Science this week

We're knee deep in animals -- from icky, ooey-gooey ones to soft and cuddly kittens.

They aren't here in person (or would that be "in animal"?) but rather in the form of our delving into the classification of living things.

As a frugal homeschooler, I love to find things on the internet that work for us. Here are a few resources we've used so far as we explore a cyber menagerie:

• A basic introductory page, helpful for Betsy. This site also has facts and interactive quizzes on protozoa, sponges, jellyfish, worms, insects, mollusks, echinoderms, chordates, amphibians, reptiles, and birds. See a quiz example here.
  

• Online Learning Haven has a nice page, but doesn't get as detailed as we'd like. Still, this is a nice little chart as an introduction to the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates.
  

• Science NetLinks also has some good ideas for Betsy's age group (grades 3-5.)
  

• And FactMonster.com has another good overview.
  

• I can go into a bit more detail with Anne here , here and here.
  

• I found some charts I like on this ESL site.
  

• Even Ramona can enjoy this one.

I also stocked up on library books, which I'll post about later. For now, though, I'll share the one that (although I got it for Ramona) made us all laugh out loud last night. If you've ever read Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin, you'll fully appreciate the humor in Diary of a Worm, by the same author.

Happy classifying!