Christian Kids Explore Biology... user tips/suggestions?

[angela&4boys]

I just received a copy of CKEB and I'm in the planning process. I'm hoping some seasoned users will chime in with any tips or suggestions.

I'll be using this with my 11yo and 8yo boys and I plan to have the 11yo write up the vocabulary on index cards. I'd appreciate any other ideas on how to beef it up for him.

[katemary63]

:lurk5:

[kids&me]

Hi Angela,
We used CKEB this year and really enjoyed it. I basically used it as a guide. We brought everything alive through hands on and field trips.
Here are some of the things we enjoyed.

-Planted veggies and flowers,
-baked cell cake,(kids loved this)
bought plant and animal cell models by learning recources
-went to bird sanctuary and disected owl pellet(sounds gross, but
kids really loved it)
- bird banding( we haven't done this yet but are planning on it)
-butterfly habitat from rainbow recource and butterfly banding (this was my favorite)!
-Ant farm
- next week we are going to a bee keeper to see hives.
-I also highly suggest buying The Body Book by Scholastic and Giant Science Resourse Book by Evan moor and lots of DK videos from the library(kids really loved these).

Good Luck and have fun,
Angie

[angela&4boys]

Great ideas, Angie!

I am going to take a look at the cell models. I love that as opposed to the jello model. lol. We've done the ant farm and butterfly house before, but we may be able to find a beekeeper... that sounds really neat. I have the owl pellets ready to go. What a hands-on bargain! I'm looking forward to it.

My mom is a green-thumb, so I'm hoping she'll want to help out when we get to plants. I have trouble keeping cactuses alive. :tongue_smilie:

Thank you! :)

[coffeegal]

I'm using CKEB with a 12yo, 11 yo, 9yo, and 6yo. My 5th and 6th graders are doing extra work from the Reader's Digest: How Nature Works. I have them read 4 pages that relate to the lesson from CKEB, choose a topic to explore from their reading that interests them, do additional reading on that topic, and write a short composition. My 12yo writes a page, and my 11yo writes 2 paragraphs. I took the process straight from the 1999 edition of TWTM. We also watch Bill Nye videos that relate to the unit, and my dh is checking out tons of nature dvds from the library.

HTH!