This week we studied geckos.  And went to the zoo and had some major playdates so there wasn’t as much FORMAL schooling.

INSTEAD we had a TON of fun and read some awesome books and learned a lot about geckos without worrying about the Math and Writing bits so much.

 Gecko Math Worksheets

We made some fun Math Addition Worksheets with cute little geckos in the corner.  Yeah, they’re exactly like all the other Math worksheets on here… But hey.  You gotta have some consistency right?

The math worksheets have become a fun thing that I can set him up with while I make lunch or if I need to feed Zoriah.

Reading Comprehension Worksheets

This time, I wrote a whole story for Zachary to work on his reading.  I couldn’t find a GOOD easy reader book about geckos that was a STORY instead of just facts.  So I wrote one myself.  I just basically babbled onto the page then re-wrote it so that Zachary could read it.  I did some blend-work in there for him.  Lots of “ou”s and things like that.   It was challenging for him, but he wanted to know what happened next in the story, so he kept reading.

There are also Comprehension questions at the bottom.  All the answers can be found in the text except for the last one which is a “what do you think” question.  I don’t know if this has an “education-ese” term, but that’s what I call them.

Zachary actually did REALLY well answering the questions.  His predictive skills aren’t that great. but we had fun.

Crafts

There’s pretty much no way to study geckos and NOT do this craft.  We did it with Glow in the Dark beads.  Zachary wanted to add stickiness to the feet, but I disappointed him by saying “I don’t think we have anything that will actually make it stick.” There’s only so much I can do.  But I think I’m gonna see if I can get some glue dots next week.  There’s supposed to be removable and not damage walls and stuff.  Hopefully that will sate him.

Materials Needed

• 50  Pony Beads. (2 eye beads, 27 Primary Color, 21 Secondary Color)
• About 3 feet of Ribbon or Plastic Lace
• Scissors
• Lighter

Procedure

1. Gather your supplies
2. Start by putting 1 of the primary colored beads on the string and letting it fall to the middle
3. Add 2 more beads and string the OTHER end of the plastic lace through only the two beads you just put on it.  It should make a triangle when you pull it tight.  If it doesn’t, you did it WRONG!!
4. Keep following the Pattern until you get to the tail.  
5. To get the feet to look right, string 5 beads (2 primary then 3 secondary) onto the string, then put the string back through the tops of the 2 primary colored beads.
6. Tie a double Knot to finish the gecko
7. Melt the double knot with the lighter (don’t let it catch, it will burn through and your gecko will end up with a shorter tail.)  Squish it while its still warm so it stays knotted.

Field Trip

We went to the Zoo this week!  It was really fun.  Unfortunately there were only a couple species of geckos to look at, But they did have a HUGE new Reptile area so we got to see LOTS of awesome lizards and snakes.  It was a great review of reptiles and the kids loved it as usual.

This is Zoriah Looking at the Crocodiles

Apparently you used to be able to ride on the Big Tortoises…. They don’t let you do that anymore, but we did get to ride the brass one.

We Got to see a Reptile Skeleton.  It was awesome.

BOOKS!

Top 10 Reptiles and Amphibians for kids.

This is the book we picked up because it was about reptiles and featured the type of gecko that Zachary has as a pet.  I can’t really recommend the content (It says not to handle a leopard gecko…. its weird), but the pictures were awesome! It gave Zachary a book he could look at without help.  It sparked some conversation about other reptiles which was fun.

Geckos by W.P. Mara

This book was great.  Its written at about a 3rd grade level, so Zachary was able to read quite a bit of it himself.  Its pretty much the perfect gecko textbook.  Its a little bit outdated, but its still a great gecko overview and the basics don’t really change that much.  It has a lot of great pictures of all the different types of geckos.

Lunchroom Lizard – By Daniel Kirk

This book was REALLY CUTE!  Slightly disappointing for the lizard. But very very cute for everyone else.  Basically, the lizard is a class pet and he escapes in order to catch a fly.  He spends the next half an hour wandering around the lunchroom trying to catch it.

Its actually also a great book for TELLING TIME!  If your kids already know how to tell time to the hour and half-hour, this would be an awesome book to teach estimating times in the middle (Or to introduce the subject).  Almost every page has a clock and starts with what time it is when the lizard is doing whatever he’s doing.

From Gecko Feet to Sticky Tape

This was a great book that told about how scientists have been studying how geckos can stick to things.  One of the reasons Zachary wanted to study Geckos was because they can stick to things REALLY well!  So finding a book that studied exactly that was PERFECT!

Things I Learned This Week

1. Geckos don’t stick to things because of a glue-like substance on their bodies, they stick because of LITTLE TINY HAIR-LIKE THINGS.  They’re pretty awesome
2. There are A LOT of different types of geckos.  I thought there were like, 100, There are actually more than 1,500!  I was way off!