Thursday, September 4, 2008

Classification

We're studying biology this year, beginning with classification. We started with the book Benny's Animals and How He Put Them in Order, by Millicent Selsam.

Before I read the book to the boys, I had them cut pictures of living things out of old My Big Backyard magazines. I asked them to try and sort them in any way they wanted. Ds#1 had some idea of grouping them as birds, reptiles, mammals, etc. but they had trouble.

Next we sat and read the book up through the part where the professor asks Benny to separate his pictures into those with spines/bones and those without. Next week we'll finish the book having them sort the vertebrates into mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. Maybe we'll put it together as a collage or lapbook.

5 comments:

L a u r a said...

Thank you for such a great idea! All of our Big Backyard magazines WILL be put to good use. Excellent activity! Keep 'em coming!

Anonymous said...

That looks like a good book...
my library has it, and I am placing it on hold pronto!

Unknown said...

Where did you find this book, is it out of print?

Kris said...

I first requested the book through our library system (it came from another one in the area.) I can't remember if I bought the book at a library book sale, or if I bought it from someone on a Yahoo curricula group. I really like Selsam's science books so I buy them whenever the price is good.

Several copies are available at abebooks starting at $7.50 including shipping.

texasmcvays said...

I e-mailed you last year and we are just now getting to classification. I had given up on the book (because I could not find it at a reasonable price and was not about to pay $35+ for it since it went out of print I guess) but a friend of mine had purchased a bunch of books from an estate sale. So as all CM moms would I went to her garage to look through the books and there it was...I screamed "Yes". On top of that I only paid .50 and I picked up another book by Selsam on Volcanoes.I am heading to Abe books to see if she has anymore books covering this years science. I am science challenged and I just love your site, it inspires me to consider loving science. Kyle