We live in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range. We are also above 1000′ elevation. Our weather patterns differ from what happens in the valley. We average about 6° colder than our closest city and get more wind & rain.

Rain. That’s what I want to know. How much rain do we get. It seems like a lot. Some days it totally bums me out, but I love how lush and green the forest we call home is, so I’ll tolerate it.

Portland receives an average of 35″ – 40″ of rain annually. Temperate rain forests receive 55″ or more of rain. I’m going to take a wild guess and say we typically reach those 55″. A few hours north of us is the Olympic National Park in Washington. They get 140″+ of rain annually. I’m also going to take a guess and say we don’t get quite that much. My guesstimate is we will get somewhere between 60″ and 80″ of rain in 2017.

Farmer John put up a new weather station the evening of December 31st, so we were ready to start the new year collecting data. Woop, woop!

Here is what we have so far:

2017 Rainfall

2017 Rain Total: 154.63″

January: 12.12″ ( +22.5″ snow)
February: 30.18″ (+12.75″ snow)
March: 28.49″ (+7.5″ snow)
April: 15.45″
May: 7.16″
June: 3.28″
July: 0.01″
August: 0.34″
September: 5.02″
October: 15.06″
November: 25.54″
December: 11.98″ (+2.5″ snow)

January 2018 update: Apparently I was off on my guesstimate – by nearly half. We ended up with 154″ of rain in 2017. I knew we got a lot, but I didn’t know it would be that much. Maybe it was a really wet year? I will be keeping track in 2018 to compare.

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Our final stop on our trip around the world was the deciduous forest of Europe.

Wikipedia describes a deciduous forest as:

 forests that are dominated by trees that lose their leaves each year. They are found in areas with warm, moist summers and mild winters.

School Room

For this weeks biome display I had the boys go to their room and find animals that could be found in a deciduous forest.

Deciduous Forest Pocket Chart

Left: Farm Kid1’s deciduous forest postcard.

Right: From the Russian tundra to the deciduous forest of Europe is about 3960 miles. We marked it on our map.

Other

Left: We watched the Seasonal Forests episode of Planet Earth.

Right: This weeks art project was based on the yearly cycle of a deciduous tree. Farm Kid1 started out by drawing one tree shape with branches. Then, I made 3 more copies of the tree. Now he had 4 trees – one for each season. Next, he used a pencil eraser to dot leaves on the trees. After the paint dried he glued his trees in order & titled his artwork.

We rummaged through our continent box filled with all things European.

To finish off the week we visited the World Forestry Center to learn more about deciduous forests.

Links to our Continents & Biomes:
North America – Temperate Rainforest
South America – Tropical Rainforest
Antarctica – Ice Cap
Africa – Sahara Desert
Australia – Coral Reef
Asia – Tundra
Europe – Deciduous Forest

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After visiting the great barrier reef on our trip around the world, we explored the tundra of Russia. I wasn’t feeling well the week before, so I didn’t have much in the way of extras for this week. But, it didn’t matter anyway. Farm Kid1 felt crummy all this week so we only did the basics for this unit.

Google defines a tundra as:

a vast, flat, treeless Arctic region of Europe, Asia, and North America in which the subsoil is permanently frozen

School Room

As I said, we didn’t do much on this unit – including in the display. I added two books, that’s it.

Biome chart with tundra information

Left: We measured that it was 6600 miles from the Great Barrier Reef to the Russian Tundra.

Right: For the postcard, Farm Kid1 chose to draw a herd of musk ox.

We looked through our box on Asia. But, it had nothing related to Russia or Siberia which is where the tundra is located.

Hopefully we have a better virtual visit next week when we explore deciduous forests.

Links to our Continents & Biomes:
North America – Temperate Rainforest
South America – Tropical Rainforest
Antarctica – Ice Cap
Africa – Sahara Desert
Australia – Coral Reef
Asia – Tundra
Europe – Deciduous Forest

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The next stop on our trip around the world was the Great Barrier Reef in Australia studying the coral reef biome. I especially loved this week because many years ago I used to scuba dive & this brought back many fun memories.

Google defines a coral reef as:

a ridge of rock in the sea formed by the growth and deposit of coral

School Room

Our coral reef display
There are a few books and Disney’s Finding Nemo DVD. I also added a couple personal treasures the hubby & I have collected on our tropical vacations.

Biome pocket chart with coral reef info

Left: The front of Farm Kid1’s postcard. I love that he drew a diver.

Right: Fish stamp Farm Kid1 drew for his postcard.

