Journaling is an amazing way to learn with children. Because my daughter loves animals, we decided to use animal unit studies journaling to learn detailed information about some animals.
If you haven't seen the the previous post about the
Animal Unit Studies Journal for Kids, check it our
here.
We learned about the
Chinchilla and had a lot of fun doing so! We first came across the name from an animal book that I purchased last year. We were fascinated and wanted to learn more.
We watched some videos and even thought about potentially getting one as a pet (one day). Hmm, not too sure about that anymore. But they are cute nevertheless.
Here are the steps we took to journal about the Chinchilla:
1. We first got some basic information about
mammals because we just started the mammal category.
We used Google.
2. I then asked my daughter what mammal she wanted to learn about first.
We went through a list of mammals (
given in the journal) and she chose the Chinchilla, an animal we've been wanting to learn more about for a while.
3. I wrote down the name of the animal on a piece of paper and she copied it in the journal, along with the date.
4. I asked my daughter what she wanted to know about the chinchilla and I wrote down her answers.
Children who can write well can write it all down themselves.
5. I noted down the resources we planned on using. Since we're now home on a lock-down, we couldn't go to the library or find magazines. However, doing crafts, story telling, and even animal play are some fun activities you can do with your children as well. We plan on doing those next time, in shaa Allah.
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6. We started searching on Google and ventured to various sites. We also used Youtube to watch videos about chinchillas.
7. As we watched the videos, I emphasized on facts mentioned in the videos to make my daughter pay more attention to them. I wrote some of the facts that stood out the most to us. We used various colors to make the book look more fun.
8. After writing facts, then came my daughter's favorite part ... drawing!
I found an example of a sketch on Google and had her look at it and imitate the drawing draw.
Of course, she felt the need to color it pink:)
We usually prefer to draw without eyes, but that doesn't always happen with my little one. She draws what she sees. When she was 2 or 3, she was drawing our family one day ... I told her not to draw the eyes and she replied saying "but we have eyes." That made me laugh a lot. I did explain the reason why I believe we shouldn't and she understood. But hey, kids are kids.
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9. Since we love books and couldn't find a story book about chinchillas, I turned our research into a non-fiction story-like 'book.' Basically, I simply re-read everything while making it fun and engaging.
10. Now comes some of the facts we learned about the chinchilla:
- Chinchillas are rodents like rats and mice.
- They are neither nocturnal nor diurnal but rather crepuscular, meaning, they are mostly active at dawn and dust.
- Chinchillas are herbivores who eat hay, plants and even chew on twigs.
- Some chinchillas are domesticated and others are wild.
- They live in the mountains in South America, specifically in Chile.
- And manyyyy more fun facts!
So, there you have it! We had lots of fun learning about chinchillas.
Journaling about animals is an amazing opportunity to talk about the creations of Allah. It's a reminder to us and our children that Allah is the Creator and creates many amazing creatures other than us. Learning about fun facts of these amazing creations is an acknowledgement of Allah's wonders.
Let me know if and when you use the
Animal Unit Studies Journal. If you do, please share an image of how you and your children used it.
Have fun!
