If you homeschool in California, you might be familiar with the charter school options that we have here. They're amazing! I still can't get over it. I feel very blessed that we've had this opportunity -- in exchange for a few work samples and occasional meetings with a teacher, they provide us funds for curriculum and extra-curricular activities. Among those activities, they have provided us with annual passports to Disneyland. After all, there's SO much to learn when you are there! The Abraham Lincoln exhibit, the fort in Frontierland, the Animation Academy art class, etc. -- if you look around, you can easily make countless lesson plans out of a day at Disney!

Well, being the mean homeschool mom that I am, I often bring school with us when we go to the park. After all, if we're going to wait up to an hour in line for a ride, why not read a story out of my son's All About Reading book? Or review some math? I suppose that's the little compromise I make when we go on a weekday, ha. ;) Plus, in exchange for receiving passes through our charter, they ask that some of our work samples come from things we did at Disney -- no issue there! 

Aside from the obvious lessons that you can learn there pertaining to the Redwoods and Mt. Shasta, I decided to incorporate what we're doing in math. Sam's been working on addition/subtraction and measuring to the 1/2 inch in his Saxon 2 curriculum, so we combined the two. To start, I had him follow the animal tracks at the entrance of the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail and read the facts about each animal. Then he traced their footprints so that he could reference their size later on. He compared them to his hand/foot size and looked around the environment to see how/where they live. We talked about the difference between where we live vs. their environment, if he thought we might see the animals in our neck of the woods, etc. I forgot to bring his ruler so we saved the rest for later and moved on to racing through the trails. After all, what's a stop at the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail without a workout!? 

Using his tracks to fill out the worksheet...

If this looks like something you'd like to do, click the image below for the *free* printable...

(The image will redirect you to my Teachers Pay Teachers page.)