Thanksgiving!

Happy day-before-Thanksgiving!  :)  Here are a few pictures of things we did this month:

The little surprise my kids found on their desks the first school day in November.

I created a cranberry bog of sorts in my bathtub and the kids had a blast pretending to harvest cranberries.  Prior to this activity, they watched some short online videos about the process.

I made a featherless turkey and the kids had fun creating feathers for him out of pattern blocks.

We used the same turkey when I sent my son on a sight word hunt (inspired by this post).  His job was to collect the missing feathers, tell me the words, and add them to the turkey.

This was a picture my daughter drew by looking at a picture in a book.  We then glued goldfish to the paper showing how the Pilgrims learned about planting fish with their seeds (inspired by this post).

We also enjoyed hours of pretend play after reading about the Pilgrims.  Our Mayflower was made using two folding tables and a brown vinyl tablecloth.  The mast was a tall box wrapped in more brown vinyl and fitted with a makeshift PVC pipe frame to which we attached our white vinyl tablecloth sail.  We used a sound machine with "storm" and "ocean" sounds on it to make the journey seem more realistic as well.

Here is "Humility" mixing medicine made from real sage leaves, cornmeal, and lard (vegetable shortening was what we had on hand). 

This was our own little settlement complete with fence, fire, garden patch and house.  :)  Isn't it so fun looking?  If I had had more time, I probably would have tried to figure out how to add thatch to the roof.  Oh well.  The main thing is our little Pilgrims looooved playing in here with their babies, fixing leaks, hunting, etc.

I leave you now with a photo of the mini Thanksgiving feast that our kids and their little friend enjoyed together at their settlement.  Our homemade bread is spread with homemade butter!  Yes, I know there is controversy about popcorn and whether it was truly offered that first Thanksgiving - but we opted to have it.  :)

Side note:  Instead of plates, Pilgrims used trenchers.  I really wanted to find some trenchers but eventually had to settle for buying some mini cutting boards (see picture above) instead.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pumpkins! Pumpkins! Pumpkins!

Happy November!  I am taking a break from building the Mayflower in our dining area.  :)  Actually, I think I can say it is ready to go for pretend play tomorrow - and it isn't that grand - just something rigged up with some plastic tablecloth and boxes, etc.  I have nothing to show you yet in that department via photos, but I DO have some things to share that we did in October this year.

By the way, I loooove October!  It is a "breathe"r month for me as we leave behind the craziness attached to the beginning of school and family events.  :)  Plus, fall is my favorite season so October gives us a chance to enjoy it before the holidays begin.

Here are some snippets from our month...

I apologize in advance for the poor quality of pictures - I am still having trouble figuring out our new computer.

 A pumpkin surprise on each child's desk to welcome the new month!   We carved these into mini jack-o-lanterns which the children kept on their desks until rot dictated otherwise.

Miss A practiced her square roots by building pumpkin patches with orange inch squares.

Then it was time for a real life application when I had the kids build their own pretend pumpkin patch.  Miss A practiced her problem-solving skills and area equation when planning how big we might want to make the patch if each pumpkin needed roughly one floor square to grow.


The green math problem post-it notes on the floor corresponded to "seeds" containing the answers.  To plant a seed, the kids would place the correct seed (answer) under the post-it note.  I tried to make sure there were age appropriate items for both Miss A and Mr. J during the week so each could enjoy preparing our patch.

At times I would have a math review involved with parts of the patch such as the seed activity and the one shown above where the kids had to remove the "weeds" (incorrect math problems) from the pumpkin sprouts (correct math problems).

Other times, they just had fun engaging in pretend play and using their wonderful imaginations!

At night I would "help" our pumpkin patch along so it changed almost every day that week.

These were some jack-o-lantern faces made with pattern blocks (I believe one has an eye patch).

Note:  we've also done something similar in the past with black paper pattern blocks - I just traced pattern blocks onto black paper and cut them out.  This gave more of the illusion of a true jack-o-lantern face, but it is more time consuming to prepare.  

These pumpkin gems (acrylic?) frequently come in handy when we study pumpkins!  This year we used them to practice more patterns.

Bingo is a game my children really enjoy.  Here we incorporated it using math (youngest would place a "pumpkin" pom pom on the number that was called out while the eldest would find the matching math fact on her corrugated cardboard patch).

We also played bingo using words associated with pumpkins (not shown).  I drew pictures to go along with the words for my youngest so he could play along.

Mr. J practiced making sight word pumpkin patches.  We then placed those patches in a pumpkin story that he read aloud to different people.  :)

We created a pumpkin field collage complete with clothespin people and typed stories/poems to go along with their pictures.  Notice my four year old found particular enjoyment in experimenting with the "shift" key.  :)  I helped him a little bit with his story - especially reminding him to add spaces between words.  I think he did an awesome job!  And I LOVE my daughter's cute poem!  :)

We also integrated a little statistics into our morning routine by seeing what kind of pumpkin we'd come up with each day for our calendar.

And speaking of pumpkins, I hope you are enjoying the beautiful season as you watch your own little "pumpkins" learn and grow this year!  :)

Homeschool Theme: Apples!

September was apple month, and I started it off by leaving this little treat and note on each child's desk the first school day in September.   It is a tradition I hope to keep up - welcoming each month with a little something for the kids in the school room.  :)

In addition to those below, I had some other activities I wanted to take pictures of.  However, it quickly became apparent that if I waited too much longer, it might be November before the post was up.  Thus, I decided to just make do with the pictures I have.

Bobbing for apples!  I would call out a sight word and my youngest would find the word and "bob" for that apple.  He did not use his teeth but scooped the apples out with a utensil.  However, if you are feeling ambitious, your kids could use their teeth.

