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 daughter, Samira’s lapbook all about The Solar System. It’s almost complete and we shall share it with you soon insha’Allah. My son, Yusef also made his own mini lapbook about The Solar System about two years ago now. You can view it here.
The templates for Samira’s lapbook I found on the homeschool share website.
I am also making a Solar System Totbook with my younger two daughters Amina and Basma, aged 4 and 3 as well as some space arts and crafts.
Check back soon insha’Allah.
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!
This is my son, Yusef’s flapbook about the process of fossilisation. Flapbooks are a nice way of breaking down information that contains a sequence of events. It helps children to memorise and recall processes easily. Diagrams are particularly important. When children draw their own diagrams it helps them retain more information.
Yusef has been learning recently about fossils and rock formations and I thought this little flapbook was a nice way to help him remember the process of fossilisation.
We broke down the process into four steps that can be easily remembered. Yusef drew four diagrams and added details underneath to explain each step. This process focuses on the fossilisation of Ammonites.
To make this flapbook I folded a sheet of A3 card into half and then folded each half in half again. I then cut a slit up the centre of each outer half to make the individual flaps.
I printed off the title wording for Yusef to colour and stick onto the front of the flap book and when the flap is opened it reveals a diagram and some written information.
Here is the book when it is opened out completely.
This is my son, Yusef’s lapbook all about the Human Body. It’s actually still a working progress. It’s a big project and we are adding to the lapbook as we go along insha’Allah and I shall blog it in parts. We have been using many different books as well as electronic media resources. One website I highly recommend for this subject is called “How the Body Works” – Check it out for yourself!
We are now adding to the lapbook according to the topics covered in his science textbooks. That way he can complete his written work alongside his lapbook work which helps ensure he understands fully how the various systems of the human body work.
Previously, when we first began this lapbook, we looked at the external body parts and learned about the major organs and systems in general, before looking in depth at the BRAIN, the NERVES and the MUSCLES. You can see the first part of the lapbook by visiting Human Body Lapbook (Part 1)
Recently we have covered TEETH and BONES & JOINTS. I have made all the mini books and templates for this lapbook myself (except where stated) and they are all available to download for free from my BOX.net file sharing widget which you can find as you scroll down on the right of the screen.
This is a page from the lapbook all about teeth.
This is a flap which explains about the 4 different types of teeth in humans. During his textbook work, Yusef learned about the functions of the different kinds of teeth. He also learned a little about animal teeth and how their different types of teeth determine what kinds of food they eat.
When the flap is lifted up it shows a diagram of an open mouth which has been coloured and labelled to show where the 4 different types of teeth are situated in the mouth.
In the centre of the page is a flap with a diagram showing the parts of the tooth labelled by Yusef. I printed this diagram from the website I mentioned at the beginning. They have a pre-labelled version and one that children can label themselves.
In his text book work, he went into further detail, learning about the functions of each part, as well as how cavities are formed.
On the reverse of the flap is a wordsearch related to teeth which I printed off from the website.
Under the flap is a pocket which holds his quiz results and a Fascinating Facts flap.
After completeing the topic on teeth, the kids can take part in a quiz on the website and then print their results, which we folded up and put into this pocket.
At the bottom of the page is an accordion book which I downloaded from Homeschool Share. It shows the steps to brushing and cleaning teeth.
Next up is the page from the lapbook all about bones and joints.
On the front of the hinge flap is a large diagram of the skeleton labelling all the major bones of the body, and Yusef highlighted the different types of joints.
When the flap is turned over, on the reverse is a diagram of a skeleton which Yusef has labelled. I printed off the diagram from the website that I mentioned at the top of this page.
Under that flap is a smaller flap containing information about the rib cage.
When the hinge flap is turned over, on the reverse is some information about the bone marrow and how it produces the different types of blood cells. Yusef drew pictures of the different types of blood cells and wrote a little bit about their different functions.
On the right side of the page is a smaller flap which contains an accordion book and a flap book.
The accordion book explains all about the funny ‘bone’.
Below the accordion book is another Fascinating Facts flap.
On the reverse of the smaller flap is a word search all about the skeletal system and a pocket to hold Yusef’s quiz results on the skeletal system which he completed on the interactive website.
When the flaps are open the centre of the page reveals a large flap all about the inside of the bones and a shutter book about joints.
I took this diagram from the website and Yusef cut it out and glued it down onto the front of the flap and then on the inside of the flap he wrote the details about the 4 main parts of the bone structure.
Later on in the day, we did a little experiment dissecting a lamb bone to have a look at the structure and learn about the different parts.
Although we talked about FIXED JOINTS, this shutter book only covers HINGE JOINTS and BALL & SOCKET JOINTS.
Next we plan to look in detail at the Respiratory and Circulatory systems (Heart and Lungs), so check back for updates soon insha’Allah.
A very dear friend of mine, also a home-schooling mum, recently gave me a very good piece of advice. She told me to encourage my children to draw and label their own pictures and diagram. Children learn and understand more when they reproduce a diagram because they have to look at all parts of it, so they are likely to take in more information.
