In this activity, the child will learn all about amphibious vehicles. Our children were fascinated with the idea that a vehicle could be used both on land and in the water.
The “Give and Go” series is designed so that the child, with your permission, is given the unit study and can independently learn it on their own. The child must be able to read and follow directions. If following directions is a challenge, this is the perfect way for them to boost their capabilities.
Amphibious Vehicles Unit Study
In this activity, the child will learn that amphibious vehicles are transportation that can be used on land, in water, or even under the water. They can be bicycles, cars, buses, military vehicles, or boats. They will be given the opportunity to make their own amphibious vehicle.
I just want to say thank you for visiting our website! We are so glad you are here! My name is Kaycee Hobbs and I am a homeschooling mama to our large family. We are blessed with seven beautiful children and want to give them the best education we can. One of the things we have found to make things easier for us is to use unit studies. It helps us keep track of our multiple children’s progress while we learn together.
What is a Unit Study?
Before we go any further, I want to let you in on a little secret… This is a fantastic way to get the kiddos to learn something without them realizing they are learning something. Do you get what I am saying? This activity is so much fun, they won’t realize they are filling their minds with information and sometimes, that’s what we need!
As a good friend of mine says, “Unit Studies are fun school!” and she’s exactly right!
This will keep them occupied for a little bit so that us, parents can have a little downtime or can get something done! I write these Give ‘N Go unit studies for our family with these reasons in mind. So, let’s get started, and let me tell you why I love to teach using this unit study method!
If you already know what a unit study is, skip to the Amphibious Vehicles Unit Study information HERE.
A unit study combines a variety of subjects while you study one topic. It is a homeschool lesson plan that is used as a curriculum. I like to think of it as taking a topic and placing it under a magnifying glass. Within the study of that topic, you will explore a variety of subtopics. It allows the child to create a file folder in their brain to all the information that they learn under on topic.
There are several advantages to learning through unit studies so let me share a few with you:
- Multi-level Teaching
- Saves Time in Your Homeschool Schedule
- Sensory Teaching
- Accommodates Different Learning Styles
- Makes Memories
- Saves Money
- I Learn Stuff Too!
Multi-level Teaching
Since we have seven children, the unit study method is a perfect way to combine the teaching of different age levels and grades. We get to incorporate everyone no matter their ages and levels of development. I just change the activities to be something every child can do based on their skill level. Don’t be afraid to alter any of a unit study to fit your child or the dynamic of your family.
I wrote an in-depth post about how we multi-level teach, check it out here!
Saves Time in Your Homeschool Schedule
When you teach all the children together, it saves time in your daily homeschool schedule. Instead of meeting individually with every child, you can teach them the same thing as a group all at the same time.
Now, I am going to be very honest with you here. We use a boxed curriculum for our Language Arts and Math subjects. I do this because I know that you can’t teach these subjects on the same development level.
However, if I have the chance to throw in an everyday math word problem into the unit study, then you can guarantee that’s what I will do. If I can have them list adjectives for a piece of our unit study, then I go with that. If it fits, then I am going to incorporate it wherever I can.
Homeschool Homepage
Click the image above to see their homeschool curriculum page.
We use Christianbook.com to buy our homeschool curriculum. I have found they tend to offer the best prices! Almost everything else is taught with unit studies. This is what we use for our math and language:
Math-U-See ShopSensory Teaching
In a unit study you want to let the child act out or experience as much of the unit study as you can. To do this you want to include as many of their five senses as you can. I have a rule that I try to follow… I try to include a minimum of three senses in every activity. I figure that sight and hearing are going to automatically be a part of the lesson, so I intentionally try to add touch, taste, or smell to it.
I give lots of tips and practical ideas in this post! Check it out!
Accommodates Different Learning Styles
So, as I mentioned before, we have seven children and guess what? They are all different and they have a variety of strengths and weaknesses which creates a variety of different learning styles. It can get chaotic when you start to think about how differently each of the seven kids learn. When we use unit studies we can adapt and customize their learning plan easily.
I wrote a unit study on how I taught my kids the 8 Great Smarts. Check it out! These concepts based on the book by Kathy Koch is a game changer!
Makes Memories
Learning together as a family gives us the opportunity to learn stuff together. We design it so we get to experience the activities together, so we have the chance to make memories together. When our children get older, I want to hear the “remember when?” stories and these experiences make that possible.
Saves Money
For us using unit studies saves quite a bit of money. I have a good-sized school supply collection that I keep on hand and so I try to use those. It helps the bottom line when you can use common supplies instead of supplies that are hard to find. Even with the cost of field trips, I spend less on unit studies than I do on buying boxed curriculum for our large family.
It also saves money because I can customize to the child and their specific needs. We all know that homeschool curriculum is NOT one size fits all.
I Learn Stuff Too!
One of my favorite things about doing unit studies is how much I get to learn alongside my children! You know how we all paid attention during our school years. Ha! When we get the opportunity to experience what our children are learning, it’s like a second chance for us too!
What subjects does this unit study cover?
This unit study covers these subjects:
- Vocabulary
- Handwriting
- Science
- History
Supply List
I like to keep my supply lists quite simple so hopefully, you have the supplies around your house. Here is the list for this unit study:
- Printed Unit Study
- Pencils
- Electronic Device
- Internet Access
- Dictionary
- Assorted items from around the house to build an amphibious vehicle.
- Video Camera
Reading
I always like to pick a book or two for our kids to read that is about the unit study subject we are learning about. Because we have a large family with kids of multiple ages, I love to use books on audio so everyone can enjoy them.
We have an Audible membership and highly recommend it! Whenever I need a book for one of our studies, I can just download it using one of our credits. Check out Audible HERE!
Sometimes I will also download the Kindle version so I can share it with our children’s devices. This way multiple children can read the book or can follow along while it’s being read to us. Check out Kindle HERE!
Just another quick tip, use your drive time to listen to an audio book. This will help occupy the children while you are using the time wisely.
Our Picks
Teacher or Parent Directions and Details
YouTube Videos
There are a couple of YouTube videos in this study. It is recommended that the parent preview the videos before the child sees them.
Part One: What does amphibious mean?
In this portion of the study, the child will learn what the word amphibious means. They will watch a YouTube video and look up the word in a dictionary or on the internet.
Most AMAZING Amphibious Vehicles That Currently Exist! by Orgins Explained
Part Two: Build Your Own Amphibious Vehicle
The student will watch a YouTube video about a girl who turned a car into an amphibious vehicle. After they are done, it’s their turn. Let them be creative and gather their own items from around the house to make an amphibious vehicle. The goal of this activity is for the vehicle to both float in water and drive on land. They can turn a toy car into a boat that drives or put some wheels on a toy boat. Let them experiment and figure out what will work.
How to build an AMPHIBIOUS VEHICLE with Mikky from Little Big Shots by InventWithMikky
Part Three: Make a Commercial
After they have built their amphibious vehicle, they will need to make a commercial “selling” their vehicle and demonstrating how it works. They can share this with their family and friends.
Amphibious Spelling Game Available!
The word amphibious is a challenging word to spell! Top off your activity time with this fun game which will help the student learn to spell it correctly! Our kiddos loved this game!
Download
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Enter in your first name and email address and it will “unlock” the PDF for you to download directly from this website. If you have any issues, please reach out to us at thehobbscrew@gmail.com
Our goal is to make life a little easier by sharing the resources that work for our family. Thanks for reading! We appreciate YOU!
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