Earth*School: A nature and seasons based curriculum for you and your young child
What is The Earth*School Curriculum?
Earth*School is a specially designed curriculum for homeschooling families, and can be used with one child or many children. The activities in the Earth*School curriculum are suited for a wide range of ages. Young toddlers will enjoy the art activities right along side their older siblings. The recommended stories can be shared with toddlers, preschoolers and kindergartners, but are also great for cuddling up and reading aloud to your older child. The cooking activities will readily be enjoyed by all members of your family, regardless of age! The Earth*School Curriculum is divided up by activity type. It includes original songs and movement activities, set to familiar tunes. Other areas included in each unit are science, math, nature table crafts, creative art,language, recommended books and places to go and people to see. There are six original activities to be found for each area, unless otherwise specified.
Who Writes The Earth*School Curriculum?
The Earth*School Curriculum is written entirely by me, Bonnie Vontz, of Holden's Landing. I am the work at home mom (WAHM) of two small children (currently twenty two months and five years). Before becoming a stay at home mom, I was the director of an early childhood education center and the Kindergarten teacher for 7+ years. I have also taught and cared for children from birth to the PreKindergarten age. I was trained as an early childhood and elementary education teacher. I have also been a freelance curriculum writer for the past ten years, and have seen my work published in magazines and books.
Unbe"leaf"able Leaves
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Unbe"leaf"able Leaves. Here are some of the activities you will find in this 6 week unit:
"Dancin' In The Leaves"
Acorn Relay
Fabulous Fall Trees
5 Senses Hikes
Preserving Leaves
Fall Paper Making
Fall Candle Holders
and much, much more!!
Please note that this unit does not include a language section. The language section was added after unit 2.
Happy Harvest
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Happy Harvest. Here are some of the activities you will find in this unit:
Beaded Indian corn
Scarecrow You!
"Harvest Time Is Here" movement activity and song
Apple tree felt board
Making your own sand and water table
Paper mache pumpkins
Make your own mini greenhouse
Harvest soup
Pumpkin cranberry cookies
and much, much more!!
Halloween is Here
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Halloween is Here!. Here are some of the activities you will find in this unit:
"The Hairy Scary"
"It's Halloween"
Potion Time
Make a bat box
Dinner in a pumpkin
Witch's Brew
and a bonus section on celebrating Samhain with your family
and much, much more!!
We're Thankful for Thanksgiving
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is We are Thankful for Thanksgiving. In this unit you will find turkeys, Pilgrims, Native Americans and Thanksgiving activities. Here are some of the activities you will find in this 6 week unit:
Bead and terracotta turkeys
Cornucopia poem
Make a Mayflower scene
Make your own harvest potpourri
Natural paints
Sink or Float?
Butter making
and much, much more!!
Fall in the Forest
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Fall in the Forest. In this unit you will find forest themed activities, woodland creatures, leaves and more! Here are some of the activities you will find in this 6 week unit: A Walk through the Forest movement activity
Do you see what I see? make your own game
Make your own forest friends bingo
Log hotel
Porcupine cookies
Skunked fruit
Animal tracks activities
and much, much more!!
Winter Themed Units
Winter Holidays Around the World
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Holidays Around the World. It is organized very differently than the previous Earth*School units. This unit is divided into sections:
Christmas Around the World - Travel around the globe learning about holiday traditions. Each country section includes the name of the Santa figure in that country, how to say Merry Christmas in the country's dominant language, 1-3 holiday customs that you can do with your family, a creative art or cooking activity, traditional recipes and a story or book that goes along with the country's celebration of the holidays. Countries included are Finland, France, Germany, the Ukraine, the Netherlands, Italy, Australia, Poland, China, England and Greece. Bonus section includes a few traditions and recipes from other countries.
Hanukkah - Includes traditions, games, a book list, recipes and crafts to help you celebrate Hanukkah.
Kwanzaa - Includes traditions, games, a book list, recipes and crafts to help you celebrate Kwanzaa.
