Littles Learning Link Up: April 30, 2019: Butterfly Lapbook

Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (usually toward the beginning of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my early elementary children and the preschoolers I work with at our homeschool co-op (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

We have completely finished our metamorphosis/life cycle lessons in our class at co-op. Three weeks ago I shared the Pattern Caterpillar Crafts, two weeks ago I shared the Symmetrical Butterfly Crafts, and last week I shared the Paper Plate Butterfly Life Cycle we made. I decided to finish up our unit with another lapbook, as I did with the Tadpole/Frog Unit.  This lapbook has some of the same elements, but I changed it up a bit.

We again started with a Life Cycle Flip Book. I found the printable images over at Preschool Mom. She has a whole slew of butterfly preschool printables.

The top/title page was a 4x4 inch square, while each page is 1 inch longer than the one before. This is a bit bigger than what I made the Tadpole/Frog life cycle book. I glued the words to the bottom of the page and the children had to put the pictures in order then glue them to the corresponding page.

We then made a comparison book between caterpillars and butterflies. Before making the book we discussed the differences.

I cut out a long rectangle of green construction paper and folded it into thirds. I had the children glue a picture of a butterfly to the "cover."

Then we opened that flap and glued the picture of the caterpillar to the right flap. We then glued on the information about the caterpillar on the left.

The children then opened the book completely, but then folded the left flap in so we could see the butterfly. Then we attached the information about the butterfly to the right flap (which is behind the picture of the caterpillar).

Here is what the book looks like when it is opened all the way.

We then worked on labeling the parts of the butterfly, the same way we did with the frog. We turned the lapbooks over and glued a picture of the butterfly to the back of the lapbook. This printable, from Living Life and Learning, was one that was shared on my Butterfly Metamorphosis/Life Cycle Fun Round Up.

We discussed each part and then the children were given the correct word to glue next to the line leading to that part.

In the Frog lapbook we included a pouch of number puzzles. This time I used a memory game printable from Preschool Mom. Instead of printing out two copies for each child to make a memory game, I gave them each one copy of each butterfly which I had cut in half so they could match the sides. I figured this went well with our lesson on symmetry. I decided to make the storage pouch so they could play the matching game over and over if they so chose.

I stapled the Butterfly Life Cycle book to the left flap. Then the children glued their "Let's Compare" book toward the top of the right flap and the storage pouch toward the bottom of the right flap. We then moved on to some math. I didn't want to do simple counting as we had done for the frog lapbook, where we glued the number of frogs to the lilypads. Instead, I wanted to try some simple addition.

Prior to class I had written the equations in the center of the lapbook. I had the children glue their butterflies under those equations. This butterfly template also came from Preschool Mom as it was easier than me having to draw a bunch of butterflies as I had done for our Symmetrical Butterfly Crafts. There I only needed 8 of each butterfly I made. This time, I needed 40! I just downloaded it, put it in a word processing document, and shrunk it down to the size I needed. Then I printed them out on orange construction paper.

Then we went around and applied the correct number of glue dots (with white school glue) to one butterfly at a time. Then they attached the black circles to the glue. Notice I made sure to make the butterflies symmetrical here too.

As I went around, I made sure to have the children say the equation, "One plus one equals two. Two plus two equals four," etc. When we were all done decorating the butterflies, I handed out the squared which I had written the numbers on. Then the children had to find the correct butterfly to glue these numbers under.

This completed our lapbook.

Butterfly Lapbook

Let's take a look at that review schedule real quick:

Last week I shared my review of Techie Homeschool Mom. 

This week I will be sharing my review for the first two books in the Hamelin Stoop series from 12 Gates Publishing. Later in May you will find reviews for Pathway to Liberty, Elementary Math Games from The Critical Thinking Co., the book God is Better Than Trucks from Christian Focus, another picture book titled Nothing from Worthy Kids, a couple of online subscriptions from EdAlive, plus Supercharged Science.

In June I will share reviews for Simply Classical Writing from Memoria Press and Lightning Lit Grade 2 from Hewitt Homeschooling Resources.

Phew, yes we are still busy with review products.

Here are a couple of things I would like to share with you:

Butterfly Metamorphosis/Life Cycle Fun Round Up

Learning About Life Cycles: Tadpole/Frog Lessons

April Showers Brought May Flowers Round Up

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 5 wonderful posts linked up. I will be sharing a randomly selected post and the top clicked on posts.

Please, don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's randomly selected post is:

Kristen from A Mom's Quest to Teach shared Dice, Decks, and Boards: Koala Capers.