Farm Kid1 loves exploring our continent boxes. This is what Australia’s box looks like.

We have done a few silhouette projects. Farm Kid1 wanted to do another one for his coral reef craft.

Other

I love Wyland! He’s an amazing artist and a marine conservation activist. His paintings are Beautiful, with a capital B. His sculptures are fantastic. We went into his gallery once while in Waikiki. I couldn’t afford much in there, but I did buy his Artist of the Sea book.

A funny coincidence
I brought home a book from the library without really looking through it first. It had the word reef in it, so I checked it out. Farm Kid1 & I had just finished admiring Wyland’s book when I started reading Riddle of the Reef to him. And I’ll be danged, one of the characters in the book was Wyland himself. It was a fun coincidence.

Before we had kids, the hubby & I were fortunate enough to go on a few diving vacations. Farm Kid1 & I looked through 2 of my diving scrapbooks. These photos are from one my all time favorite diving moments. During a night dive in Bonaire we witnessed coral spawning (that’s the blurry stuff in the photos). This is not something you see everyday. It was definitely a rare treat that I won’t forget.

Our Bahamas trip was a fun book to look through with Farm Kid1. The number one reason is that Farm Kid1 loves these pics of his dad near a barracuda. Dad earned a few more cool points with these pics. And second, there is a fun story involving Farm Kid1. We booked this trip with some diving friends many, many months in advance. This wasn’t an ordinary vacation, we spent a week out at sea on a fairly small motorized sail boat. As life would have it, I ended up being 8 weeks pregnant with Farm Kid1 on this trip. So not only did I not get to dive, but I was also extremely sick from the morning sickness combined with the rocking boat. I did get in a couple good snorkeling adventures though. The pics in this photo were taken by a friend of ours & my dad.

One day I would love to make it Australia both to explore the land and the great barrier reef.

Links to our Continents & Biomes:
North America – Temperate Rainforest
South America – Tropical Rainforest
Antarctica – Ice Cap
Africa – Sahara Desert
Australia – Coral Reef
Asia – Tundra
Europe – Deciduous Forest

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The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes a desert as:

arid land with usually sparse vegetation; especially: such land having a very warm climate and receiving less than 10 inches of sporadic rainfall annually

School Room

Biome pocket chart filled with desert information

Using a globe we measured the distance from Antarctica to the Sahara Desert was 8,250 miles and marked it on our map.

Left: A sunny stamp for Farm Kid1’s passport

Middle: The front of the postcard Farm Kid1 is “sending” to his dad.

Right: He also designs a stamp for the postcard and writes a short message.

Our display for the week
From our house I set out a few books, the Planet Earth DVD’s (since there is a video on the desert) and Disney’s Aladdin movie. I also set out a number of books we checked out from the library. At night I read The Missing Mummy to the boys before bed. I have never read any of these books before, and the boys seemed to enjoy it. It had just enough suspense to keep their attention and wonder what was going to happen next.

We looked through our African continent box. Farm Kid1 loves the continent boxes.

Our art project for the week.

Links to our Continents & Biomes:
North America – Temperate Rainforest
South America – Tropical Rainforest
Antarctica – Ice Cap
Africa – Sahara Desert
Australia – Coral Reef
Asia – Tundra
Europe – Deciduous Forest

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After visiting North America, the next stop on our imaginary world tour was to the Amazon rainforest in South America. This part of the world is a favorite for my kids – as I’m sure it is for many kids. There is such an array of fun plants & animals. They love the big snakes, colorful birds & frogs, monkeys & big cats.

Google defines a tropical rainforest as:

a luxuriant, dense forest rich in biodiversity, found typically in tropical areas with consistently heavy rainfall.

School Room

We used our globe & multiplication to figure out approximately how many miles it is from the temperate rainforest of the Pacific Northwest to the Amazon rainforest. We came up with 5,280 miles and marked it on our map.

Our biome pocket chart filled with info on the rainforest.

Left: Every week Farm Kid1 is “sending” a postcard to his dad who didn’t travel on this trip with us. He decorates the front & writes a little message on the back.

Right: South America stamp in Farm Kid1’s passport.

Left: Rainforest collage made by Farm Kid1.

Right: Farm Kid1 chose to do his rainforest animal report on a toucan. The animal report wheel is from Enchanted Learning.

A few rainforest goodies sitting in our geography center. Toy animals from the boys collection, a Tropical Rainforest leveled reader from scholastic, Afternoon on the Amazon Magic Tree House book & Jan Brett’s The Umbrella.

