Western leopard toad

Last week-end Caleb and I went on a Junior Rangers Camp at the Silvermine reserve. The leaders had felt that the Junior Rangers had worked hard all year and deserved a nice week-end out. Hannah and Sheth joined us in the day but went to sleep at granny's house at night with Greg, their dad.

We arrived at the camp late on Friday evening in the pouring rain. It was dark and cold. Supper was being served so Caleb ate straight away. It was a brown soup - vegetarian. The meals for the week-end were terrible! It was white rolls with all the meals. For lunch each day it was a white roll with margarine. Yuk! ...and palony! Double yuk! There was no lettuce or tomato to go with the rolls, or any other vegetables for that matter. It can not get worse than that. Breakfast was Cornflakes or Nutrifix. Caleb enjoys Cornflakes as we never have it at home. What I have learnt is that I will have to provide food for Caleb on the next camp.

This is a River Click Frog
found on one of the hikes

The rest of the camp was great! We did two fairly long walks, and one serious hike! We did an evening walk which Greg joined us on. We walked to the Clovelly Golf Club. This is where we were hoping to see the migrating Western Leopard Toad. Well we did! We found the males in the ponds and found two females walking across the greens of the golf course. We also sat and listened to their calls. It was fantastic. I think Caleb and Sheth enjoyed it more than anyone else. This comes from the fact that kids between 14 and 17 are more interested in the opposite sex of the human race than in the mating of the Western Leopard Toad.

Facts about the Western Leopard Toad:

• Their name is Western Leopard Toad or August Toad
• They move in the rain
• They move up to 5 km
• They are nocturnal so move at night
• They move on a waxing moon
• The male has a darker throat than the female
• The female's throat is almost a lemon colour
• The male is smaller than the female
• If the female toad has a predominantly triangular shape, then she still has eggs in her
• She has 1000 to 2000 eggs in her
• The male toad jumps on the female's back and gets into the Amplexus position. He has nuptual pads on his hand that help him hold on to her
• If a female gets into the water without a male on her back she will be marked and drowned
• The female lays strings of eggs which are black. The male then puts sperm over the eggs to fertilise them
• Their eggs take about 2 weeks to turn into tadpoles
• It takes about 3 to 4 months to grow into a toadlets
• Baby toads are called toadlets
• The toads burrow into the ground, to sleep during the day. They share their burrows with other toads
• Toads walk and hop
• Frogs can only hop
• Every Western Leopard Toad has its own special pattern on its back
• The Clovelly Golf Club has Koi fish in their ponds. These Koi fish are eating the Toads eggs, tadpoles and toadlets
• The Western Leopard Toad is an endangered species

For more information on the Western Leopard Tod go to www.toadnuts.co.za or www.leopardtoad.co.za

South African curriculum

In Waldorf, in each grade, we study certain things. So in grade 1 it is Fairy Tales. Grade 2 Nature Stories and The Saints. Grade 3 Old Testament, clothing, fibre and housing etc.

As we live in South Africa we will study our local tribes and history instead of Native American. When the children are older we will study Native Americans. I think it is very important to learn about one's own country - to understand our roots.

I have bought a South African curriculum called Little Footprints. The age suggestion is 4 to 8. I think it is way too academic for that age and use it, spread it out over grade 2 and 3. I do not use it as a stand alone curriculum, but use it as local geography and history blocks. The story books are fantastic.
For grade 4, 5 and 6 I bought Footprints on our Land. It is a very good curriculum. The draw back is that it is very expensive for what you get. The books are all "home" printed in black and white. The covers are a very light weight cardboard, that pick up stains and dirt easily. The teachers guide is also black and white. The cover has a plastic sheet to keep it clean. It is not much more expensive for the producers to have laminated the front cover instead. The binding is also inferior, so you have to be very careful when using your teachers manual. For maybe R20 more the producers could have used the metal ring binding and laminated the front cover.

But after all that I would still buy the Footprints on our Land curriculum for the content alone. The curriculum is a literature based curriculum. It consists of 24 books. I do the first 8 books in grade 4, the next 8 books in grade 5 and the last 8 books in grade 6.

I will be buying the Footprints into the 21 st Century for grade 7 and 8.

Grade 7 & 8 curriculum: Natural science / Biology

Muscles and Bones
by Charles Kovacs

• www.loot.co.za or www.bookdepository.com

Cost is about R100 to R150 depending on the exchange rate. Book Depository does not charge for shipping. Loot shipping is free for orders over R230 so even if the exchange rate is not doing too well, it might still be cheaper to buy from Book Depository if you are getting a single book.

'This book is an overview of human physiology and anatomy, including health and hygiene.'

Health and the Human Body

1. Uprightness and the spine
2. Posture and Walking
3. Head, Trunk and Limbs
4. Sleep
5. The Skin
6. Care of the Skin
7. The Four Elements and the Body
8. The changing Solid Body
9. Regulating Warmth
10. Warmth and Clothing
11. Digestion
12. Teeth and Saliva
13. Food
14. Bread
15. The Quality of food
16. Drugs, Coffee and Alcohol

Physiology

17. Dr Harvey and Blood Circulation
18. The Threefold Human Being
19. The Three Cavities of the Body
20. Digestion and the Stomach
21. Digestion and the intestines
22. Breathing
23. Breathing and the Blood
24. Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide
25. Blood Circulation, lives and kidneys
26. The Healing Power of blood
27. The Heart
28. The Nervous System
29. The Eye
30. The Ear
31. Balance, Taste and Other Senses
32. The Brain
33. The Brain and the Spinal Cord
34. The Threefold Human Being