And here are this week's most clicked-on posts:

Nicole from Mama of Many Blessings shared Easy to Make Sun Catcher Kid Craft Idea.

Brandy from The Barefoot Mom shared Dandelion Investigation.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Littles Learning Link Up permalink please.

I am sharing over at

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Digging Into Ancient Egypt with Resources from Home School in the Woods {A TOS Review}

One of the benefits of being on the Homeschool Review Crew is discovering new companies to help us in our homeschool journey. While the Crew has reviewed products from Home School in the Woods in the past, this is the first time we have been on one of these reviews. We were allowed to choose a couple of their individual À La Carte products which they are now offering. I couldn't pass up the chance to use these fun products to help us review Ancient Egypt, which we have been learning about with our core curriculum. In fact, I just love the perfect timing of this review. 

We received the Snapshot Moments in History: Ancient Egypt Timeline in addition to a file folder game called Tomb Dash!, both of which were originally created for Project Passport: Ancient Egypt. We were provided Family licenses, meaning they were to be printed out only for use in our family. However, Home School in the Woods does offer Teacher or School Licenses as well.

In order to use these products, I needed to download them and open them up with Adobe Reader to print them properly. A printer with ink was also needed. I was thrilled that they were black and white, instead of color, as it is so much better on the budget. It also gives the children a chance to be more involved as they get to color their project and make it more individualized. The images from the company show colored cardstock being used for the timeline pages, but I found that white worked just fine. You will also need a few tools to complete the projects. I used my paper cutter and a three-hole punch to prep the timeline pages. Also needed for both were scissors, crayons, colored pencils, and glue sticks. 

Both of these downloadable projects have been helping us review information we had learned previously this year, plus has been teaching us new details of Ancient Egypt. 

The first project I printed out was the Ancient Egypt Timeline. 

This 26-page file consists of license information, instructions & tips, and the actual timeline pages. There are eight timeline notebook pages. Additionally, there are four pages of  images with their captions and two pages of extras/momentos, all of which the children needed to color, cut out, and glue onto the proper space on the scrapbook-style timeline. Also included in the download were eight pages that showed what the timeline pages should look like once complete. I did not feel it was necessary to print these out. However, if you have any confusion, you could choose to print them out, or just view them on your computer for reference.

Before the children could get started on their timelines, I had to prepare the pages a bit. There were actually two different sets of directions given for preparing the timeline: accordion-style or page-by-page. The accordian-style can be pulled out to be viewed as one continuous timeline and the page-by-page can be flipped through like a photo album. Though the page-by-page would use less cardstock as the pages can be printed back to back, I chose the accordion-style as we prefer to view our timelines as a continuous flow of history.

The first page needed to be hole-punched, while the remaining pages needed to be narrowed a bit so they could fold up properly and still be able to be placed in a binder. This is where I used my paper cutter and three-hole punch. I appreciated the detailed instructions that were provided. 

This is what a blank timeline page looks like. As you can see, the timeline is labeled so the children knew what image to look for on their sheets. 

And this is a page of images. The captions give some details about the pictures, including dates.

We completed a page a day, so it took us a couple of weeks to complete the timelines.

We made sure to work from left to right, filling in each "column" as we went so we could make sure to be working chronologically. We would figure out which image we needed, then I would read the information under each image while they colored it.

There were times we pulled out some extra resources to help dig into the information a bit more. For instance, the first picture tells us "Mizraim's people settle in Egypt." I pulled out my Bible so we could remember just who Mizraim was. In case you weren't aware, Mizraim's grandfather was Noah and his father was Ham. We had learned, earlier in the year, how Noah's descendants spread across the world after the flood. So, it was neat to have our timeline begin with this fact.

Another time the children weren't sure what a scarab was, so I used my phone to find a picture for them.

Here are their completed first pages.

They worked really hard to get their timelines completed.

 Once all the pages were complete, I taped them together so they could be placed in their history binders.

All in all, it was quite simple to put together; though Harold, who is six year old, did need help finding the correct picture and making sure he placed in in the correct spot. I believe the older girls could have completed this timeline independently. Usually I stayed by them, reading the information as we attached it to the timeline. There were times I was able to get them started and they could complete it while I cooked dinner. The older girls then helped their younger siblings. 

Before we played the Tomb Dash! File Folder Game we read through the timeline information again to prepare ourselves as the timeline included a lot of information that was also used for the question cards.

