Leaping Into a New School Year!

The sign above says it all!  Fredrickson Academy is back in session.  :)

Before I show you more of our frog themed first day and week, here is a quick peek at what our morning board looks like this year...

We've changed a few things - removing items we didn't use as much and adding new things like my son's star (sight) words and the Pledge of Allegiance.

Don't you LOVE our handprint alphabet?  If you'd like to make your own, we found most of our ideas on this blog.  :)

And YES!  That is a new homeschooling fiction book in our reading corner.  I quickly whipped one up to go along with our first day of school and our frog theme.  More on that further below in the post.

Here is another exciting addition to our classroom.  We have our very own candy machine now!  :)

Did I ever mention we have our own hospital in our homeschool room- a pencil hospital to be exact.  When pencils get broken, we can drop them off at the hospital to be healed (sharpened) when the electric sharpener is brought out.

My kids each have a paper above their desks listing ways they can earn money towards a turn at the candy machine.  They earn pennies for great assignments, cleaning up, etc.   Once they have 25 pennies, they trade them in for a quarter and a sweet reward!

I can't remember if I posted about this before so I'll post the idea again just in case - it is so cute it deserves a second mention anyway. 

Every homeschool room needs a good jail, right?  ;) Ours is made from a plastic protector sheet, and the bars have been drawn on the front with a permanent marker.

The jail is where we put commonly misspelled words or perhaps repeatedly missed math facts.  To remove a word or fact from jail, one must be able to successfully spell or repeat the math fact (or perform some other form of "bail").  I was inspired to make this because of another blogger's post here. 

Okay, okay - let's hop to it and get on with the first day theme!  ;)

Here's our breakfast table, complete with "lily pad" plates.  Each child's chair also had a sign proclaiming that spot his/her lily pad seat.

Each child received two bookmarks (these are available as part of a homeschool packet in my TPT store), a frog pencil, and mini frog.

What did we have for breakfast?  Fly pancakes (chocolate chip pancakes) and cattails (sausage), of course!  ;)

Since we're on the topic of food, I should also mention that for a snack later on each child had blue (pond) jello with a gummy frog on top.  

With breakfast over, the kids literally hopped into the school room via lily pads on a pond made from cheap vinyl blue tablecloths.  

The frog is holding party blowouts (those curled up red things you blow into and they uncurl) which were GREAT for frog tongues!  My kids really loved running (or should I say hopping) around with these. I can't take credit for this idea though- I saw how someone had used them on a frog craft and knew I wanted them to be a part of our big day.

Here is what greeted the kids on the other side of the door - lots of blue balloons!  Hey, a pond has to be fun, right?  

I also made each of my kiddos a giant lily pad (not shown) to sit on during our morning meeting time.  I simply cut these out of a cheap green vinyl tablecloth, and the kids were pretty pleased with the results!  It isn't every day you get your very own giant lily pad to sit on, ya know!

Homeschool Elf strikes again!  The reproducible pattern of Homeschool Elf can be found inside "The First Day of Homeschool" book (see link below).

Part of the morning included our fun treasure hunt tradition of following clues left behind by the little mischief maker himself.  The kids finally found him and their missing school supplies hidden in a kitchen cabinet (the presents are wrapped up school supplies - unwrapping gifts just seems to add to the excitement of the first day of school).

BTW - the frog M&M container was super easy to make.  Just add two pom poms and wiggly eyes.

What's a first day without a good book to go with it, right?  We read "The First Day of Homeschool" (see link below) AND this new book to begin our day...

Note:  These are not all of the pages of the book - just a snippet.

Without getting into too much detail, the story tells of a frog who decides he wants a homeschool (although he doesn't know what one is) and follows your family home one day in hopes of finding a homeschool of his very own. 

What?!?  Our family?

Yep.  Your family.  I inserted blanks throughout the story for parents to insert their family's name and individual children's names as well so that the children become characters in the story.  

My kids loved hearing their names as we read together!  :)  

After following your family home, Mr. Hop-a-lot finds himself among items he assumes must be pieces of a homeschool.  He attempts to build with them, eat them, and even wear them!