My son Yusef, was interested to know how steam engines worked so he started reading a book called The Mega Book of Trains. Inside was a diagram showing the internal workings of a steam engine:
I explained to him using the diagram in the book, how the steam engine works and then I asked him to reproduce the diagram for himself and label it, which he did. Afterwards he explained it to me in full detail pointing out parts of the diagram as he explained. He understood exactly how it worked simply by following his diagram. Later in the day I heard him explaining to his sister how a steam engine works and it was clear he knew what he was talking about.
It’s so simple, yet so effective. Encourage your children to draw and label their own diagrams. Not every child is an artist. You may not understand your childs drawing but remember never to criticise it because you will dent their confidence, instead ask them to explain the diagram to you and if needs be help them step by step to explain the various parts and workings. When they have explained it to you in their own words and you are sure they understand, praise your child.
If you think your childs diagram is missing any crucial details be sure to mention this to them gently. Refer back to the original diagram from the textbook and ask them if they think they may have missed anything.
Technical drawing is something that most kids will encounter sooner or later in their studies, so getting into practise from an early age will help them build confidence, learn to pay attention to detail, and help them have clearer understanding of the way things work insha’Allah.
This is my son, Yusef’s lapbook all about the Human Body. It’s actually still a working progress and in all honesty I don’t have time to blog the whole thing in one go. It’s a big project and we will add to the lapbook as we go along insha’Allah and I shall blog it in parts. We have been using many different books as well as electronic media resources. One website I highly recommend for this subject is called “How the Body Works” – Check it out for yourself!
The first page of his lapbook is a general introduction to the external body parts and the internal body organs.
The two large pockets each contain a long tab of cards showing the numerous external body parts and internal organs.
The various internal organs are listed on each card followed by a diagram of the human body showing the position of the organ in the body. Each card has the words written several times to allow for handwriting and spelling practise.
Below are pictures showing the extending tab for the list of external body parts. It lists about 40 parts altogether!!
The second page shows a diagram of the human body from the front with the main external parts labelled by Yusef.
The flap can be flipped over to reveal the reverse of the human body with the various parts labelled, and under the flap is also a diagram showing the major internal organs, labelled by Yusef.
When the page is turned over it contains details on the brain, the senses and the nervous system.
The information about the brain is attached to a large flap page. The front of the flap has a diagram of the brain labelling its major parts and a mini flap book all about nerves.
Then the page can be flipped over to reveal a page dedicated to the 5 senses and another page with more detailed information on the brain.
Yusef wrote up a little something on the 5 senses. Also included is a small table listing the sensory organs and their relatives senses. There is also a flap called The 5 Senses. When it is lifted it reveals some word puzzles on the subject.
On the opposite page is various information on the brain and its functions.
This is a worksheet that I created for Yusef to colour and learn the various regions of the brain that are responsible for different functions. Masha’Allah, he has actually managed to memorise this.
This is a little summary that Yusef wrote up to describe what the brain is.
This is the front cover of a t-book that show the different areas of the brain that are associated with the various senses.
When it is unfolded it shows how Yusef drew lines matching the various senses to the different regions of the brain.
When we had completed the subject of the brain and the nervous system I got Yusef to complete the quiz from the “How The Body Works” website. I printed his quiz results and stored them in the little pocket I made.
On the opposite page are two red flaps with details on the Nervous System.
On the short flap is a diagram of the Nervous System with a small paragraph about how the Nervous System works with the missing words filled in by Yusef.
When the short flap is turned over, on the reverse is a word search based on the Nervous System and a flap called ‘Facinating Facts’.
Inside the ‘Fascinating Facts’ flap are some facts on the brain and nerves.
On the opposite page is another larger flap page focusing on the regions of the brain with an activity to fill in the missing words and complete the sentences.
When the red page is folded back it reveals the blue page on the subject of Muscles.
This is the front cover of a mini book all about muscles. When it is opened it shows some details written up by Yusef.
On the reverse of the red flap is a diagram of how the bicep and tricep arm muscles work. It also includes a flow chart detailing how the brain, nerves and muscles work together.
When the blue page on muscles is folded back it reveals a centre page and on the reverse of the blue page is more information on muscles.
Underneath the blue page at the centre of the lapbook is a green mini book. It contains some copy work from the poetry book called “Allah gave me two eyes to see” by Fatima M. D’Oyen. It is a book about being thankful for our 5 senses.
On the reverse of the blue page opposite are more details about muscles.
There is a word search all about the Muscular System, another ‘Fascinating Facts’ flap and a flap book all about the different types of muscle.
When the flaps fold down they reveal information on the different types of muscle written up by Yusef.
I have made all the templates that I have created for this lapbook available to download in my BOX file share which you will find as you scroll down in the right of the screen insha’Allah. Activities such as wordsearches and missing words are all from the “How The Body Works” website.
Look out for Human Body Lapbook (Part 2) … blogging soon insha’Allah.