This 36-page file includes information about licenses, an introduction & tips page, assembly instructions, directions for playing the game, and the actual game components. Additionally we received an audio soundtrack MP3 file which is used as a timer for the game. The game can be played with the 15 minute timer, the 10 minute timer, or without a timer for an easier game. 

The pages I needed to print out were the game board, artifact cover chips, markers, title label, 7 pages of question cards plus the question card back on each page of question cards, the action card page plus the action card backs, and the game instructions. The remainder of the pages included in the file are duplicates provided for duplex printing.

In order to put the game together you will need a file folder, scissors, crayons, colored pencils, and glue sticks. You will also need a die to play the game.

There was a bit of prep work that needed to be done before we could play the game. The game board and markers need to be colored. I handed the people markers over to the children while I worked on the game board. Then I cut out the Question cards and the Action cards. I did not color these. If you are short on time and would like the cards to be colored, you could always print them onto colored cardstock. 

After the game board was colored I glued it into the file folder and attached the title label. The Question cards are placed in the "Boat Pits" as are the Action cards. The number of Action cards used in the game depends on the difficulty level chosen. There are a total of 16 Action cards. This breaks down to 6 Artifact cards and 10 Trouble cards. And there are a total of 126 Question cards.

Here is the game all ready to be played.

For a normal game there should be 6 of the Trouble cards mixed in with the 6 Artifact cards. Difficult and Extreme level games use 1 Artifact card per player and then you have to add in enough Trouble cards to equal a 12 card deck, so a lot more of a chance of getting a Trouble card.

Each of the people markers have a name.

The little squares are the artifact cover chips.

The object of the game is to work together to get through the tomb, collecting artifacts along the way. Each player needs to make it to the exit with 1 artifact card.

In order to move your marker you need to first answer a question correctly. 

The child to the right of the player whose turn it is will read the question from a question card. The answer is shown right below the question, so don't let the other player see the card.

The older girls would help the younger ones to come up with their answers (if they knew them).

If the player answers correctly, they get to roll the die. After landing on an artifact space the player can pick up an Action card. As mentioned above, this may be an Artifact card:

Or it may be one of several Trouble cards that hinder your ability to get through the tomb. Some are permanent troubles that you have to keep throughout the rest of the game, unless you use a turn to get rid of it. And some are temporary problems. You may have to stand on one leg for the remainder of the game, or you may have to roll a certain number to move again. And there is always a fun, adventure-related reason why these troubles come upon you, such as the passage being blocked or a wall collapsing causing dust and debris to blind you.

Once a player has an artifact they need to head toward the exit. As this is a cooperative game, players may even give another player some of their moves to help them along. 

We have yet to beat this game. We get to about where you see the markers are on the board in the picture above, and we run out of time. It took me a while to process this, but my husband made the point of saying that if there were less people playing, we would make it through the tomb faster. This makes sense as then each move would get you closer to the exit, instead of having to wait for each player to make it a few spaces at a time. I've been thinking that maybe we should start playing as teams, where the older girls each have a younger sibling to work with, using only one marker. That way each team is also responsible for working out the answers to the questions together, instead of everyone trying to help (which does feel a bit like cheating). 

Even though we haven't beaten the game yet, the children are enjoying playing, as am I. We are starting to learn our Ancient Egyptians facts pretty well. This is because I am keeping the same cards on the top of the pile for each game. Though I do shuffle them first. This way we are memorizing the information on these cards, and we can also tell when we have gotten further in the game as we reach new questions to work on. Once we have the current facts memorized, I will start changing them up.

I love that this product comes with the MP3 soundtrack files. We could set a regular timer, but it is neat to have the adventure music and sound effects going on in the background and gong sounds that go off at 5 minute intervals warning us that our time is running out. It adds a sense of suspense, especially because the music gets more intense toward the end of the game.

Both of these À La Carte products are wonderfully fun ways of reviewing and learning information about Ancient Egypt. The Timeline gives the children something in their binders that they can refer too whenever they want. And the game is just fun to play together as a family. Even more exciting is the fact that Home School in the Woods offers many more À La Carte products for different periods in history. In fact, I have every intention of purchasing the Ancient Greece Timeline and the Greek Life! File Folder Game to enhance our study of Ancient Greece, a time period we will be coming up to shortly with our core curriculum. Thankfully, these À La Carte products are quite affordable. 

You can find Home School in the Woods on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and YouTube.

My fellow Crew Mates and I had a wide assortment of À La Carte products to choose from. You can click on the banner below to see what they reviewed and what they thought of them.