Freebies! Archives - Gathered and Grounded

Posted on April 19, 2023April 25, 2023 by Ashlee — Leave a comment

Free Homeschool Unit Study: All About Raccoons

This free homeschool unit study comes from my natural curiosity to learn more about one on my favorite animals. These animals often get a bad rap, being called “pests”, I hope you learn how awesome raccoons are and the importance of them in our world.

These lessons can be used across all elementary age levels and can be adjusted for lower and higher grades. Any resources used including books and videos should always be prescreened by the parent, just because it works in my home does not mean it will work in yours. This will be such a fun and engaging addition to your science curriculum.

This unit is faith neutral leaving it up to the parents to decide which direction to take it.

Additional Resources

There are no required resources. This unit can be used stand alone as it includes informative reading passages. These resources below are not required, just additional add-ons if you want to enhance or extend the lessons. Please pre-screen any recommended resources, just because they work in my home does not meet they will work in yours.

There is a recommended video to watch for each lesson. These really tie together the entire unit.

I created an Amazon page where I included all recommended books, be sure to check out your local library.

Amazon Raccoon Unit Study Resources

Learning Objectives

Identify and describe the physical characteristics of raccoons.
Explain the importance of animal tracks in identifying animal species.
Define mammals and describe their characteristics.
Describe the habitat of raccoons and explain its importance to the survival of raccoons.
Describe the characteristics of the temperate forest biome and identify its location.
Explain the adaptations of nocturnal animals.
Describe the lifecycle of raccoons and identify their different stages.
Understand the purpose of animal rehabilitation, and describe the basic steps involved in rehabilitating injured or orphaned animals.
Compare and contrast raccoons to other animal species using Venn diagrams.
Research and create presentation on an animal and their habitat, including information on their physical characteristics, lifecycle, and other interesting facts.

Unit Updates 4/25/2023 – Lesson 1 Updated – Raccoons live up to ~~15 Years~~ should be 3 years in the wild. Updated unit emailed out to any customers with downloads. You can also repurchase (for FREE) and download the updated unit.

Access FREE Raccoon Unit Study

You can get the FREE homeschool Raccoon unit study clicking on the button below! You will need to add to your cart and check out.

Get my FREE Raccoon Unit!

Do you like Free Homeschool Units? Check out my Free Human Body Unit

Posted on January 16, 2023January 19, 2023 by Ashlee — 1 Comment

Using History Timeline Notebooks to Easily Track and Reference Historical Events in Your Homeschool

Are you looking for an effective way to teach history to your homeschooler and have a reference guide for years to come?

History Timeline Notebooks are a great way to easily track and reference historical events in your homeschool. They provide a comprehensive timeline of world events, as well as specific events related to the history curriculum you are teaching. Plus, they are incredibly easy to use and can be updated as needed!

My Favorite History Timeline Notebooks

Schoolnest History Notebooks

The History Timeline Notebook is a chronicle of your history studies over time. Also known as a Book of Centuries, the History Timeline is to be used over many years as you read about people, places, and events of the past. Jot down the name of an inventor on the year they were born or the year they created their invention. Sketch famous artworks on the year they were painted. Over time you will see correlations, notice the events happening in historical figures’ lifetimes, and make connections in one moment in time across cultures.

The pages are graph paper, with a horizontal timeline through the center. Depending on the era, the years have different spacing (becoming more frequent as it gets more modern). The beginning of the book has 10 pages for a “My Timeline” section to create a personal or family history. The beginning of each era has an open-ended “best of the era” two-page spread to list or doodle your favorite or most notable moments of the era.

BookShark History Timeline Books

https://www.bookshark.com/the-timeline-book

Customizing Our History Timeline Notebooks

I also love that I can create my own event stickers in Canva. This allows me to customize the timeline and to add events that are specific to the history curriculum we are using. I can also choose a specific color or design for each event, making the timeline even more visually appealing.

I want to share the stickers I create for free with my blog subscribers! So, if you’re interested in getting your own set of history timeline stickers, be sure to subscribe to my blog. I’ll be sharing all of the stickers I create for free with my subscribers.

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Subscribe to Get Free History Timeline Icons

History-Timeline-Icons-GR-US1-2-2 Download

What are you waiting for, start your History Timeline Notebook!