Other Holidays - Includes traditions, recipes and crafts for other winter holidays celebrated around the world, such as La Posadas (Mexico) and Santa Lucia Day (Sweden).
Winter Wonderland
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Winter Wonderland. In this unit you will find snow and ice, snow friends, winter animals and more. Here are some of the activities you will find in this 6 week unit:
Winter wonderland mural
Arctic playsets for your nature table
Snow candy
Feed your snow birds
Snow tracks
What melts the ice?
"I'm A Daddy Penguin" original song
Indoor ice skating
Snow bowling
and includes snowflake number set game cards!
and much, much more!!
Late Winter Holidays
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Late Winter Holidays. Included are Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day, with a bonus section on celebrating Imbolc :) Here are some of the activities you will find in this unit:
Chinese dragon parade
Make your own fortune cookies
Fairy message fortune cookies
Chinese dragon movement activity
Leprechaun traps
Leprechaun treasure hunt
Valentine's Day treats
"You Know I Love You" original song
and much, much more!!
Spring Themed Units Gnomes in the Garden
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Gnomes in the Garden. In this unit you will find gnome activities, gardening activities, and lots and lots of fun! Here are some of the activities you will find in this 6 week unit:
Gnomes in the garden art activity
Handy gnomes
Gnomes in the Garden movement activity
If You're A Garden Gnome original song
Gnome, May I? game
Mushroom Match
Gnomes Around the World
Gnome story bag
Paper gardens
Mini Greenhouses
and includes mushroom match game cards!
and much, much more!!
Spring Fling
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Spring Fling. In this unit you will find celebrations and activities for Easter, Ostara, and Beltane (May Day). Here are some of the activities you will find in this 6 week unit:
Make your own Maypole
"Here We Go 'Round the Maypole" original song
"The Bunny Hop" original movement activity
Jelly Bean Math
Eggstrodinary Art!
"We're going on an egg hunt" movement journey
Who's oviparous?
Hopping down the bunny trail file folder game
and much, much more!!
Unit 14 - April Showers Bring May Flowers
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is April Showers Bring May Flowers. In this unit you will find activities related to rain, mud and lots of flowers. Here are some of the activities you will find in this 6 week unit:
Rain painting
Wet on wet rainbows
Pretty pots
"April Showers" original song
May wreaths
Flower memory game cards
special Beltane/May Day activities
and much, much more!!
Summer Themed UnitsMidsummer Night Fairies
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Midsummer Night Fairies. In this unit you will wonderful activities relating to fairies, night and the summer solstice. Here are some of the activities you will find in this 6 week unit:
Stained glass fairy art
Make your own fairy skirts
"This is the Way" original fairy song
"Twinkle, Twinkle Fairy Moon" original song
Midsummer math
Sand luminaries
Dream Journal
Fairy moon cakes
Fairy Dew
and much, much more!!
Summer Harvest
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Summer Harvest. There are 7 mini units, each a week long, each one focusing on a different summer harvest item - strawberries, blueberries, peaches, raspberries, pears, watermelon and peppers & tomatoes. Each mini unit features an outing, a craft, 2 recipes, a game and a song to go along with the theme. Here are some of the activities you will find in this unit:
"A Tisket, A Tasket, a Berry in my Basket" original song
Berry basket game
Heigh-ho Blueberry! game
Peach fizz
Raspberry, Raspberry game
Harvest broom
My famous pear pie
Wild watermelon soda
and much, much more!!
Science/Social Studies Themed Units Day & Night
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Day & Night. In this unit you will find nocturnal animals, the moon, stars and planets, bedtime activities, morning rituals, the sun and sky, etc. Here are some of the activities you will find in this 6 week unit:
What makes day and night?
Morning Rituals
Evening Routines
"The Earth Goes Round the Sun" original song
Planetary art: Make your own universe!
Bedroom Art - Make your own night sky!
