Dinosaur Unit Study!

We did a lapbook unit study on dinosaurs this summer! I'm finally getting around to posting about it! We mostly used this lapbook and study guide for our dinosaur unit. Although I would not recommend the book they used for most of the unit, it wasn't scientific enough for this mama! It was a great study guide though and had some great activities. I also found some other printables from Enchanted Learning. The kids had a lot of fun doing it!

Here is the lapbook:

Inside:

Under blue flap:

 P's favorite dinosaur was the Ankylosaurus. This poem was in one of the books we read.

Here the kids are digging dinosaur "bones" out of clay. I got this cool kit from Hobby Lobby.

The kids are being paleontologists again and getting dinosaurs out of the ice. They mostly melted it in the pool!

We made a dinosaur diorama! P had a ton of fun coloring and gluing in the dinosaurs.

We also made dinosaur "eggs" out of paper mache and a balloon and painted them, but I can't find those pics!

Then we visited a Natural History museum near us that had dinosaur bones! The kids really loved this!

The kids acting "scared" of the T-Rex behind them!

I also recently got our time line up on the wall! I used blue painters tape. We are lamenting and adding facts as we go along. 

Elderberry Syrup

My parents have a 40 acre farm and woods and have tons of wild elderberries growing. So I decided to make lots of elderberry syrup and dehydrate some too. There are a ton of great benefits to elderberry syrup, I'm glad to have lots to last us through the winter. It says to take 1-2 TBS a day to help the immune system (for adults), I'll give the kids a little less. I'll probably double that up when I feel like I'm coming down with something. It is not good to eat the berries raw, as I've heard they will give you stomach upset. There are recipes out there for muffins, pie, jelly, wine, etc, but I just made the syrup.  

Here are about half of the berries we picked. I forgot to take a pic before we started stripping the berries off of the stems.  

Here is most of the berries off of the stem.

The elderberries simmering. This step took a long time and no matter how long you cook them down, the syrup never got really thick.

Here it is all done with the honey added.

My husband and I are disagreeing about how long elderberry syrup lasts! He read that it only lasts 1 month in the fridge, I read 3-6 months in the fridge. So we froze some of the syrup, left some in the fridge and dehydrated some of the berries to make more syrup if we need to. If you have an elderberry tree or know someone who does, now is the time to pick and make your syrup!


Here is the recipe I used:

• 1 cup fresh or 1/2 cup dried elderberries
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup raw honey (make sure your honey is raw and from a good source and make sure to cool the syrup before adding the honey, so you get all those good benefits from the raw honey too!)

1. Heat the berries and water to a boil, then reduce to simmer for 30-45 minuets.

2. Mash the berries, strain, cool and add 1 cup of raw honey. I add a half cup of the purple liquid to a measuring cup, then pour in honey until the total volume is 1 1/2 cups. Then stir to mix well, and add to the rest of the reserved liquid.

3. Bottle and store, refrigerated. for 2-3 months.

4. Enjoy a tablespoon daily to keep the immune system strong, use more often when afflicted with the flu.

I also got a few peaches canned. I'll be doing tomatoes soon! I hope to get enough tomatoes canned this year to last us through the Winter and Spring. I canned almost enough to last us last year, I believe we made it until April or so. I used my new BPA free tattler reusable canning lids on the peaches, I'm so excited to have these this year!