Pine Tree Unit Study

Homeschool Review Crew

We love doing unit studies and were excited to print off and start using our pine tree unit study from Creation Illustrated.  We received two unit studies, the Pine Trees one and a Snow Unit Study.  Both also came with their own Magazine links as well where you can check out the latest editions of the Creation Illustrated magazines.  We received the Fall ’17 Digital Edition and the Winter ’18 Digital Edition as part of the review.  And fun news!  The Spring ’18 Digital Edition is out too!

About the Studies

These unit studies are written from a creationist viewpoint.  So they are Biblical in their focus.  Geared towards grades five through eight but personally I was okay with some of my third and fourth graders using them.  Our main focus was on the Pine Tree Unit Study though we did use the Snow Unit Study as well.  We have a windbreak of pine trees and liked learning about our trees.  Answer keys are included at the end of the studies.

While I did print off our unit studies so it was easier to discuss with all of my children they are best used online as they contain clickable links.  These links are really neat and accentuate the study.  Since Fall 1993 Creation Illustrated has been publishing quarterly magazines.  Each magazine contains three sections; nature, Scripture, and living.  Various activities are throughout the magazine as well including articles, puzzles, and illustrations.

Pine Tree Unit Study

The pine tree unit study begins with a list of articles to read and educational videos.  These are very helpful and can be reached via the links in the PDF.  Because I like having physical copies of things we printed off the entire unit study to look at and have for the questions.  Obviously, these links were no longer clickable then so we’d go back to the computer to access them.  With ten kids trying to crowd around a computer it was much easier to do the activities at the table.  

We loved learning about the history of pine trees.  One of the first activities is a vocabulary and spelling section.  Here you learn the different words that might be new to students doing the study.  All are found in an article that students read in the Fall Edition of the digital magazine.  There is also a clickable link for words for younger students for those families who want to make this a family unit study for kids who are younger than the recommended grades five through eight.

After all of our vocab fun we go on to a Bible study of pine trees.  I found this so interesting!  I love learning how everyday life can mix with the Bible and this was a great way to show that to our kids.  A fun fact is that pine and fir were probably both used for pine trees in Palestine as true fir trees don’t grow there.

Next do some tree geography!  Learn what pine trees are native to what areas.  Afterwards is pine tree anatomy.  With this section we went up on our hill to see what types of pine trees we could find.  And then a fun field trip to some near by parks provided a few other pine varieties so we could see hands on the differences.  Oh and don’t forget our mini course in Latin!  Other areas where we studied were math, art, and writing.  These areas I did have to adjust a little bit for my younger kids.  No way they could do those math problems!  Instead they did some fun things like count how many pine cones we collected and trace or draw their own pine needles.

Snow Unit Study

Intricacies of Snow is the title on the snow unit study.  It’s again geared towards grades five through eight but can be used for other grades as well.  We recently started this one as we were holding out for snow.  Our entire winter only brought us a total of three inches of snow.  The kids and I were sad!  And then on Easter we got a whole six inches at once!  So you can guess we started our snow study the next day.  Actually they would have been okay starting it on Easter I believe.  

We’re only a few days into the study but it basically contains the same areas as the pine tree unit study.  We learn about snow and study it in areas such as geography, penmanship and writing, Bible study(did they have snow?), science(how is snow formed?), math, art, puzzles and activities, and then the spelling and vocabulary.  Lots of great clickable links and videos.  

Fun fact with snow.  In the Bible you only find the word snow 24 times.  A fact we love about these studies is that they do use the King James Version which is our preferred version at home.  You also are given Strong’s references that are clickable as well for all teh Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic words for snow.  Love it!

Our Thoughts

We loved the pine tree unit study and are loving the snow unit study.  Mostly we did the studies in the order they are written but we did skip ahead to art in the snow study so we could make some snowflakes while the snow was still on the ground.  And of course watching the snow melt led us to the science portion about how snow is formed.

All in all we absolutely love this company and their unit studies and highly recommend them.  We would consider using more unit studies as they come out with them.  The unit studies are $6.95 each.  Browsing their site I see a few we might like to do over the summer such as dragonflies and fragrance.  Black bears would be really neat if our zoo has theirs back on exhibit by then or manatees!  We don’t have manatees at our zoo so we might have to find a new zoo to visit for a field trip.  I’m sure my children would rise to that occasion! 

Learn More

Want to hear what others have to say about the Pine Tree Unit Study or the Snow Unit Study?  Check out the Main Blog Post over on the Homeschool Review Crew where all reviewers have their thoughts linked up.  You can also find Creation Illustrated on pinterest, instagram, facebook and twitter.