Raising Awareness For Endangered Animals All Year Long

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Did you know that World Lion Day was August 10th and that World Elephant Day was August 12th? Before becoming a National Geographic Kids Insider I didn't. I know these two days have passed and if you didn't know about them don't worry because you don't need to only raise awareness and celebrate these spectacular endangered animals on just these days, you can help them all year long and here are some things you can do!

Lions:
Did you know that it's not just Lions that are at risk? Many big cats in the wild are disappearing at an alarming rate. But there are things you and your family can do to help, so keep reading.

National Geographic is working hard to help raise awareness for Lions and other big cats by getting people to give high fives on social media. It is really easy, just follow the steps below.

• Share the Facebook and Twitter posts found HERE. Or get creative and share your own photo or video using hashtag #5forBigCats on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.  Don't forget to tag your friends in the virtual high five.
• Then head HERE to donate $5 (or more) to support National Geographic’s Big Cats Initiative.
• Sit back and watch the chain grow across social media!
  
  

Some other things you can do are:

• Support the Big Cats Initiative. This initiative helps prevent livestock from being killed by building better corrals, tracking lions and warning farmers, educating farmers and locals on other methods besides lethal action.  Simply text LIONS to 50555 to donate $10.00 or shop Big Cats gear.
• Educate your children about lions and other big cats. Teachers and parents can download this free kit to help educate kids on saving wildlife from National Geographic Kids. Learn more about lions here. Or purchase this awesome book Mission: Lion Rescue. This book is filled with amazing stories, facts and resources. Education is key to understanding and helping these magnificent creatures!
• Host a "Lion" Aid Stand.

Elephants:
Another animal that is endangered is the Elephant, the biggest mammal to walk Earth. And National Geographic is working hard to make sure that these animals are around for future generations.

• Education is key remember! Purchase this awesome book Mission: Elephant Rescue. Just like Misson: Lion Rescue this book is loaded with amazing stories, beautiful photography, hands on activities and more. I am super excited to use this book in a few weeks with my homeschool zoo club. We will be learning about Elephants and I am planning to do one of the many fabulous rescue activities in the book. I found these great little National Geographic books on Elephant Migration at Dollar Tree and will be giving one out to each family attending the zoo club meeting.
• Head over to the National Geographic website and watch the Elephant Mission: Animal Rescue video.
• Download this Mission Animal Rescue Fundraising Kit.
• Print out some Mission Animal Rescue Posters.

Seussy Saturday Link Up Week 1

Welcome to the Seussy Saturday Link Up. I was hoping to get this up earlier but we were out having a Seusserific day. As you may know we are going crazy with Dr. Seuss this monh for our homeschool unit. We will be reading EVERY single one of his books and doing worksheets,  lapbooks, crafts, fun food and more. I know there are a bunch of link ups going on for Dr. Seuss but this one will be a little different because it will last all month. So if you are having a Seusstactular time with Dr. Seuss this month be sure to link up.

Below is the button if you want to join in the fun. Just link up a post that has to do with Dr. Seuss. And I would love it if you put the button either in the post or on your sidebar if your participating.


<center><a href="http://www.kathysclutteredmind.com/search/label/Dr%20Seuss" target=”_blank”><img src="http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h453/kbalman/seussysaturday-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a></center>

So here is what we were up to yesterday and today. The rest of our week can be found here.

Last night we went to Barnes and Nobles. They were actually having a school fundraiser but the event is open to the public. There were school groups signing parts of the Seussical, A Cat in the Hat reading books, face painting, hair wrapping and more. The kids had lots of fun. We also got some funny looks because we were hanging out at a public school fundraiser event in our new homeschool t-shirts that I designed for our homeschool group "The North GA Homeschoolers." But I didn't know it was a public school fundraiser event until we got there and it was an event open to the public so I kind of got a kick out of the funny looks and whispers. Its the first time I really ever experienced that before. On the way there we were stuck in traffic due to an accident so I had Gwyn think of a rhyme. She picked the topic, what she wanted to convey and the rhyming words and I helped put it together. Here it is:

Flowers are pretty.
Just like my kitty.
Flowers smell good.
I wish that I could.
Tell people to keep them in the ground.
So that they may be found.
And looked at.
By me and my cat.

By: Gwyn B.

Cat in the Hat reading.

Rowyn getting his face painted.

My little Tiger.

My ferocious pretty Tiger.

Then today we went to see the Art of Dr. Seuss at a local art gallery called Anne Jackson Gallery. They had encouraged people to come dressed up so of course we couldn't resist. I whipped up these costumes a few hours before the event using stuff we had on hand.

The Lorax, Horton, The Cat in the Hat

Aren't they adorable?

They had ham, green deviled eggs, Dr. Seuss cakes and more yummy finger foods.

Some of the art work.  Everything in the gallery is a  reproduction but copied  from his originals which are held by his wife in a vault.  Every so often an original is released for reproduction and they make a certain number of the print to sell.

The kids eating a little table.

Look who showed up the Grinch.

Love this piece it was around $2,100.

Unorthodox Taxidermy collection.

My absolute favorite piece, A Plethora of Fish.

Gwyn liked this one.

When we got home we had an awesome package waiting. I will share that later with everyone this week. But inside the box was lots of bubble wrap. So I read the kids "Hop on Pop" and they well hopped on pop.

Gwyns Oncel-er pictures, age 6.

Before we watched The Lorax movie this was the one she drew. In the book you never see him just his eyes and arms. His eyes she said look mean and he is mean for cutting down the trees.

But after watching The Lorax this is what she drew. He kind of looks like a leprechaun. And she changed her mind and said he's nice because he realizes what he did was wrong and wants to fix what he did.

