Posts Tagged ‘coloring book’

Government Activity Books for High School

Monday, May 8th, 2017

government-activity-books-for-high-school

I received these Government activity books from Dover Publications for free and was compansated for an honest review.

Since we have been studying Government in our homeschool this semester, I was overjoyed to find these Government activity books for high school! These hands-on activity books are perfect for all ages, but especially for high school students who are studying Government.

You all know how I love hands-on learning. Well, these Dover Publications books include pop-up Presidents, a 3-D White House model, and activity books that include other hands-on craft ideas. There are coloring pages that can be used for notebooking, along with word searches, crossword puzzles, and code breakers.

Government Activity Books for High School (video)

In this demonstration video, you will see many fun activities you can add to your study of Government:

Presidents Paper Models

These eight paper models of famous United States Presidents include George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Barack Obama. The models are easy to punch out, since they are perforated. You can glue them together, and they look like a group of presidential penguins!

pop-up-presidents

Writing assignments can include skits between two of the Presidents. The skit can be acted out with two students in front of an audience. You can pair up Presidents who might have had opposite views on different issues to make your dialogues more interesting. Since George Washington owned slaves, for example, he could talk to Abraham Lincoln about the Emancipation Proclamation.

Barack Obama could re-define the Constitution and say it is a living document, and see if George Washington rolls over in his grave. Yes, you could make a pop-up gravestone to go along with this particular skit to promote interest from other teens who are taking Government class.

You could even have a time warp cocktail party where all these Presidents are milling around with a glass of punch in their hands, trying to make small talk with each other. Ah, yes. This is what comedy shows are made of!

presidents-paper-models

White House Paper Model

We also put together a 3-D White House model. This is good for high school students, since the cutting and pasting is too complicated for small children. If you set aside several nights to put together the model, you will enjoy the process more. Hold the pieces that you are gluing together for at least 60 seconds before releasing. Two minutes is even better. If you are chatting with friends or listening to music, putting this model together is even more enjoyable. I think it is totally worth it to have a 3-D model of the White House for kids to look at.

white-house-model

High school teens can do further study with library books and present a report about the White House in front of a co-op or classroom. Younger kids can do a White House LEGO model like the simplified one we did several years ago. We learned about what each of the rooms of the White House contained. Some day I would love to take my kids to a tour of the actual White House!

white-house-paper-model

Government Coloring Books for Notebooking

You can use these Government coloring books for notebooking. Simply color the pictures with colored pencils, and then cut and glue the pictures and information on black card stock paper. I always prefer black paper because it causes the kids’ work to pop. It really does showcase the artwork.

government-coloring-books-for-notebooking

You can also have the student write a report on a President and include the report in the Government notebook. Or include coloring pages from the Alexander Hamilton Coloring Book, and describe the situation depicted in the drawing. You can assign it from a first person point of view to make the teen feel like he or she is standing in that time period and experiencing the event themselves.

Dover Publications Giveaway & Discount Code

government-activity-books

Wouldn’t you be excited to win a copy of these fun Government activity books? Ten winners will receive this entire 8-book set (shipped to USA/Canada only)! Why not enter the drawing below:

Dover Publications American History Books

If you do not win this giveaway, you can still purchase these fun materials from Dover Publications at a 25% discount with the code WHBO. Discount expires on June 30, 2017.

Chemistry Coloring Book

Wednesday, November 26th, 2014

chemistry-coloring-book

I received copies of this book for free and was compensated for an honest review. This post may contain affiliate links.

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ve noticed all the cool chemistry experiments we’ve been doing. I have been teaching my younger two kids elementary-level chemistry and my older two kids high school chemistry. I had all four of my kids color one element per day in The Periodic Table of Elements Coloring Book, and we learned a lot about each element!

This chemistry coloring book has one element per page: one side lists bullet points to help us find out about that element, and the other side is a coloring page about that element. By coloring the pictures, you cement in your mind visually what each element is all about. Even though I aced my high school chemistry class years ago, I never learned all the elements so up-close like this!

Here is a video where I explain how I used the book:

I read the bulleted list for one element each day, and it took less than five minutes. While I read the page, the kids colored the coloring page. We located each element on the Periodic Table at the front of the book, and we became familiar with each element as the days went by.

The day we studied Neon, we were driving around in the car, and my 9-year-old daughter pointed to a Neon sign and shouted, “Neon! Atomic number 10! Let’s find more Neon signs, Mom!” She would never have known that Neon was atomic number 10 if we hadn’t studied it that day. The coloring book caused my elementary-aged daughter to become familiar with elements, and she wanted to play games trying to find those elements. She screamed with joy when she recognized the first Neon sign after having colored it in her book earlier that day.

neon-sign

For my high school-level students, you never really get the chance to become familiar with elements like this during a chemistry course. Because my high school students had done one simple coloring page a day, they internalized the lighter and heavier elements in their minds. For example, Hydrogen is atomic #1, and it is the lightest element. When  we were halfway through the coloring book, we knew that the elements that we were familiar with were the lighter elements. The unfamiliar elements were on the bottom half of the chart.  Each number goes up in atomic mass (or weight), so when my high school-level students were trying to find an element on the Periodic Table, they located the elements a lot more quickly because of their familiarity with each element. Like I said, we located one element on the chart per day as we colored the elements.

helium-balloons

There is plenty of time during a school year to take it one element per day rather than just rushing through them. We also tried to locate those elements in real life each day when we could. For example, Sodium is present in table salt, so you can have a salt shaker in front of you as you read the Sodium page. We found some more elements in our rocks and minerals collection.  When you study Helium, why not go to a party store and buy a Helium balloon to celebrate that element, which is obviously lighter than air!

elements-minerals

There are no drawbacks from this chemistry coloring book aside from a few typos which are common in all books and don’t detract from the great content. Also, the book only covers the first 56 elements, and elements 72-86, which are the most common elements. I’m fine with that. We LOVED the book, and I highly recommend it for all the reasons I’ve mentioned.

After going through The Periodic Table of Elements Coloring Book, whenever we watch a show that mentions any element on the Periodic Table, we know what the show is talking about. Because we are more knowledgeable about the elements, my kids are confident in their study of chemistry.