very interesting project and even I learned a thing or two. If you would like to make your own lapbook you will find all the templates and worksheets available to download for free from my File Share Widget which you will find as you scroll down the right of the screen.
As if you couldn’t tell by all the pink … yes, this is my daughter, Samira’s lapbook all about cats. I have finally got round to blogging again after a couple of months break!
Samira absolutely adores anything to do with animals, she reminds me of myself at that age, masha’Allah. She has been on at us to get a cat for ages and recently my husband surprised us with a cute fluffy bundle, a little black kitten we named Minouche which is Algerian slang for ‘little kitten’. Samira was so happy and excited and in the meantime, I redirected her focus into this adorable little lapbook packed full of facts all about cats.
I found the templates and unit study for this lapbook on the Homeschool Share website and you can download them for free from my file share widget that you can find on the right side of the screen as you scroll down.
We made this lapbook by taping two sheets of A3 card together and then folding in a tri-fold. This is how the lapbook looks when opened out.
On the first page is a diagram of a cat with its main body parts labelled.
Below that is a stack of cards showing different cat colour patterns.
On either side is a small picture of a cat coloured blue and pink. Each cat has a joke question written on the front and when the lower flap is lifted it reveals the answer.
On the reverse of the first page is a page all about cat communication. There is a table which we called ‘Tail Talk’ all about the way cats communicate with their tail and what each gesture means.
Below the table is another set of mini flaps that help to understand cat’s body language.
Next is a flap with a list of things that cats like to eat.
Next is a small flap all about how cats see colour. It was long thought that cats see in black and white, but recewnt research suggests that cats have cones in their eyes (like humans) which allow them to see certain shades of colour but they show no particular interest in colours.
Next is a small trifold containing some copy work of the poem called ‘Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat’.
Here is a flap containing mini-matchbooks showing week by week the development of a kitten, from birth to weaning. Samira wrote a little information under each of the flaps.
Next is a little tab book all about the responsibilities of looking after a pet.
This is an animal classification flap book relating to cats.
Here is a split flap book about cats eyes and why they glow in the dark.
Here Samira made a collection of cards strung together showing famous cartoon cats.
Next is a fold out flapbook book all about cat’s fur and how it protects them.
Then there is this great little flap about cat claws.
This is a stacked book containing multiplication and division problems based on numbers of cat body parts … very cute!
Next is a shutter book listing some different species of wild cats and domestic cats.
Then there is a layered book all about the herb called ‘catnip’ that cats love the smell of. The mini book lists the medicinal properties of the herb.
Here is an adorable heart shaped flap containing a photo of our kitten, Minouche.
On the reverse of the flap Samira had written a little bit about Minouche.
Next is an accordion book with lots of bits of information about cats.
And finally is a set of cards strung together. On eatch card is a catchphrase related to cats and underneath the catchprase Samira wrote its meaning.
As part of our Raising Frogs Project, my daughter put together this lovely lapbook all about frogs. I found a free study unit and lapbook templates here on the Homeschool Share Website.
In addition to the unit study we also watched a DVD all about frogs as well as various documentary videos and clips from Youtube.
When the lapbook opens out it reveals a collection of mini-books.
There are also a few little attachments on the reverse of the lapbook.
When the front page is opened it reveals a page of lily pad flaps containing facts all about frogs.
When the lily pad flap is folded down it reveals a question.
And underneath the question flap is the answer written in by Samira.
This is a mini book that the student completes in stages, first writing about what they already know about frogs. Then before starting the project, they write what they want to find out about frogs and finally at the end of the project they write what they have learned about frogs. I found this minibook on the Kid Zone website.
Next up are some cute little vocabulary cards which I hole-punched and strung together.
On each card is a word relating to frogs and Samira wrote the definition underneath.
Then there is the comparison mini book, looking at the differences between tadpoles and frogs.
Next up is the quartered flap book all about why frogs ‘sing’.
Samira wrote some of the reasons why frogs sing under the four flaps. Apparently frogs sing because they know when the weather is going to change, masha’Allah. We watched a couple of video clips on Youtube to see the different sounds different species make for different reasons – very interesting.
This is a Venn Diagram flap book looking at the differences and similarities between frogs and toads.
This is the list of similarities between frogs and toads:
Here are another collection of cards strung together, focusing on phonics, words ending with ‘og’.
This is quite simple for a 6 year old, but we included it anyway. Samira wrote down a few ‘og’ words and drew pictures to illustrate the words.
Below is a pocket containing sequence cards for the lifecycle of the frog. The little ones enjoyed putting them in order and telling a story about the life cycle.
Similarly, here is the life cycle on a pin wheel, using the same pictures. Samira cut them out and glued them down in the correct order.
This neat little pocket is to store news paper cuttings.
We didn’t find any stories relating to frogs in our newspapers, but after looking through the BBC website, we found quite alot of interesting recent stories about frogs that had been discovered and rediscovered. So I copied and pasted the stories Samira liked and we printed them out to put in the pocket.
Here is a little flap that opens out to show a diagram of a frog with various body parts labelled by Samira.
This neat little flap book helps children to understand the differences between ‘predator’ and ‘prey’.
I got Samira to write a definition of predator and prey under each of the flaps.
Then under the bottom flaps she drew pictures of animals (insects) that a frog hunts, and pictures of animals that prey on frogs.
These are another set of fact cards which I strung together. On each card Samira wrote one fact about frogs. We visited All About Frogs.org to find out some weird and wonderful facts about frogs.
Next is this lift the flap fact book looking at four of the frogs body parts.
Samira wrote some information under each of the flaps.
At the end of the project Samira chose a species of frogs to do a small report on. She chose the Red-eyed Tree Frog.
We found some nice information about this species here and here.
We found this nice diagram of a Red-eyed Tree Frog on the Enchanted Learning website.
The other pictures and maps included in this reported were selected randomly from Google images.
On the reverse of the lapbook is this great little ‘sticky tongue’ feature. The card tongue fits through the slit made in the frogs mouth and then little pictures of insects are cut out and glued onto the tongue.
Also on the back of the lapbook is a little folded up mini-book with the ’5 Little Speckled Frogs’ song alongside a pocket containg 5 frog puppets, coloured, cut-out and mounted on ice-lolly sticks.
Well, here we are at week 5, and we have our first froglets, masha’Allah. Many of the tadpoles started developing their back legs as early as 2 weeks ago, but for some reason many of them have died.
There are a few tadpoles who still haven’t grown any legs yet, so I thought it would be best if we separated the ones with backlegs and put them into a container with shallow water because they develop lungs and start breathing from the air around the same time that they start growing legs.
After separating them the tadpoles began to develop very quickly and their front legs appeared almost overnight! We now had our first froglets.
Sadly we also seem to have lost a few of the developing tadpoles in the tank with the froglets. It’s not clear but it seems the froglets have become cannibalistic and started feasting on the remaining developing tadpoles as well as eachother!
I’ve been out in the garden with the girls this afternoon to catch a range of insects for our one remaining froglet, who we have put on his/her own into a large plastic container. He/she is just over 1cm in length.
In the last 2-3 days his tail has shrunk right down to nothing more than a stump and he/she is leaping and bouncing around all over the place.
Insha’Allah we will be taking him home to Nanny and Grandad’s pond tomorrow, while we wait for the remaining few tadpoles to develop.
My daughter Samira has finished her Frog Lapbook, check it out insha’Allah, with links to lapbook templates and resources included.