Field Trip

Our rainforest theme took us to the Oregon Zoo once again. To see my post on our trip through the Amazon Flooded Forest exhibit click here.

More Rainforest Info

Our South American Continent Box
Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool
Kids Do Ecology
Blue Planet Biomes
Enchanted Homeschooling Mom

Links to our Continents & Biomes:
North America – Temperate Rainforest
South America – Tropical Rainforest
Antarctica – Ice Cap
Africa – Sahara Desert
Australia – Coral Reef
Asia – Tundra
Europe – Deciduous Forest

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As part of our Amazon Rainforest study we visited the Amazon Flooded Forest exhibit at the Oregon Zoo. This is a section we don’t generally spend a lot of time exploring. So, this was a great excuse to look a little closer. I had Farm Kid1 answer a few questions such as Which animal is the most colorful? Why? Which animal is the hardest to find? Why? Can you find all the colors of the rainbow in this exhibit? Farm Kid2 had a piece of paper & a few crayons. He drew the animals.

I’m not sure about you, but I never realized how high the waters get in the Amazon. I guess I never thought about it. The seasons in the Amazon are marked by the rain. During the rainy season the Amazon basin will flood, the waters getting extremely high. Eventually the water will recede showing off the forest floor. Some how the plants & animals have figured out how to adapt to these changes every year.

RED-HANDED TAMARIN
Emerald tree boa in the background. It appears as though these two are in the same area, but really they are separated by glass.

EMERALD TREE BOA

GREEN ANACONDA

PACU
Also in the exhibit are big fish called pacu. We learned that pacu in the wild eat the fruit from trees when the water is high, then poop out the seeds. When the water level recedes the seeds grow into new trees. These fish are an important part of the system.

DWARF CAIMAN
Not exactly the prettiest set of teeth.

ARRAU TURTLE
They are an endangered species.

We spent a good 45 minutes examining this small, but educational, exhibit. We all left with a better understanding of the rainforest.

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From the Amazon Rainforest we traveled south to the ice cap of Antarctica on our trip around the world.

Google defines an ice cap as:

a covering of ice over a large area, especially on the polar region of a planet.

School Room

We didn’t have many Antarctic things laying around the house. But, we did find a penguin puppet & a few books to add to our geography center this week.

Biome pocket chart with ice cap info

Farm Kid1 took quite an interest in leopard seal’s this week. So that’s what he chose to do his short animal report on. I made up this mini-book just to give him another option for his reports. I like the small size so that it can be added to his animal notebook without taking up the entire page.

Left: I know it actually doesn’t snow much in Antarctica, but this stamp is the best I could come up with.

Right: Front of Farm Kid1’s postcard from Antarctica

This is our method for measuring distance from one place to another. One inch on our globe measure 660 miles. From the Amazon rainforest to Antarctica was about 9 inches or 5,940 miles.

Just because I already had this put together & it is penguin themed, I had Farm Kid1 do this antonym activity. This file folder activity is from an Evan Moore Literacy Centers book.

Other

Antarctica continent box
Penguin Painting

We didn’t make it on an Antarctic themed field trip. But, we did watch 3 Antarctic movies:
March of the Penguins
This documentary didn’t have near as much action as the shows my kids are used to watching, but they still enjoyed it very much. Farm Kid1 even seemed to have learned a few things.

Encounters at the End of the World
I had high hopes for this one. I thought it would be so cool to see how the researches live day to day. Although, Farm Kid1 & I both did learn quite a bit, the show itself was kind of boring. My two youngest didn’t even stick around to watch half of it. Maybe it was that the guy narrating didn’t have much drama in his voice.

Planet Earth: Ice Worlds
My kids love the Planet Earth shows. This one discusses both the North & South Poles.

Links to our Continents & Biomes:
North America – Temperate Rainforest
South America – Tropical Rainforest
Antarctica – Ice Cap
Africa – Sahara Desert
Australia – Coral Reef
Asia – Tundra
Europe – Deciduous Forest

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The first stop on our world tour was a temperate rainforest in North America. This is very similar to the biome we live in, so it was a great place to start. Although, I think the idea of a temperate rainforest confused Farm Kid1 a little bit. He’s only ever heard about tropical rainforests. I could have also chosen a coniferous forest as our home biome.

Wikipedia‘s basic definition of a temperate rainforest is:

Temperate rainforests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rainfall.

