Beyond Co-op: Boxcar Children #3

Wanted to share about another fun Beyond FIAR co-op day with The Boxcar Children.  There are so many fun hands-on lessons to do!  I always enjoy seeing someone else's take on a lesson too!  The others always come up with something different than I would have done!  It's a great way to share experiences, talents and interests with each other.

We started with a devotion on this beautiful sunny day in April (yes, I'm behind still).  We sat around on the front lawn and enjoyed our outdoor classroom.  Today we were covering some of the lessons found in Chapters 7-9.

One of the first lessons was on classification and organization.  The children did an interesting exercise demonstrating how they could have some similarities and some differences, but none of these traits worked well or consistently for sorting and organizing.  (For example sorting by color of hair and then color of eye.  As we moved through traits the system broke down.)  The children learned about Linnaeus and his system of scientific classification.  As they learned each of the seven main categories, they learned a motion to go along with it to help them remember.  Below they are putting a crown on their head for Kingdom.  

Raising their hands for "Class".

Working on making paper cones as a means to collect some things later in the day.  Their cones were made with nothing but a single sheet of paper - no tape, glue or staples.

As always, we enjoy a bounty for lunch!

The next part of our lesson focused on ... eggs!  Isn't it fun to see the variety of colors that eggs can come in?

I copied some of the posters so you could see some of the interesting information on eggs.  For the first poster, they played an interactive game.  They were given a circle with a number on it and then tried to figure out where it went in the comparison of pasture-raised eggs and conventional eggs.  The answers below are correct.

Much of the lesson was spent talking about the benefits of pasture-raised eggs and how eggs come naturally.  Did you know that the egg yolk should be orange?  And that a green "egg white" is alright?

We were all intrigued by the variety of colors in the egg shells.  We learned about the types of chickens laying the different colored eggs.

After talking about eggs, it was time to find some!  As an interesting twist, the children 8 and under looked on the ground for their eggs and those older had to look up!

They used their paper cones to collect eggs.  What a fun way to end our morning!

Thanks Julie and Vickie for a wonderful day!

Blessings
Leslie