Razorback Academy

We are studying ancient Israel right now.  Recently G, C, and L made a salt dough map of Israel, and then they painted it according to the tribal allocations.

We recently finished a chapter on bats in our Zoology 1 (Flying Creatures of the 5th Day) book.  We learned that bat mothers leave their babies in a nursery, with many, MANY other bat babies.  When the bat mothers return, they are able to find their own babies by smell. So we became “bat mothers.”

We took 20 cotton balls and put different smelly substances on them: vanilla extract, toothpaste, vinegar, laundry detergent, perfume, etc.  The the kids took turns choosing a cotton ball to be their “pup.”  Then we would blindfold them and hold different “pups” up to their noses.  When they smelled the smell they had chosen, they would say, “That’s my pup!”

They loved it.

We have been learning about flying animals this year in science, and the first part of the year was spent learning about birds.  We hung a suet feeder right outside our front window, since we spend most of our time in the school room.  We have noticed a particular bird that likes to eat it, and we used our bird field guide to figure out what it is!

We have a Red-shafted Northern Flicker!

We also discovered that a smaller bird may be building a nest in a birdhouse we have on our front porch.  We haven’t been able to get close enough to figure out exactly what kind it is, but maybe we’ll have some babies soon!