Unit Study help--lawnmowers

[Cara4497]

I'm wanting to do some very simple unit studies over the summer with my 5 year old to get us in the groove to start more formal kinder work next fall. This week is our first week, and we are doing volcanoes which has been easy enough to find things.

 

I asked what he wants to learn about next week and he said lawnmowers. Any help or ideas would be appreciated. 

[...................]

What about contacting John Deere and seeing if they have any educational promos, catalogs, anything that might be interesting to send in the mail?  You may also consider expanding to lawnmowers and tractors so it'll open it up a little more. LAwnmowers might be a bit too narrow.

 

Hope that helps.

[Cosmos]

I don't know much about unit studies, but if my kid was into lawnmowers I would do (did do) stuff like this:

 

Do you have a lawnmower? Take it out on the driveway and show him the parts and how they work together to cut the grass. Have him help change the oil. Talk about safety rules.

 

Get out the craft box and let him build a lawnmower out of whatever he wants (bottle lids for wheels, etc.). Draw pictures of lawnmowers and write a story about one if he wants (you can write the words for him).

 

Let him cut the grass with scissors and see how much work it would be to do a big section.

 

If you have any sections of long grass you can cut it and let it dry into hay. My ds found that hugely fun when he was little (he pretended he was Almanzo from the Little House books).

 

Read In the Tall Tall Grass and learn about animals that live in the grass.

 

Dig up some grass and examine the root structure. Find some that has seeds and look at those.

 

Teach him the life cycle of grasses. See if you can find different types of grass in your lawn (and all the plants that aren't grass like clover and dandelion.)

 

Play in the sprinkler on the grass. :)

[J-rap]

This is how I would start.  I would get an old, broken lawnmower that can't be fixed.  Then, give him the tools to begin taking it apart.

 

This is what my nephew did and that's how he learned, by taking things apart.  My sister would buy old junky stuff:  motors, machines, lawn mowers, copy machines, etc. at garage sales and thrift stores, and he'd take them apart.  He never went to college but is extremely smart and has a great job as a Target executive now.

[EKS]

I just wanted to say that I love that he wants to learn about lawnmowers!  

[StephanieB]

My 9 yo daughter read a really great biography about John Deere called Pioneer Plowmaker a couple of months ago.  It was pretty short but interesting.

[...................]

You can also try to find a neighbor with an eletric mower!  It can be very amusing to watch someone mow with a long cord plugged into their garage.  It's worth pulling up a chair and getting popcorn.    You could learn about the green aspect of electric lawn mowers.  

[Farrar]

You can also try to find a neighbor with an eletric mower!  It can be very amusing to watch someone mow with a long cord plugged into their garage.  It's worth pulling up a chair and getting popcorn.    You could learn about the green aspect of electric lawn mowers.  

 

Heh. It wouldn't be worth it for our electric mower. The whole lawn is only the size of a small room. ;)

 

John Deere has showrooms and so forth in some places. I know at the fair here, they have a huge display and let the kids climb all over the big riding mowers, which was always a blast when my kids were little.

[MEmama]

You can also try to find a neighbor with an eletric mower! It can be very amusing to watch someone mow with a long cord plugged into their garage. It's worth pulling up a chair and getting popcorn. You could learn about the green aspect of electric lawn mowers.

Not very exciting in our yard either, I'm afraid. Better a cord than awful fumes and noise, and certainly better than the battery powered mower we had that caught on fire while we were using it.

 

But yeah, studying the pros and cons of various types might be fun.

[Cara4497]

Thanks so much everyone. I think he will love it.

[shadah]

We have an old fashioned push reel mower- not gas or electric. The neighbors all came over to watch when he first bought it. Then, they started asking to borrow it.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

 

 

 

Go over safety repeatedly.

 

I have a nephew who lost part of his leg at that age in a lawn mower accident. He knew the safety rules, but at 5 impulse control is still lacking.

 

 

I do think learning about how they work and introducing the concept of small motors would be really cool.

[Cosmos]

We have an old fashioned push reel mower- not gas or electric. The neighbors all came over to watch when he first bought it. Then, they started asking to borrow it.

 

They are so nice and quiet, aren't they? We had a great one for many years. But when we moved into our current house, the yard was much bigger. It was taking hours to cut the grass with the reel mower. So we broke down and bought a gas mower.

 

We have slowly been adding gardens and patios, etc., and reducing the grass. In a few more years, I plan to go back to the push mower. (Also once ds is away at college, *I* will probably be doing the lawn mowing, and I have no interest in using the big loud gas mower.)

[...................]

At 12, it was my job to mow our 1/4 acre lawn and I loved it.  I thought that smell and the noise and the vroom was much better than being stuck inside cleaning and dusting with my mom! My parents thought it was the greatest thing. I'm only 5'2" and when my grown stepbrother (6'4") would stop by he would think that my parents were really taking advantage.  But it's way better to mow a lawn than to be inside IMO!  :o)  Lawnmowers are cool.