This was one of the largest and most detailed projects I have ever worked on with my kids and I also learned so much along the way, masha’Allah. The Honey Bee is the most fascinating creature and is truly a blessed creation. I can’t take full credit for this project because it was actually emailed to me in a Lapbook format from an absolutely wonderful list I’m on dedicated to Lapbooking. Anyone interested in Lapbook or wanting to know more would benefit from signing up here insha’Allah. This list is set up to coincide with the Islamic Lapbooking Blog which is an absolute must-see for anyone addicted to Lapbooking.
The above photo doesn’t do true justice to the scale of this piece of work. It is two A1 sheets taped together. It was so large and so heavy that even a combination of blu-tac and drawing pins couldn’t keep this on the wall for more than 24 hours at a time! Eventually it came down from the wall and is being kept in safe storage until we can take it apart carefully and put it together into a lapbook form.
All the mini-books and templates for this project are available to download for free in my BOX.net file share widget which you will find as you scroll down the menu on the right of the screen.
With a whole chapter of the Qur’an (Surah An-Nahl) named after this amazing creature, it was the focal point of the project to look at the ayat (verses) which mention the honey bee. We read the verses and then discussed the meaning of it and I asked the kids what they thought the verses meant in their own words, and by the end of this project they were amazed that these two short verses were so precise and detailed enough to show that Allah is the Creator of amazing things, subhan’Allah!!
We put together a set of about 10 vocabulary cards. I googled for some images to add to the vocabulary cards to help the kids understand a little better what we were talking about, and as I said before, I learned quite a bit too from the very beginning! There was a nice template of a pocket to fit our vocab cards into. Alot of the stuff I printed onto various shades of yellow card for obvious reasons ;D
We made some hexagonal cells from cardboard and then filled them with scrunched up golden tissue paper to make them look like honey-filled cells.
I’m sure many of you will have seen something like this before. This shows the four stages of the life of the honey bee. From the egg through to the adult stage. Turn the wheel to see the different stages.We also watched a great time lapse video on the development and growth of the honey bee here.
Then we learned a bit more about the Queen Bee herself and put together this simple question and answer flap book. The questions were pasted onto the front of the flaps and the answers were researched and then written inside. We found a lot of information on the Queen Bee here.
Another little flap book with a few more details on the Queen Bee.
A diagram on the Honey Bee anatomy coloured and labeled by my son. I got him to do a bit of research himself in a book called ’Ants, Bees and Wasps’ and he was able to use the info from there to complete the diagram labels.
Next we did a bit of research into Drones. These are the male honey bees who fertilise the Queen bees eggs. There are only about 10-15 drones in one hive and their sole job is mate with the Queen. We made a little hexagonal-shaped flap with some info on Drones.
The flap template was actually quite small considering all the information we wanted to include, so I decided it would be a good opportunity to let my son brush up on his IT skills. So he sat and typed up the information into hexagonal boxes which we then printed, cut out and pasted onto the flaps. We found lots of information about Drones here and we found this video very useful too, masha’Allah (although I would advice caution if visiting the website of Harun Yahya, Allahu alem)
The Waddle Dance (sometimes known as the Waggle Dance) is a very interesting phenomenon of the Honey Bee, masha’Allah. I knew next to nothing about this until we watched this informative video. We watched the video a few times and then I got the kids to tell me in their own words what they understood about it. Then my son wrote inside the little book to explain what he understood about the Waddle Dance, what it is and why the bees do it.
The term “busy bee” is no joke! The Worker honey bee has an almost never-ending list of jobs to do as you can see from the photos above. All the worker bees are non-reproducing females and they work almost non-stop until they die. On average, the worker bees live for about 6 weeks in the Summer and 4 months in the winter. The reason they live longer in the winter is because they are not collecting nectar or pollen during this time.
We really enjoyed doing the research to make this little T-book on what bees do for us and what they give us. Again, the template was very small so after talking about this subject I typed up these little flaps, printed them and folded them.
Next we made a list of all the Honey bee’s predators. We found a long list of Honey Bee Predators here but alot of them were animals that even I didn’t recognise, so I decided it would be a good idea to print pictures of the predators too, just to make it a bit easier for the kids to understand. We also watched a couple of really interesting videos on how bees deal with predators using a defence tactic called “balling”. For some reason, these videos were my son’s favourite part of the project (why is it always boys who like the gory stuff LOL!)
We printed and pasted a larger photo of the Golden Rod Spider attacking a honey bee.
I searched for hours one night looking for a labelled diagram detailing the process step-by-step on how bees make honey but I couldn’t find anything suitable anywhere. So in the end I resolved to make a diagram myself. If you would like to use it, you can download it from the link here by scrolling down to the item titled: “How Bees make Honey”.
After looking at how bees make honey we made a brainstorm chart showing the health benefits of honey.
Then we made a note book with photos and information on different kinds of bees.
We found out a lot of information about different kinds of bees here and we extended our research using Wikipedia.
Finally we finished up with a colouring page and a honeycomb-shaped worksheet to list facts about bees. All in all, it was a very thorough and enjoyable project.