Muscles and Bones: Anatomy

35. Calcium and the Bones
36. The Structure of the Bones
37. The Joints and the Bones
38. The Spine and the Vertebrae
39. The Spine and balance
40. More Correspondences
41. Carrying the Weight of our Body
42. Walking
43. The Hand
44. The Muscles
45. Voluntary and Involuntry Muscles
46. Human and Animal Skulls
47. The Shape of the Skull
48. Human Beings and Animals

Grade 6 & 7 curriculum: Natural science / Geology & Astronomy

Geology and Astronomy
by Charles Kovacs

• www.loot.co.za or www.bookdepository.com

Cost is about R100 to R150 depending on the exchange rate. Book Depository does not charge for shipping. Loot shipping is free for orders over R230 so even if the exchange rate is not doing too well, it might still be cheaper to buy from Book Depository if you are getting a single book.

The first part of this book describes the different kinds of rocks, soil and mountains found on our planet, and explores how they came into being. This section deals with the depths of the earth, and the long ages of time.

In contrast, the second part examines the heights of our universe, in the movement of the sun, moon, and stars. There bodies give us our sense of day, month, and year.

Throughout, Kovacs links the phenomena he describes with human experience, how they affect people in different parts of the world.

Geology

1. The Children of the Earth
2. The Story that the Mountains Tell
3. Young and Old Rocks: Granite
4. The First Rocks
5. Volcanic Rocks
6. The Restless Earth
7. Some Different Rocks
8. More about limestone
9. Coal
10. The Work of Water
11. The Circulation of Water
12. Winds
13. Glaciers
14. The Story of Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh

Astronomy

15. The Heart and the Sun
16. The Sun's Daily Movement
17. The Sun During the Year
18. The Calendar
19. Sundials and Time
20. The Circling Stars and the Pole Star
21. The curvature of the Earth
22. Longitude and Latitude
23. The Circle
24. The Stars and Sirius
25. The Daily Movement of Stars and Sun
26. The Zodiac and Procession of the Equinox
27. The Cosmic or Platonic Year
28. The Seven Classical Planets
29. The Moon
30. Tides and Other Lunar Influences
31. Easter
32. The Planets
33. Pythagoras
34. Ptolemy
35. Copernicus
36. Tycho Brahe
37. Johannes Kepler
38. Galileo and the Telescope
39. Through the Telescope
40. Comets and Meteorites
41. The Atmosphere of the Earth

Geology would be taught in grade 6 - I would do a three week block for this - and astronomy in grade 7 - this would be about a six week block.

Grade 5 curriculum: Natural Science / Botany

Botany
by Charles Kovacs

• www.loot.co.za or www.bookdepository.com

Cost is about R100 to R150 depending on the exchange rate. Book Depository does not charge for shipping. Loot shipping is free for orders over R230 so even if the exchange rate is not doing too well, it might still be cheaper to buy from Book Depository if you are getting a single book.
"Charles Kovacs characterizes different plants, from fungi, algae and lichens, to the lily and rose families. He describes the parts of each plant and their growth cycle."

The Families of Plants

1. The Plant Between Sun and Earth
2. The Dandelion
3. Fungi
4. Algae
5. Lichens
6. Moss
7. Ferns
8. Conifers
9. Trees and the Earth
10. Flowering Plants
11. Lower and Higher Flowering Plants
12. The Blossom
13. Pollen
14. Flowers and butterflies
15. Caterpillars and Butterflies
16. The Tulip
17. Seeds and Cotyledons
18. The Rose
19. The Rose Family
20. The Cabbage
21. The Nettle

The Plants We Use

22. The Oak
23. The Birch
24. The Palm Tree
25. Tea, Sugar and Coffee
26. Grass and Cereals
27. Leaves and Blossoms
28. Bees
29. Life in a beehive
30. The Spirit of the Bed

Caleb and I did this last year. We both really enjoyed it. We went outside and looked at our various plants as we were doing this block. We watched the bees as they collected pollen from our sweetpea's.

What a wonderful way to learn!

Grade 4 curriculum: Natural Science / Zoology

The Human Being and the Animal World
by Charles Kovacs

• www.loot.co.za or www.bookdepository.com

Cost is about R100 to R150 depending on the exchange rate. Book Depository does not charge for shipping. Loot shipping is free for orders over R230 so even if the exchange rate is not doing too well, it might still be cheaper to buy from Book Depository if you are getting a single book.

"This is a resourse book for teaching about animals in comparison to human beings."

Contents
Part One

1. The Head, Trunk and Limbs
2. The Cuttlefish
3. The Seal
   Miss Farr's pet seal
4. The Snail
5. The Harvest Mouse
6. The Red Deer
   Corrie, the little deer
7. The Hedgehog
   Prickles, the hedgehog
8. The Eagle
   Kiah, the golden eagle
9. The Limbs

Part Two

10. The Elephant
   Tembu, the Indian elephant
11. The Horse
   Blackie, the horse
   Ann in the prairie
12. The Bear
   Gerard and Denys in the Forest
   Jessie and the grizzly bear
13. The Lion
14. Buddy, the Guide Dog

Songs

I bought this book as a zoology study for my kids. It is written in story form and therefore I read it straight to my kids. They absolutely loved it. It is much more than just a zoology book.

We did two blocks, part one was a four week block and part two a three week block, using this book. If you are interested, contact me and I will give you my lesson plans for this.