Finally your children walk in on him and put an end to his confusion and silly behavior by telling him what a homeschool REALLY is.   I included blanks on that page so you can add your children's own words to the story explaining this concept.

As you can see from the final page above, the story ends on a very happy note with your children inviting him to come live with the family.  The delighted frog agrees, and they all homeschool happily ever after.

The book is simple, fun, and only $1.75!  Just download, print, and bind - we had ours comb-bound at an office supply store for only $1!  It is part of a packet I made which includes the frog bookmarks and sign shown in the breakfast pictures above AND the Venn diagram below.  Ready to download?  Click here.  

P.S.  If you find any errors in the story, please feel free to let me know.  I was trying to finish this in time for our first day so my editing efforts may not have caught everything.

With so many back-to-school books available that involve a classroom setting, I thought it might be interesting to compare school and homeschool settings, so I created this Venn diagram to do just that.

Remember the pond from the first day of school?  Well, I decided to put those lily pads to further use.  The kids were supposed to hop from one lily pad to the other and tell me the math fact answer or letter stuck to the lily pad.

For this activity, the green plates were considered lily pads.  Each time my son could tell me a letter name correctly, I would let him place a frog sticker on top of that letter.   

This was our frog life cycle project.  I found several of the items we used for it by searching in our pantry (those eggs are dry chickpeas).  We painted them, discussed the different stages, and put them in order to show the life cycle of a frog.

My kids love sticky hands!  Because of this well known fact, I knew they probably wouldn't need any convincing to try this game.  ;)

They were supposed to be the frogs, and the sticky hands were their tongues.  They would roll the dice, find the corresponding numbered fly, and try to catch it using their sticky hand/tongue.  

Mr. J was reviewing the alphabet this week so I used these colored frogs for some ABC practice.  We put them in order first.  I would then hide one frog, and he had to guess which one was missing and find it.

Last year we had caterpillars for class pets.  This year I TRIED to get a tadpole, but it didn't work out.  However, I came up with the next best thing (or something fun at least) - paper pets!  :)

The terrariums are plastic sleeves with a paper inside.  Each child decorated the paper in a way they felt would make a great habitat for their frog pet.  My son mentioned a lily pad but ended up drawing lots and lots of presents for his frog.  Too cute.  I'm sure any paper frog would be overjoyed to live there.  

The frogs were actually from a frog notepad.  I cut slits for the mouths and stapled a plastic baggie behind the mouth to catch the flies they were fed.  I then gave each child some sticky notes with either number sentences (older child) or numbers (for younger one) written on them.  Those notes told them how many flies to feed their frogs that day.  

You'll notice the frog in the picture has the word "Jill" on it.  Well, what fun is a pet if you can't name it?  So that is what they did and that is why the frog has the word "Jill" on it.  Being clever moms, I'm sure you had already figured that out.  ;)

BTW - I also purchased some multi-colored frogs on Amazon for sorting and counting practice.  I just didn't take pictures of them.  :)

Thanks for hopping by today to see what we've been up to!  "Hop"e your first day is a great one!

New School Room Reveal & First Days - A New Year of Growth & Change!

Let me preface this by saying - you DO NOT need a classroom to homeschool.  

We have done homeschooling in a room with shared purpose (study), at the kitchen table, in a hotel room, and at a relative's house in cramped quarters.  We were able to homeschool just fine in all of those settings.  

But this year - we were blessed to move into a house where we had a room we could use just for homeschool purposes.  And I was determined to really turn it into a fun place to school and learn!  :)

(If you missed my previous post when I was in the middle of working on the room - you can see some of what it looked like before here.)

Would you like a tour?  I hope so!  

So without further ado, I give you our new homeschool room!

One side of the room contains our morning meeting board and reading center.

Here is the area where the kids work (when they are not camped out on the large pillows we sometimes pull into the room to use when sitting on the floor).  Learning doesn't always have to happen at a table or a desk, you know!   ;)

Here is another side of the room where my desk is and where the kids sometimes come when we work one-on-one.