Using History Timeline Notebooks in our homeschool has been a great way to keep track of the events we’ve studied and to easily reference them in the future. With these notebooks, we can easily review the events we’ve learned and gain a better understanding of the history we’re teaching. Plus, I love that I can create my own event stickers to customize the timeline and make it more visually appealing.

If you’re looking for an effective way to teach history and have a reference guide for years to come, be sure to check out our History Timeline Notebooks. And if you’re looking for free event stickers, be sure to subscribe to my blog! I’ll be sharing all of the stickers I create for free with my subscribers.

Posted on August 3, 2022August 2, 2022 by Ashlee — Leave a comment

5 Ways to Keep Homeschool Kids Engaged in Learning Over Summer – For FREE

If you are like us, we chose to take a nice long break over summer! We had some trips planned as well as, my girls were attending camp multiple weeks throughout summer. Even though we were keeping pretty busy, when we weren’t busy, we were itching to have some educational time. Yes you read that correctly, my kids were actually asking to do school. That’s one joy to homeschool, kids don’t dread it (most of the time).

I didn’t want to break into our curriculum for our upcoming school year, so I came up with 5 ways to keep my kids engaged in learning over summer.

5 Ways to Keep your Kids Engaged in Learning Over Summer:

1. Summer Reading Challenge

This one was so simple, but so fun! Each of my kids found 5 books around the house that they haven’t already read, and added it to their summer reading list. We set a start date and some basic rules and my kids competed against each other to read through their books. Oddly enough my girls finished reading the exact same day. This was a simple and free way to keep them reading over summer.

2. Free Homeschool Curriculum Trials

After we quickly completed the reading challenge, I was looking for something else to keep their attention. I was so pleased to stumble across the Home School Buyers Club! Early in summer I started seeing a lot of chatter about this company and it peaked my interest. I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to work with this company and share some great things with you guys!

Homeschool Buyers Club provided Smart Points to use their product to share my honest review, as always any opinions expressed are my own.

Summer is here, and what better way to get a jump-start on homeschooling than with free trials on top of curriculum. Explore new programs and tools that will help your child succeed this upcoming year and beyond.

3. Free Gifts from Homeschool Buyers Club

Any order you place from Homeschool Buyers Club you can also access 3 free gifts that are great learning tools over summer! These free gifts include items on staying safe online, Craft & hobby ideas, plus a whole month access to eSpried Library!

Enjoy up to 3 exclusive free gifts (a $38 value) with any purchase! Simply head to their website place your order, and upon checkout, select your free gift(s).

4. Try a Unit Study over Summer

Unit Studies can be a great way to expand learning through summer! They can be interest led topics that your child chooses, and a fun way to keep busy over summer. If you are interested in a FREE unit study– check out my Human Body Unit Study– this would be perfect for summer!

5. Take those Homeschool Field Trips

I know as a homeschool mom, you planned the most perfect year, with lots of great field trip ideas…..but also as a homeschool mom I know life can get in the way. Take the summer break to catch up on those missed field trips- your kids will love them!

Remember, you are taking a summer break for a reason, refresh and recharge. Don’t over you do it- save that for the new school year! Use these great FREE ideas and get your kids signed up for these amazing free trials…..that way when someone asks what you did over summer, you can replay, we took piano lessons and did an art study– with never learning the house!

Free Homeschool Learning Trials

Posted on June 20, 2022June 14, 2023 by Ashlee — 6 Comments

Free Human Body Unit Study for Homeschool

Links on this page may contain affiliate links, and I will earn a small commission if you choose to purchase something from that link, support my business with no extra cost to you!

This fun and engaging homeschool unit study can be used across various ages and levels and is easy to adapt! I am sharing all the resources we used as well as a FREE Lesson plan guide to help you use in your homeschool. You can download the FREE 26-page PDF, 13 Lesson Guide below!

This FREE Homeschool Human Body Unit Study is the perfect addition for your homeschool science curriculum!

The new 2023 Edition was refreshed, removing some resources that weren’t used much or outdated. I also added some more helpful parent notes and guides for some of the lessons.

The guide is a PDF download, there are no student pages to print. You can choose to keep the guide digital or print out. If you download and keep in a PDF format, all linked items should work!