School Room

This week the pocket chart showed the following information:
• average high temperature around 76°
• average low around 35°
• annual rainfall definitely varies, but averages around 100″
• example plant producers are salmon berry and moss
(Click here for a quick peek of our hike at Munson Creek Falls, with a stop for picking salmon berries)
• example herbivores are deer and elk
• example carnivores are black bear and cougar
• example decomposers are slugs and worms
(Click here for a post on how slugs mate)

Left: I stamped Farm Kid1’s “passport” with evergreen trees.
Right: Farm Kid1 chose to do his temperate rainforest animal report on the coyote.

Front side of his temperate rainforest postcard.

I sent Farm Kid1 on a mission to collect things from his bedroom that are found in the temperate rainforest. These are the things he came back with. They are placed near our world map and continent boxes.

Since we were visiting North America, we rummaged through our North America continent box – even though there wasn’t much on the temperate rainforest.

Field Trips

We had fun visiting both the Tillamook Forest Center and the World Forestry Center.

Around our House

Some maps state we live in a temperate rainforest, some don’t. Either way, we have many of the same plants and animals as Olympic National Park, which is a temperate rainforest. The temperate rainforest is dominated by large trees, but is also home to many mosses, lichens and epiphytes. Right now one of my favorite wildflowers is in bloom, the trillium.

This was a fun week. I actually learned a few things about our environment, as well.

For more information on a temperate rainforest check out this post from Marietta College or this pdf from Nasa.

Links to our Continents & Biomes:
North America – Temperate Rainforest
South America – Tropical Rainforest
Antarctica – Ice Cap
Africa – Sahara Desert
Australia – Coral Reef
Asia – Tundra
Europe – Deciduous Forest

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For 9 weeks we will be doing a unit on biomes. The first week was an introduction to habitat & biomes & a review of the continents. The next seven weeks we will be visiting (in our imaginations) each of the 7 continents & stopping in 7 different biomes. The last week we will use to tie up any loose ends.

The materials on the cork board are staying for the entire unit. The books, videos, and plastic animals placed in front will change weekly based on which biome and continent we’re studying. To see how we made the map check out this post.

Since we’re traveling the world we must have a passport. There’s an envelope on the board to hold it.

We’ll be sending a postcard from each continent. Those are on the board as well.

I also added a miles traveled sign so we can easily keep track of how far we’ve traveled.

Our continent boxes are placed in front.

Every time we visit a new continent Farm Kid1 will get a stamp in his passport. I downloaded the passport cover from Guest Hollow.com.

Every Thursday Farm Kid1 will get a blank postcard. He will decorate the front, design a stamp and write a short letter home to his dad.

Each week we will add a push pin to our next destination. We will also show how many miles we traveled from our last stop.

Biome Chart

The top two rows are dictionary definitions. Most of my definitions came from Merriam-webster. I also added pronunciation, syllables and part of speech. The word biome will stay the entire unit. The specific biome will change weekly.

Next we have 3 graphs: average annual rainfall, average high temp & average low temp. Farm Kid1 will add the new information each week.

The bottom row shows basic information about the biome. Usually the left side will show a food web or forest layers & where the biome is located throughout the world. The right worksheet shows the producers, herbivores, omnivores, carnivores & decomposers of the biome. I print a blank worksheet & the various plants & animals. Farm Kid1 decides where they fit in the food web & glues them down. I’m so proud of him. When he doesn’t know for sure if something is an omnivore, carnivore or herbivore he grabs one of his animal books & looks it right up.

More Activities

I would like Farm Kid1 to do one art project based on a biome each week.

Farm Kid1 will pick an animal from the biome we are studying & do a short report on it. He’s done similar reports various times through the year. He loves doing them. As well as learning a little more about a particular animal, I’m also using these reports as a way to simply get him to write. He’s also  learning how to do research. When he can’t find the information he’s looking for in one of his books, he has learned how to use google to find it. He’s also learned how to find a picture online & print it. This is laid back & quick. He loves it. He’s so proud of himself when he’s finished his report.

We will be examining the appropriate continent box each week.

Any time we can take a field trip we will.

It’s been time consuming getting this all together, but Farm Kid1 really enjoys all of it. Well, except for the dictionary definitions. I think he’s bored by those. But, he loves finding & adding the information to the graphs, figuring out the food web & doing animal reports. So far, this seems to be a fun way for him to learn about both continents & biomes.

Links to our Continents & Biomes:
North America – Temperate Rainforest
South America – Tropical Rainforest
Antarctica – Ice Cap
Africa – Sahara Desert
Australia – Coral Reef
Asia – Tundra
Europe – Deciduous Forest

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