Here is a wall with an inset that we filled with IKEA cabinets (birthday present for me at my request).  That little side space contains hooks on the side of the cabinets where I hang calendar borders and such out of sight but still handy when needed.

This is a view inside the top cabinets which contain older curriculum, books by season, school items I don't use as much, and craft type stuff.

Here is a close up view of the craft items I was describing.  I made the labels (and others you will see below) and added them to my Back-to-Homeschool activity/school items packet.

Here is another IKEA find where I keep extra school supplies we might need during the year.

I like to plan in advance and it helps me to have things set up where I can drop papers and items we will need on certain days in a specified area as I work on lesson plans.  Then the night before, I just reach in and place the items in the workboxes for the next day and don't have to mess with trying to find everything.  

I have drawers for each day of the week AND a drawer for "Next Week" in case I am really ambitious and already planning for the following week.  ;)

If you open the larger cabinets below, you will find that each side contains a set of workboxes.  One side for Miss A and one side for Mr. J.  (The middle large cabinet contains some teaching items and center stuff).

The cabinet in the picture above is Miss A's.  She has nine workboxes and then space next to each set of three for a fun activity or snack or something else which she can complete at the end of each three workboxes (so after she finishes boxes 1-3, she can have her snack if it is next to those boxes, etc.).

Each child also has a shelf above the workboxes where he/she keeps books and supplies, etc. not being used right then.

I created Miss A's workbox numbers and titles in lime green and pink (of course) and Mr. J's are lime and blue.  These are also now included in the Back-to-Homeschool packet.  :)

(The material I made the pocket chart out of for the workbox numbers above, is also the inspiration for the colors in our room.)

This is a picture of our reading center.  I made the tree out of cardboard from the IKEA boxes and painted it with Miss A.  The "tree swing" shelf is an IKEA spice rack I painted.

The outside of each child's "locker" as my daughter calls them, contains a painted foam board that we use as a bulletin board for each to display work.

Here is our morning board.  I am loving the handprint alphabet and plan to make one for each letter Mr. J studies this year.  Here is a link to a blog with an adorable handprint alphabet!

Why does the board say "September" when it is really August?  Well, the calendar title for September looked more back-to-schoolish, so I just switched it for the picture.

I found these adorable songs for each month of the year at this blog here.  I pinned up a transparent page protector and plan to trade out songs each month!

Another cute thing I added was that I am letting the kids make their own weather cards to put up for the weather of the day.  :)

Here is Miss A's desk (more IKEA).  The kids each have another small "bulletin" board above their desk and another IKEA painted spice rack underneath (I did not bolt this so it could be moved off the desk or to the side as needed).  The little rack contains a pail for supplies and a binder with morning meeting calendar activities inside which we use during our  morning meeting time.  

Each child also has a bug habitat on his/her desk containing caterpillars (each one has a different type) to go along with our back to school theme "A New Year of Growth and Change" (see more about that below). 

I wasn't sure if having the little guys on the desks would be too distracting but it has worked out amazingly well so far!  :)  AND we have our first chrysalis already!

These are another favorite of mine in our new school room!  I loved the crayon initials I would see popping up on Pinterest so much that I decided to make some for my kids.  

I ALSO added a made up definition of their names (like a dictionary - complete with pronunciation guide) below the initial - a definition I came up with based on their characters, etc.  I LOVE how these turned out!

And last, but not least - my little area of the room.  :)  Pretty simple, really.  

I painted the white board frame to go with the bright color theme in the room, and painted a diaper wipes (?) box to house some electronic stuff that had to stay on the desk, but didn't really fit with our color scheme.  I also slipped some of our school cds and some flash cards in the box (for easy access).

There are still some other things I want to do in the room (so some areas are still a bit blank) but decided not to wait to post pics because who knows when I would post if I waited until I had everything done!

So now that you have seen the room - would you like to see our back to school theme and first days?  Of course you would!  ;)

"Welcome to a New Year of Growth and Change!"

(This was our back to school theme.) 

