Animal Brownie Try It - Scout School

Part of our homeschooling includes the Girl Scouts program. Although we are part of a group, we choose to do many more badges independently. I tend to really delve into certain badges, while doing the bare minimum for others (depending on my child's focus).

I would like to incorporate the Boy Scouts program into our homeschooling, as well. Go here or here for more information about Scout Schooling. Another good place to check out is Making Friends. I just found another site for girl scouts of all ages: Scouting Web. It's totally awesome. We'll be using it alot!

For Shayla's animal try it we discussed:

• Meeting an Animal - How you should behave when around a wild animal or someone else's pet. We agreed that it was not a good idea to offer food to an unknown animal. We learned and then I demonstrated the proper way to pet an unfamiliar animal. In case you wanted to know, you should let the animal smell you first, then if they appear ok, pet the dog under the mouth or chin, not on the top of the head. They see the top of the head as a threat because they can't see your hand. Interesting huh? I learn a lot from homeschool, too!

We talked about when we took our gentle, giant St. Bernard to the vet. We discussed the scale the vet used to weigh him. We also enjoyed reading A Day With Animal Doctors by Leonie Bennett and A Day in the Life of a Veterinarian by Heather Adamson. We did not have a field trip to the vet's office, because we go periodically. She is familiar with the vet.

• How Animals Look - We named animals that fit the following descriptions: Animals with 2 legs, animals with no legs, animals with fur, animals with lips, animals that live in water, animals with antennae, animals with soft, squishy bodies, animals with feathers, animals with wings, but no feathers, animals with scales, animals with shells, animals with paws and animals with hooves.
• How Animals Act - Shayla gave animals for each of these catagories: Eat meat, dig, fly, hop, crawl, live underground, live in trees, swim, run, live in groups, live alone, travel long distances, and stay close to home.

We discussed how the type of bodies affect the way the animals act. For example: the bunnies, frogs, and kangroos all have long legs to hop. Dogs have claws to dig. Fish have fins to swim, not walk.

• Shelter for Animals - Our property is home to many creatures. What great fun to go outside and take a nature walk. We observed the following: birds, baby birds, deer, squirrels, raccoons, oppossum, rabbits, snakes, bees, ants, mice, bugs, butterflies, and coyote. We have a stream with many little creatures. We have caught fish, salamanders, and crawl dads in it before. We also noted animal tracks in the mud around the stream. We believe they were dog, deer, and raccoon tracks. We have tall grass, woods, and hollow trees also for animal habitats.
• Animal Sounds - We talked about animals communicating in different ways including touch, smell, and sound. While we were on our nature walk, we just stopped and listened for animal sounds. We acted like the following animals: Chicken, bee, cricket, monkey, rattlesnake, cat, dog, lion, frog, alligator, horse, whale, squirrel, fly, parrot, skunk, elephant, donkey, lizard, robin, and bat. We did this activity also with our scout troop. This was definately more fun with friends.
• Endangered Animals - We watched Banana Zoo Endangered Animals video to learn a little about endangered animals. We learned about the dodo bird, and several others which are extinct. I explained these key words to her, too. We learned about what animals are endangered in Ohio at this site. We discussed what it means to "adopt" an animal and another way of helping endangered animals is to dispose of trash properly and pick up pieces so that animals aren't killed by it.

In addition to these activities, we went to our local zoo for a field trip with our homeschool group.

Shayla also dressed in costume like several animals. I took a cute pic of her in her lion's costume, but I can't seem to locate it now!