Friday, November 14, 2008

Marsupial study

After focusing on Australia last week, we moved to a study of marsupials this week.  It was really quite extensive - kangaroos, koalas, Tasmanian devils, possums vs. opossums, and wombats.  We watched a National Geographic video on Australian animals, which included more than marsupials - emus, platypus, flying squirrels, black stork and other birds.  There was some subtle evolution in it, but it went right over the boys' heads.  They were more interested in the video that what the man was saying.  It even showed a kangaroo baby being born and finding its way to the pouch and then what it looked like inside the pouch. 


We learned that kangaroo babies are the size of a lima bean when born, a koala baby is the size of a kidney bean, and 24 opossum babies can fit into a teaspoon.


We learned that all marsupials, with the exception of the Virginia opossum, live in Australia and the surrounding islands (New Zealand, New Guinea and Tasmania.)  The opossum that lives in the US was named because their tails are similar to the possum which lives in Australia. 


Here are pictures of the lapbooks.  I didn't take pictures of the books opened because on the colored paper it is too hard to see the pencil writing.


Alex's




Nicolas's



It's very hard to see his drawing, but he drew a kangaroo.

1 comment:

  1. Very nice, Jodi! I like the colors of paper you chose. It's so fun to see different people use the same lapbook in different ways! :D


    That video sounds great, too. :)


    I am going to steal pictures for HSS. :) Ami

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