"Who is Out At Night" original song
Solar Cooking experiments
and includes a Daytime/Nighttime? card game!
and much, much more!!
Wild Weather
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Wild Weather. In this unit you will find activities related to rain, snow, sun/heat, wind, clouds, ice, rainbows, etc. Here are some of the activities you will find in this 6 week unit:
Rain paintings
"Mr. Snow" original song
Rainbow silks
Rain drops keep falling on my head mobile
Make your own rain stick
Cloud journal
It Looked Like Spilt Milk art/language activity
Snow cones
and much, much more!!
Dinosaurs
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Dinosaurs! In this unit you will find:
Pterodactyl Wings
Volcano!
Triceratops horn shakers
Dino-moes
Dino hatch egg match
Carnivore/herbivore game
and much, much more!!
The Five Senses
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is The Five Senses. There is no nature table section in this unit. In this unit you will find:
Tactile finger painting
Edible playdough
5 senses obstacle courses
Shout and seek
Sound bingo
Smell and tell
Braille and sign language activities
5 senses oobleck
and much, much more!!
Ancient Egypt: An Introduction
What Will You Find In This Unit?
Make your own water clock
Bendy mummies
Ancient and contemporary Egyptian recipes
You're the mummy!
Hieroglyphics activities
Nile flooding experiments
and much, much more!!
Animals/Habitats Series
Down on the Farm
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Down on the Farm. In this unit you will find activities related to farm animals, crops and farmers. Here are some of the activities you will find in this 6 week unit:
Piggies in the mud art activity
Farm animal memory game
Farm animal mama and bahy make your own puzzle game
Farm animal word match game
Farmer movement activity
Mama and baby animal puzzles
Make your own farm counters
"This Old Farmer" original song
Make your own farm animal sounds bingo game
Farm Feed trail mix snack
Tangrams
and much, much more!!
Egg-straordinary Eggs
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Eggstraordinary Eggs. In this unit you will find activities related to eggs, nests, birds and chicks. Here are some of the activities you will find in this 6 week unit:
Egg shell mosaic
Introduction to wet felting: Eggs
Egg candles
"I'm a Little Egg" original song
Egg-citing Egg-speriments
10 Little Chicks book
Sunny side up yogurt
and much, much more!!
Going Buggy!
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Going Buggy! In this unit you will find all sorts of activities realted to your favorite creepy crawlies - bugs and worms! Here are some of the activities you will find in this 6 week unit:
Firefly mural
Mini butterfly gardens
"We're Going on a Bug Hunt" movement activity
Bug Hunt file folder game
"Inch" worms
Vermicomposting
Metamorphosnack
Write your own buggy song
and much, much more!!
Down at the Pond
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Down at the Pond! In this unit you will find all sorts of activities about frogs, snails, snakes, turtles and other pond life! Here are some of the activities you will find in this 6 week unit:
Big wide mouth frog puppet
Mini butterfly gardens
Needle felted pond scene
Down by the pond original song
Snail racing
Froggy trail mix
Frog pond file folder game
and much, much more!!
Under the Sea
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Under the Sea. In this unit you will find sea critters, mermaids, pirates and more! Here are some of the activities you will find in this 6 week unit: Jellyfish flyers
Soctopus craft
Mermaid bendies
Make 6 ocean themed instruments with your children
Sand, Sea and Shore game
Cinnamon sea stars
Sea Soup
Beach diorama
and includes a Treasure Hunt file folder game
and much, much more!!
In the Rainforest (Habitat Series)
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is In the Rainforest. In this unit you will find:
Create your own rainforest
Finger knit a tree snake
Original song - "There was a tree"
Tree frog toss
Measuring snakes
Rainforest reading nook
20 Clues - A Rainforest Guessing Game
Monkey Bread
and much, much more!!
In the Savanna (Habitats Series)
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is In the Savanna. In this unit you will find:
Create your own savanna
Lion mask
Animal beats
Water hole math
Silly savanna rhymes
Savanna food chain
Ants on an ant hill
Savanna soup
and much, much more!!