My eldest also wanted a turn so I adapted the activity to one of her subjects.  I would call out an English word, and she had to "bob" for the apple with the matching Latin translation.

Additional possibilities for this game could be bobbing for apples containing certain letters, matching sounds, numbers, math facts, vocabulary (just call out a definition and the child finds the matching word apple), etc.  BTW - the apples are simply circles cut out of red craft foam.

I honestly can't remember where I found this handy green apple "thing" (ice cube tray?) - maybe Target last year?  I wrote numbers inside with a wet erase marker and my son had to place the correct number of "seeds" inside each apple (we used beans because I did not have apple seeds ready).

I saw this activity on a website years and years ago and thought it was cute.  I made it for my daughter when she was young and now my little man gets to enjoy it as well!  The green pipe cleaners are little worms that he had to match up with the holes on each apple.

We also practiced sorting good and bad apples.  My daughter would look under each "apple" for a spelling word.  Some words I spelled correctly and some incorrectly.  It was her job to sort each into  the appropriate pile based on the spelling of the word.

This was another sorting activity for pronouns (subject, possessive, object of).  My daughter would push the word worms through the correct apple hole.

Apple bingo is a great homeschool activity because children of different skill levels can all participate together.  For our family, I would call out a number and my youngest would find that number on his tree (covering it with a pom pom "apple"), while my eldest and her friend would find the math fact which matched the "answer" I called out and cover it on their trees.

We also used one of the same trees to practice making our sight word for the week!

Even if you don't live near an orchard, you can still pick apples!  I used a green vinyl tablecloth for the top of the tree (they run about $1 or $1.50 in the Walmart party section).  The trunk was made from wrinkled up packing paper and the apples were cheap red paper plates (I think they were about $1 as well - found in the Walmart party section).

This is another excellent activity for more than one age/skill level.   We used it for more math fact practice.  I would call out an "answer" (ex. 6), and my daughter and her friend would pick the apple with the matching math fact (ex. 4+2).  My youngest would find and pick that number (6) from his tree.

Who knew caramel apple cups could be educational?  These were a take-home treat the day we had homeschool friends over to celebrate an "apple" theme with activities, games, a craft, etc.  The kids each received one so they could make their own caramel apple at home while learning about liquids and solids, the different processes of changing one form to another (melting, cooling), etc.

Additional activities which I don't have pictures for:

- An artist study of some of Cezanne's paintings of apples (followed by an activity where the kids were given the opportunity to draw their own picture)

- An adorable 3-D apple (life cycle) book my friend purchased on TPT

- apple tasting (unusual kinds) and graphing

Lesson Theme: Apples!

I know, I know - posting about apples in November?!?  Better late than never, right?  

I think we did this theme in September if that gives you any idea of how far behind I am in posting our thematic activities.   ;)  I believe we also stretched this theme over more than one week.  (I've been doing that with more than one theme lately too which is one reason you may not see items posted every week anymore.  I like to wait until we have finished up a theme before writing about it.)

Are you ready to see a few of the things we did?  Of course you are!

So sit back, relax, and pretend it is September - okay?  ;)

Here is a multi-dimensional chart I made to go along with an apple thematic packet I bought.  This is just an enlarged and embellished version of the chart in the activity pack.  :)  To make the apple, I basically just squished up some red tissue paper and glued it to the middle of my chart.

We tasted several different apples (how can anyone not with the astounding variety out there, right?), and I wrote down describing words the kids came up with for each category.

The kids then chose some words from our large chart and completed the smaller charts that came in the packet.  You can see one example of the small chart in the middle of the picture above.

The packet came with many other fun games, activities, a graph, etc. as well.  We spent a good amount of time just on the items in this packet.  Here is a link if you are interested in purchasing it.

Adjectives came in rather handy for another activity where we took turns hiding different apples inside a bag.  We would write three words that described the hidden apple on a small whiteboard.  The other people would then have a chance to read the words and guess which apple was in the bag.  

Miss A also spent some time using her investigative skills to find the different parts of an apple.

AND we practiced our fractions by reading the book "Apple Fractions" and doing some hands-on fraction work with our own apples.  We used this book last year, and I HIGHLY recommend it.  Not only is it informative, but I think it does a great job of illustrating fractions AND inserts a fun element by depicting little elves working hard at the process of dividing apples into the appropriate number of pieces.  

I was delighted with it last year and found myself delighted with it AGAIN this year (and folks, mathematics is not my thing so if a math book can charm me that much two years in a row - well, let's just say I think it is a worthwhile book to have in a homeschooling library).  There's a link below if you are interested in purchasing your own.

This was one of my favorite activities:  an apple collection book!  I printed out several poems, songs, etc. about apples from a site online, and the kids cut them out and pasted them inside pages of their books.

The cover was made from cardboard (maybe a box of cheddar bunnies?) and painted red.  I used a corrugated cardboard piece for the stem, and we completed the "apple" look with a leaf.

Ah, but perhaps the most fun part was the fuzzy green velvet (ribbon) worm we glued in the book to act as a bookmark - complete with wiggly eyes!  When the worm was not "working",  he could peek his little head out of the hole in the cover.  :)

We read stories about apples and looked at apple recipes.  We then chose a recipe from one of the books and made apple pie.  The picture above was a retelling activity of sorts where my little "chef" explained how we made our apple pie.

Speaking of apple recipes, we also made some of these delicious beauties.

And (in keeping with the charm of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie") if you bake an apple pie and make caramel apples, chances are you'll need something to drink to go with it!

Happy "belated" September everyone!  :)

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