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" was a perfect companion for the theme, and we started the day with a special breakfast based on that very book.  See the cinnamon rolls with frosting - made to look like the caterpillar?  :)

Next to each child's place setting, I made this little paper where they could record what they ate for breakfast that day.  AND I made little hungry caterpillar masks for them to wear.  :)

It is hard to see - but I poked holes in pieces of the fruit using a straw (can't take credit for that idea - I think that was something I saw on Pinterest long ago), so it would look like a caterpillar had chewed through.

Here are those masks I mentioned above...

After breakfast, the kids went to the new school room and crawled through the hole in the leaf "doorway" to investigate all the fun new changes inside (they had not been allowed in the room the day before, so I could get it set up as a surprise).

They loved the real caterpillars on the desks (inside plastic homes, of course)!  I just couldn't resist the idea once I latched onto the theme - how fun to talk about growing and changing and then see it first hand!  :)

I took this picture so you could see the "WELCOME" part a little better.

Notice the caterpillar munching on the "W".

Here is a picture of my youngest with his back to school sign and caterpillar mask.  I had both kids paint their own signs this year.  

His says "TOT" for Tot School.  It is sideways and out of order, but if you look at it - you should be able to see two T's and an O (and some additional thing he put in there).

Once inside the school room, we found that mischievous Homeschool Elf had already been there and our school supplies were missing!  Lucky for the kids, he left clues behind and a treasure hunt ensued, ending inside a closet where the kids finally found him and the missing supplies.

(I like to wrap some of the supplies up because it is fun for the kids to unwrap something - just adds another layer of excitement to the day).

Here is Homeschool Elf posing next to the first clue he left for the kids earlier in the day.

Here is the book we read on our first day!  It contains a page with a pattern for Homeschool Elf which can be copied onto cardstock (the page has a B/W copy and color copy of him) and used to start one's own Homeschool Elf tradition.  :)

If you'd like to read a bit more about this cute story and see some of the inside illustrations, hop on over to this post.  

Yet another activity from the Back-to-Homeschool packet:  goals for the year.  

I just had to post this - I love that her end of the year goal is to be able to "drive".   I'll just slip that one into the memory box!

We also published our own little newspaper (this and other versions also in the Back-to-Homeschool packet) about our first week of school.  Miss A wrote most of the articles, but I made sure Mr. J could contribute as well by including a "Tot Spot" section where he could draw something.  Can you tell what he drew?  Caterpillars!

BTW - for those interested, you can find the whole pack (LOTS of other activities, supply labels, workbox labels in different colors, etc.) here and on sale for only $2.00 through August!

This is one of those gems for homeschooling and classrooms alike because it contains multi-level pattern block puzzles for back to school items.  AND it even has them in both Spanish and English!

I just love the bright colors!  :)  I put out the easier puzzles for Mr. J and gave Miss A the harder ones (where she had to come up with her own way to fill in the puzzles and record the blocks she used). 

FYI - these can even be made into books by stapling several pages together!  They are just awesome for math boxes, a back to school activity, keeping smaller kids busy while waiting for Mom's attention, or math centers for school!

BTW - if you like pattern blocks - check out her exclusive 4Blocks puzzles (kind of like a pattern blocks relative).

These school supply pattern block designs are available here and on sale for $2.00 right now!

This unit fit right into our theme for the week, and I loved the activities included!  We haven't even had time to finish everything yet - lots of great stuff inside!  :)

This packet is available here.

And yet another fun item!  A FREE math journal based on "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" - sooo cute!  

This one is available here.

And there you have it folks!  Our new school room and some exciting back-to-school moments!  Hope you enjoyed it all and have left with some inspiration of your own for making this new school year a memorable one!  :)

 

 Linking up to:

www.cornerstoneconfessions.com

http://nextgenhomeschool.com/

www.gingersnapcrafts.com

www.cleanandscentsible.com

www.ithappensinablink.com

www.houseofhepworths.com

www.sunscholars.com

http://www.cheeriosandlattes.com/

www.hiphomeschoolmoms.com

www.tatertotsandjello.com