In the Desert (Habitats Series)
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is In the Desert. In this unit you will find:
Create your own desert
Sand candles
Needle felt a cactus
Life sized desert board game
Cactus flower number match
Coyote tales
The ears have it experiment
Cactus cooking
and much, much more!!
In the Arctic/Antarctic (Habitats Series)
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is In the Arctic/Antarctic. In this unit you will find:
Blubber!
Emperor Penguin Races
Simple sewing - polar bear
Arctic/Antarctic Memory
5 Little Puffins
Arctic animals vs warm climate animals
Emperor Egg Shakers
Where in the World are the Puffins?
and much, much more!!
Early Childhood Series
An Alphabet of Storybooks
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is the Alphabet. In this extended unit you will find 26 mini-units, one for each letter of the alphabet. Each mini-unit revolves around a story, and includes a creative art activity, math activity, science activity, music and movement activity, a language activity, a cooking activity and a place to go or a person to see. In addition, your child will create an alphabet book while working his/her way through the mini-units, creating a letter for each unit.
A Rainbow of Colors
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is colors. It is different from our regular unit in many ways. First, it is a 10 week unit, with each week focusing on a different color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, black, white). For each color there are 5 creative art activities, one for each weekday, a cooking activity and a language activity. There are also 10 general science activities and 10 general color related games/movement activities - you can pick and choose which ones to use which week, but there are enough to use one science activity and one game/movement activity per week. There are also 5 things listed for "Places to Go, People to See".
Numbers
What will you find in this unit?
This unit's theme is Numbers. This unit is a basic introduction to numbers and is great for toddlers, young preschoolers, or older children as a review. There is no nature table section in this unit. In this unit you will find:
Number science - measurement, volume
5 fingers art
Write your own number songs
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 soup
Shapes
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Shapes. This unit is a basic introduction to shapes and is great for toddlers, young preschoolers, or older children as a review. There is no nature table section in this unit. In this unit you will find:
Henri Matisse and shapes
Bubble Hop
Measuring shapes
The story of a shape
Bubble shapes
Circle pie
Super shape supper
Super shape salad
and much, much more!!
Community Helpers
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is Community Helpers. In this unit you will find activities abotu fire fighters, police officers, trash collectors, EMTs and postal workers.
Family stamps
Map your neighborhood
"Over in our neighborhood" original song
Fire safety and fire science
Edible letters
Not rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor hail experiment
Vehicle tracks
Fire fighter obstacle course
and much, much more!!
The World of Beatrix Potter
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is "The World of Beatrix Potter". In this unit you will find activities for the following stories:
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-winkle
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher
The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies
The Tale of Miss Moppet
The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or The Roly Poly Pudding
The Tale of Two Bad Mice
The Tale of Jemima Puddle-duck
One Day Fun Days
What Will You Find In This Unit?
This unit's theme is One Day Fun Days! This unit is different from the other Earth*School Units. This unit contains 25 "theme days" - activities from breakfast to bedtime related to one specific topic. There may be creative art activities, activities for your nature table, social studies/community activities, science and nature activities, math and language activities, etc. There is a booklist provided for each theme day as well. This unit is perfect as a supplement to whatever program you are using for homeschooling, for unschoolers who want to add in a planned day here and there, or for families with schooled children who just want to add in some extra fun on days off.
Some of the One Day Fun Days you will find in this unit include: 1. Jelly Bean Day
2. Bakery Day
3. Cars & Trucks Day
4. Trains Day
5. Green Day
6. Beach Day
7. Camping Day
8. Dinosaur Day
9. Gingerbread Man Day
10. Mexico Day
11. Ice Cream Day
12. Pajama Day
13. Restaurant Day
14. Soup Day
15. Tea Party Day
16. Rodeo Day
17. Outer Space Day
18. Nursery Rhyme Day
19. Bubbles Day
20. Tree Day
21. Castle Day
22. Pizza Day