Checking off the books we read on our chart. Here is a link to the book list, mini biography I put together.

And we won this from the gallery for dressing up. Our picture will also be in the Roswell Patch.

Here are some websites with FreeBEEs to help you with your Dr. Seuss learning:
-Dr. Seuss craft ideas
-Dr. Seuss Birthday Blog Hop - make sure you check out all 8 of the blogs participating for some good ideas
-Make sure you watch Tim Tebow reading Green Eggs and Ham it will be up until the end of the month
-9 Things You May Not Know about Dr. Seuss
-Some Dr. Seuss facts
-Printable Favorite Dr. Seuss Book
-Lesson plan ideas for just about every book
-PDF document with lots of Dr. Seuss lesson ideas
-Cat in the Hat playdough mats
-Horton Hatches and Egg unit study

There are so many great resources for Dr. Seuss on the web. We are not planning to use all the ones I shared but I wanted to pass these along. I will have more next week.

YouTube Channel for March:

Pinterest Board for Dr. Seuss I also have one March - I would love it if you follow me:

Link Up:



And I couldn't let Gwyn have all the fun so here is my homeschool rhyme:

I like to homeschool yes I do!
Do you like to homeschool too?
I like to homeschool here and there I like to homeschool everywhere.
In the house, in car, it doesn't matter where we are.
We can learn near and far.
I do so like to homeschool yes I do.
I hope that you are joining too!

Thanks for stopping by and linking up I hope to see you next week. Have a Seussuper week.

Linking up with:

A week in the life of homeschoolers - Week 30 & FreeBEE Friday Link Up

Week 30: 
We had a wonderful week. We had lots of fun field trips and even daddy got to go on one with us. We continued working on our Lion/Africa unit study but have also started easing our way into our Dr Seuss unit study. We tried to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count but due to some dreary weather we were unsuccessful and only identified one bird, a Morning Dove (aka Rain Dove). Saturday we attended a Dr Seuss event at a local mall. The event was FREE and the kids got to meet some Atlanta celebrities, The Cat in the Hat and The Lorax. They got lots of goodies, made some crafts, got to be part of a parade and listened to Dr Seuss stories. Later that night I had my very first moms night out with our homeschool group. I was out of the house from 7pm-12:30am by myself. It was AMAZING! Monday we focused on Presidents day. We read lots of books and did a few fun worksheets. Later we went to the library for story time. Tuesday we worked on the Lion/Africa lapbook and then went to a Rocks in my Backyard class at the library where the kids learned more about their rock collection. Wednesday we had an amazing time eating lunch with the Ringling Bros & Barnum and Bailey Elephants. The event was FREE of course. Daddy got to go with us and it was such an amazing field trip. It also went along great with our Africa and Dr Seuss units. Later Gwyn had her final American Girl CurrClick class on Felicity. We will now be moving onto another American Girl. Thursday we spent the morning cleaning up the house, kids did the dishes and I took care of mounds of laundry that needed to be folded and put away. Afterwards we headed to Whole Foods for a special Lorax story time (check your a location near you to see if they offer kid events).  They had some very yummy snacks prepared for the kids and talked about simple ways the kids can help save trees. And best of all we got FREE tickets to see The Lorax on March 1st. Tomorrow we will probably finish up our Lion/Africa unit study and we have some fun stuff planned for Saturday which I will share next week. For instructions on the African drums we made this week click here.

 FreeBEEs:

If you have homeschool FreeBEEs to share
please link up at the bottom of this post!
You can copy the button from my right side bar.

Internet FreeBEEs:
-Math Worksheet website
-Mad Libs online
-We Do Listen virtue/character songs
-Living Water Bible Games
-Story starter pattern
-Animal Human Society Kindness Kit
-Lots of Freebies from Carson Dellosa including a FREE whiteboard unit
-Majesty Music - Free songs from the Patch Club
-FREE Lego Club Magazine subscription

FreeBEE events:

 

Target is hosting a Read Across America Dr Seuss Event Saturday Feb 25th from 9 am -11am.

Lakeshore Learning is having a Dr Seuss Event on Saturday Feb 25th from 11am-3pm.

 

Check out Kidgits Club if you live near a Simon Mall. It is $5 per child for a year membership but they host all sorts of awesome events that are FREE throughout the year. Like the Dr Seuss and The Lorax one we attended.

Sign up FreeBEEs, items I will be reviewing soon and items I won:

1) Symmetry Magazine great science publication especially for older kids 2) Make sure you pick up the Cheerio boxes with these cool books in them, and make sure you check the website frequently because they will be uploading activities at some point to go along with the books 3) Our FREE Lorax screening passes I am going to try to get a review up after we see it

Books and DVDs we checked out from the library:
-Too Many Cats by Lori Haskins Houran - Gwyn is really enjoying reading this book
-The Eraserheads by Kate Banks - someone recommended this book to me and it is super cute
-The Popcorn Dragon by Jane Thayer
-The Nine Lives of Dudley Dog by John and Ann Hassett
-Endangered Lion by Amanda Harman
-Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio

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New ideas have been added to my board. These are some of the things we are doing for our January units. Check out my other boards on Pinterest for ABC, 123, Art, etc ideas.


This is our February YouTube playlist keep checking back because I will be adding videos each week. It includes the various videos we will be using throughout February.

I hope you find these resources useful. If you ever have any questions feel free to leave me a comment or email me. Also be sure to follow my FB page where I post FreeBEEs daily.

Link up: FreeBEE Fridays with Kathy's Cluttered Mind and Gricefully Homeschooling

*Disclaimer - Many of the links found on my side bars and in my blog posts are affiliate links. As a result, I might get paid money and I will most likely spend the money on homeschool supplies.